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Season’s Greetings!

May 12, 2013 in Camping News, Campsite Improvements, Fun Stuff, Organic Gardening, Team News by fullmonte | No comments

This season, I’m thinking blog posts will be short & sweet or not at all – since I’m hoping beyond hope that we are too busy with our happy campers for much else…  So I’m here to tell you we’re open for business in 2013 and have already had 2 sets of guests and 2 volunteers.

Our season has begun!

There was a load of stuff that had to be done before we were ready to open and we ran around like maniacs for a while trying to get everything done.  Here’s what we’ve been busy doing…

Maintenance of sewerage system: grey water baths dug out, cleaned out & mended – plug holes re-sealed, new pipe (for distributing the waste water more evenly around the bath to keep the plants moist) purchased & drilled (see photo below) – and each bath filled with fresh gravel & completely re-planted

Gardening: Steve had been nurturing veg & flower plants which had all outgrown their pots and were desperate to romp away in the ground.  Before we planted the tyre wall we first had to paint it:

The new cream colour blends in well with the stone surrounds but more importantly, the tyres don’t get so hot now they are painted a lighter colour. Aster, Sweet Pea, Snapdragon, Livingstone Daisy, Pot Marigolds, French Marigolds and Petunias have all been planted.  Waiting to join the flowery throng in the next few weeks are: Zinnia & Sunflowers (all self seeded and popped up in the compost) and Pansy & Lobelia which were sowed much later, are still growing on.

Flowers-to-be can also be found in the stream-side beds, the area just outside the building around the grease trap, my toilet garden (toilet bowls and sinks as planters in an area of shade below the main building) and, for the first time in hanging baskets.

In the beds we’ve planted out: the squashes & curcubits, tomatoes (5 varieties), capsicums, brassicas and aubergines.  Seeds for beans, peas, carrots & salad greens have all been sown and in some cases thinned and transplanted already…

The herb garden which was created last year but never used was planted with green manure over the winter.  This was dug in and left to rot down in situ and the soil was in pretty good condition.  It’s now been planted/ sowed with: coriander, basil (3 varieties), parsley (2 varieties), dill, marjoram, mint, lemon thyme, chives (2 varieties), tarragon and some edible flowers: Garland Chrysanthemum, wild pansy, borage and nasturtiums.

Cleaning and moving in: Floors, furniture, cupboards, shelves, showers, loos, sinks, tables & chairs were scrubbed clean in a 2-day marathon.  Bedding, tents, books, kitchen equipment, storage containers, towels, throws, games and loads of other stuff had to be carted down all the frigging steps at  our Topla house, loaded into the van and unpacked the other end.  We were pretty sick of walking up & down stairs & lugging stuff about.

Our first guest was supposed to arrive on May 1st.  The same Greek guy in his own tent booked to come last year and didn’t show up.  True to form, there was no sign of him this year either (next year we might just be fully booked when you enquire Mr Ionnis!) but mates Katie, Tim and their (& now our) friends Cath & Andy all the way from NZ turned up to more than compensate.  So did Jamie, our first volunteer.  He arrived late and we were all pretty wasted by the time he actually got to us and he had a great introduction to CFM – invited to share food, beer and a place round the fire, he joined the 6 of us in party mood.

Amazingly he did not surface until nearly 11.00 am the following morning and that was our first clue that he may not exactly be the greatest volunteer ever.  He was a harmless, but in many respects clueless, 21 year old, addicted to sugar and allergic to mornings – he even outdid Steve for the amount of time it took him to be ready to start work each day.  He provided the extra pair of hands needed to erect the gazebos and level the sofas and tables and he did a good job at strimming the grounds:

Our first guests arrived on May 2nd.  They had inquired but not booked, so we weren’t exactly expecting the 2 German bikers who turned up.  Timo & Katja were the perfect first guests – super people who fell in love with Daisy and the campsite and were fantastic company.

The day after they left, a Dutch couple arrived in their Landrover Defender with integral tent that had to be pitched in the only space for such vehicles, next to the workshop.  Not a pretty spot but they were glad of a place to make a base for the night as they travelled through Montenegro.  I wanted to take a picture of their South African designed tent, which enfolded from the top of the Landy but they were just too quick at de-camping…

And look who else has been visiting:

A Giant Peacock Moth!  This gives you a great idea of scale, as it’s perched on a full sized colander.  And right next to it, in complete contrast was this tiny moth – delicate and almost shell-like…

Jamie left us after a week and our next volunteer arrived.  Richard couldn’t be more different – he’s in his 60’s but fit and strong and very talented.  He’s a passionate naturist and spends as much time naked as possible.  He rises early and works late and doesn’t even eat us out of house & home.  So far he & Steve have: erected a new bookshelf in the basement & patched up the areas where water was seeping in (so hopefully we won’t lose any more books through water damage next year); dug out and concreted around a new drainage channel in front of the workshop; dismantled the boundary fence near the workshop (that was falling down due to weak posts and poor construction the first time around) and cemented in 4 new posts and as I left today he was drawing detailed plans of the new porch he’s going to build!  Thank goodness for his skill and experience – we are very lucky to be working with him.

