Dear Gardener

Before the storm

waiting for the rain

It's been a rainy May in Bulgaria!  This past week lots of rain, rising rivers and mud!  But it is spring after all.  There are also ripe Mulberries and cherries on the trees and strawberries in the gardens.  Yeah!

I have a question for gardeners.....is it possible to plant young rose bushes in a shady spot in the middle of summer?  There are three 7th graders here who want to do a community service project during the summer for the village which also involves other students.  One idea is to plant lots of rose (seedlings?) in front of the elementary school.  They were told by a nursery owner that roses cannot be transplanted in the summer.  Is this true?  If so, does anyone have other ideas for what perennials might be a good choice for a long-term landscaping improvement?  The students want to beautify the village center for everyone to enjoy.  It will also be their legacy to the school - 7th grade is their final year there.  If you know plants, please share your ideas with me!  (Bulgaria's climate is similar to the midwest in the US - the corn-belt / wheat-belt.)

Last weekend was also a 4-day weekend.  It was a holiday celebrating the history of the Cyrillic alphabet.  Bulgarians love holidays and have a deep knowledge of history.  One night there was a history presentation honoring the holiday and very creative dancing by local talent - from our village and also from a near-by town.  The next night there were professional dancers performing outdoors - both traditional dances and modern.

София - Sofia

This weekend I went to the capital city of Sofia -  for the 3rd time in the past couple of months.  I've been having dentist appointments - first a root canal and follow-up, then continued work on the same tooth for preparation for a crown.  My dentist here is extremely knowledgeable and a perfectionist (which is a good quality for someone in a medical profession). He explains what he's doing and why - it's pretty interesting!


I met a Bulgarian woman who lives in Sofia on my last visit.  She was introduced to me while I was still in Sedona (via email)....someone I know who knows someone who knows someone..... (thank you Patsy!)  This visit I stayed with her.  She's dog-sitting for a gorgeous Hungarian Visla (Vishla?).  They were wonderful hosts and I enjoyed my stay with them very much!  

I thought my visit to the dentist on Friday was going to be a quick one, but it turned out to be over 2 hours and kind of difficult.  He removed the temporary filling, and shaped the tooth in preparation for the crown.  He also worked on slightly trimming other teeth to even out my bite to a more natural closing of my jaws.  He says that because my teeth (and bite) are uneven and certain teeth might feel the impact of closing my jaws together, it can lead to clenching and grinding - which I do a fair amount of.  Now my "bite" is even and all upper and lower teeth have equal touching - more balanced than before.  One more appointment for putting a crown in place and I should be done.  I was pretty exhausted Friday night - from the stress of the dental work and an extra early morning so I could walk 1 3/4 miles to the train station to catch the 7:45 am train to Sofia.

Saturday was the Bulgarian English Spelling Bee at the National level.   The twenty 4th - 7th graders were well prepared and bright.  The competition went on for over 2 hours.  What I found interesting was that by the time they reached the end of the list of words the kids had studied, there were 6 contestants left standing - all boys!!  They had to spell words that were not on the study list. Mistakes and eliminations sped up compared to the "studied" words - until there were 2 left.  The last 2 standing did an outstanding job spelling!  The winner (from Ruse) won a Kindle, while all the contestants received an mp3 player, a flash drive and a book to read in English!  Some of the words on the study list included - acquaintance, necessary, miscellaneous, once, wrong, collaborate, erroneous, encouragement, voyage, etc.  In Bulgarian, words usually have only letters which are pronounced and only rare double letters.  If you see a letter in a Bulgarian word you say it.  So in English words, silent letters can be tricky for spellers.  Also vowels and vowel pairs are difficult. Bulgarian vowels usually only have one pronunciation and English has many - cat, bar, cake, caught, paw.  To make matters more confusing there are some letters that are identical to our alphabet but pronounced differently (see below - 1st english; 2nd Bulgarian)

• e  =  ee / long a
• a  =  long a / only short a
• H  = aich / n
• x  =  ex / h

Also challenging are words that sound alike but are spelled differently - steel, steal / wait, weight, etc.  Kids do o.k. if they ask for the definition, but sometimes they are too excited or nervous and forget.  

