Author: james

Skiing above Bansko

Skiing above Bansko The Mountain on the right is the one that interests me at the moment. At 2908m and with a pointy top she is a proper mountain, towering above Bansko town and ski area. The idea of skiing above Bansko has grown and grown on me this winter. To be wooshing down untouched […]

Ski Touring in National Park Pirin, Bansko, Bulgaria

Ski Touring in Pirin is a strange mix of wild, remote, untouched nature and glitzy modern ski resort. Yesterday I went out for my first tour of the winter, just a short 2 hour walk along the cliff top above Damianitsa valley. A thin crust of snow gliding under my skis, blazing sunshine filtering through […]

Rock climbing in Bansko

Rock climbing in Bansko   After our little adventure on the north face of Vihren I decided that the time had come to learn to rock climb. There are some things in life that are best learnt in the heat of the moment. Climbing with all its reliance on knots and technique and fatal consequences […]

Bansko Sour Cherry Cosmopolitan

Bansko Sour cherry ideal for a Cosmopolitan. You can’t rush things especially if it involves alcohol or food. The joy of our cocktail nights here at the Avalon is that they involve both. In my garden we have a young, healthy and very fecund sour cherry tree  we harvest the  fruit in July and turn […]

Get Lost.

  Ask Vania she knows better than anyone, I am a stubborn donkey. Especially when I am right (or think I am right) I will never back down. Now in normal work/home life the downside of this is pretty harmless if a little annoying for Vania. In politics, and unfortunately I seem to be spending […]

Fat.

  Winter is turning into Spring, the little buds of blossom are peaking out of their winter shells and here and there Daffodils and primroses are adding a lovely little dash of colour to the bleakness of the winter landscape. Added to these natural shocks of colour the bikers have also started appearing to brighten […]

Curry, best of!

    10 years I trained as a classical French chef, I never did manage to get my C.A.P   but I can still take 3 days to make a nice gravy. I’ve forgotten how to bone a quail but I’m sure it would come back to me pretty quick, Risotto? I make the best […]

Be Free!

Spring has sprung, and most people are thinking this is the end of the winter but strange things are happening up in those there hills! Yesterday was the first glimmer of a transformation happening to the snow pack. As the day time weather warms up but the night time temps keep low the snow starts […]

Negative equity?

I used to think the slump in the Bansko property market was a natural rebalancing after the Bansko property bubble burst. However the regular complaints of estate agents this winter seem to indicate otherwise. A more sinister force is at work. The fixed price commission. As prices for Bansko Apartments plummeted in 2008 and 2009 […]

O brave new world,

O wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, That has such people in’t. William Shakespeare   When I look around Bansko the irony of Miranda’s words are not lost on me,  the hope and wonder that Bulgaria would be opening a new chapter in 2007 brought […]