Pancharevo Late Autumn 2025

 Winter is coming :)

The weather this week is cold and wet, with almost incessant drizzling. The forecast for Sunday was a bit more optimistic, with clouds, but no rain in the morning, so husband and I packed the tortillas and a flask of hot tea and went to Pancharevo lake.

The hike on Pancharevo is more like a walk in the park rather than a real mountain hike, but still better than staying indoors. We switched our gears on max speed and walked the less than 7 km of the round trail in almost no time, managing to squeeze the hike between the raindrops. It did start drizzling again once we were back in the car.

 

Me-made items, worn on this hike:

 

Husband: men's boxers, Burda cargo pants

I:  lingerie, Chaika sweater, CC copycat hat, Zerda knitted gloves, purple snood

Hike info:

Date: 30 November 2025 

Destination: lake Pancharevo

Mountain: Lozen

Total length: 7 km

Elevation gain: 130 m

Total duration (plus picnic and rests): about 2 hours

Average difficulty: 1 / 10

 

The trail was a bit muddy and slippery, but all in all easy to tread.

The vibe in the lower mountains is still autumnal.

We started from the Kokalyane end of the lake and reached the wall of the dam at German along the upper mountain trail and returned to the parking lot near Kokalyane along the lower alley by the lake.

The lake is home to plenty of birds and I love to watch them with our binoculars. It was fun to have our tortillas on the steps of the grandstand and enjoy the calm lake life.

Manastirishte Again

After a few weeks of big hikes with long drives to the starting point, it was time for something familiar and relaxing, our beloved Manastirishte. We enjoy our hikes here so much, that husband is inclined to come here every second week :)

The forecasts for today were for windy, but sunny day with some clouds and fortunately the weather was in agreement with the forecasters and even exceeded our expectations - it was quite warm and the wind was pretty moderate. 

Hike info:

Date: 22 November 2025

Destination: peak Manastirishte (1338 m)

Mountain: Plana

Total length: 8 km

Elevation gain: 160 m

Total duration (plus picnic): about 3 hours

Average difficulty: 2 / 10 

We started around 10 o'clock from home and at noon we were already on the peak

Me-made items, worn on this hike:

Husband: boxers, knitted socks, Burda Cargo pants, Burda blouse

I: lingerie, Sinclair Lotte Hoodie, Love Notions Sabrina Slims II

 

Lately we have our picnic on the table at the summit, but today we decided to try a new place on the southern slopes of the peak.

The view from our picnic spot, where we had our traditional tortillas and cold beer, sitting on the warm grass. Lately we've been very picky about our picnic places and today, on our way back, we tested a couple of new picnic spots for our next hike. A grassy patch on the southern slope under the peak with a clear view to the village and the mountains across looked most promising and will probably be our  picnic place when we next climb Manastirishte.

And back to the village along a partially alternative trail. Short and easy, but extremely satisfying.

Pchelina November 2025

It is a tradition for us, after climbing Rudina mountain, to make the 30 min drive to Pchelina dam and take the short hike to the rocks and the chapel over the dam.

The drive from home to the village of Sirishtnik is about an hour and a half, the hiking trail on Rudina mountain is short and it only makes sense to combine it with another short hike nearby. 

The Friday afternoon on Pchelina was warm and quiet and we spent a leisurely hour there, sipping our beers and watching the birds and the calm waters of the lake. 

Hike info:

Date: 14 November 2025

Destination: Pchelina

Mountain region: Kraishte

Total length: 7.5 km

Elevation gain: 160 m

Total duration (plus rests): about 2 and a half hours

Average difficulty:  2 / 10 

 

Me-made items, worn on this hike:

 

I: lingerie, Sinclair blouse

Husband: men's boxers, knitted socks, Burda cargo pants, Burda blouse, Burda hoodie

 

The birds at the lake - ducks, herons, cormorants, gulls, are fascinating to watch, even without special bird-watching binoculars. 

An autumn tree with curious "fruit" - I see sparrows, finches, greenfinches, buntings :)

Jam-Filled Muffins

The parking lot for the hiking trail in the village of Sirishtnik is a small square at the end of the village, near some abandoned houses. The people and the houses are now gone, but the fruit trees are still giving fruit and mid-November there were some scattered quinces on the grass under the quince tree at the end of the parking lot. Last year, when we hiked there more or less at the same time of year, we gathered a handful of fruits and made quince jam, which came out very aromatic and delicious.

This year the quince harvest was even bigger and we made almost a dozen and a half jars of jam, which should last us years :) Here is the method and recipe we applied this time:

The total amount of quinces we gathered was 3.5 kg. We washed them and put them in hot water to boil until soft, so that they would be easier to cut and clean. Then we took them out of the water (which we preserved), let them cool and cleaned them. After all cores were removed, the harvest yielded about 2.5 kg quince meat. To that we added about 1 l of the water, in which the fruit was cooked and blended them with a hand blender. Then we added 1.8 kg sugar to the mash and let it stay in a cool place for a couple of hours.

Once the sugar had completely melted and soaked in the quince mash, we added the juice of half a lime and brought the jam to cook at medium heat for an hour. once the jam was cooked, we poured the hot jam into the clean jars and turned them upside down to cool, no boiling of the jars is required.

I used the jam to make a batch of jam-filled muffins. This is probably my fifth batch of muffins with jam core lately. I've been experimenting with the batter and the filling method and though I wouldn't claim that I've nailed it, I am pretty happy with my latest results:

Ingredients for the muffins:

• 2 eggs
• 80 g sugar
• 200 g yogurt 
• 70 g sunflower oil
• 200 g flour 
• 5 g baking powder + a pinch of baking soda
• 5 g spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves) + a pinch of salt 

Preparation:

Beat the eggs with the sugar, add the oil and yogurt and mix. Stir in the flour, mixed with the baking powder and the spices. Distribute the batter in 12 muffin forms. Place a teaspoon of jam in the center of each muffin form, stirring it lightly to push the jam inside the batter. Bake in a preheated oven at 200C for 25 min, until a toothpick test confirms readiness.

Enjoy with your fresh coffee or tea.