And during one intermission, we had a Bulgarian Spelling Bee for the Peace Corps volunteers.  There were 9 of us -- I thought I would be the first one out, but I was the third out.  I was nervous and the word they gave me was Bulgarian for flower (цвете) but I could only think of flowers (цветя) - and it totally befuddled me.  It was funny - easy word, easy out.  The last two young men standing were excellent and they had to call it a tie because they didn't lose!

Saturday evening  there was a fund-raiser for a teen girls empowerment/leadership camp called Camp Glow.  It's a wonderful opportunity for teen girls to learn and strengthen confidence and leadership skills to take back to their communities.  See Camp Glow for an interview with it's founder here in Bulgaria. It was also an opportunity to see some of the other PC volunteers from around Bulgaria. 

Sunday afternoon it was about a 5 1/2 hour journey home - 4 1/2 on buses, one hour waiting.  

Addendum to Another Spring Walk

Someone just posted this in Facebook and I have to pass it along - relating to Bulgaria being a land of contrasts.

Another Spring Walk

Today I had the opportunity to go for a long morning walk.  It rained last night and everything felt clean and fresh.  It was good to have some time in nature to clear my head.

Bulgaria is a land of contrasts....here are a few I observed today:

Beautiful green rolling hills and a flowing river through town.....piles of trash on the roadside and banks.

Birds singing, bees buzzing.....loud diesel tractors and machinery

Horse carts....cell phones and satellite t.v. (I was stopped on the road and offered a "deal" fora  t.v. and internet package

Enjoy this short meditation video, listen to the call and response of the birds.  The bird is perched on a flowering acacia tree which is also humming with bees.

 If anyone knows what kind of birds these are I would love to know.

A Fine Day for a Picnic

This was a four-day weekend.  May 1st is the Bulgarian Labor Day.  It is an annual holiday to celebrate the economic and social achievements of workers. Labor Day has its origins in the labor union movement, specifically the eight-hour day movement, which advocated eight hours for work, eight hours for recreation, and eight hours for rest.


Saturday was the Spelling Bee in Veliko Turnovo.


Sunday morning another Peace Corps Volunteer and friend, Tricia, came to the village.  She has several friends here because she was visiting this village regularly for a couple of years before I arrived.  We met with Katya and Hristina.  First we went to the garden for fresh lettuce, onions and parsley for a salad.  Then we headed up into the hills for a hike.  We went into new territory I hadn't see before.  Everything is gorgeous right now - very green and lots of spring growth.  I posted some photos on the Spring photo page (see right column).


It was a gorgeous day of scenery, exercise, fresh food and especially, camaraderie.  There was laughter, singing and lots of chatting in Bulgarian, with brief moments of English. We managed to spend 7 glorious hours in nature!

Spelling Bee Regional Competition

Saturday four of us traveled from our village to the Bulgarian National English Spelling Bee Regional Competition in Veliko Turnovo.  Our contestant was Simona and her father kindly offered to drive us.  I also invited Maria who placed second in the local Bee at our school.

It was exciting - there were a total or 27 students from 4th grade to 7th grade who were competing for the opportunity to go to the National Bee in Sofia in May.  The top three from this Regional would go to Sofia.  All the contestants were nervous and filled with anticipation.  As usual the first couple of rounds sorted out all the weaker contestants.  By round 6 or so - there was a solid core of more than have of the participants successfully spelling English words.  Simona was well prepared and finished 7th overall.  She had an unfortunate moment during round 11 when she misspelled a word, not because she didn't know it, but because her brain and mouth were working on different frequencies. I know how that feels!  Of course, she was very disappointed when she couldn't continue, especially since she was so well prepared.

One of my favorite moments that made me smile was a moment of synchronicity.  About 15 minutes into the Bee, one corner of the Spelling Bee Banner (or sign) came loose from the tape and flopped over on itself.  The contestant at the microphone was in the process of spelling the English word, "sign."

Congratulations to all the participants for showing up and having the courage to participate.