It hasn’t been ALL work though – as well as the very pleasant diversion provided by mates on May 1st, we’ve also had an evening with Blazo, Dado and Vedran with much booze and food and laughter.  Maja, Keith, Charlie and Richard came armed with goodies for an evening picnic and we had a super time – it was wonderful seeing Maja visibly relax as she sipped her chilled Rose and wallowed in the loveliness of the evening.  And yesterday Fi & Dave came to visit after some 2 years absence and they brought Fi’s Mum to see the campsite for the first time.  Evelyn was totally enamoured by the place and as a naturist herself in years gone by she vowed to come back and camp another time.

Right, time to pack up and run back to site to make pizza for the hungry boys…  A month in review to follow at end of May, if you’re lucky.

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August in Review

September 7, 2012 in Camping News, Campsite Improvements, Den, Environmentally Friendly, Filo Sofi, Frugal Living, Fun Stuff, Making & Baking, Nature, Organic Gardening, Reduce Reuse Recycle, Team News, book review by fullmonte | 1 comment

Growing Green

A combination of poor supervision of volunteers, relentlessly hot weather and lack of time has meant that the garden has been systematically under-loved.  Despite that, this month we’ve been picking:

  • Rocket
  • Silverbeet
  • Aubergines – Stripey & Black Beauty
  • Peppers
  • Chillies
  • Onions
  • Courgettes
  • Marrow
  • Pumpkin
  • Tomatoes – regular, cherry, plum & green grape variety (the latter 2 popped up from seeds in the compost…)
  • Fresh herbs: chives (garlic & ordinary), parsley (curled & flat-leaved), tarragon, sage, rosemary, lemon thyme, thyme & basil

And we pulled a few carrots, including the Atomic Reds (RH side) …

They are still forked, despite sowing the seed in a bed that was deliberately NOT manured.  We think they are forking for moisture…  They weren’t watered deep enough, soon enough.  We are trying to correct the problem, watering well now and keeping the new garden shade structures over them to retain moisture and have decided to leave them longer to see whether they will grow bigger & fatter.

The tyre wall continues to provide colour & interest – even the Asters have finally got going now.  And as the photo belwo shows, it’s getting hard to see the tyres…

In the last few weeks the Tobacco plants have finally shot up with some diligent watering by Steve & I and lots of compost tea.  In the photo below they are poking their heads about the ‘fake’ tobacco plants, Nicotiana, all of which nature planted as I didn’t sow a single seed…

Baking & Making

I’ve really enjoyed living off the garden this month and cooking with whatever we have a glut of…  Pumpkin harvest led to Pumpkin & Sage Risotto (of sorts); since we probably picked 100+ chillies these past weeks, I’ve been pretty much spicing everything up a notch and tomatoes have been roasted, sauced and eaten raw & lightly seasoned by the bowlful.

Cat, Kate & Yvette fininshed making another notice board from corks and it’s hung up in the basement adorned with useful info for our guests.

Feelings & Musings

To be honest, at times this month its felt as if we’re coming undone – the threads of the rich (but fragile) tapestry have started to unravel…

We were feeling a little frayed at the edges at the beginning of the month, just before volunteers left.  Sharing space with folk every day for weeks & weeks gets wearing, no matter who they are.  It’s great to have helping hands but the hands come with mouths to be feed & characters to be accommodated  – some are more voracious & demanding than others…   It’s also a stress keeping people busy.  So, in some ways it was a relief to be back on our own again at the beginning of August and be focused on keeping the campsite clean & tidy and our guests well provided for.  Although at times, as the month unfolded & proved to be noticeably busier than last year, we did feel a little overloaded.  Once again the Dutch came in their numbers, some with kids in tow, and the Germans kept coming too.

Our waste water disposal system started to fail.  A couple of the filtration baths started to back up and plants had to be dug up to free the roots choking the pipes.  The area around the baths started to stink.  Surreptitious attempts to cure the problem failed.  We tried to mask the smell with fragrant incense (‘for the mosquitos, don’t you know’) and soldiered on.

We had a few episodes of illness during the month which was most unsettling.  We agreed to welcome these boys, Louis & Will, and let them stay for free in return for “bringing music & joy” as they so boldly claim!  Instead they turned up weak from tummy bugs, having had stuff stolen in Budva and used the camp as a place to rest & recuperate before they set off on their bicycle tour again. Oh well, here’s hoping we get a good write up on their blog eventually!

