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A quarter of things…

December 28, 2012 in Campsite Improvements, Den, Fun Stuff, Team News, book review by fullmonte | 1 comment

It’s official.  This is “Den’s blog”.  Steve’s October update never materialised and 3 months has passed without a word from the great man so it falls to me to stop the story unravelling at a loose end.  These days, after 2+ months in the UK and 2+ months there to come, I’m feeling a bit disconnected from our Full Monte dream and somehow writing about it keeps it alive…

Here we are, a handful of days away from a fresh new year, so it’s time to round up the last quarter.  I need to reflect before I can move forward.  This is one several changes I’ve noticed about myself since living the UK life again.  After 4 years of moving to the beat and pace of our own drum, with different values governing my daily patterns, stepping back into a relative ‘rat race’ highlighted some things about my character that felt different.

I’m not as ‘driven’ as I was 4 years when I last adopted the Working Girl disguise:  I will ‘make do with less’ rather than ‘have more‘; me & my ego are not trying to prove anything, I don’t feel the need to compete and earning funds for Team FM is important but not paramount.   Even in Montenegro, money makes the world go round, but over here sunshine (in all it’s forms…) comes a close second.  I did an OPQ test as part of an interview process in October and found the feedback fascinating, especially with my Social Psychologist’s hat on (“What’s the impact of nature vs. nurture on personality traits? Discuss.”).  I have a very rare profile because it’s so well balanced.  Most folk have tendencies to extremes on some dimensions, thus giving the classic bell-shaped curve.  Me, I’m flat-lining I’m so even.  This wasn’t always the case.  And during my regular check up at the ‘Well Woman Clinic’ the nurse was at pains to tell me how normal my blood pressure was (“It’s amazing, it’s just spot on!” ).  Either I’ve got more chilled out or high blood pressue is way more prevalent now – both probably…

And what does a girl who does this for a living need to sustain her ?  Regular exercise; time in the great outdoors as much as possible, healthy eating, her own space & time.  Time to stop & take a breath; time to read; time to consider the way of things and time to muse on what’s behind as well as anticipate what’s ahead.

I leave you to draw your own conclusions as to how my new shape fits into the holes available in the UK…  Now on with the tale-telling!

******************* STEVO & THE GODS OF WATER ******************

A week after I left Monte it rained.  Heavily.  By the time it stopped and Steve got up to the campsite, this is what had happened:

Relentless rain + debris washed down & blocking drainage channels + a crazily swollen, stream building pressure = a deluge strong enough to raise the iron supports of the fence spanning the stream from their concrete footings and push the sheets of metal mesh & palm leaves over!

The fence had to be secured, if not for curious passers-by then definitely for roaming livestock which would damage trees and plants if they got access.  This meant opening up the workshop door.  Which meant moving the Fiesta (whose primary role these days is as a burglar deterrent parked tight up against the workshop doors).  Which meant getting it started…  Steve tightened the battery connectors and it revved, reliably into life.  The headlights protested though, as the bonnet was slammed shut one of them popped its glass onto the driveway.  Steve had to meticulously pick up all the lethal shards before attempting to move the car.  He managed to  unobstruct the workshop without punturing the Fiesta’s tyres.  Only to find it swimming in water.  It had to be completely emptied & dried out:

Then Steve noticed the hatches of 2 of the compost toilet chambers had popped off and the chambers were soaked.  It’s unclear whether the weather had somehow forced the wooden covers off or whether pressure had built up inside the chambers through water ingress and pushed them off from the inside out but it did highlight the fact that the tap to the compost tea tank had been left shut.  When Steve opened it he released a plume of water some 2 metres high!

Remarkably, the basement in the building seemed dry – all our hard work earlier in the year sealing all the holes where the reinforcing metal poked through seemed to have paid off.

But if he thought that indicated an end to the water dramas, he was wrong…  Trying to take a picture of the damage by the stream with the camera on his phone, he stepped back lost his footing and dropped his phone in a puddle.  It is now officially beyond repair.

