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August in Review

September 2, 2010 in Fun Stuff, Making & Baking, Nature, Organic Gardening, Team News | No comments

What’s fresh?

(Noting what’s fresh & local to know what I can grow & when and a record of fresh pickings from our garden to improve future planting plans, manage gluts better etc)

From the store:

  • Lettuce
  • Figs
  • Apples
  • Peppers
  • Nectarines
  • Peaches

From the garden:

  • Onions

  • Cucumbers (in the weirdest shapes but all tasty)
  • Tomatoes
  • Chillies
  • Melon

To be honest its been a tough month for the garden.  Whilst the tomatoes, peppers & chillies have enjoyed the heat, other veg have given up.  The runner beans flowered but the flowers mostly died rather than turn into beans; the courgettes have been flowering but no fruit have survived; the radishes may yet form their purply pink fruits under the parched earth but I’m not holding my breath and its definitely too dry for lettuce!  The squashes are starting to form fruit but even the pumpkins have suffered in the heat with fruits forming and withering so I’m not sure how much will grow & ripen.  I planted more peas (soaked the seeds and just shoved them directly in the ground) and remarkably these have grown into plants and are flowering and fruiting but there are only a handful so will only bear enough for a taste.

I am proud of my melon though (no sniggers, please!).  Sadly we ate it before it could be photographed and shown here in all its glory.  It was yummy and a first for the Camp Full Monte garden!

In the flower garden, the passion flower has climbed and bloomed and is magnificent:

Sowing & Planting

(Building a record of what I need to prepare for next in the garden)

Too hot to sow anything…

Baking & Making

(A chance to reflect on the culinary success & failures of the month & share crafty moments)

My homemade pizza seems to have been a hit this summer.  I make the dough from scratch using a lovely recipe from Leith’s Vegetarian Bible, make the tomato base using any squashy toms I have, diced up onion, crushed garlic and handfuls of my basil and then bung onto the pizza any odds & ends left over from lunch: kulen (spicy salami), strips of peppers, cheese etc.

And making…?  Ends meet… just about.

Reading

(Love sharing the books I’m into)

Finally finished Wally Lamb’s The Hour I First Believed’!   We’ve had a “week off” (more of that later…) so I finally found time to finish this book.  We were tired of each other after nearly 3 months together!

Freed of the ‘have to finish what I’ve started’ syndrome, I then picked up a book that a friend had lent me and one that she said was a really quick read.   I think my brain made a link between ‘quick’ and ‘light’ so I was expecting this book by Chris Cleve to be ‘easy reading’ in the sense of an easy subject matter…

Not so!  But it is a fabulously written, compelling book.  I whizzed through it in a day or so and reflected afterwards that its the first book I’ve read for ages (maybe ever?) where the name of the main character isn’t revealed and where the words all flow together within the sentences and yet this doesn’t irritate me & make me tut: “Poor punctuation!”

I am now reading Margaret Attwood’s “Cat’s Eye” and it occurs to me that as an author, she is growing on me – like a love of olives.  I was unsure when I first tasted her.  Then I kept being given samples and devouring them.  Like an olive, in my opinion the quality can vary but when she’s good, she’s very good.  Also, you have to be in the mood.

This book is brilliantly written.  She creates huge descriptive statements with very few words.  And uses numerous, short sentences to great effect.  It is strangely compelling, this story.  Not in an “Oh, I can’t wait to find out what’s happening!” way, but because one falls for the mood & the style and simply doesn’t want to stop reading the words, those beautiful constructions of words.  Ms Attwood has a lot to answer for – she is stirring up my latent desire to write…

What’s the vibe?

(This month’s gut reaction)

Stuffed!

I feel ‘full up’.  It started with the Italians…

We had a group of 6 young folk from Italy turn up at the beginning of the month with great names like Frederico, Fernando etc.  They bought meat and veg and cooked us all a gorgeous barbeque.  They only stayed a night but we had a lovely evening with them, star gazing with full bellies.  This was the start of the increased meteor activity culminating in Perseids on 12th August.  That night the night sky was stuffed with shooting stars.  We 3 Camp Full Monte-ers were alone at the campsite that night and we dragged foam mattresses and loungers down to the lowest terrace to ooh and ahh at the numerous ’svezde padulica’ (new local term we learned thanks to Dragan, our first Serbian visitor who stayed the night before the main event).  We must have seen 50 or 60 and 1 in particular slowly arked across the blackness, leaving a visible trail that had us squealing with wonder.  The absence of the moon made the darkness even darker and more dramatic.

The arrival of our friends Matt & Charlotte and their kids Jacob and Holly brought with it much eating & drinking –   chocolate, Bombay Sapphire, huge lumps of Gorganzola and 35 year old Port… I put on a kilo (mind you the tummy bug I’ve had for the last 2 days that has found me lingering on the loo has helped me shift that kilo… I can think of nicer ways to go).

Sharing precious times with dear friends in the hot August days has made me feel stuffed with life, with sun, with friendship.  Now that our season is all but over and paying guests are almost at an end, we are probably stuffed financially too but we’re too happy to think about it right now.

Listening to

(Trying to listen to some new tunes every month)

Not doing well on breaking into the many ‘unplayed, unrated’ tracks in our expansive collection but enjoyed some familiar foot tapping songs that Jacob and Holly enjoying performing to!

Fun Stuff

(‘Nuff said)

We enjoyed a night of great live music at the Herceg Novi EkoFest.

A bunch of people, passionately led by Sasa Cvetkovic, did amazing things to turn the upper fortress in Herceg Novi, known as Spanjola, into an incredible venue for art and live music.  Our mate Nikola’s band was the best and we danced and cheered – de-mob happy after so long on the campsite without a proper night off!

Thanks to Katie, we also made it to Boka Noc for the first time ever.  The ‘Night of the Boka’ sees people creating elaborate floats from their little boats and parading them in the water in Kotor marina.  We were lucky enough to get a ride on Fiona & Dave’s rib to join Katie & Tim and the dogs on Monty B to watch the parade (well, ish… visibility wasn’t that good but better than being jammed in the heaving throngs in the old town) and then enjoy the fireworks over the old walled city.  It was fab!  And the endless G&T’s helped too!

The biggest load of fun came in the form of the W-B family… It was very special to have them here.  I’ve known Charlotte since we did a counselling course together nearly 10 years ago.  She was quite ill when I met her and her daughter Hol very young.  Over the years I saw her mend and grow.  I got to know her gentle, kind, infinitely patient husband and then introduced them both to Steve.  The 4 of us have many fond memories of evenings filled with food, wine & laughter.  Having another child was a struggle for them but in time Jacob was born and completed the circle perfectly.  Having met most Thursdays for years, me leaving the UK was a big shock to Charlotte’s routine and a test of our friendship.  Having them here was something I imagined but didn’t quite think would happen.  Steve and I were both a little nervous… kids on the campsite for a whole week?

It was a blast, a great excuse to have a week off (well, apart from poor Nik who had some ‘real work’ to do)  and so interesting to see the way the space was used by our friends… The hammock became a ship; the basement became a ‘den’; the kitchen was transformed into an art studio most afternoons.

Charlotte found a spot under some trees where she would do her best reading:

Nik was embraced by the family.  He became known as ‘Sherpa Nik’ as he agreed to take them hiking up to the rock above our land on their last night.  Jacob is a real boy’s boy so he was well into it and despite being scared at the very top, Holly was so impressed with her hike and the view up there she mentioned it in the Guest Book as her very favourite thing.  Here’s most of the family chilling out with Nik…

We had some fun nights playing TacTic…

The temperature was in the mid 30’s when they first arrived, so Matt & Steve decided that getting one of the many paddling pools inflated and & filled was definitely worthwhile.  This was not without its dramas – the ground had to be levelled and 12 (count them, 12!) barrow loads of sand dumped and raked level for the pool to sit on.  Charlotte was on pool cleaning duty but as she dutifully scrubbed and rinsed she noticed many little punctures.  Undeterred, Steve & Charlotte found and patched them all and filled the pool up slowly & deliberately being careful not to empty the stream syphon.  Here’s Steve in the early stages of pool erection, wearing his pool gown!

