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Library lifestyle

The joy of rainy days is to have a perfect excuse to read a book. I have a little library full of books that “need” reading.

The whole works to be read.
But which one to read next?
I just finished The Scottish prisoner by Diana Gabaldan an engrossing read. Had trouble putting it down!! Thanx to Pauline for that birthday pesent. And now I have started on my Rebus (Ian Rankin) collection. I got the lot from a charity shop for less than the original cover price of one of them. I read the first book in its entirety yesterday. I miss charity shops, there are none over here of the same ilk!
These shelves include the “punk’ section!
These shelves include my art books and my collection of collections, George R.R. Martin, Diana Gabaldan, Laurell K. Hamilton and Ian Rankin etc.

To get to my library from my bed I can now walk on rugs the wole way thanx to my latest textile flea market acquisition! This rug has a cigarette burn in it but it just looks like a rogue part of the pussy paw pattern and that pattern was too funny not to be bought for four quid!

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Pools and paths.

The weather has been swinging between foggy and wet and rather nice and sunny without being too hot. When its not raining and my bones are not aching too much I’ve been working in the lower field. My plan to scythe meandering paths through the long grass and other vegetation is almost done. Hopefully they will still be visible when the spring comes and then I will need to regularly keep them clear with my large curvy cutter!

You can see the path linking up the interesting trees and hopefully forming a barrier around the thorny little trees growing on the right of this photo lower down.

The other project may have best been described by a friend as sounding like “building  sand castles and damns on the beach when I was a child”! The idea is that I create a mud wall big enough to create a ‘watering hole’ in the little stream that runs along between the bottom of our lower field and the woods. I’ve dug a bit of a pool and most of the wall. Which I will leave to “settle” now till the spring and then when the stream is less full I will close the gap and see what happens!

The first day of digging.

Thw wall now extends across both banks of the stream.

The wall of mud!
It rained the next day and he pool filed up with rain water! It works!! The trench on the left will be where I divert the stream away from the damn come the right day.
The river Radonja which wigggles its way along the valley of the main road near my house is like ll the rivers and stream at the moment very full!
A quick shot of my two houses in the morning sun with a rather threatening sky behind them!
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Today was a Tuesday

It was wet and cool this morning and I was happy to stay in and sort out my new Etsy page .  and other computer chores! But this afternoon the sun came out and yet it was still cool so I headed off with my scythe and machette to continue work on the lower field. After an hour or two hacking away at brambles and scything long rass and anthills I went back up the hill to fry a couple more parasol mushrooms fresh from the ground. Then for a brief five minutes there was a glorious sunset.

This is a new apple tree dug up from behind our barbecue where there are loads of little saplings coming up. This one replaces the one that was eaten by the neighbours sheep despite the fortress of twigs that Sanja and I built around it. The sheep have been banned from the field , the question now is will the deer come up this far?
The path to the red gate in to the woods that goes through the lower field has been widened so I can wield my scythe to keep it clear in future.
This is the path I am developing that crosses the wilder regions of the lower field. Lots of pesky ant and mole hills get in the way of my scythe!
I found a load of Parasol mushrooms whilst working in the lower field, picked them and ate them within the hour!
This evenings early sunset was a superb mix of golden light and dark clouds. This is a panorama shot so the lie of the land is not quite as it really is!
These two apple trees look like they belong to King Midas. The second larger one is still bearing and dropping lots of apples. (Unfortunately not solid gold ones).
The light bursts through the legs of the gazebo and the furniture within.
If only the big tree on the right wasn’t so old with so many rotten branches otherwise I’d be buildng a tree house in it tomorrow!'”
The golden gazebo! It’s like the fairy world in the True Blood series!
Sorry, I couldn’t resist this.
Friends from Ljujana called in this week and brought some vegan treats! It was a brief moment of like being back at Marigold in London! They have friends who make vegan cheeses and other delights. They brought yoghurt and a mushroom spread. The spread is more like a cream it is deliciously light and yet tasty. If you are in Slovenia look out for it or get it online from Vegansko.
For those of you missing Sanjas presence on this blog as much as I miss her presence here I decided to sneak in a picture I took, a fortnight ago, of her keenly scanning the Barbie section of our local Muller store. She was almost overcome by the choice on offer compared to in Serbia. I refused to buy her one or even lend her cash to do so!
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Petrova Gora Monument and Partizan Hospital Museum as they were.

