Vassil's Birthday

Our friend and very good neighbour, Vassil, was 73 yesterday!


















We baked him chocolate brownies and joined him in a few glasses of rakia.

Then we returned home to fall asleep.....
what a good day!

Romanian Visit

Alex from the Union Jack Villa in Romania keeping his eyes peeled for birdlife.





Carol, Chris and Al enjoying the shade in one of of the lakeside gazebos.




Carol spots something in the distance and all eyes focus in on it.







A great day out, from here we all headed down to the Danube for an afternoon dip, Alex and Al did a bit of fishing and as usual caught nowt!

Down by the Danube

Yet another lovely day spent down by the Danube.
















With temperatures still in the 40's ...definitely the best place to be for a quiet swim.









Some great birding to be done also, great views of Storks especially

River Danube boating.

Our friend Becky one of the wonderful people who earn their living fishing from Vetren on the banks of the Danube. Is happy to take visitors out for rowing boat trips along the river. Here's a few photos of a group she took out yesterday.

Foxy friends

Great day out in Dobrich with the Fox's last week. After lunch we spent the afternoon idly wandering from cafe to cafe drinking refreshing and reviving 'soft' beverages. Some shopping was also comitted, mainly flip-flops which seemed to fit the mood of the day perfectly. Here's a couple of absolutley natural shots taken during a typically lively debate.

Picnic on the Danube in Vetren

We decided to have a day off yesterday and went with our friends and nearby neighbours Archie and Laurelle from the village of Popina to Vetren to enjoy a well deserved day of rest. We took along a picnic and spent the whole day just sitting soaking up the peace and quiet, taking in the views and occasionally dipping into the river to cool down.















Here's a snap of Archie in deep relaxation mode.

Toshi is leaving

Our friend and colleague Toshihiko Izawa of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) leaves us this week after 2 years in Srebarna working alongside the local representative of the Bulgarian Academy of Science, Kolyo Mihof. We had a great party at the Resedentcia in the nearby village of Vetren on the Danube to mark this event. Here's some pics of the proceedings.















Luba from Srebarna Hotel with a JICA representative and Toshi.
The JICA chief is proudly displaying the certificate we gave Toshi and his organisation naming our waste collection project in honour of him.



Great food laid on for all. Traditional Bulgarian fare and drink to acccompany it all of course.



Toshi and friends danced until they were dizzy. Lots of dressing up in national costumes and live music too.



International cooperation in action.
Dutch, English, Japanese, Japanese, English and Bulgarian.

Apricot picking.....

It's that time of year again...

Peggy has helped this year with the picking of the apricots...something new for her to enjoy!

TOSHIHIKO IZAWA PROJECT


Twice a year we here at Srebarna Birding Field Station
co-ordinate a team of volunteers and students who come to clear plastic and other waste from the edges of the
Srebarna Biosphere Reserve to ensure a safer and cleaner environment for the wildlife and visitors.




We are proud to announce that this project
is now named T.I.P in honour of

Toshihiko Izawa

of Japan International Cooperation Agency
whose inspiration and enterprise led to this programme being initiated in April 2006.

Mike Black
Jerry Furminger-Black


We would also like to acknowledge the following for their continued help and support

Luba & Kolyo - Srebarna Hotel
Nikola Mihov - Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
Giorgi Boev - Mayor of Srebarna
The Team at ‘World For All’
The Mayor and staff of The Municipality of Silistra
Ekaterina Nikolova and all the volunteers and neighbours who have taken part.

MyBulgaria.info

Great news this week that this BLOG has been awarded a prize by the good people at,

www.mybulgaria.info

A fantastic web forum for those interested in property in Bulgaria. It has thousands of members, many of whom are resident in BG, sharing information and tales of life here. Invaluable to anyone considering moving to Bulgaria, buying a holiday home or just visiting. We won joint first prize for most interesting BLOG. The other winners are known on the site as 'Dannia' with whom we shared first prize and 'Lubna' and 'Thursty' who were awarded prizes for the funniest stories published. We will use the money to fund our waste collection days here at the Reserve. It will help cover the costs of transport, refreshments, bags, gloves etc. So our heartfelt thanks go to Chris and all at MyBulgaria. Long live MYBG!

We also found out this week that the Japan International Cooperation Agency have agreed to retrospectively fund one of our previous 'Waste Away' days and their representative here in Srebarna, Toshihiko Izawa, delivered the funds yesterday. Massive thanks also go to Toshi and all the team at J.I.C.A.
Here's a pic of Toshi with Kolyo Mihof of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and myself.

Fledglings......

Some of the fledglings that were in nests on the roof have emerged and are pictured here on our garden furniture ...

















We are still waiting for our little ones to come out of the nest ...lots of noise at the moment ...but no sign of anything venturing out just yet.
Who can blame them as the temperature here is still hitting 40 degrees by mid-day.