And here’s the pool up, filled and being enjoyed…

Jacob was utterly fascinated by the compost loos and at night with his head torch on would examine the hole very intently!  It was a bugger to get him to close the lid after he used the loo though!

Here we all are before sad farewells on this, their last morning…

The more observant of you will notice we are sitting on… a sofa!  We have been missing a comfy seat on the campsite of an evening when the 3 of us want to put our feet up with a beer and look at the stars and we discovered an old sofa in the basement of our house.  With much pushing & shoving we (well, Nik & Steve) managed to get it out & into the van.  Once levelled and be-strewn with a throw, it was the perfect crashing out space and since it opens up into a sofa bed, it works well as a comfy place for 2 people to lie in the sun and read a book.

Tim Time

(Bizarre & extraordinary happenings?  This is Montenegro)

The Telegraph Ex-Pat edition contacted us regarding a feature on Montenegro.  They emailed us a bunch of questions and having provided answers the journalist decided that she had enough interesting stuff to do the article solely about us!

The first we knew about the article being published was when we got a call from the national newspaper here in Monte.  The man from Vjesti said he’d seen the article and was translating and publishing the entire feature.  It wasn’t really a question – like “Would it be ok to…?” it was more of a statement.

The next morning we get a call from Jadran Radio – the coastal radio station – seems we’d made the front page of the newspaper and now they wanted an telephone interview.  Initially Steve took the call but because the first recording didn’t take, they phoned back and this time I answered so it was my dulcet tones that went out on the airwaves some 5 minutes later.  A local friend was most bemused when he heard me chatting on the radio!

Whilst all this was going on we were embroiled in last minute preparations for the arrival of the W-Bs.  I had a sinking feeling that all this publicity might attract attention and that our friends may get caught in the midst of it.

Sure enough, just as they had arrived, stripped off and were tucking into lunch, I heard a vehicle drive past very slowly.  It turned around and stopped.  It sounded like a police landrover.  Steve pulled some clothes on and went to investigate with Nik bringing up the rear.  Nik returned to inform us that 2 customs guys were quizzing Steve and that we’d better get dressed as they were coming in!

Steve handled the visit brilliantly.  The Customs guys were asking: do we have rooms for rent?  do we have paying guests?  Steve decided to welcome them in and show them that there was just a few tents and a family of our friends visiting.  They got the full tour and read all the signs in local language, impressed by the compost toilets and the solar systems.  They persisted with questions about visitors and prices and in the end Steve told them how much to hire a tent.  It seemed like they just wanted to know for their own benefit and one asked if he could come back with his wife one day!  The dreaded questions about “where is your camping licence?” never materialised and despite our concerns, van loads of police & inspectors did NOT turn up and the world didn’t end.  The timing was actually perfect as it might have been more difficult to manage the situation with ‘real’ naturist guests.

Later that day as I read the newspaper, saw us both naked on the front page and then saw me in my knickers and boobs a-dangling on page 9 (still never made it on page 3 then!) I reflected that if 5 years ago someone had predicted this moment I would have told them they were nuts!

One Green Thing

(One more step along our green journey)

I spent many hours lovingly cutting & sticking corks for this month’s green creation:

(Charting the weather for us and our garden)

Hotter than July!  Sounds like a song… Well Mr Wonder, if you were singing about August – you were right!  It’s been HOT.  And dry.  You can almost hear the earth gasping.  We don’t have enough water to irrigate the grounds so we watch it turn brown.  Since the flower garden is also mostly a disaster, that too gets little water.  The brave cinia and geraniums soldier on but little else survives…

July in Review

August 13, 2010 in Den, Frugal Living, Fun Stuff, Making & Baking, Nature, Organic Gardening | No comments

What’s this???  Halfway through August and only NOW a review of July???  I know, I know… Better late than never???

What’s fresh?

(Noting what’s fresh & local to know what I can grow & when and a record of fresh pickings from our garden to improve future planting plans, manage gluts better etc)

From the store:

  • Lettuce
  • Sweetcorn (but not as yummy as ours…)
  • Blitva (mangel)
  • Raspberries
  • Blackberries
  • Nectarines
  • Peaches

From the garden:

  • Lettuce
  • Beetroot
  • Onions
  • Rocket
  • Radish
  • Courgettes

  • Carrots
  • Sweetcorn – best crop yet & soooo delicious!)

  • Cucumbers (in the weirdest shapes but all tasty)

  • Runner beans (about a kilo every other day for most of the month!)

  • Tomatoes

Sowing & Planting

(Building a record of what I need to prepare for next in the garden)

Too hot to sow anything much except more basil & coriander…

Baking & Making

(A chance to reflect on the culinary success & failures of the month & share crafty moments)

We’ve been eating a lot of salads and faves at the mo are:

Beetroot Salad Greek Style (cooked & diced beetroot; beetroot leaves wilted in water from cooking the beets; garlic & olive oil)

Cucumber & Dill Salad (thinly sliced cucmbers; cider vinegar with a little sugar dissolved in it; fresh dill)

Rocket & Pecorino (or any hard, strong cheese shaved into the greens with olive oil & seasoning)

Here’s me with a table full of salads, as usual:

And making…? Not much – making our guests happy has been work enough

Reading

(Love sharing the books I’m into)

Still reading Wally Lamb’s The Hour I First Believed’  – so you know how busy I’ve been.  The fact that I’ve been reading it for 2 months is no reflection on the writing style or content – it’s a great book!

What’s the vibe?

(This month’s gut reaction)

In relation to my gut … bloated!  Have been eating way too much bread and know its not good for me.  Back on the salads now & trying to cut out those carbs!

In relation to our business, this month the mood is – happy!!!  We’ve had more bookings than we thought possible (have had paying guests every week since the second week in June and this is set to continue until the end of August).  And more importantly, all our guests have been happy campers – both in the sense of being sound folk with great attitudes and in the sense of leaving us with smiles on their faces and glowing reports in the guest book!

Listening to

(Trying to listen to some new tunes every month)

Not doing well on breaking into the many ‘unplayed, unrated’ tracks in our expansive collection but enjoying some familiar chilled sounds, especially: Zero 7, Damien Rice, Teitur & Morcheeba.

Also had an 80’s revival period during my party when me & my girlfriends danced to some real ole goodies such as: Jocelyn Brown;  Earth, Wind & Fire, Kool & the Gang etc…

Fun Stuff

(‘Nuff said)

Jo turned 40 a couple of days before me & his girlfriend Zuzana organised a surprise party for him.  An extra bonus was that Carrie was staying with us so could come too.  Carrie & I were introduced a couple of years ago when I did a stint in the UK, working as a consultant and our then boss realised we had Montenegro in common (me living here, her having bought a house here).  She & I hit it off but never really got to spend much time with each other.  We met briefly the following year when she (and her then partner) came to try to move things forward with her house here.  We stayed in touch and helped her with Montenegro paperwork stuff as best we could.  Now, a year and many life changes on, she came to Montenegro as a single woman on a mission to decide whether to renovate the house or sell.  We let her stay in our house (which was a bit of extra cash for us & a peaceful, luxurious retreat for her) and during the week she joined us at the campsite a few times and we got to know each other better.  She is bonkers and a total scream!  We had a lot of fun at the surprise pool party, deciding to jump in rather than be pushed!  Here’s Carrie trying to unstick her soaking wet top from her back (that she told me afterwards was wool – oops!) and me wishing I hadn’t worn such white, see-through-when-wet clothes!…

Here’s me & Zuz, the great party organiser:

And here’s the big guy himself:

We (but especially Carrie) had pink-fizz induced hangovers the morning after the party as we drove over to Zanjice to meet Mil and Miso.  We had introduced Carrie to our friend Mil as a useful Serbian-speaking contact and recommended our builder Miso.  The 2 of them met us over at her house to size up the project.  By the end of her visit Carrie had fallen in love with Monte all over again and we hope that she gets a reasonable quote for the job from Miso so that she can renovate the house (complete with olive mill & press, which if she realises her dream, will be the central feature in an amazing kitchen!).