Then one of our guests – our celebrity guest -  fell ill.  Well, I say celebrity guest – he was named Tom and he was a baker, so we called him Tom Baker… anyway, he succumbed to the Boka bug that seems to be bothersome in August.  He came to us looking like he needed a holiday & being already run down made him more vulnerable.  He suffered from vomiting & diahorrea and his temperature rose dangerously.  We installed him in the basement, in the cool & near to the facilities and took his distressed wife to get thermomenters and medicine.  For 3 days we let him sleep, kept him rehydrated and tried to calm & reassure Franske.  He got through it and recovered slowly but it did feel like Camp Red Cross for a while there, especially when 2 German girls turned up and Ana was ill too.  I mixed up some potions to unblock her sinuses and banish the flu germs and got them on their way again.

Living in a field became tiresome as critters of all kinds made a nuisance of themselves.  The edible doormice popped up all over the place – the sounds of them scampering about in the gutters, gnawing the roof timbers and squeaking drove us slightly mad.  Occasionally they would stare down at us from various vantage points, taunting us brazenly.  Creatures (and not necessarily the same ones) were taking chunks out of the tomatoes, picking off the best figs as they ripened and re-designing the edges of the material we used to cover the sofa…

Bettina & Birgit, a couple of lovely German ladies & their dog Krummel, were living in a trailer tent adjacent to our caravan for a while and a mouse or 2 decided to join them there, getting into dog food and other goodies.  The mini drama did encourage them to completely clear out their camp & establish a new one in a tent instead so that there was finally room for the trailer tent of Jonathon & family, on their way to us for the second year running from Croatia.   And after that we ensured that all food stuffs were stored in the basement.

When bags of food stored in the basement were nibbled through too and my pumpkin was found, violated, it was clear we had a problem there too.  Anything edible was put into cool boxes and other sealed containers and we hoped that depriving the beast of food would send it scurrying away.  Piles of chewed plastic indicated that plan didn’t work.  Nothing for it but to take EVERYTHING out of the inner basement and uncover it’s hiding place.

It’s not often Steve is disappointed in me as a partner in crime.  I muck in pretty well with most jobs and am pretty tough but I totally blew it during the ‘Incident with Ratty’.  Spider, scorpions, snakes – I can take them all in my stride, but a rodent running towards me in a confined space… Nah!  I totally lose it.  Scream.  Run out the door and shut it behind me, just as the bugger was making its bid for freedom.  To be fair Steve had told me we needed to catch the culprit rather than let it go so my thoughts were: “Don’t let it out, don’t let it out”.  But it did mean that we then had to start emptying the outer basement too until we finally chased it out of the door.

Then there was this drama to contend with and we really did start to lose the plot.  The 12v lighting stopped working, doubt was caste on the safety of our electrics and even the generator packed up!  The worms in the worm compost got drowned through watering too often and draining off too infrequently; half the tomatoes started to die having been unwittingly butchered by Cat who couldn’t tell an inter-nodal shoot from a main stem and most of my squashes withered on the stem.  At this point all thoughts of eating healthily and looking after this temple of a body went to ‘hell in a handbag’ as my mate would say…  Since most guests were self-sufficient and demand for the Dish of the Day waned, I stopped cooking and defaulted to junk food, washed down with G&Ts to calm the nerves.  Half a stone heavier, bloated & lethargic, I’m paying the price for it now.  Laying in bed last night  (a proper-sized bed in a real house with no fetid-footed hubby sweating beside me… a PROPER night off!) groaning at the pain in my gut, I had an epiphany about my re-addiction to sugar.  Time to dust off the Detox Plan and reign myself in…

If you’re feeling dismayed about our drama-filled August, don’t be…  We’re not.  Much.

We’re pretty good at mending & making do these days so we’ve been picking up the loose threads and patching our life back together.  We have syphoned out the grease trap completely and all odours have gone.  The rodent situation is under control – glue traps were employed, former hang outs (under the sofa, unsurprisingly) cleared out and there is an increase of owls in the vicinity.  We remain optimistic about the situation with Inspectors and even feel relieved – we knew we’d get busted someday so now we can stop waiting for the worst to happen and deal with the reality.  The 12v lighting was easily fixed, the generator has oil in it now so is working again and we’ve even revived the worm compost.  I’ve pulled up most of the tomatoes so we have less to water these days and am looking forward sowing fresh crops of herbs and veg.

Reading

I finally finished “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles”!  Weirdly, trying to recall the sense of it some weeks later and the traces of it are already weak…  I liked the main character, Toru, a great deal.  He was refreshingly easy to get to know and enjoyable company but somehow this made the weird things happening to him/ around him seem too incongruous at times.  I liked the detail about the little routines in his life and the ordinary moments guys like Toru must experience all the time and its a welcome change to see these being paid attention to, cherished even.

