November began warm and sunny with highs of 20 °C. For many of the volunteers, such warm temperatures at such a late time of year were hard to adapt to. As the month wore on the temperatures dropped and the fire was lit again, much to the delight of certain volunteers who really, really like fire!! As we write this update (28/11) we are in the volunteer house, with hot water bottles, warm teas and the fire on whilst there is a blizzard outside. It really is quite a contrast to the start of the month!!
This month has really been a month of change. At the start of November some of the volunteers left Shipka to visit the neighbouring town of Stara Zagora to get, drum roll please, TATTOOS!! Both Frida and Anne got tattoos on their arms, Anne of a wolf and a mountain range and Frida of a butterfly and the tree of life. Later came Lillian-Beth with a robin on her ribs and Frida again with herer third tattoo!
A very painful experience was had by all.
Change continued to happen in the garden with the harvest of the last fruits of the season and the completion of mulch
ing. Hopefully we have done everything to ensure it is winter ready. We also started to repaint the museum to ensure that it is weather-proofed, this will continue into December when it stops hailing!
With heavy hearts the Shipka family saw the departure of two o
f its beloved members. Anne was the first to leave, flying to The Netherlands with her Bulgarian kittens to resume work and home life. A week later, Fleur left, to travel via bus to Budapest, then to Vienna and finally home to Belgium. As you can see from the photo a very tearful farewell was had by all.
The la
st survivors decided the best thing to do to get over their heartbreak was to go on holiday to Macedonia. We spent two days in Skopje, two days in Ohrid lake and two days in Sofia. It was really nice to get away, but even nicer to return to Shipka.