The two favourite local placesof interest for our guests are the Petrova Gora Monument and Partizan Hospital Museum, hence all the photos in this blog! Both are interesting as much for the state of delapitation that their “owners” (the Croatian state?) have let them fall in to. Everytime I visit either place they have changed in some way, be it a tree falling on a cabin or a new piece of graffiti! So what did they look like originally? Here are some scans from an old tourist booklet.

This was the hostel at the Partizan hospial where school kids stopped, had food and stayed the night! It is now almost totally hidden by trees and undergrowth.
From the first building you come to at the Partizan Hospital this is the original display of the medical staff and workers.
A postcard of the Petrova Gora monument from the 1980’s.
Totally crazy effect as sunset light bounces off the monument’s shiny steel outer surface.
Notice the tower originally had no aerials or satellite dishes on top.

More information and pictures are available here.

There is also a great blog about the monument here.

And an interesting article about anti-fascist monuments here.

 

 

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Like a London bus….

Usually the tacky pix I post are my own as you can tell from the overload of selfies! This post is all about quality images sent from my friend Marusa in Ljubjana. She and Andre visited earlier this year and took many pictures with a fancy big camera. Here at last are the results of our visit to the Partizan Hospital and Petrova Gora monument.  Hvala Marusa!

Marusas picture of the partizan hospital graves in the sunset has been cruelly cropped by yours truly, I promise not to do it again!
I gues a pro. photographer would stand around and wait for the sunlight to catch this overgrown sign but this is pretty damn close!
Four of the faces of the medical staff that used to adore the walls now roll around on the floor.
Sanja and I approach the sealed entrance to the monument. The greeny grey coluring on the walls was painted on by the film company and some of the walls were tidied up with fake concrete made of polstyrene.
I love this shot. Sanja and I climbing the staicase of the monument with just a snatch of sunlight illuminating us admist the strange gloomy interior.
All the domed skylights that covered these natural lighting sources have been destroyed as was the stainless steel outer wall covering. This monument now stands as a testament not to the fighters against fascism for whom it was dedicated but as proof of the stupidity of nationalism, war and humans inability to see what is valuable and worth having in life and what is not.
I have tried to capture this shot a few times but this one is pefect. The dreary doom laden colours are a result not just of the natural decay and time of day but the paintwork by the film company. They painted mold and “chemical disaster” on to much of the surfaces of the first three floors.
The subtle blues and greys of the oncoming twilight surround the top of the Petrova Gora Monument.
Marusa captured this “warning” sign left by the German film company as part of their set decorations in the basement of the monument. “EU GOVERNMENT, BIOLOGICAL TESTING FACILITY, GENETIC ENGINEERING, ADVANCED WEAPONS TESTING, AUTHORIZED ENTRY, TOP SECRET CLEARANCE ONLY” Wow it ust be VERY important and VERY dangerous! Can’t wait for the film to come out. The door is fake, made of light wood!
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The last fortnight has flown past

Since Sanja left, life around here has been a bit quiet for me, I have been catching up on lots of computer stuff I had put on hold and trying to get on with garden stuff now the weather is more “Jon friendly”. These pictures span Sanja’s last days here and a few since then.