Turning 40 was much more fun than I thought it would be! My actual birthday was on a Monday – a naff day for a celebration!  I had a lovely day nonetheless.  Here’s my birthday breakfast – with the unique birthday ‘log’ & ‘leaf’ cards from Nik in clear view:

We took off to the beach for the day, leaving the site in Olivier & Tanja’s safe hands (really, how lucky were we to have guests like these!?) and I was treated to a fabulous pedicure on the sand by Amy.  Just to laze around all day with the occasional dip in the crystal clear water was a luxury…

The celebrations of me leaving my flirty 30’s and entering my naughty 40’s happened the following weekend and were made extra special by 6 old friends making the trip from the UK to be with me.  Fran & H are work buddies from my TK Maxx days.  We’ve known each other for about 15 years and they know more embarrassing stories about me that everyone here put together! (Ouch!)

I’ve known Gav & Rick even longer – we met at Loughborough University which is pretty much 2 whole decades in my past now…  The boys hung around for a couple of days after the party which was ACE and gave us time to indulge in our favourite things: drinking & playing Bridge:

Dear girlfriend Ditsch (pictured here at the 40th party, on the right) I have known for 25 years and love her even more as the years roll by.  Vince her lovely hubby who has become our friend too, can just be made out behind me in this photo …

The preamble to the big party was an amazing day out on a flotilla of beautiful boats.  Steve had asked all our sailing buddies to help ferry folk out to our favourite beach in Zanjice.  They were all so generous and gave me & my friends an incredible day to remember.  Steve had organised everything for a bbq on the beach and we spent a wonderful day, eating, drinking and cooling off in the water – in between hopping from one gorgeous boat to another!

Skipperesses Katie & Laura are pictured here – Katie & Tim sailed the Monty B and hoisted a special birthday flag for me; Lauar & Tony whizzed me, Fran & H out to the beach on their new racy yacht and my friends were fascinated by the way the couple deftly ‘tacked’ baby Amber!

Dave & Fiona’s rib was the speedy water taxi ferrying people to & fro (Dave’s here on the far left) and Paul’s amazing luxury yacht took us home in style that evening (Paul is on the far right here)

It was fitting that my Goddess Daughter, Grace,  should be there to share the fun.  She was a sweetie all day!

Here’s the view of the boats from the beach, with the little motor boat The Bounty too:

The big party was on Saturday night and was largely due to the efforts of the inimitable Danny Parish who helped decorate the campsite, organised the most beautiful & delicious (not to mention HUGE) cake and provided delicious salads.  Here she is, with Fran beaming at her:

Old friend Dave Bennett had ‘photoshopped’ a fantastic picture of Steve with a comb-over for his 50th, so Steve emailed him for revenge!  Steve calls me his wonder woman (I’ll leave you to figure out why!) and Dave provided a fab pic of Wonder Woman’s body with my face on it which Steve made into a T-Shirt for me with the caption: “Wonder Woman never ages… she just gets badly drawn”.  Here I am proudly (!) wearing it, along with the gorgeous blue necklace & bracelet that Maja bought me before she buggered off to the UK and missed the party!

And here’s a photo of THAT cake – see, I wasn’t kidding…

It’s funny how things turn out.  I ceded control to Steve for the celebrations (much to everyone’s amusement, I think!) and the night turned out to be perfect.  Sure, there were dear friends & family missing – there always are… you just can’t get everyone you love in one place these days.  But I had such a fabulous time with the special folk who were there.  I danced & danced; got drunk but not rudely so; sang ‘old skool’ tunes at the top of my voice; laughed & laughed and treasured every moment.  The weather was amazing – there was a huge downpour just before I arrived (I was banned from the site during the preparations) and was initially worried when it was still raining a little at the start of the evening but it cleared up and the storm moved off to the left and provided the most amazing lightning storm for us to gawp at!  It was like nature had laid on fireworks for me!  The moon was bright, the air was fresh (which was great because we were dancing so much we needed the coolness) and the company was wonderful.  Here’s what one friend wrote about that night:

“At your magnificant party i drank like a fish and danced like a shaman, and only had to stop (not because of my bruised feet) but because i was laughing too much – Joy is a funny thing. Thankyou again for so unconditionally offering me such a release – you are both such remarkable, beautiful and excellant people”

Tim Time

(Bizarre & extraordinary happenings?  This is Montenegro)

Steve’s laundry sink has become our new favourite thing in the campsite kitchen (pictures to follow soon, I promise!) but the hassle he had trying to get the plastic trim to edge the tiles & the right coloured grout was frustrating (for him) and funny (for us!).  He started off at one tiling shop on the edge of town.  Nobody there.  He waited & mooched around for a bit.  20 mins later – still nobody.  If he had spotted any mint green tile edging or grout anywhere in the warehouse at this point he would have grabbed it and just left some cash but none to be seen.  So he had to brave the town centre and the nightmare that was a dug-up one way system.  Battling his way to the store he was told – no.  No chance.  What about Azzurro?, he asked (another store on the way into town that he had chosen to drive past because the car park was full).  No. No chance.  Any other suggestions, apart from No?  asks he, bravely.  He gets sent off to a shop right the other side of Herceg Novi – a full 20 mins out of his way…  The woman there looked at the colour he was trying to match and said, accusingly, “But this is an awful colour!  Why did you choose this?”  Not only was she not helpful, she just tried to get Steve to buy any other colour under the sun except the one he wanted, regardless of the actual colour of the tiles!

Exhausted from the verbal bashing he got there and leaving with a grey grout that he didn’t even want (but anything to shut the madwoman up at this point!) he drove, dejected back through town.  He had so hoped to get the materials to finish the job that day…

Driving past Azzurro this time, he noticed the car park was empty.  He decide to try it anyway.  “Yes, sir, certainly sir.  Here’s the grout you need”.  But no trim.  Growling at the (now redundant) grey grout he drove back to the campsite and decided to pop in to the very first store he had visited some 2 hours previous.  This time there was actually a real person there and the right colour trim was whipped out in no time!

One Green Thing

(One more step along our green journey)

Struggled to think of something for this month but then realised that our re-use of water is probably worth a mention… We are so conscious about the water we use and every bowl of water used to wash dishes (that isn’t too soapy or filled with meat scraps) is used to irrigate our flowers and grass.

Weather Report

(Charting the weather for us and our garden)

July brought summer to us with a vengence.  It went from being sunny & comfortably warm to being hot, hot, hot!  We’ve had the odd crazy storm and downpour of rain but far from complaining that summer proper isn’t here yet, we’re loving the respite from the beating sun and thankful for every day the gardens get watered by nature and not us!

June in Review

July 3, 2010 in Den, Frugal Living, Fun Stuff, Making & Baking, Reduce Reuse Recycle | 1 comment

What’s fresh?

(Noting what’s fresh & local to know what I can grow & when and a record of fresh pickings from our garden to improve future planting plans, manage gluts better etc)

From the store:

  • Lettuce
  • Carrots
  • New potatoes
  • Spring onions
  • Strawberries
  • Peaches

From the garden:

  • Lettuce
  • Radish

  • Rocket
  • Runner beans

  • Peas

  • Courgettes

Sowing & Planting

(Building a record of what I need to prepare for next in the garden)

Planted squashes gifted by friends – I germinated them and we split the loot!

I am delighted to report that we have a marrow plant!!!   I have been lamenting my short-sightedness in not saving seeds from this wonderfully versatile veg and all the while, a plant was growing, from seed in the compost!

Planted out my lavender plants that I had grown from seed.  I’ve got 3 healthy plants that have gone into the borders of the flower garden.

Planted 2 tiny persimmon trees, grown from seed:

Baking & Making

(A chance to reflect on the culinary success & failures of the month & share crafty moments)

Picked some of the beautiful courgette flowers and dipped them in a light beer batter.  Gently fried them for a couple of minutes… divine!

