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Hi everyone,
From a Siminoc that is holding its' breath. For the past week the weather people have been telling us the snow is coming on Friday, expect to wake up to snow. Lew's forecast that comes in everyday on email said, snow on Friday, don't expect to be able to move - then on Thursday it said, the snow will come Saturday - then on Friday, the snow will come on Sunday. Today they say snow tomorrow. The snow has hit the rest of the country and we see from the news that it has been bad in other parts. There have been many accidents on the snow covered roads, with lines of cars sliding down the road to concertina into each other. The police have been asking people to stay off the roads, don't go out unless you have to, but people always think their journey is important. I remember when we were living in Wales, Lew had a phone call, come into work now or you won't get here. As he was leaving a family who were visiting friends opposite us were leaving, Lew said stay the night with your friends but they wouldn't, they set out in the heavily falling snow. Lew's first job that evening was to rescue a family whose car was stuck in the snow on the motorway. He took the family back to their friends living opposite us. We are not going to make a move when the snow hits. Every evening we make tentative plans for the next day finishing with 'if we are not snowed in'. It has to come - but when. I think we are as ready as we can be. There are plenty of food supplies for both humans and animals. The heating for the pigs is working well and keeps the chicken house warm as well. We have picked up more logs to keep the awning above freezing. Everything is organised. Our temperatures this week have ranged from a day time high of 30C (85F) to a night time low of -3C (29F). Well on with the diary ...
Monday was the first day back at school, so the soup for the school started again. After feeding Lew and I started organising soup for Monday and Tuesday. Monday's soup is to be tomato and bean soup with tomatoes, red beans, haricot beans and sweetcorn with a bit of worchestershire sauce. Tuesday's soup is to be vegetable and frankfurter soup with potatoes, carrots, peas, green beans and franfurters cut very thin. Everything is ready to go at 11.30. John is coming with us so that he knows where the school is, he is going to take the soup some days while he is not working, to free up my days a bit. Sian takes the dogs for a walk while we are gone. We go into the market to get some shopping, there were some nice cabbages, so I bought one. Then back to have a spot of lunch, then we minced the roast beef we had yesterday, it was tough and inedible, I am hoping that as a cottage pie it will be edible. Cook the potatoes for the top and the peelings for the pigs and chickens. Then it is time to feed again. The days disappear very quickly because of the early evening feeds. It had been a beautiful day with a bright blue sky with the sun shinning, but the wind was bitterly cold. The cottage pie was tasty and this evening I started Flory's birthday present. Flory is one of Sian's new friends, John's little sister, she is fifteen. I wanted to cross stitch her name and a siloette of a cat, she loves cats and is very fond of Panda. Her birthday is on Thursday so I should have plenty of time, Sian will put it into a frame for me, so Flory can hang it or stand it on her unit. Flory shares a room (and a bed) with her big sister Laura, they do not have any pictures in their room, I'm not sure whether it is through choice or not.
Tuesday and I get the washing machine out, I spend all day washing. Lew spent the day boiling pork bones and then striping the meat from the bones, this was put with more vegetables for the soup for the school on Wednesday.
Wednesday, Sian and John went to Medgidia with the soup today, then they went on to Cerna Voda to have a look around but couldn't find a centre shopping area. While they were out in the car someone ran into the back of them when John stopped at a crossing. Sian's whiplash injury from two years ago has flared up again. There wasn't any damage to the car and luckily the man on the crossing saw that the car behind John wasn't going to stop in time and he stepped back, so John didn't hit him. Fog came down while they were on their way home. Lew boiled some more pork bones today and stripped the meat off. Me, I did more washing after feeding and taking the dogs for their walk. In the evening I settled down to finish Flory's present.
Thursday and we wake to fog, and it is cold. The washing that I should have taken in last night is wringing wet again. The fog doesn't clear all day which means we can't do much outside. Sian looks at the cross stitch ready to frame it for me and discovers I have spelt Flory's name wrong, it is Flori, so while everyone else is working I take out the 'y' and put in an 'i' and add an extra cat because it looked bare. I stitched another cat playing with the dot on the 'i'. Lew puts the pork meat and jelly into containers to go to the school, I am not sure whether they will heat this or eat it cold spread on bread. Sian and John take the containers up to the school and drop Laura at school on the way. Laura told Sian she didn't have time to make Flori a birthday cake, so we spend the late afternoon making one of my special chocolate cakes which we then help Flori and her friends eat before we leave them to enjoy the rest of her party without old folks.
Friday and the fog is thick, we could not see our neighbour Stefan's house, when Sian and I leave to take Tigger and Pilchard to the vet for their sterilisation operation, it is a slow drive into town. We are a little worried about Tigger because she is such a little cat but we can't take the risk of her having kittens either. But, the vet isn't working today so Tigger and Pilchard will have to go back on Monday. We dropped John off on the way, he had another job interview. He is in one of those 'catch 22' situations, most driving jobs need you to have a years experience but how can you get a years experience when nobody will employ you. He has his ticket for lorries up to artic size and he is only trying for small van jobs at the moment but no luck. John checks the price of logs for us, they have gone down again after their rise Christmas week, I bought 40 kilograms for 100,000 lei (£2.00). I tidy the food shelves and make the shopping list that will mean we are well stocked for the coming couple of weeks. The fog does not clear all day. It is cold, the sort of cold that gets into all your joints and makes them ache.
Saturday and after feeding, Sian and I leave Lew checking the pig house, while we go into town to do the food shopping and pick up some more logs.
Sunday it is cloudy, dull and very cold feeding this morning. I think the security crew could do with a long walk, they might not be able to go out tomorrow, down near the village it is cold but when I get up to the irrigation, which is about 5 -6 metres higher than us about one kilometre away from the building, it is really blowing from the north and I have to cover my mouth to be able to breath. The dogs don't seem to notice they are still running around enjoying themselves, I quickly gather the free firewood that I wanted to collect to help keep the fire in overnight, then call the crew to head for home. I made a hot cherry tea when I arrived back, to warm me up. We didn't have any photos this week, I was expecting to have snow ones, so after warming up I took the camera for a walk in the village. The first picture is the Orthodox church, then the Baptist church; the two churches in the village. The next picture is the only house in the village which isn't bungalow tye, in fact it has four levels, cellar and the three stories you can see. This house is also unusual because it has been built with BCA blocks, most of the houses in the village are built from mud bricks, including Chip's house (the next house picture), but when they are covered with rendering you can't see any difference. The next picture is the home of our friends the Albu family, they live at the other end of the village. But do not be confused, they only live in the two rooms at the end of that building, the rest is animal housing. However, they haven't many animals, only one pig and some rabbits, so most of the building is unused. The number eight building is where the button factory is situated. Next we have the football pitch where the village team play, the shed on the side is the changing rooms. Unfortunately the moles are no respecters of football pitches and their handiwork runs the length of the pitch. Then we have the main road from the other end of the village. Then I caught one of the young boys carrying maize stalks home for the fire. The next picture is the village hall which is used for local wedding receptions. Then we have the school, the end section has a loft on a second floor. I will take the camera for a walk again, when I have some spare time and take some more pictures of the village for you. Then it was back in time to feed before writing to you. The wind got up during the evening and started rattling the awning roof but it has calmed down again now. The weather forecast on the television has just said, 'cloudy tomorrow'.
What's been happening in the village this week? Well apart from the children going back to school everything in the village has been quiet.
Well I think that's all the news from Siminoc this week ...
So I'll say cheerio for now ...
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