The following day he noticed water dripping from the shower room ceiling when the safety valve on the hot water tank blew and flooded the top floor of the house & he wondered what he should do to appease the Gods of Water…

Meanwhile, back in the UK…

… life passed by in a blur of dog walks, various job-seeking activities and socialising with mates whenever possible.  And I finally made it back to my spiritual home: Othona at Bradwell-on-Sea for the first time in over 7 years, with dear friend Ditsch.  We were there for Fireworks Weekend and the weather was glorious.  We walked on the beach and breathed deep and long.  We sat in the chapel & wallowed in the peace there – I thought about my wedding day and wished Steve was there.  We were reunited with old friends and made new ones.  Within hours of arriving I was singing harmonies in rounds with a bunch of folk I barely knew and songs I’d never heard before.  I took part in a yoga session and came out feeling taller and full of energy.  We ate amazing food – healthy, homecooked and full of flavour.  The evening was perfect for fireworks, clear & dark.  We oohed and ahhed as the rockets soared and the sky was filled with sparkling colour.  Then it was off to the beach for a huge bonfire, the burning of many Guys and hearty singing of all the good ole songs.  Thanks be to Kate with her fiddle and her amazing capacity to get everyone singing along.  It felt so good to be home and hard to leave again.

I had a happy reunion with an old buddy from my TK Maxx days.  The intervening years seem to fall away when we’re together and we act as if we’re still 20 something, getting totally hammered.  Haven’t been that wasted for a long time – the day after our session was a total write off but totally worth it.  I made it up to Liverpool (a day late due to impassable hangover) to see Jess, Nick & Molly and made it in time for a lovely walk and Sunday lunch with Ray who by happy chance was visiting too.

Money was going out with nothing coming in.  Mum’s old car, the trusty Nissan Micra, needed the CV joints replacing and 3 new tyres – costly but MOT’d for another year.

A day’s work came up in November helping Carrie with a workshop for a big client of hers.  And then an offer of work from an unexpected source.  Duncan, now Chief Exec of Who Cares? Scotland, invited me to facilitate an away-day event for him & his entire team at the beginning of December.   It was just enough cash to justify me being adrift for 2 months plus a chance to visit Jess, Dunc, Islay & Mila on their home turf.  The full implications of visiting Edinburgh at the beginning of December didn’t really dawn on me at the time.  I said yes.

I was counting down until Steve’s arrival on 15th November.  On the evening I drove to Gatwick Airport to pick him up, I got confirmation of a short-term contract with Save the Children UK starting 2nd week in December.  We celebrated the happy reunion & the new job with fish & chips & a tipple or 2.

The next 3 weeks together flew by.  We decorated John & Anita’s living room as a ‘thank you’ for putting up with us:

Here we are in the newly transformed living space (finished bar the curtains & these were put up before Steve left) scoffing a delicious Chinese feast on our last night all together at Mill House Farm:

Throughout our my time at MHF, John has kept us fed with delicious meals and tempting loaves, so here’s a photo of the master chef & baker in the kitchen doing what he loves best:

We made ourselves scarce at weekends to give the family some space and had great fun in Northampton with the Barnetts and then in Lavenham with at  the Cock Inn, where Val & Gav gave us the usual warm welcome & we watched the last qualifying session of the F1 season, drunk real beer & cider and ate delicious homecooked food.

The following week I made an unscheduled trip to Clacton again to attend the funeral of school-friend Becky’s Mum, who had been suffering from Alzheimers for years.  There wasn’t a dry eye at the Crematorium, where tributes from Becky and her sister Kate were read out.  This was followed by a service at the Church just down the road from the family home, where I had spent so much time with my buddy as a teenager being hugged by Mrs Ransom and plied with peanut butter & lettuce sandwiches.  It was a trip down memory lane for me &  incredibly moving  – Rita was a much-loved wife, mother, grandmother and teacher.  I was so glad to be in the country and be able to support Becky.

Before we knew it our time together was nearly up and it was time for the last big family weekend in Wales.  We left late so the journey on a Friday afternoon was horrendous.  But ’twas all forgot when finally at Dawn’s lovely house, stuffed with risotto and endless cups of tea, warming our toes by the fire.   We had a great evening and a slow wake up the next day.  We pottered into the next town, did some shopping and had a pint in the  Harbourmaster.  Then we drove onto Llanilar to visit Steve’s parents.  The following day was Gerry’s birthday and the birthday meal was a family Christmas dinner (on account of it being Devember and us being there!) with all the trimmings cooked, wonderfully as ever, by Pam.  Dawn & Ruby joined us but so did Leon, Steve’s nephew, an unexpected surprise all the way from Winchester.  It was a very happy day.

On Monday Steve & I made the big trek back down South and after big hugs & reassurance that in a couple of weeks we’d be back together in Monte, he dropped me off at Luton Airport where I flew to Edinburgh to begin my next adventure.

I arrived on a freezing cold evening but to a warm welcome from Duncan & Jess amidst the chaos that was their home at the time, with building works being completed on an extension.  I spent the next morning with Jess, Islay and Mila on a nice big walk in the icy park before Duncan returned from his meeting and drove us up North.  Not far out of Edinburgh it started snowing and didn’t stop.  The last few miles to Aviemore were pretty hairy.  It was totally surreal driving snow-bound roads with Duncan in Scotland when I’m used to seeing these guys in Montenegro in the sunshine!

