Bulgaria: Gostilitsa 2011

My visit, our visit, to Gostilitsa in 2011 was left until late in the season. My walnut trees were just beginning to consider dropping their head splitting bounty, the hops in the garden were just offering up an oddly familiar perfume, the bees were just beginning to snuggle down after a busy summer to begin their slow but inevitable cycle through autumn sleep, coma and death.

I should take a moment to describe the property in a little more detail. For anyone paying attention, the property comprises more than one building. Four in fact, plus a small extension with bread oven, a storage shed thingy and an outhouse. That is, a proper outhouse, for crapping in. If you haven't gleaned at least some of that until now, your device isn't loading images properly.
Three of the buildings were barns and the other, plus the odds and sods were originally residential. After much consideration, the residential property proved just too expensive to renovate for the space returned, so I decided (to the amusement of the locals) to convert the barns into living areas and leave the old house for later and as yet undetermined use.
Converting the barns was, as I have said, a costly affair. My position at work involves amongst other things, the construction of capital investment business cases. I am faintly embarrassed that my own significant capital investment fails on every conceivable criteria. Call it a labour of love rather than an investment. A folly if you will. I will never see a financial return on Gostilitsa. It does look quite nice though. I will, after a lot more work, have a substantial property. At the moment, I have a property in a various states of repair but in short include 5 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms and 3 kitchens/dining areas. Not only have I made the original investment, I have to date replaced I estimate, 40% or the original fixtures and fittings with more yet to do. Such are the risks of overseas investments but I've also been rather careless, slapdash even, in my choice of business partners and false economies. Some time ago, in order to identify the three separate units, I decided to name them, Wellington (after the Duke of Wellington who surely needs no introduction and is the standalone unit with atrium sticky out bit) and the two joined units, Wolseley (after Field Marshal Garnet Wolseley, 1st Viscount Wolseley, the highly decorated and successful Victorian soldier who's service includes the Crimean War, Ashanti and Canadian campaigns, Burmese war, Indian Mutiny, and doomed Egyptian relief of Chinese Gordon. It is the unit on the left as you look at them) and Montgomery (after Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein. If you need to Google him then I suggest you take a Webley .38, wander into the garden, place muzzle against head and do the decent thing before starting your research). In truth, the names given to each unit have yet to take a firm hold. Partly because it's easier to refer to 'the one on the left' or 'the standalone' and partly because no-one outside of military history circles really knows what I'm banging on about and I suspect deliberately refuses to join in.

Having now gotten the inside of the properties comfortable at least, more recent trips have focused on the outside with more genuine fun involved and I now have a great working relationship with Keith who generally employs folk to work on the more boring inside bits such as pointing walls.

And so the trip in the fine weather enjoyed in the autumn of 2011, included the installation of a kitchen in Wellington and the construction of a large Risk board in the garden. Actually, with the good weather, we got a hell of a lot done.

A garden Risk board doesn't build itself...