Haruki Murakami’s writing style is very accessible – his words (& Jay Rubin’s skill in translating his words) are, mostly, perfectly formed.  There is an easy grace about the prose and this book has pages & pages that flow with a gently captivating rhythm.  But.  Then there are sharp corners that cut me and left me confused and a little vexed as the ’story’ jutted off at an odd angle.  The inter-weaving with ‘other worldly stuff’ didn’t always work well for me – ghosts & spirits and mend-melding could get a little wearing…

“I’ll skin you alive!” is not a phrase I can use lightly after reading this book.  I spare you details and don’t wish to spoil the stories within a story for others, but there are some descriptive passages in this novel that have left an imprint – simply written stuff it may be, but it is powerfully evocative at times.

“Hunting & Gathering” by Anna Gavalda was a breath of fresh air that I breezed through after release from The Chronicles.

I enjoyed the characters immensely – especially Philibert and Mamadou.  Paulette’s portrayal wrung my heart; Franck was infuriating but smolderingly gorgeous and Camille’s waif-like persona became more substantial as she found the strength and inspiration to feed herself in all good senses of the word.

The tale was well-paced and rewarding.  It’s been a long time since I read a good old love story and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Well-crafted Ms Gavalda!

And now I’m half way through Isabelle Allende’s ‘City of the Beasts’…

Work

Work projects took a bit of a back seat for most of the month as our focus was on keeping the campsite ticking along and trying not to lose the plot!

Nik made a welcome return to the camp for some stone walling, which was very much appreciated:

And towards the end of the month, fresh volunteer blood arrived in the form of Andy, an easy-going English dude helpful, strong and hardworking.    Once he’d got into a routine with pumping water every morning, helping watering the garden & taking Daisy for a walk, the first major project was emptying the grease trap and flushing our system clean.

Our next volunteer, Yvette from Holland turned up a few days after Andy.  She turned out to be a competent seamstress and was up for the task of patching together material from old sail bags and tents and making a cover for the small gazebo frame:

Meanwhile Andy got involved with re-building stone walls and Steve finally found someone else, other than Nik, patient enough to work with him on this:

Play

Cat turned 20 on 1st August and it was the perfect excuse to throw a party.  We already had quite a few folk on site and everyone decided to join us for the BBQ, plus more people turned up during the day and we invited some of the friends that Cat & Todd had made locally so there was 25 of us crammed round tables stuffing our faces & toasting Cat’s transition from teen to Twenties Queen!

The food, if we do say so ourselves, was extraordinarily good…

There was a mountain of washing up afterwards though but  Kate, Yvette and Todd managed it all with smiles on their faces:

Daisy had a couple of playmates in August.  First came Krummel, originally from Bosnia, but adopted by Bettina & Birgit in Germany.  She was an abused hound and was very nervous around people but she soon mellowed out and Daisy adored her.  And adored the treats and attention from Birgit & Bettina…

Then came Ganga, Ana’s hound – another German adopting a Balkan dog, this one from Croatia.  Now Daisy was the bigger hound and got to be Top Dog for a bit!

Nature Watch

It’s been hot & dry this month, although it did sputter with rain halfway through the month for a wee bit (Nigel, who visited us in May and returned again in August is now our Rain God because his visits have brought the only periods of precipitation in the summer!).

With all the drama and hard work I lost enthusiasm for taking photos of all the amazing things around us but here’s a few nice shots (taken, for a change, by Steve) of what’s been buzzing about us…

The bird life has been fantastic this month – the skies have been alive with the flitting & swooping of Spotted Fly Catchers, Swifts & Swallows and various Warblers and Bee Eaters have been frequent visitors too.  Not to mention the owls (calling very close but still Steve has been unable to spot them with his super long range torch!) and the various birds of prey…

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July in Review

August 4, 2012 in Camping News, Campsite Improvements, Den, Frugal Living, Fun Stuff, Making & Baking, Nature, Naturist, Organic Gardening, Reduce Reuse Recycle, Team News, book review by fullmonte | No comments

July has been a cracking month and we’ve been busy as bees hence the late posting…  I’ll hardly do justice to the whos & whats of this sizzling month but it’s better than nowt….

Growing Green

As if it wasn’t hot enough this month, we’ve had a bumper crop of chillies and most meals contain these spicy beauties:

  • We’re still picking rocket but just the wild stuff – the salad rocket has mostly flowered itself off the menu
  • We’ve picked a little silverbeet & pak choi but the plants are few & scorched.  Here’s some we picked early in the month:

  • We picked the last of the lettuce for a while – I’m trying to germinate more but think we might have to wait until the late August/ September sowing
  • Fresh herbs: chives (garlic & ordinary), parsley, tarragon, rosemary, fennel sage & basil.
  • Tomatoes have been great this month – we pick daily & have tomatoes with everything… chopped up with garlic & herbs on toasted bread as homemade bruschetta for lunch; with basil & seasoning or onion & cucmbers as a salad dish; or skinned & ’sauced’.   And I’m delighted to report that a couple of Green Grape Tomato plants were amongst those self sowers that I allowed to pop up from compost & flourish – I have saved seed so I will be able to deliberately grow them next year….  But as was the case last year, just as we start to enjoy them, so do the Edible Doormice!  See the photo below of the end of July’s harvest and note the nibbled fruit!