The venue at Aviemore was great – better than we all expected I think.  However the first night I was violently sick after eating the curried lentil soup.  Dunc & Jess & Islay had suffered from a vomiting bug a few weeks before so I assumed it was a left-over germ I’d picked up but I did start to worry when Curried Lentil Soup was on the lunchtime menu the following day.  Thankfully no-one else was ill and my bug, vile though it was, only lasted a few hours.  I woke the next morning feeling a bit feeble but no longer sick.

The week with the gang from WC?S was challenging but rewarding.  It was a bit like herding cats at times and it was hard enough to get Duncan to focus at times, never mind the 40+ others too but we got through it and achieved everything Duncan wanted to.  Everyone left on a high, feeling inspired and full of hope for the future and Dunc & I were still talking to each other, which was Jess’ only stipluation about us working together!  Thankfully the snow had stopped by Friday and the journey back to Edinburgh was fine.

We had a great weekend together notwithstanding my poor timing in relation to the building work .  Highlights for me: getting to know Islay better; an awesome Indian feast & meeting their truly BONKERS friend, Ali; belting out Christmas carols in McEwan Hall in Edinburgh with 1000’s of others; a fabulous Sunday morning walk despite being up to my knees in mud at times and a day of culture & impromptu shopping with Jess.  Dunc gave me his sister’s book to read and it was my constant companion for the week ahead.  A cracking good read and funny to have Jess & Dunc mentioned in a book!

I flew back to Luton on Tuesday evening and got back to MHF in time to pack a bag for my 4 days in London before grabbing a few hours sleep.  My first day at the new job went well and that evening I made my way to Walthamstow to move into the spare room at Ditsch & Vince’s place for that week as a trial run for staying in January.    We all rubbed along fine, despite Vince being ill and Ditsch being knackered.  The journey to Farringdon was really easy and pretty cheap (get me & my first ever Oyster Card!).  I could get up just before 7am and be at my desk by just gone 8.00!

Truth be told I had been dreading those few days in London.  I was nervous about the new job – full of self doubt about my value to the organisation and whether I could really pull this stuff off after 4 years out of the game.  Any worries I had were allieviated when at the end of day 2 my boss expressed relief and delight in having me there and asked me to stay another month!

It was with great relief that I made it back to MHF on Friday evening.  I had booked a massage & aromatherapy session as a treat to myself and Ruth, the amazing therapist did an awesome job at de-stressing me.  The weekend was a blur of washing, packing and enjoying the last of my time with Applegarth-Ellingtons in 2012.  And finally, thankfully it was Sunday evening, I was back in Monte and in Steve’s arms again.

Being home was wonderful: a super-excited Daisy, a warm fire, the luxury of space and our huge bed and the awesome views.  We had a chilled week doing crosswords, catching up with friends and walks with Daisy along the beach.  We spent a day at the campsite gardening and dealing with the urgent stuff (the leak in the basement, protecting citrus trees from the wind & cold weather sure to come) and it was great to get re-connected.

On the Winter Solstice we packed up our stuff & drove to Dobrota for our annual Maxi-sitting gig and prepared for Christmas.  We had Katie & Tim over for dinner on Saturday night and had a fab evening – so good to be reunited with my buddy after 3 months!  On Sunday we went for a big dog walk with all the gang who we’d be spending Christmas with – a chance for Carrie to meet one of our hosts, David, for the first time.  Katie donned her wet suit and went for a swim whilst we marched around Plavi Horizonti with Carrie, David, Michelle, Tim and the 4 dogs: Daisy, Aoife, Louis & Mollie.

We did our usual Christmas jigsaw, a virgin puzzle this year (bought by Ditsch for Steve’s birthday) and really tough, despite only being 1000 pieces.  The light at Danny’s house where we are now staying is appalling – few windows so little natural light and dim bulbs – so it was a mission, squinting at the pieces and trying to match the colours.  But we did it, finally finishing it just as Christmas Eve turned into Christmas Day…

Christmas Day was bright & sunny and we made it over to Plavi Horizonti again in time for our traditional 11.00 (GMT) toast on the beach with Katie & Tim and a bottle of Port.  The dogs raced about & wore themselves out and we had an energising stomp about.  It was glorious!