Painted glass jars for candle holders and made a wind chime from holey stones collected on Zanjice beach:


Reading

(Love sharing the books I’m into)

It’s a measure of how busy we are that I have no time for reading!  Still reading Wally Lamb’s The Hour I First Believed’ and really enjoying it.

What’s the vibe?

(This month’s gut reaction)

This month the mood is – optimistic!!!  Bookings starting to slowly roll in; first guest loved it so much he came back!; 2 other visits already in June (one American soon-to-be professor and a French guy)…  Keeping everything crossed and smiling through!

Listening to

(Trying to listen to some new tunes every month)

Have listened to lots of music, loving the sound system at the campsite… but unfortunately because the laptop is down in the basement whilst we are listening to music up in the building, I’ve no idea of the names of artists and tracks half the time!

Fun Stuff

(‘Nuff said)

Enjoyed the company of an old friend.  It was wonderful having Kirst here & was so sad to say goodbye…

Here we are at our friend Therese’s villa:

where we laid in the sun and had a dip in the pool:

This is what I loved the most – laughing my head off with a special, beautiful buddy:


We had a very special evening on the campsite with friends Katie & Tim.  There was a massive storm close but high enough up and far enough away so that we heard no thunder, only witnessed the incredible lightning.  We sat outside in the early hours watching the sky light up right above our heads in forks and flashes that had us gasping with wonder.  And in between the illumination, we were humbled and awed by the masses of stars that crowded into every gap in the clouds…

We hosted our second proper party on the eve of Summer Solstice.  Thankfully the numbers were smaller, as we had to dive for cover from the rain early on and it got pretty crowded in the building for a while but the storm held off and the evening warmed up and we all had fun.  The Full Monte Feast was a big hit and the Sangria was delicious and didn’t give us a hangover, which was a bonus!  We had a great fire going and a hardcore of us sat around it until the early hours but only 3 of us actually managed to stay up to greet the dawn.

And of course, there’s been the footie…  We couldn’t escape the World Cup because Bob was such a massive fan and when England pplayed Algeria, we invited Bob and all the boys round to watch it on our big screen:

Tim Time

(Bizarre & extraordinary happenings?  This is Montenegro)

Bob would walk down the hill to the nearest petrol station to watch the football and the friendly folk there looked after him.  When we went to pick him up after the Spain-Portugal match on his last night and have a farewell drink with him, the lovley guy behind the bar got out his bottle of delicious Russian vodka and shared it around…  It was obviously a very special bottle and the liquor was so smooth – I’m sure if I were him I’d be trying to save it and savour it, not share it around with random english folk!  So kind!!!

One Green Thing

(One more step along our green journey)

Steve painstakingly dismantled an old wardrobe, salvaged from Maja’s grandmother’s house, and used the wood to make an amazing cabinet that surrounds our 2 gas fridges and cupboard space and has sturdy lockable doors to make closing up the site easy and effective:


Weather Report

(Charting the weather for us and our garden)

June has remained changeable.  We have had more rain than usual; some terrific storms; cloudy, overcast but warm days and some scorching hot, gorgeous summer-like days.  Will summer proper ever come?

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May in Review

May 30, 2010 in Den, Fun Stuff, Making & Baking, Organic Gardening, Reduce Reuse Recycle | 3 comments

What’s fresh?

(Noting what’s fresh & local to know what I can grow & when and a record of fresh pickings from our garden to improve future planting plans, manage gluts better etc)

From the store:

  • Lettuce
  • Carrots
  • New potatoes
  • Young cabbage
  • Spring onion
  • Tikvice (big, thin-skinned, local courgettes)
  • Strawberries
  • Cherries

From the garden:

  • Lettuce – especially: Cut & Come Again, Radichio, Curly Endive and Cos
  • Radish
  • Rocket

In Nature’s garden:

Sowing & Planting

(Building a record of what I need to prepare for next in the garden)

Have sown more:

  • radish
  • lettuce
  • beetroot
  • carrots
  • rocket

as I try to succession plant to keep these veg cropping.  I was gifted some local beans (broad bean stylie, known here as ‘Bob’ apparently!) so have planted these and some more melons & pumpkins and today have been given a load of different squash seeds will get planted tomorrow!

And some more herbs:

  • the first coriander plant is already going to seed so I have planted lots more
  • basil – because I’ll need LOTS to go with all the tomatoes that are romping away!

The marigolds from last year’s seed are doing fine – the germination rate is poor though.  The courgette plants are BIG, and healthy fruit is forming. The pumpkins are stretching out but the melons are not doing so well.  Peppers & chillies were looking vulnerable (planted them out too soon – note to self!) but seem to be coming round. Carrots are forming well now & the runner beans & peas are flowering beautifully…

I finally have 3 strong cauliflower plants to be planted out soon.  The cabbages are looking really healthy & sweetcorn is finally getting tall & strong:

Baking & Making

(A chance to reflect on the culinary success & failures of the month & sharing crafty moments)

We bought a beautiful, big, fat, fish (unidentified – Steve’s best guess is a bream) from our fisherman friend and enjoyed half it’s fleshy meat steamed with garlic and lemongrass.  I boiled up the bones with leftover veg and the following day used this stock & the rest of the fish to make a deliciously rich fish stew.  Oh yum!  But stunk the house out!

All my creativity has gone into the campsite this month.  Probably the best example is the new, improved plastic bottle window – finished and shown here behind the breakfasting campers…

Reading

(Love sharing the books I’m into)

Finished Liz Gilbert’s ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ and enjoyed every word.

Currently reading a Wally Lamb book – haven’t read any of his since ‘She’s come undone’ and wondering where the book is going at the moment but enjoying it nonetheless:

‘Tis still the season for browsing books – there’s a whole stack piled up on tables: reference books of flowers, veg & herbs etc, etc.  No particular favourites to report this month…

What’s the vibe?

(This month’s gut reaction)

Struggling with this one this month – too busy doing, not feeling… I guess ‘happy but knackered’ about sums it up.  We’ve achieved a lot this month so feel pretty satisfied on that score.

Also, if we’re honest probably feeling a bit desperate – no firm bookings until end of August; little interest in the house rental and still so much to do on the marketing side that Steve & I struggle to agree on or make time for.  The volunteer that was supposed to show mid May never did and we haven’t heard a peep from Pedro for a while so maybe we won’t get his help in June either…  Roll on 1st July, when Mr Nik will be welcomed back into the Camp Full Monte fold again!

Listening to

(Trying to listen to some new tunes every month)

Not a lot but now we have a proper sound system on the campsite I’m looking forward to remedying this!

Fun Stuff

(‘Nuff said)

Some good laughs with our #1 posh camper, Danny:

Relaxing with friends after a successful & satisfying work day on the land…

The Irish were back in town for a week – yes, the inimitable Jimmy & Annie – and we enjoyed a fun, impromptu evening with them and some other mates, roaring with laughter.

And combining business with pleasure, our first ‘proper’ event the Full Moon Party…

Tim Time

(Bizarre & extraordinary happenings?  This is Montenegro)

This is my favourite story at the moment from Hayley, our friend at Black Mountain Holidays:

Inspectors turned up at an apartment in Kotor and found 2 tourists in residence with no tourist tax.  This is a 70 cents per day tax that holiday makers are supposed to pay and should be available from any travel agency.  In overly dramatic Monte-stylie, they were told they would be deported immediately if they didn’t purchase the tax.  They contacted Hayley for help after not being able to find anywhere locally that issued the tax.  Hayley got onto it and found to her amazement and disbelief that there was only one agency issuing the tax in Kotor and for the privilege they would charge the tourists 50 euros!!! This is crazy!  All other agencies issue the 70 cents tax, with little/ no commission – it’s just one of the things they are required to do and its not a money-making exercise!  Flabbergasted, she tried to find somewhere else the tourists could go.  The only place that was in the Kotor municipality (and therefore valid for issuing tourist tax for a Kotor based apartment) was in Risan, some 45 minutes drive away!!!  They have no car, were collected from the airport and will be taken back there but have no other means of getting around, never mind to Risan of all places!  Hayley threw a fit and as far as we know she & the tourists are holding firm against the ridiculous inspectors & agencies – if no-one can find them a place to buy the tax at the stated price – then tough!