  • Peppers are coming thick & fast now & a decent size
  • We’ve picked a couple of pumpkins so far & more to come
  • Marrow & courgette are still growing away though not as prolifically as last month
  • Onions – kilos of them!

  • Aubergines, Stripey & Black Beauty, have popped up in many meals this month.  The shot below shows off my nice new scales (a birthday present to myself)

We have one beautiful Butternut Squash ripening nicely.  The plants on the compost heap suffered miserably (too dry) so we’ve moved them into the main garden.  I think one plant has died altogether but the other 3 are pushing our new growth.

Runner beans are flowering but not setting fruit.  We suspect its just too hot and look forward to the cooler months in the autumn when the beans may actually form & swell.

The orchard was looking a bit bare – sunflowers are over now – but the zinnia are flowering brightly now & the tobacco plants are finally getting going.  Confrey is romping away too & the 2nd bucket of Comfrey Stew is on the bubble!

The tyre wall and stream-side flower beds are looking great – drifts of colour, buzzing with bees and awash with butterflies…  And here’s a new garden area I made by planting up random bidets and sinks we had dotted around the place:

Baking & Making

Getting creative with a posh compost pot (so guests know what’s in & what’s not)…

I put together a folder for volunteers to help them get up to speed with how we do things around here and finally got around to putting the photo album together of the early days & the build of the campsite…

Reading

Still reading “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles”.  It’s a strange book – compelling in parts and at times almost too odd to follow but I am nearly finished and am intrigued to see where this tale will end and wonder if & how all the frayed threads will come together…

Work

The list of jobs done this month is so long it’s hard to recall!  This is mainly due to having so many willing hands this month.  Todd & Cat from the US joined us early in July and Yvette from Dublin arrived towards the end of the month.  Kate, from Canada, was with us for a week at the end of July.  Here’s a rough run down of stuff that Team Full Monte achieved:

  • Compost chambers and compost tea tank scraped of all peeling limewash & re-painted

  • Strimming & tidying of grounds
  • Rock collection
  • Stone walling
  • Bead curtain re-strung
  • Toilet door frames sanded & re-painted
  • 1000 litre water tank patched up with epoxy & put into position at the end of the orchard, near to the veg garden to be the compost tea dilution tank

  • Big metal gate fixed so it runs smoothly now & can be opened & closed (even by a girl)
  • Stream-side gate hinge re-welded
  • All metal worked on & welded by Todd was then painted with primer & finished with metal paint by Cat
  • Plugs put in place for charging devices on our 12v system (battery is kept chraged by our PV panel) and a nice shelf erected
  • Signs made (but sadly one of them has already been ‘removed’)

Guest-wise, July has been a phenomenal month.  People have been amazing; guests are staying longer and a couple have popped back so regularly this summer we’re thinking of awarding them ‘Bare Miles’.  We’ve had folk from the UK, from Holland, from Slovenia, Hungary, France, Australia, America, Italy, Canada, Portugal, Sweden & Poland and lots of Germans!  Just as we were thinking that we needed to find a way to attract the German market, the buggers started arriving in droves!

Compared to last July we must be 100 – 200% up on numbers.  Incredible!  No time to catch our breath though – people just keep on coming…

Play

Jen turned 40 at the end of June but a select few joined her for a special birthday meal at a lovely restaurant in Rose a week later.   Here’s the lovely lass herself…

And here we all are in the beautiful setting, enjoying good food & wine…

Steve & I got the best ride home – a speed along the Bay in our friend Alan’s new toy…

I celebrated my birthday with a morning on the beach and then a chilled afternoon on the campsite with lovely guests, Ian, who made lemonade (which went down great with Vodka!) and Alix, who made me a cake.  Cat baked cookies and Steve cooked a great BBQ.  Friday night we left the campsite in Todd & Cat’s capable hands and escaped.  We had a chilled evening on our own at the house and the next day kayaked out to join our friends Fi & Dave who were getting ready to sail off for a couple of months and were moored off near Herceg Novi.  We were privileged to join them on their first sail for 3 years as they put the Altair through its paces.  It was a very special, very memorable day.   Then we raced back to the house, got changed & sped off round the bay to Tivat for a nice meal with mates.  This is what 42 looks like…

I had thought not many people would be able to join us but we were quite a crowd – over 25 of us in the end!  Great fun & we got to stay with our mate David in his lovely Muo house for the night.  The bonus was waking up in a house with a pool and shaking off the fogginess with a refreshing swim!

Nature Watch

Though July has been mostly scorching hot, we did get a bit of rain too. which was very welcome!  A few cloudy days and a chance to cool down again gave us some respite in the middle of the month.