We drove to Muo, scooping Carrie up en route and were greeted by Father & Mrs Christmas and delicious mulled wine:

The Christmas dinner was stupendous, as always…  A smoked salmon & prawn starter, followed by turkey breast stuffed & draped with bacon and loads of veg including a delicious braised cabbage dish prepared by Katie to Delia’s recipe, all washed down with fizz.

We were bellied and had to have a break before tackling the Christmas pud.  We had a lovely evening, slowly getting tipsy, opening pressies, playing games and stuffing our faces with Quality Street.  We were all pretty sensible since us & the Monty B gang had an invite to lunch on Boxing Day at Ann & Richard’s house up above Kamenari which meant an early start.  Despite it being a bit of a mission to get up there (a scary drive on a road that barely clings to the hillside as it winds it’s way ever up and then a 10 minute walk up an old Austro Hungarian path with lots of steps) it was an entertaining afternoon with some real characters and stacks of lovely food.  The desserts were particuarly note-worthy: Maja’s chocolate & sour cherry trifle; Nadia’s walnut pie and pumpkin cake and Robin’s apple crumble.

Now we’re enjoying the last days of the year together, watching films, doing crosswords and walking dogs whenever the weather’s fine.  I only have a week left here before I have to pack up & fly back to the UK so these are precious moments which will sustain me over the next 2 months separation from my home.  I’m not particularly looking forward to the first couple of months of 2013 but I am looking forward to the freedom from financial worry that the money I earn will afford us…

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October in Review – Part #1

November 8, 2012 in Den, Fun Stuff, Making & Baking, Nature, Team News, book review by fullmonte | No comments

Part #1 – Den’s Story….

Growing Green

You’ll have to wait for Steve’s installment for any news on the garden.

Baking & Making

The squash harvest at MHF put our measley gains from the campsite to shame…  Huge Turks Turban pumpkins that you can barely get your arms around, courgettes as big as my thigh, and a variety of other green & yellow squashes of impressive length & girth! And in the poly tunnel, I dicovered bucketfuls of green tomatoes left to go barmy too.

I have made a small dent in the bounty by roasting a few squashes & a huge courgette  in a little oil with sage, thyme, onion & garlic.  There were quite a few  green tomatoes that were split or damaged – these were chopped & roasted with a little oil, garlic, balsamic and basil.  When everything was squashy (!) and well cooked, I freed the flesh from the skins (though I didn’t bother doing even that with the green toms, whose skins were so thin), popped the garlic from their roasted sheaths and chucked it all into the food processor.  Last night we had the pureed delight hot with our homemade burgers, I made pots of soup for Anita’s lunch and kept some puree for me to spread cold on my rice cakes.  Yum!

The remaining kilos of green tomatoes are lined up on the windowsill like some bizarre decorations!  November’s project will be to process them all – green tomato chutney ahoy!

Feelings & Musings

October has been a strange month for me – in the UK, missing Steve, Daisy, our land, our friends and Montenegro; and stepping into another world where grown-up networking and job-hunting is my main focus.

Thankfully I am with people I love in a beautiful place and some of the things that anchor me remain the same.  I still take Daisy for a walk every day, although this Daisy is a black & white splodged terrier, accompanied by Mutley the chocolate labrador and Minnie the neurotic collie-cross.  I still enjoy great home-cooked food – John is an outstanding cook who even stretches to puddings (his chocolate mousse is to die for).  His passion is for bread & pasta-making though, so my gluten intolerance has saved me from a continual carb-fest (though he has made bread with 100% spelt flour which is very low in gluten and therefore had to be tasted!).  I still enjoy a laugh with my mates over a glass of wine, though the wine is usually Rioja and far superior to anything we could get in Monte for the same price.  I still retire each evening to a comfy bed with a good book, but I am very much missing Steve’s warm body beside me.

I am used to promoting our campsite, but I am unused to promoting me.  I have had to sell myself to acquaintances old & new – appearing confident, skilled, in control… even when I’m not.  At times it’s fun and challenging, at other times terrifying.

As well as a big shift in mental attitude, this trip is physically challenging.  I had forgotten what it feels like to sit for hours at a computer or in a car.  My back problems which are mostly a distant memory in Monte return with a vengance if I do not discipline myself to keep moving, changing position & having at least 1 long walk a day.  I never thought I would say this but I actually miss the endless walking up & down steps that I must do unthinkingly every day back home!  Different muscles are aching from walking on flat fields for miles in wellies in the mud though…

Reading

Erin Morgenstern’s ‘The Night Circus’ is, as the sleeve notes proclaim: “Dazzling” and “Enchanting”.