One Green Thing

(One more step along my green journey)

Re-used old baby milk cans to make attractive containers for my dried goods in the campsite kitchen:

Weather Report

(Charting the weather for us and our garden)

May has been changeable.  We have had lots of rain; some terrific storms; cloudy, overcast but warm days and some scorching hot, gorgeous summer-like days.  Here’s hoping it settles down in June…

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On creating something from nothing…

May 4, 2010 in Frugal Living, Making & Baking | 2 comments

Apart from basic ingredients such as flour & sugar, our cupboards are barely stocked.  I sometimes wonder if this is a anti-reaction to growing up with a Mum whose kitchen units were crammed with ’stuff’.  You could barely open a cupboard in our kitchen without tins and packets tumbling out.  They were bought because they were cheap or on special offer or just in case a whole army of people turned up unexepectedly or in the event there was a General Strike…  Inevitably things hung around so long their ‘best buy’ date came & went; packets split & spoilt; and many things bought on a whim were never used because we had no idea how to incorporate them into our diet!

It’s a false economy – all that food just sitting around, 100’s of pounds/ euros worth of ’stuff’.  These days I relish the challenge of using everything up before buying more.

When we get back from grafting on the land, we are starving.  We need something tasty – fast! Last night the contents of our fridge contained:

  • half a carton of tomato passata
  • a quarter of an onion
  • a clove of garlic
  • a lump of cheese
  • half a tin of sweetcorn
  • some odd bits of sandwich meat (some slices of salami and a knob of smoked sausage).

The fresh veg was all gone – no spuds, no salad stuff, just some frozen peas…

Had I pushed this frugal living too far???  Nope… I made a pizza!

The scraps of onion & garlic were fried, passata added and reduced.  I used the fabulous Leith’s Vegetarian Bible recipe for pizza dough (flour, pinch of salt, teaspoon of yeast, tablespoon of oil & warm water) and made a deliciously light dough.  The tomato mixture was spread on and tastefully (in both the aesthetic and gustatory sense) enhanced with a handful of fresh mint & parsley.  On with the meat & cheese and in the oven for 15 minutes.  Whilst that was cooking I boiled some rice & the frozen peas and when they were done I added the half tin of sweetcorn and served the pizza with a simple rice dish.

Steve’s verdict: “Bloody gorgeous!”.  As usual, I wish I’d taken a photo of it…

April in Review

May 2, 2010 in Den, Environmentally Friendly, Fun Stuff, Making & Baking, Nature, Organic Gardening | No comments

What’s fresh?

(Noting what’s fresh & local to know what I can grow & when and a record of fresh pickings from our garden to improve future planting plans, manage gluts better etc)

From the store:

  • Lettuce
  • Carrots
  • New potatoes
  • White & red cabbage
  • Spinach
  • Radish

From the garden:   Still just herbs I’m afraid – next month we should be picking lettuce & radish at least…

In Nature’s garden:

Sowing & Planting

(Building a record of what I need to prepare for next in the garden)

Have sown more:

  • sweetcorn – just want more!
  • cucumbers – planted the first batch out too soon… some got eaten by slugs and a few more rotted in the extreme rain
  • runner beans – need lots more for Steve’s bean fence
  • pumpkins – I saved seeds from last year so now I have my first pumpkins romping away in their patch, I’m sowing my seeds to see how well they do!
  • caulis – not giving up on the brassicas yet goddam it! I took some  tips from this post and, well, we’ll see…

And some more flowers:

  • marigolds – lots of them got munched by little slugs.  I’ve laid my beer traps and sown some more seeds.  These are seeds saved from last years flowers, so I’m not sure what will come of them, but we’ll see…
  • nasturtiums – in the veg garden, another good companion

Lettuces are flourishing in the veg bed; sweetcorn is in the garden but not doing as well as expected – too much rain & not enough sun me thinks; the runner beans are in & romping away; the courgettes are stretching out; I’ve made a pumpkin patch and planted melons in the flower bed; peppers, chillies, tomatoes & cabbage are all planted out; the radish, rocket & beets are all coming on in the garden but no sign of the carrots yet & the first caulis just didn’t make it past the seed stage…

Baking & Making

(A chance to reflect on the culinary success & failures of the month & sharing crafty moments)

Made a wicked moussaka.

Only managed to get a little crafty this month - Easter gave us a chance to paint eggs!


Reading

(Love sharing the books I’m into)

I struggled through ‘Their Eyes Were Watching God’ by Zora Neale Hurston.  Sorry to say I found the language, the writing style and the story difficult to enjoy.

I’m delighted to say that a friend here has trusted me with the draft of her book which I have read and enjoyed.

Currently reading:

This book was given to me by a friend – the most unlikley source; we’ve never swapped books before… I was meant to read this book, right now, at this moment.  Things have been a little tough around here lately and it has reminded me of what’s important, including my relationship with my Self.

‘Tis the season for browsing books – there’s a whole stack piled up on tables: reference books of flowers, veg & herbs etc, etc.  Two favourites at the moment include this little gem, packed with a stack of wonderful gardening tips:

And this beautifully illustrated book, which we consult often as the orchids keep popping up:

What’s the vibe?

(This month’s gut reaction)

Clean. I feel ‘cleansed’ on lots of levels…

Thanks to Jenn and her Weigh-in Wednesdays, I am on a mission to lose some kilos.  I’ve been detoxing like crazy the past couple of weeks, drinking cups and cups of hot water and lemon.  This, combined with:

  • minimal carbs, meat & dairy
  • slowing my eating right now and eating ‘consciously’ so that I chew each mouthful and stop when I’m full, not when my plate’s empty (really hard for me thanks to the ‘Want Not, Waste Not’ habit I acquired from my parents)
  • regular exercise
  • and lots of raw food, like this tasty salad:

has left me with a clean, healthy feeling in my gut.  And the pounds are starting to drop off too…

Our house has been cleaned and de-cluttered to within an inch of its life!  Our dear, sweet landlord has suggested we rent out the house this summer to earn some extra pennies – he’s worried he’ll lose us as tenants this winter if we don’t make some more cash.  It was a great incentive to clear out all the nooks and crannies and get the house rental-ready.  Loads of random stuff has been chucked; lots of ‘rationalising’ and tidying has taken place; all paperwork is filed away and archived and when we take all the gear we need up to the campsite over the next few weeks (as we prepare to move into our tent and begin our summer on the land) we’ll leave behind a  house ready to rent.  Anyone interested?

Finally, it was Earth Day on 23rd April and Amy has been working with schools and local municipalities to do great things to promote ‘Earth Awareness’ in Montenegro (check out her website).  In response to this, our friends Fiona & Dave asked for volunteers to help clean a beach and its ruined house, near to them (& dear to them) in Zanjice.  Although it’s a mission getting over there, it’s a beach Steve & I are very fond of – we first went there a few years ago with our friends from Denovici and now we visit every time we dog sit for the Sawney’s.  When Dave offered to pick us up in his rib and motor across the water to the beach (a mere 15 minutes, as opposed to a hour and a half drive by car!), we were sold on the idea.  On Sunday 25th April, 8 of us collected over 120 bags of rubbish and then took them all a further 120 metres up a rough path to a truck pick-up point.  This was the big rubbish mountain we had to climb at the beginning of the day:

and the view of the be-littered beach:

here’s what it looked like afterwards:

You can see all the pictures on our Camp Full Monte facebook page…

Listening to

(Trying to listen to some new tunes every month)

Working our way through the big wadge of tunes labelled ‘Unplayed, Unrated’ and as a result have been getting down with The Boards of Canada’; wailing with Peter Tosh; being thoughtful with New Order and enjoying a whole bunch of other random stuff.