Sometime ago I built some shelve sin the barn and sealed up these doors in the process. Today months later Sanja painted the new wood over to fit the rest of the carefully chosen theme……. black!
Those legs on the recliner – dead centre of the picture – belong to Sanja as she enjoys one of the last summery days of the year.
Winter is coming. The window sills and some of the window frames of our house are in need of a coat of paint. I decided the second front door could do with one too. Sanja put her dexterous finger skills to use once again.
Here is the shiny new brown window sill and frame with Sanja working on the side front door with the wooden house in the background.
Sanja took this photo a day or two before the EU ripped her from my embrace and out across the border of privilege! I like the compilation of images. My Mexican hat in shadow form, the little scythe, the big sledge frame and Matchka wandering nonchalantly through the middle.
No more Sanja has meant a bit more Cromwell for me. I find myself finally nearing the end of this wonderful book and rather upset at the idea he’s not gonna survive! What a wuss I am!
Sanja and I built this gate for the sake of it and then she begged to paint it red or something else innapropiate. Once she had gone I felt so sad I went out on the first sunny day and did it for her. This is the rather photogenic result!
I made myself some burek this week. They were a combination of Mushroom, onion, tofu, broccoli and cheese but not all at once! Six lasted me for two meals!
Inspired by the look of the side door that we painted I decided to make use of two days of promised sunshine and do another set of windows and the main front door. And at last a chance to insert a bad selfie!!
It is fungi time again! A fortnight of lots of wet weather, including a rain storm that lasted all night, and then a day or two of sun and these things are popping up all over the lower field. In the woods I picked two Parasol mushrooms and left another four ready for another day.
Two Parasol mushroom heads fried in a little olive oil with sea salt crystals, went down as a very nice “starter” for today’s meal.
I’ve started planting tree saplings in the lower field. There are loads of little apple, pear and plums sprouting up around the old trees in places where they won’t survive and will be in the way if they do. So I’m digging them out and replanting them. I have banished the neighbours sheep from grazing in the field anymore as they ate all the leaves off four of the first ones I moved! So here I am watering a young apple tree and wondering if it’ll survive the winter and maybe the deer! This one is a good selfie, innit?

 

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Phancy photos phrom Phrance

Usually the tacky pix I post are my own as you can tell from the overload of selfies! This post is all about quality images sent from my friend Thierry in Paris. He and Monika visited last year and took many pictures with a fancy big camera. Here at last are the results of our visit to the Partizan Hospital and Petrova Gora monument.  Merci Thierry.

The Partizan printers building.
A thoughtful Monika at the Partizan Hospital
Looking out of Partizan hospital windows.
The Petrova Gora monument shrouded in mist
A visitor in red admires the scale of the Petrova Gora monument
The view down the spiral staircase of the Petrova Gora monument.
The view from the windows of the monument over the mist covered forest.
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Today was Thursday

Another day another 8 hour power cut as HEP replace old power cables in our area. We hope that the freezers are staying frozen! So with no Hifi or Wifi to entertain us we went for a walk to the “Turkish Castle” as Stonky calls it, twenty minutes or so into the local woods. There is not much castle left but its a good excuse for a walk!

There are two bits of castle wall left that look like they belonged to a stronghold of somekind, this is one of them. As you can see from Sanja’s ecstatic facial expression she was very impressed with this bit of local history.
Food is a deeply significant part of Sanja’s life. Here I captured her in deep contemplation of the relative meaning of existence for the soya meat ball given its imminent fate and her own life.
Tonight Sanja and I went wild with the peanuts, spices and the mega blender! The result was three empty packets of roasted peanuts and eight jars of “interestingly flavoured” peanut butters. Bring on the toast!
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Scrabbling and swimming!

The last few days the weather has cooled  to the kind of temperature that I like to go out in. I took Sanja to see our local “Gypsy” cave in the woods by our road. The next day we met Mia for a day by the river Mrežnica. It now being September there was no one else around as it is now officially too cold for swimming. Funnily enough someone did turn up and went for a swim and he turned out to be Scottish! We played scrabble, ate a picnic, swam and messed about in the water falls. All very idyllic and then Sanja and I cycled home which took less than an hour to do. We will return!

Sanja scarmbles down the slope to the cave entrance.
Sanja gives it her best shot at doing a Morrisey impression. In the lower larger cave!
“Something wicked this way comes” is it a grubby urchin or a blackhearted witch? Or my dear Sanja caught by the trick of the light as she exits the upper cave.
Is that a pose or a very tenative stepping off a stone in to the water?
Swans and sirens! Sanja and Mia navigate the stones that line the water falls. The swans were very hopeful that we would feed them.
Princess Poseidon enjoys a theraputic back massage from her throne over looking her river!

