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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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50 Years Young

March 28, 2010 in Fun Stuff, Steve | 1 comment

I’ve blogged off for so long, I hardly know where to start…

Let’s start with our trip to the UK, which was all about Steve turning 50 among old friends and family  (those dearly beloveds who would mock him shamelessly and show terrible photos of him!).  Yes, my old man (I can really call him that now!) has made it to his half a century mark despite the years of sex, drugs & rock & roll and all the stress of putting up with me!  We had a brilliant time and packed a lot into our 10 day visit.  50 people made it to his party and Steve even tried to look surprised (bless him).

Here’s some of the characters we hung out with at various points:

Steve’s sister Dawn drove from Wales to be at the party (probably why she looks like a zombie here!)…

And here’s a pic of the woman to whom I am most in debt for the party going smoothly, or at all in fact!  Conveniently, Kate lives in a little village, centrally located between the extremes of where the guests were coming from, with a hall (that hubby Rol is on the committee for!) that has lights, sound system, kitchen, cutlery & crockery and cheap booze.  As if that wasn’t enough the telly in the bar next door had the rugby on all night which kept all the boys happy.  Kate blew balloons and helped dress the hall; she laid on food and gave us comfy crash space.  She was a star, especially since she fitted all the party nonsense around her barkingly busy life which includes being a Director of a Charity, a Master Degree student, a wife and sex kitten!  Thank you dear friend!

Old friends turned out in force & brought wonderful photos and funny memories…

Here were 3 of the folk that Steve was most blown away seeing at the party… Jess & Dunc travelled from Scotland and Ray flew from Ireland.  It was so great to see them all.

We spent a wonderful evening with the Wilmer-Barbrooks (below) – sadly we didn’t get a picture of Matt who cooked us an awesome salmon en croute and got us pickled on gorgeous red wine.

We had a very special time visiting Grandson Jack whilst in the UK.  He’s going to be 4 this summer and he’s such a gorgeous lad.  Despite not having seen us since he was a babe, he wasn’t wary or shy.  He climbed into my lap and we read a story together (his grasp of numbers is amazing!) and he let us play lego and do puzzles with him.

Kirst & Tim were key characters in the plot.  They kick started the birthday weekend in a very special way – champers on a Friday afternoon, with all the trimmings.  Kirst helped me set up the hall and lay the groundwork for the surprise and Tim had the tough task of getting Steve to the hall, not too early and without raising suspicion…  Here’s Kirst tickling her second favourite boy – we don’t have a pic of her no.1 tummy tickler… Sorry Tim!

Sadly, we don’t have any photos of the Mill House Farm mob who looked after us so well.  Ben gave up his room for us. Cathy put up with her smelly brother so we could have a room of our own.  Daisy chewed the end of Steve’s brand new binos so we will be reminded of the MHF mob constantly.  Mutley gave us slobbery love & was so excited when we turned up, it was touching!  Minnie & her ceaseless ball-fetching fetish was as endearing and nuts as ever.  Shelia & Hiru sold us their caravan so now we are proud mobile home owners.  And John & Anita – well, words can’t convey our love & gratitude for the home from home; the use of the Merc; the good grub & wine; the early morning walks; the roaring fire; the chuckles… Special, special friends.

Last but not least, here’s the birthday boy himself… the day before the party and then the night of!

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Long haired lover

February 14, 2010 in Den, Steve | 3 comments

Since today is Valentine’s Day, it seems the appropriate time for an update on my hubby and that hair…

Steve is my friend; the rock that I lean on (& sometimes trip over!) and my (at the moment, long – for him – haired) lover.  He’s decided that he’ll probably never get another chance to grow it and he’s also talking about dyeing it.  What d’you think,  could he be approaching 50 & working up a mid-life crisis? Nah! Never!? (Much!)

Here, in a crafty moment – you can see the curly mop developing.  I mean, he’s using products & everything!  Yep – shampoo (where once shower gel was enough for the barely-there shaved fluff); gel & mousse have somewhere to go on his head now as he experiements with styles!  I KNOW, I should have taken photos of same – Doh!

Compared to Blazo (below) he still has a way to go.  I’m interested to see when long enough is enough…

Anyway – I love all the hairs on his head no matter how long or short!

In case you’re wondering – no, I didn’t get a Valentine’s card.  But I did get to sleep in until 9.30am and he cleaned the cooker.  Did we spend a romantic day with massages & candles & tussles under the duvet?  Nope – we worked on the land digging mud, shifting stone & re-building terrace walls. Here’s a pic of the stairs nearly filled in with mud.  Yeah!  (Also, Steve’s hair is long enough here to show the grey!)

And the newly renovated stone wall is like our love – solid as a rock!

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One-legged hole digger required!

April 11, 2009 in Steve | No comments

Here’s Steve resting his stump whilst digging the last hole for the last post to complete the privacy barrier…

1leggedholediggersm2

Oh my goodness!  His right arm seems to have dropped off too!!!

Stevo – our favourite 49′er!

March 25, 2009 in Steve | No comments

What better excuse for a party than Steve being one year closer to his half a century mark!!!  Yep – we properly warmed the house up and partied hard.  Pete brought the leftover Irish stew from his Paddy Night extravaganza earlier on in the week, which went down a storm.  Good job we had something substantial in our tummies with the copious amounts of alcohol flowing…  Mixing a drunk Den and a drunk Matt with a bottle of Tequila and a bottle of champagne is a lethal combination – slammers all round!  Unfortunately the slamming was SO exhuberant that our favourite slamming glass finally cracked.  Not in time to save Matt though who was utterly plastered and snuck off home very abruptly leaving everything (car, keys, clothes) behind, but managing to take the keys to Nicky’s car with him!  The hardcore partied on until 3.30am.

Thank God for the enormous box of chocolate & vanilla cream filled croissants that Laura brought and the bag of coffee from Katie that helped us cope with the morning after.  There were many bleary eyes, churning stomachs and aching heads – a night, and a hangover to remember!

Golden Hands

March 2, 2009 in Steve | No comments

Stevo ima zlatni ruke – or so the locals say (please, please correct my grammar someone!).  Steve has become a legendary ‘Mr Fix-It’.  Successes so far include: the auto pilot on Katie & Tim’s boat, Nikola’s record player (yes, 33’s, remember them!!) that we thought Aleksa had broke for good and the stereo at Lara & Ben’s place.  He has the patience to apply a logical approach and figure out the problem.  And on a more personal note, I would agree – he defo has the golden touch!!!