Fun Stuff

(‘Nuff said)

I know that some people (my Mum for one!) thinks that all we do here is party and fritter our time away on frivolities and I would try to defend this position, except that every time I come to write this section there seems to be an endless stream of parties and great nights out to record!

This month saw Amy turning 40.  It was a quiet affair (for her!) but a lovely bbq and pleasant evening with good friends.

And Grace turning 3:

I got some great girlie time this month too…

First was Danny’s birthday (which Steve was too full of mung to attend).   We started off at a local restaurant with an awesome view and great food contributed by all the guests and then (predicatably!) ended up at Danny’s consuming copious amounts of pink bubbly and dancing on her podium!  I was on a mission to get trashed so no time for photo taking!

Then some impromtu, last minute clubbing with Maja & Amy at a local disco.  It was a great night – Ames & I were silly drunk and we all bopped til we dropped.  I did some table dancing and some flirting (he said he thought I was 29 so I couldn’t resist!)

Tim Time

(Bizarre & extraordinary happenings?  This is Montenegro)

Amy organised an Earth Day clean up in Herceg Novi and the municipal cleaning company were so concerned they would appear to not be doing their job properly they cleaned the area ear-marked for volunteers so that it was spotless and then switched the venue at the very last minute to shunt all the volunteers off to some less visible location.  Sadly, this meant that the 70 or so people that had signed up for the event on facebook and via email were mostly left wondering what was going on and only a handful of people actually turned up on the day!  The crates of bananas, apples and juice that Amy had bought for all the volunteers got hauled off to Zanjice with us to help sustain the hardcore rubbish collectors that day and then we all took shares of the left-overs!

One Green Thing

(One more step along my green journey)

Made lots of batches of cleaning products using baking soda, essential oils, borax, white vinegar and soda water, re-using old squeezy bottles, sprayers & shakers.  I’m very pleased with the results and have saved pennies as well as the earth!

Weather Report

(Charting the weather for us and our garden)

April has been… showery!  Lots of rain at the beginning of the month and some cold days & nights but now its warming up and staying dry & Steve had his first swim in the sea this month!

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March in Review

April 1, 2010 in Den, Fun Stuff, Making & Baking, Organic Gardening, Steve | 2 comments

What’s fresh?

(Noting what’s fresh & local to know what I can grow & when and a record of fresh pickings from our garden to improve future planting plans, manage gluts better etc)

From the store: …

  • Lettuce
  • Carrots
  • Raštan (spring greens)
  • Kale
  • Parsnips
  • New potatoes
  • White cabbage

From the garden: …  Just herbs I’m afraid.  The mint is now romping away…

  • Parsley
  • Chives
  • Mint

Sowing & Planting

(Building a record of what I need to prepare for next in the garden)

Have sown loads of veg seeds:

  • tomatoes
  • chillies
  • peppers
  • sweetcorn
  • courgettes
  • cucumbers
  • melons
  • pumpkins
  • runner beans
  • cauliflower
  • cabbage
  • 6 different types of salad greens (endive, brazilian lettuce, cos, local lettuce, raddichio, cut & come again – mix of reds & oak lettuces)

And some more flowers & herbs:

  • sweet peas
  • marigolds
  • cinia
  • lavender
  • coriander
  • basil
  • oregano
  • chives
  • fennel
  • mint

It’s day 5 and already the lettuces are going mad; most of the sweetcorn have sprouted; the first runner bean is poking through and some of the pepper seeds are showing green growth.

Baking & Making

(A chance to reflect on the culinary success & failures of the month & sharing crafty moments)

Awesome meaty soup. I bought some nice svijnska vrat sa kostima (pork with bones) and when I cut it up into chunks for the freezer I decided to remove the bones.  Hating to chuck anything away these days (!) I just bunged the bones into a pan with a few herbs and veg I had to hand and left it to simmer away.  I strained it and blended it and even I was impressed with the tasty thick soup I had made.  It’s gone in the freezer but I’m already looking forward to it with dumplings!

I made some lovely pressies for my Mum, my sister and my dear friend – beautiful verses framed with my pressed flowers – and managed to wrap them all up and cart them off to the UK without taking a single photo!  Doh!

Reading

(Love sharing the books I’m into)

Clare Morrall’s book, Astonishing Splashes of Colour, impressed me.  It moved me to a greater understanding of a difficult subject.

I have been trying to read ‘Their Eyes Were Watching God’ by Zora Neal Hurston but haven’t got beyond the first few pages.  I thought it would keep me entertained whilst waiting in airports and on the plane journeys but the lure of newspapers and in-flight magazines was too strong.  I had no time to read whilst in the UK and since we’ve been back it’s the old routine of working until we drop so my head barely touches the pillow before I’m asleep!

What’s the vibe?

(This month’s gut reaction)

Warm.  Sunny.  Fresh.  Hopeful. Alive.  Just looking at these fresh green leaves and blue sky makes me feel renewed…

It’s been a busy lambing season here… Laura & Tony became a Mummy & Daddy to Amber Sophia Browne; Oscar (finally) joined Elena to make Cecile & Marjan very happy parents and Miki & Nina & Luka welcomed baby Tara into their family.

Listening to

(Trying to listen to some new tunes every month)

Failed to make headway into new sounds.  Have been mellowing out with old faves including Juliet Turner.

Fun Stuff

(‘Nuff said)

Another busy month on the fun stuff front mostly revolving around celebrating Steve’s 50 glorious years on this planet…

First was the pre-birthday warm-up, Monte style, for both Steve and Maja whose 40th we would miss due to being in the UK. We hosted it at Topla and billed it as a Cocktail Party with a Twist – cocktail dress plus extra body parts!  We installed a full on cocktail bar in our lounge (complete with fridge!); had a load of cocktail recipes as posters on the wall; fairy lights everywhere and plenty of dancing space.  Steve made himself a tail resembling a cock and some strange glasses for his ironic ‘Cocktail Glasses’ look:

There was lots of fun stuff in the UK… hanging out with the MHF mob; shopping!!!; meeting Grandson Jack:

And of course the big party (see this post for full story):

Tim Time

(Bizarre & extraordinary happenings?  This is Montenegro)

Only here in Monte will our friendly mechanic phone at 21.45 on a Sunday to say he’s found a second hand steering arm (saved us 100 euros) for the Fiesta and all the necessary bearings.  Dragolub the magician mechanic we are thining of you as you mourn the loss of your father.

One Green Thing

(One more step along my green journey)

Re-used old egg boxes as planters for half my seeds (for plants with shallow roots, like herbs and lettuces and flowers).  I can plant the entire box and it will biodegrade.

Weather Report

(Charting the weather for us and our garden)

Spring has sprung and it’s mostly warm and sunny.  Apparently it was gorgeous weather whilst we were away and even on our return it’s remained good  – the odd cloudy, rainy day is welcome to keep the garden watered and stop our baby seedlings from frazzling.

The campsite is dry.  Too dry now probably!  The clay has turned from runny to rock hard…

And in Topla… the sun is streaming through the glass, the stone tiles are warm to walk on and its the best time to be living in this space.

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February in Review

March 1, 2010 in Den, Fun Stuff, Making & Baking, Organic Gardening | 3 comments

I have totally re-vamped my Month in Review post.  I’ve been thinking a lot about how I can make this interesting and meaningful to me.  I suddenly had this ‘Duh!’ moment when I realised I could actually use the monthly round-ups as a useful journal to refer back to so let me walk you through my new headings to explain my rationale.

I’m sure I’m missing something but I can’t figure out what it is?  Would love to hear your feedback…

What’s fresh?

(If I want to grow more of my own produce I need to document what produce I’m buying fresh & local so I can then work back and figure out when to plant.  Noting here what we pick fresh from our garden  – including weight if I can remember to record it – will help me plan better for planting plans, managing gluts and to note if different varieties yield for longer)

From the store: ….