 

Water, water everywhere and clear enough to drink! A little bit of the Mrežnica water falls that wouldn’t look out of place in the Plitvica National Park!
Poetry in motion I may not be but diving in to a clear cool river is a divine feeling!

and makes a splash!
Is it a lake? Nope its the deep wide and clear Mrežnica river just above the water falls at Belavići next to Duga Resa less than an hours bike ride from Barabrith!
Sanja and Mia walk up the path from the river.

 

 

 

 

 

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Our first booking made real and other stories..

This week saw the arrival of Ines and Daniel and finally weather so clement I was able to work out in the garden during the day time!

Ines and Daniel were our first ever booking at Barabrith and a delightful pair the are. Amusingly enough it turned out we were entertaining them on the third night of their honeymoon!! We played some pool together after breakfast and then they set off to do the Croatian coastline. They have booked to stay again on their way home so it cant have been too bad for them!
Eighteen burek (pita) might have been a tad excessive but they were a hit with Daniel and Ines and there was enough left over for them to take some away as a packed lunch the next day and for Sanja and I not to have to cook for another 36 hours! Every one of these had a different combination of appproximately fourteen different vegan fillings. In the bakeries of Croatia one is lucky to get a pure potato pita unspoilt by cheese!
I made a Bara Brith tea cake in honour of our first guests, they seemed to like it but not as much as I did!
Having my own pool table and the space to put it was always on eof my dreams. Ive topped that off by purchasing a set of snooker balls and now I am very happy!
Sanja took to snooker like the proverbial duck to water. She kept accusing me of making up the rules to my advantage but then I showed her my KTG Snooker and Billiards book that I was given for my birthday in 1976.
Sanja does like to model/wear/steal some very fine t-shirts from my collection. Amusingly though the larger sized ones tend to balloon in the wind when we go out on bikes making her look like a different being alltogether!
Sanja and her shadow, wearing a non-billowing shirst heads along our scenic route back from the post office.
Donji Budacki’s little chuch is in the middle of nowhere -aka Donji Budacki- but it is on the scenic route that Sanja and I take when coming back from our regular trip to the Krnjak post office. Imagine our suprise one day to find this little grass cutting robot trundling backwars and forwards across the increasingly short neatly cut lawns that surround the church! I was sorely tempted to grab it and pedal off to see what it would manage to do around our estate!
The robot grass cutter up close!
Does this need an explanation? Is there an explanation? Does the word “weirdos” suffice? Nice blue sky though!
There was a bit of wire fence that had been squashed and served as a way to step over and out of our lower field. Sanja and I built a gate in its place, in what I like to call “squatter style”!
I have an idea to replace the rotting wooden planks that are part of my outside staircase with branches from the woods. Sanja and I cut down a few to test the idea out. More to follow!
There I was innocently whittling away on a piece of wood (I was in fact making the shaft of my rake smooth and no that is not a bizarre euphemism!) when one of our dopey hornets came walking up the stick towards me. I say dopey because it turns out hornets are pretty laid back. Sure they are scarily big for a member of the wasp family but Sanja and I have succesfully removed about 9 of them from my room at night by coaxing them on to a badminton racket and then carrying them to the door and flicking them out in to the dark!. True one did sting me one night when it eneded up in our bed but it turns out I’m not allergic to them and so I survived. That was in fact the day I was stung four times by wasps whilst clearing a path in the woods! The hornets have cheekily squatted one of my bird nesting boxes but thankfully it is so high up on a wall with no doors or windows it is not a problem.
We have quite a few apple trees of varying productivity. Some of the newer little ones produce nice red sweet apples which appear to be a favourite of the hornets. Wasps and worms bury in to many of the fruit whilst either still hanging on the tree or fallen. The hornets however leave the skins and eat out just the insides. This can leave shells that look like mini chinese lanterns. Here are three horents busily eating away at an apple!
The cat, Matchka, likes to keep an eye on everything on her estate. And so when we venture up the ladder in to the wooden house’s attic she will often come running up the ladders and join us. She knows she will get a lift down if she asks and till then she likes to sniff around the attic and the survey the scene outside.
They say two heads are better than one but Im not sure it applies in the context of “scary”!