The campsite has been alive with insects but not so many birds this year.  Fly catchers are scarce – but the plus side of that is that there are much fewer flies!

The green lizards are still about though:

And the Stag Beetles have freaked a few volunteers out this month!

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June in Review

July 1, 2012 in Camping News, Campsite Improvements, Den, Environmentally Friendly, Fun Stuff, Making & Baking, Nature, Naturist, Organic Gardening, Team News, book review by fullmonte | 2 comments

Growing Green

All that rain from last month seems such a long time ago now.  It’s been a stonking hot June & necessitated the mental watering regime again already.  But the results are fab (mostly).  This month we’ve been picking:

  • Mixed lettuce (Cut & Come Again, Iceberg & Cos).  They’ve cropped so well compared to last year but I fear we are running out of time now – seems its already too hot for the seeds to germinate…

  • Rocket (Salad, local Rocket & wild)
  • Silverbeet
  • Sorrel
  • Fresh herbs: coriander, chives (garlic & ordinary), parsley (curled & flat-leaved), tarragon, sage, dill, fennel & basil (purple & Genovese)
  • Marrows (the one below is ready for stuffing & seeds are scooped out & saved…)

  • Courgettes – some beauties already, this one’s nearly a kilo in weight

  • Broad beans – against all odds…  Take that you nay-sayers!  Please note the adorable new shoes in the shot below courtesy of dear friend Ditsch.

  • Peas – probably the best crop we’ve ever had ironically, because this year I just shoved the last of the seeds in the soil to get them gone, irritated that they usually crop poorly…  Note the beautiful shiny new aluminium worktop surface!

  • Peppers – well just the one so far actually.  The plants are laden with fruit already and it looks set to be a good year for them although no sign of them reaching epic, Fiona-like proportions so I shall no doubt still have pepper envy at the end of the season.  Still, since we didn’t pick these green crisp beauties until much later last year & had a mere handful of them,  I am very happy with progress so far.

  • Chillies – loads of them!  And a perfect temperature.

  • Tomatoes!  Yes, finally are tomatoes are ripening.  We’ve only picked a small handful so far but we look forward to July being full of them.
  • And talking of sweet red things… Yes it’s strawberry time again.  Sadly the crop has been very poor & although the plants look happier in their new position, it doesn’t look like they are getting quite enough sun now!  Time for a soft fruit re-think.

The pumpkins are growing away well and tiny squashes are forming on the Butternut plant. This was shot a couple of weeks ago now – the fruit is already turning a gorgeous yellow…

And the aubergine plants are well ahead this season, with Stripey Eggplants forming already:

Disappointments so far: carrots & spinach.  Carrots should have gone in the ground in February like last year but me being in the UK in Feb set things back.  I had carefully sowed thinly so I could succession sow in all the rows but first the rain washed the seeds away and then the sun was suddenly too hot already.  I’m gutted because I had sown some Atomic Red and Purple Haze carrots this year & frankly it’s not looking good for them.  We’re going to try experimenting with shading one half of the carrot bed to see if it makes an appreciable difference.

Not sure why the spinach failed again – I think it just got too hot too fast & the plants bolted.  Poor germination may be due to old seeds.  I’m going to purchase some fresh seeds from here and try to get a crop going in September.

With regards to flowers – well, what a difference a month makes!

The streamside beds and the tyre wall are awash with colour – blues of the cornflowers, borage & lobelia; pinks of the petunias, snapdragons & cosmos; oranges of the marigolds & zinnia and red geraniums…

The Bo-Flo-Grove remains a massive disappointment – and more importantly a waste of water.  I am refusing to give up on the few remaining tobacco plants and the odd zinnia & marigold but it will not be a stunning display by any means.  Next year the area will be given over to shrubs & comfrey plants & will only be watered twice a week.  We’ll give some thought as to how to retain moisture up there – the ground is ridiculously well-drained & impossibly stony.

Baking & Making

The loquat tree at our house in Topla was laden with fruit this month.  Once picked I needed to process them fast so I found a chutney recipe that used most of the fruit and made a salsa with the rest.

The chutney has fast become a favourite – deliciously sweet & gingery with a spicy kick.

I finally started sprouting seeds this month too.  I’ve successfully sprouted alfafa & mung beans  – in a jar, nothing fancy, rinse them out twice a day – and today I started chick peas off too.

And I’ve been making ‘comfrey stew’!  I need to feed my peppers & tomatoes & squashes but only 100% organic will do, so I’ve harvested a load of comfrey leaves and shoved them in a bucket with some water:

No, it doesn’t smell as bad as it looks – it’s MUCH worse than that!  But in a couple of weeks it will be organic yumminess for our plants.