  • Carrots
  • Rotkvica (big radishes!)
  • Raštan (spring greens)
  • Kale
  • Parsnips
  • Spuds – a certain, white variety?
  • White cabbage

From the garden: …

  • Rocket – I dug up the plants from the raised beds in December and put them in a pot – is just over & starting to seed…
  • Parsley
  • Chives

Sowing & Planting

(So I can build a record of what I need to prepare for next in the garden.  I would like to get more strategic about mulching & fertilizing – organically of course – ahead of time so my plants have the best start in life)

Onion sets – reds & whites.  We were SO chuffed to buy HALF A KILO of onion sets for 80 cents!  It would have cost 5 times that in the UK!  Have planted one bed up already and the edges of the flower garden.

Flowers!  I have been preparing my new flower bed in the ‘orchard’ area…

And yesterday I sowed loads of seeds.  More on this and pictures of my planting plan in another post soon…

Baking & Making

(A chance to reflect on the culinary success & failures of the month.  I create things all the time & forget to share my crafty moments)

Veg samosas for the wedding party were a hit – must confess I used the pre-bought filo pastry tho’.

‘Maskenbal’ is the highlight of the Mimosa/ Boka Festival so not surprisingly we were making masks.  We teamed up with the Watson-Lanes to get crafty for Gracie…  The mask below was sent back from school because the teacher wanted only homemade masks – yes, they actually thought it had been shop bought!

Luckily this was the reserve:

Notice how the grown ups are all wearing the masks – not Grace!  WHO’S the kid here???

And I made a tail for the wedding party:


Reading

(Love sharing the books I’m into)

You can tell it’s been raining – look at all the books I’ve read!  Thanks to Fiona, I’ve had some riveting bedside reading…

I finished Rohinton Mistry’s ‘A Fine Balance’ or did it finish me…?  What a powerful book…  So was quite grateful for something completely different in the form of the first book in The Millenuim Trilogy by Steig Larsson.  Compulsive reading!

Good but not quite as compelling somehow – the second book in the series:

And enjoyed the quirky writing style of Marcus Zusak – He handled the heavy subject matter gently but not lightly…

Now I am half way through Michelle de Kretser’s strange little book:

It flows as smoothly as a cup of lump porridge but her writing is beautiful at times:

“To the raw ache of solitude he applied his usual balm of work”

What’s the vibe?

(Being a kinesthetic individual, I’m big on feelings & instinctively sum up time & space with a gut reaction)

Soggy.  Chilly.  Bunged up.

Also feeling old… My knees, especially the right one is extremely painful &  get considerably worse in wet weather so I’m sounding like a proper Montenegrin: “Oh the rain!  “Oh my aching bones”

Listening to

(With over 15,000 pieces of music on our computer, I’m making space to listen to some new tunes every month)

The Eels and a load of great DJ mixes from Katie

Fun Stuff

(‘Nuff said)

OMG – SO much fun stuff this month…

  • Herceg Novi Wine Festival – where I got even more drunk than last year, if that’s possible!
  • Playing Tac-Tic with some of my favourite boys:

  • Hanging out with some cool kids:

  • Seeing an AMAZING performance by the youth of Herceg Novi: ‘Cinderalla Rockefella’ – a musical/ pantomime of the classic fairytale.  The set, the costumes, the voices, the humour – odlicno…
  • Matt & Amy’s wedding
  • Katie & Tim and Matt & Amy’s wedding party

  • Laura & Cecile’s baby shower

Tim Time

(Tim – like the dialogue from ‘Blood Diamonds’ when Tia is described as the global catch all for expressing the madness & magic of Africa – stands for This is Montenegro & when anything bizarre & extraordinary happens or we are foxed by the latest bureacratic nonsense, we shrug & say “Tim”)

Mmm – I’m not sure about Montenegrin electrics, are you?  The snows not melting but the Garden Centre sign is!


One Green Thing

(1 new eco achievement a month will take me slowly, steadily, gently forward on my green journey)

I finally ran out of glass cleaner so I washed out the plastic spray bottle from the previous bought product and set about making my own.  I used a recipe from this book:

and then improvised… adding pieces of fresh lemon rind to the half water, half white vinegar mix.  It definitely works but smell of vinegar is still too strong so will add more essential oils…

Weather Report

(We keep having these bizarre conversations about the weather: “I’m sure it didn’t rain this much last Feb” etc.  the truth is we can’t remember and it would be good for us and our gardening schedule to chart the weather)

Mostly, this month it’s been raining…  It’s so soggy & foggy here right now.  Here & on the campsite we seem to be in the clouds most of the time.  It rains, then drizzles, then rains, then REALLY POURS DOWN, then rains again.  Occasionally there’s wind and the odd storm too.  Dry, sunny days this month: err, count ‘em on one hand.

The campsite is mostly under a few inches of water.  No drainage ditch we could dig could cope with this much rain.  The raised beds & baths are all full of water.

And in Topla… well things are NOT topla at all, they are damp & chilly & mouldy.  EVERY window has water coming in around it and many walls have mouldy patches.

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The Crying Game

February 1, 2010 in Frugal Living, Making & Baking, Reduce Reuse Recycle | 1 comment

We have now been home for 6 days and so far have only spent a couple of hours on the campsite working… We are getting distracted by a million other things – blogs, friends, fixing  computers… Steve has been staying up half the night fiddling with networks, websites, photos & other such tekkie stuff.  He crawls to bed between 3 – 4 am and then is reluctant to rise much before 10.00 am.  It all has to stop – we have a BIG LIST, as big as a big thing on a big day and nowt’s getting done.  Tomorrow is D-Day – rain or shine, we are up early and at work by 9.00 am.

Today we very nearly made it to the land but just as we were preparing to leave, the heavens opened.  It was the excuse Steve needed to stay put.  To be fair he was on a mission to fix Katie’s laptop & he’s done a brilliant job, earning us a day out on Monty B as a reward.  So I decided to use my day wisely and headed to the kitchen to make soup.

Every soup starts with onions.  And tears.

I am trying to eat what’s in season and avoid all imported products.  In practise, this means getting the cheapest products in the store as anything that’s exotic and/ or travelled a long way to be there is usually markedly more pricey.  The good, cheap vegetables at the moment are: the roots (carrots, parsnips, turnips), spuds, onions & white cabagge.  So that’s the fresh veg I had to work with.

I’m also trying to use up ingredients in my stockpile.  I have tons of coriander seeds, so I ground some and used it in the first soup: Carrot & Coriander.

According to my new frugal principles, I am trying to use food sparingly and wisely.  I have some cooked, smoked ham which is delicious but quite fatty.  I trimmed the fat off some slices of ham and used it to flavour the base of my next soup: Peppery Potato & Ham.  There is a tiny bit of ham in the soup but the fat imparted such a meaty, smoky flavour that I didn’t need much.  Don’t worry folks – our cholesterol levels are safe, I removed the fat once the stock had taken up its taste.  Regular old ground black pepper is an unsung hero in the cooking charts -  in my opinion, it really helps to enhance the taste of spuds.

Back to my stockpile & to the jars of Indian spices I have lurking there…  The aromatic tastes won’t be worth a sniff if I don’t use them soon, so… Indian Spiced Vegetable Soup it is!  Here’s a shot of the 3 different soups – clockwise from left: the Spiced Veg & Peppery Potato in plastic pots ready to be frozen & in front the Carrot & Coriander which I manage to take a picture of in between sups!

I decided to break my own rules next & follow a recipe!  Another ingredient I have lots of that needs using up before it gets too old is English Mustard Powder and I found a great recipe for a Mustardy Lentil Pottage in Leith’s Vegetarian Bible.  I tried to take a photo of this hearty beauty but honestly it just looked like a bowl of sick!  Tasted delicious though.

