Peggy welcomes Jake......

Peggy welcomed her fellow guest Jake with a glass of homemade cherry wine.....



It was raining but that didn't stop us from sitting out under the gazebo with Jake's ma and pa....Angela and John ...and our friends Mick and Ilva....enjoying the brief cool spell.

Weekend Waste collection...

On Saturday a small group of us went out early to clear rubbish from the area at the start of the Reserve


Luba who owns the other guesthouse here in Srebarna got some of her friends involved....

Ilya the Reserve Ranger .....

...and our friend Ilva also joined us.......


















Then the next morning it was a light breakfast at our place to talk things over ...relax and plan the next collection.....

Danube celebrations.....

We had a busy weekend of celebrations in villages along the Danube.
For the past 52 years groups of canoeists have been arriving annually at the village of Vetren having set off from Ingleshot in Germany some weeks earlier.
To celebrate this the village puts on a special event on the banks of the river Danube, with live music, dancing, folk shows, food and drink. The mayors of Vetren and Srebarna take part in the organisation to ensure that everything goes smoothly. Around 500 people attended this year and a good time was had by all.


















The following afternoon celebrations were held in the nearby village of Popina.
Lots of singing and dancing yet again....lovely!

Guests from Italy and Germany

Antonella and Pier Luigi are our first Italian visitors pictured here at our back gate.





















Christine and Friedrich from Germany enjoying the shade in the afternoon ....they are in there somewhere.....

Bird bath....

As the temperatures hit the high 30's again the birds are getting very hot!

Each day we fill this dip in the road outside our back gate and watch the birds and lizards have a drink and a swim.
















Most days Doves and Gold finches come and wait their turn but today the Sparrows seemed to monopolise the 'pool' and were there most of the day.

Friday the forecast is 40 degrees so we will make sure it is well topped up for all!

Time in the garden

Bust week here with many visitors, Phil (MYBG Phil40) made it over with his family to say hello, unfortunately we forgot to take pics as we were so wrapped up in our conversation. It was really nice to finally meet him and them in person.

Here's a pic of our Belgian guests from last weekend.

Baron Rodrigue de Crombrugghe, his wife Julie and their 2 lovely kids Igor and Zoe had a great weekend relaxing in the garden.

We also had another visitor, an immature Red-backed Shrike, which has been feeding in and around our fruit canes and grapes.



An insect eater, these birds are renowned for saving excess food by spearing their prey on bush thorns.

Spanish Visitors

Yesterday we had 2 lovely guests staying with us from Spain, Joan and Laia ,who were on a 3 week tour of Bulgaria.

They are pictured here with Peggy and Mike happily reminiscing about Peggy's early days in Spain...

Mike and I struggled to keep up with the conversation as Peggy's Spanish is much better than ours.

More guests......

Mike and our guest Dan take a stroll around Silistra doing the tourist thing .....







taking pics and going for traditional Bulgarian fare .....pizza!!

We have other guests too at the moment.
Bee-eaters have been hanging around the house a lot especially over the last few days.



The wind was picking up when I was trying to take these..







...no problem for them they loved it....but struggled to get a decent picture...that's my excuse...

...anyway beautiful to watch.

















So that you can appreciate their true beauty and see what we are seeing, below is a fantastic picture taken last year by another one of our guests, Lee Gregory.

Thanks Lee.

Sunflowers for lunch......

The sunflowers loved the rain we had the other day....



















...and now the Sparrows are out in force enjoying the seeds.........


















..they are a delight to watch....and the seeds won't last long!

1st August ....Jerry's 40th

Well it finally came around..........
















I had a lovely day with friends and neighbours.....

I received lots of flowers, cards and good wishes over the internet......

Mike made us a great lunch of my favourite....PIZZA!

Simon and Andree tucked into Laurell's fantastic sherry trifle......




Archie & Laurelle.......


Peggy gets her share of the pizza!!












The Mayor, George and his wife Violet popped round with our dear friend Luba for a piece of cake.....













Thank you all, especially Mike, for a lovely time ...
It rained all day for the first time in almost 8 weeks ...truely wonderful!