Reading

Douglas Kennedy’s ‘The Big Picture’ was an enjoyable read, if far-fetched & mostly unbelieveable.  It’s hard to talk about the book without giving too much away but suffice to say that the reader is asked to accept too many contradictions…  The man who purportedly loved his family so much he put up with outrageous behaviour from his wife to keep the peace, does stuff which estranged him from his family forever; the guy who was so meticulous about stuff makes a sloppy error that means everything comes undone…

It wasn’t the world’s best written book it didn’t have a gripping plot or characters that make a lasting impression but it kept me entertained for a few nights…

I am now reading Haruki Murakami’s ‘The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle’ which was given to me by Marie & Jan the  German cyclists we befriended.  It’s for me to keep safe until they come to pick up their stuff again in the autumn but they insisted I read it in the meantime.

It’s a strange book & I’m not sure I’ve got into the rhythm of it yet.  More of that next month…

Work

June has been a game of two halves…

The month started with some busyness &, remarkably, some guests returning from last year!  It was great to see Roy again and we welcomed Jim back too, this time with his girlfriend Annie – our first Swedish guest.  Jon & Kirstie were a super couple from the UK who arrived at the beginning of June – and Steve was delighted to learn they had found us through Flickr (so all the effort he puts into updating his photo stream is finally vindicated – just got to get a guest or 2 via this blog now & all my efforts here will be worthwhile too!).  Then there was the wonderfully quirky German guy, Jorg, who fell for Daisy in a big way.

Kirsten was hiking in the nearby mountains & stayed for a few nights.  Shane (Australian) & Dave (Canadian) turned up around the same time and inspired by Kirsten did some hiking too – 1 night turned into 3 or 4.

Erick & Steve cracked on with getting stuff done whilst my time was pretty much taken up with watering the gardens (the compost tea tanks sure fills up quick with 10+ people on site!), cooking & cleaning.

I promised pics of the caravan – so here they are.  You can see the steps that Erick sawed up & dug in.  It actually looks a little different now.  The weather has been unsufferably hot the past few weeks so we have erected a sail over the front of the van, to create some shade for the early morning, and have velcroed mozzie nets over a few windows so we can keep the windows open all day & night.

And inside our cosy home…

The new fridge cupboard got finished:

And the kitchen got a re-vamp.  The shelf for the cups & glasses was moved into the new tea/ coffee making space – a dedicated ring is available for the kettle at all times without disturbing my cooking and all the drink making stuff is in one place.  A new shelf has been erected in its place and now all my herbs & spices are up out of the way, leaving the worksurface free from stuff & with maximum space available for food prep.  Erick & Steve beat aluminium sheeting into submission and covered the top of the kitchen cupboards to give me a shiny new surface that is easy to clean & durable.  Gone are the tiles that used to go manky when water got underneath them – goodbye potentially germ-harbouring material, hello hygiene!

Erick mowed the main campsite & did some strimming up on the top plot too, which was restored somewhat with the lads re-erecting the toilet & the shower.

Steve turned electrician again and completed our most exciting, money-saving project of the season yet – the 12v lighting system!  Having picked Sebastian’s brains whilst he was with us last month, Steve decided to put into play the solar panel & LED strip lights he’d purchsed from our mate John when back in the UK getting the caravan.  We’ve now got the solar panel charging a battery all day and then we use this battery at night to illuminate the building.  It’s fabulous and has considerably reduced our use of the  generator, which is saving us precious pennies.  We don’t even have to start the genny to charge laptops or mobile phones any more because these can be charged via the invertor connected to the battery for our solar powered fans.  We are generating way more power than we need to run the fans so the excess is being stored in a battery and being used via an inverter.  Genius!

Then there was nothing else for it but to make a start on the dreaded stone wall project.  Rocks were collected and assembled but it startd to really heat up and working with huge rocks became problematic other than for a few hours in the morning & at the end of the day, so the project stalled for a while.

Erick left and so did all the guests, just in time for us to host our big Family Camp Out for all our friends with kids.   25 adults, 18 kids, 12 tents, 1 camper van & some dogs made it a day to remember!  Despite all our (well, Steve’s) reservations it was a storming success – the kids had an absolute ball, the parents all got to chill with good food & alcohol with the kids asleep nearby and, importantly for us, folk got to experience camping Full Monte-style.  People were bowled over with their tents and comfy beds and frankly it was good for business!

It took us a day to dismantle all the tents and get the site back to normal but it was worth it – possibly even to be repeated at the end of the season!

Our next wwoofer, Tom, turned up just after the family madness (good timing dude!).  He was a laid back character from Oz but but by the time he got to us he’d pretty much had enough of travelling.  He was pretty jaded and also he didn’t get the experience that he wanted from us because it was only us 3 there – no other guests or volunteers – so he only stayed a few days but long enough to do a fantastic strimming job & to help Steve move the stone wall project on a bit further.