I am so glad I picked up the recipe book because I found a French Onion Soup recipe that looked too good to pass up.  Who knew that in order to properly caramelize onions you have to cook them for 30 minutes!!?!  I am such an impatient cook that I would never be bothered to do this ordinarily.  Now I know that this is half an hour well spent & will be cooking my onions slowly & patiently more often in the future…

Of course, the obvious accompaniment to soup is… bread.  I have a gluten intolerance so try to minimise the bread I eat and only ever buy the local cornbread, which is mostly made with cornflour & has a lot less gluten than normal bread.  To my delight I found soya flour & rice flour in my local supermarket (both gluten free) and have been waiting for a chance to try making some bread.  Unfortunately I couldn’t find a recipe using only the ingredients I had – most recipes used a mix of brown rice flour, potato flour & soya flour & had stuff like Xanthum Gum or summat.  I pushed on, regardless, finding a recipe that I could follow-ish.  Looks ok but still pretty soggy in the middle – a bad combo of the wrong ingredients and my strange ‘dot dash’ oven…  It’ll be fine toasted though.

I have made 18 portions of soup today & used up a ton of empty marg & mayo pots from my stash of reuseable plastic stuff putting them in containers & freezing them.  That’s 9 lunches on the land taken care of.  We just grab a pot from the freezer when we set off in the morning and heat it up on the stove at the campsite when we’re hungry.  One step closer to being ready to do some work…

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Ridiculously sublime…

November 12, 2009 in Den, Fun Stuff, Making & Baking | 4 comments

Life has been swinging from one extreme to another over the past few weeks.  Weather-wise, storms have been raging for days.  It has bucketed with rain – the roads turn to rivers; washing takes days to dry; everything around is very Pink Floyd-y: dark, moody & ‘Obscured by Clouds’…  And just as suddenly as the ‘bad weather’ arrives it can disappear and the dry, sunny, hot day that replaces it is just as surprising! We fling the windows wide to welcome the warmth and to air the dampness of cold stone & condensation and watch the washing dry in an hour.

Weirdly, far from feeling trapped by the wind & the rain it’s been a pleasure to relax into doing things at home.  I don’t think I had appreciated the impact of the stresses and responsibilities of the preceding months.  Domestic chores were even more of a drag  because they had to be done  – friends, family, guests had to be fed and their varying tastes accomodated; facilities had to be kept clean, bedding washed & aired etc – and fast as there was a million other things to do.  The Open Day had been a big distraction & source of tension so it was a relief to have it successfully behind & free up the brain space for other stuff.

Faced with a glut of fruit (green tomatoes from the land; lemons from the trees around our house & mandarins from our neighbours in Malta), time on my hands and a fully functioning kitchen (since June we’d had half of our kitchen equipment & utensils on the campsite as we were operating 2 households), I set about re-igniting my passion for making things.  Jars & jars of lemon curd, mandarin marmalade & green tomato chutney later and I felt great!

Preserving my sanity!

With the winter ahead of us and little hope of income until next summer, living frugally has become a priority.  My recent blog surfing has unearthed some inspiring folk who reuse, recycle, reduce in all sorts of cool ways to minimise costs & their impact on the planet (see “Blogs We Like” on this page for new found net dudes).  As well as the BIG STUFF (solar energy, waterless loos etc)  the small, day-to-day stuff really counts.  I’ve decided to use up everything we have in the cupboards, fridge & freezer, as far as possible, before replenishing our stocks.  To most of you this is not a radical move at all, but I know plenty of folk (my Mum, for example!) who would struggle to use up everything they have stored.  Over the months & years we have accumulated ingredients that we rarely use and I’m on a mission to find recipes to incorporate what we already have.  My starting point for any meal or desert is: what do we need to use up?  It’s an interesting challenge and I’m having a lot of fun with it.

Steve has a terribly sweet tooth and would munch away many euros worth of biscuits every week given half a chance. In a bid to curtail costs and use up random ingredients, we experimented with biscuit-making.  Steve’s attempt to use up a load of oats and dried fruit was not entirely successful:

Unidentified burnt offerings

The second batch of ‘oat thingys’ were more edible than these discs of carbon – a little more restraint with the dot-dash oven helped! – but the fundamental flaw seemed to be in his approach of combining elements from a bunch of recipes and making it up as he went along.  Shame really, because I’m always trying to encourage him to ‘free’ himself from the constraints of precise measurements and doing things by the book…  Sweet things are not my speciality so I decided to break my own rules and… follow a recipe.  I found a great Marcus Wareing recipe in a magazine that visitors from England had brought us, using 3 ingredients we needed to use up: custard powder, icing sugar (I have no idea how I got so much of this damn stuff, I think I must have bought more thinking it was cornflour!) and nutmeg.  Hate to say it, but compared to Steve’s ridiculously burnt thingys, my ‘Custard & Nutmeg Yo-Yos’ were sublime…

Custard & nutmeg Yo-Yos

The frantic feelings of endless tasks closing in on us and no time or space have subsided.  We have found the time to start organising our time more sensibly again.  Inevitably, for some weeks & months, we had to react to events: unexpected bookings; unknown culinary likes & dislikes; upturned tents etc, etc.  Going with the flow is fine but all the knee-jerking hurts after a while and it’s nice to get a balance.  We have started our ‘big list’ of ongoing projects on the campsite & just dumping all the tasks onto a big sheet of paper was liberating – less stuff to keep in our (already bulging) heads and then worry about forgetting…  Printing out a weekly calendar has also helped: we have to chase our land ownership papers on a Wednesday morning; we must get the company registration by this date and the work permit & visa by that date.  We have moved from manic splashing about to more controlled paddling on our strange (and at the moment very watery) journey…

I know that some of you fret when I share the difficult downs of the Camp Full Monte team, so here’s something for all you worriers to smile about…

Yesterday was 19 years since the day that Steve & I stopped being friends and started being lovers and life partners.

Us - at our Open Day

Luckily for us the date of our ‘unofficial anniversary’ is also Matt’s birthday so we usually have a good excuse for a ’sesh’ and this year was no exception.  The four of us – me, Steve, Matt & Amy – had not been out together, just us, for… well, actually we couldn’t remember when.  The recent years have seen us sharing our time with kids and other friends so we decided this treat was just for us.  We started with aperitifs in a bar; moved onto a very nice Italian restaurant where we ate tasty food and sunk a couple of bottles of wine; staggered to Konoba Izvor (via a pool hall where we played a few games of pinball & drunk pear rakija) & drank more pear rakija and then got a taxi to our place in Topla.  Matt was chuffed because Steve was actually drunk – it doesn’t happen often & the few rare times Stevo’s been pickled in Monte, Matt has never been there to witness it.

There’s something strange that happens to Steve & Matt when they are together – they get this odd urge to embark on tekkie projects, irrespective of amounts of alcohol ingested.  And so it was that last night they decided it was be a great idea to get the amp & TEAC speakers up and running.  Matt loves to dance & he wanted some proper, loud sounds to groove to…  Here are the boys getting busy whilst Amy & I look on laughing, in disbelief (notice the BIG LIST on the wall!!!)

Matt & Steve installing the kick-ass sound system

The functioning system was loud – the vibrations shook Amy from her reclined position, the volume level made us all shout ‘What?’ a lot and the sound was impressive even outside in the street!  It was also impossible NOT to dance…

Dancing

Watson Lanes Dance

Stevo dancing

What makes me chuckle about this pics is that our ‘cover’ as young, happening, raver dudes is totally blown by the cups of tea you can see people hanging onto!!!

There have been many times recently when I wonder if the strange life we lead in this land of pointless ex-Communist bureacracy, surrounded by environmental ignorance, with a rising cost of living and uncomfortable level of financial insecurity is actually worth it.  Last night, at stupid o’clock, after the Watson Lanes had stumbled off home because Matt looked like this:

Matt - all messed up!

we sat on the sofa and reflected… We had gone out at 5pm on a Wednesday night (formerly known as a ’school night’) ate, drank and were merry with good friends without breaking the bank; the pool hall was calm & civilised and the pinball game was a few cents; we didn’t get mugged on the way home or get an ASBO for playing our music too loud.  We went to bed at 2 am and couldn’t keep the smiles off our faces….

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