And so the second half of June has been dead quiet.  No guests, no volunteers, few enquiries & fewer bookings.  Instead of stressing (really, what can we do that we’re not already doing except chill & keep the faith?) we embraced the time & have had ourselves a lovely little holiday…

Oh, but we did manage to put up the second gazebo & finish sanding the table that Tom had all but done and restore it with some oil:

Yesterday we had a lovely Slovenian couple turn up unexpectedly.  They had been in Dubrovnik the day before & randomly met a Dutch guy who had stayed with us for a couple of nights 2 years ago.  He recommended that they visit us, so they did! What an incredible coincidence!

So, it seems our luck is turning again.  The enquiries are starting to come in thick & fast again and we have a few already converted to bookings.  Jim & Annie return tomorrow for their 3rd visit of the year and things are looking up on the volunteer front with a stack of people wanting to join us in July, August & September.  Maybe those stone walls will get re-built after all…?

Play

We took advantage of having someone around & left Erick in charge of the campsite a couple of times.  We escaped to party on Zanjice beach with Fi & Dave & some classic car enthusiasts who’d been travelling across Europe in their various gorgeous old cars (one of which was their mate Colin – a lovely guy we’d met when he visted the campsite a couple of years ago with Dave).  They’d ‘hired’ a bunch of beautiful young things (most of them loonies too!) to help them kick up a storm at the end of their epic trip and a proper DJ.  The theme was Underwater Kingdom & it was a riot!

Before all the guests buggered off, it was great to sit around the dinner table in the evenings with a bunch of folk from all around the world all swapping stories of travels & life & enjoying good food together.  And despite this being ‘our job’ we really did have a lot of fun.

There was lots of game playing going on too.  Roy had got hooked on Tac Tic when he visited last summer so was keen to play again.  Jon & Roy teamed up against me & Kirstie and then there was another couple hooked!  I introduced Dave & Shane to Quattro which they loved and played for hours and a few nights with a bunch of us round the table, we played Dice.

The best thing about the quiet period we’ve just had is that it coincided with our local friends being around.  Blazo came back from his latest stint on the ships and came to visit with the Denovici crew.  We shared the night of the Summer Solstice with them and gorged ourselves on fish, beautifully cooked by Nikola.

Then they came back a few days later to celebrate Blazo’s birthday.  We had amazing food – stacks of meat & yet again Nikola on the BBQ – great Rakija, lots of laughs & even some music-making… Nikola & Sasa took turns on Steve’s battered guitar & out came bongos & shakers & lots of singing with gusto into the early hours.  A fabulous, fabulous night.

And Daisy had fun too:

As luck would have it, our mates Katie & Tim were also having a quiet week in their yacht chartering business so they invited us to come & sail the Monty B from Bijela to Sveti Marko and overnight with them.  We locked everything up, left Daisy in charge and escaped to the water for 24 wonderful hours.  We had our first swim in the Bay this year, off the back of their beautiful sailing ketch on 28th June – shockingly late in the season to get in the water but hey ho…

We ate delicious food together, drank chilled wine in the sunshine & made merry.  It was the perfect day – not too hot that it was uncomfortable to lay out in & the evening was cool enough for us to get a decent night’s sleep.  All in all a wonderful treat…

And here’s us proving that 13 years of marriage is a good thing… (Happy Anniversary to us a few days before this!)

Nature Watch

June couldn’t have been more different than May weather-wise.  Not a drop of rain and stonking hot temperatures that take some adjusting to even for us.  We are filling the water tank to the brim whilst we can but in a week or so the pool we take from will be dried up and we will be monitoring our water use obsessively again.

The air has been filled with butterflies – Swallowtails, Scarce Sawllowtails, Mourning Cloaks, various fritillaries and a few we’ve yet to identify, notably this little monster:

It may be pretty but these critters were EVERYWHERE a week or so ago – bordering on plague proportions, flying out of the compost toilets every time we lifted the lid, generally a nusiance.  Does anyone have any idea what this is and how we would control invasions from them??

Here’s another butterfly yet to be named, much more benign…

And now its the crickets that are driving us mad.  There are tons of them in the building and I wouldn’t mind them being around except for the fact that they poo everywhere!  Sinks & surfaces have to be cleaned everyday and it’s getting really tedious.  Plus we’ve found them inside the bread bag having a chew, so the gloves are off and we’re letting Daisy do her worst!  Chasing these weird creatures as they jump about insanely keeps her entertianed for hours although they do end up with rather less legs than they started with by the time she’s done with them…

The edible doormice are back & taunting us with their scampering about in the roof space.  But at least we don’t hear them squeaking at nights anymore – YET!

This has been Mulberry Month, with the many trees in the neighbourhood laden with fruit.  Daisy and I trample over them every day as we go for our evening walk, through the clouds of buzzing bees that feed on the nectar and resolve to figure out how to get into these trees to pick the fruit, some sunny day.

And this is a rather cool glow worm that we’re seeing a lot around the campsite…

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