It’s a thoroughly enjoyable, fantastical romp and I mean this not in a flippant way; not in a “it’s a lot of silly nonsense & I don’t care about it” way…  I do care about it.  I care about Bailey and Poppet & Widget and Friedrick and Isobel and most of, I passionately care about Celia, whom even I am a little in love with by the end.  Marco strangely compels me less – I care about him by virtue of Celia loving him and vice versa but he doesn’t get under my skin in quite the same way.

It’s beautifully written.  Descriptions are not cumbersome or overdone but they are impressively over-the-top in a strangely acceptable way (it sounds mad; you’ll just have to read it to understand).  The imagination that created these words is astonishing.  I want to live in the world that Ms Morgenstern has conjured and she brings it to life so palpably that you can almost taste its deliciousness! *sigh*

The details in this book are divine – intricate ideas one can barely even dream about are aplenty here but it all works beautifully.

The ending (& beginning?) is very clever, very poignant.  I finished it, reluctantly, but with the happy feeling that stories have to keep being told to keep the magic alive…

S J Watson’s thriller was a change of direction and pace, very slow to build.

It was an easy read but I sort of guessed what was going on from the outset and didn’t really care.  It had moments of thrill but it lacked atmosphere and didn’t have me on the edge of my seat with wonder & suspense.  I’m actually struggling to think what else to say about it so I guess that speaks volumes…

Work

In between networking with ex-colleagues, attending an interview, applying for jobs online, emailing agencies & travelling about for the fun stuff, I’ve been helping things run a little smoother here at MHF.  Whether it’s cooking, cleaning, walking the dogs or helping J with Rent-a-Hen business development stuff, I’m trying to repay the enormous debt I always feel to these lovely friends who have been so generous to us over the years.  I am so lucky to have a comfy bed and a place to unpack my things for a month or 2, never mind having a home to be part of.  J&A and the ‘kids’ (using the term loosely ‘cos they are sooo not – gorgeous grown-ups-to-be more like!) are so kind and welcoming.  We eat together, rant & rave together, take the mick, watch X-Factor & Downtown, have some laughs & some strops occasionally too and I feel blessed to be part of this wonderful family.

Play

We managed to fit some fun stuff in & catch up with friends before I left for the UK:

  • A lovely boozy late lunch with T and Igor – delicious food, intoxicating bubbles and a real chance to get to know T’s future husband a little better.
  • Had Nik over for dinner on one of the rare times he was actually in town.
  • Managed to see most of the gang from ‘the other side’ at Cess & Marjan’s BBQ.
  • A lovely do at Sladjana’s.  The great hostess’ Chicken curry was divine; the wine flowed; the cake was too good to resist and we got into some interesting debates about the development of society as Shana read people’s coffee cups…

Now in the UK, I’ve been lucky enough to have some really good times with friends & family, including:

  • A ‘girls night in’ with my Mum and sister Chris – an Indian takeaway, random alcohol from the drinks cupboard until Mum was tipsy and lots of gossiping!
  • A reunion with 2 old school friends Becky & Paula, with kids & partners & all.  Bex cooked a yummy Boeuf Bourguignon which we washed down with far, far too much red wine.  I felt like hell the next day so good job all I had to do was crawl over to the Pettitt-Vines and drink tea.  Nik took Hugo & Lil for a shopping trip whilst Mick & I watched the Grand Prix together and the rest of the day was a blur of good food, hot drinks, an open fire and a cosy glow from being part of the family for a day.
  • A lovely day with my parents, incorporating a walk with Dad & Sammy in the morning and Mum & Sammy in the afternoon.  I got them hooked on the BBC iPlayer too.
  • An evening with the W-B’s, with Matt working his usual culinary wonders.  This time it was lamb rack (pink & moist) with rich, creamy potatoes and crisp veg and this was on top of a delightfully fresh fishy appetiser from Charlotte.  Bubbles for the starter and red wine with the main.  Nowadays we’re sensible enough to stop short of overindulging as we all agree we’re too old for hangovers, but we still chatter on into the wee hours catching up with the ‘oohs’ and ‘aahhs’ in each others lives…
  • Lunch in Richmond with ex-boss, now dear friend, Alison & her beautiful adopted daughter, Rose.  It was wonderful to see the love between them, to see the joy they have brought to each other.  Alison’s life has been transformed in the 4+ years since last we met and I listened in awe to tales of the incredible journey she’s been on.
  • Sunday roast in Northampton with the Barnetts: the best crackling I’d had for years; apple crumble & custard that was crispy and soggy in all the right places and most delicious of all, time spent with these lovely friends.
  • A ‘Homes & Gardens’ tour which began in Derby with ex-colleague & friend Edith admiring the incredible house she & her husband had designed & had built.  It was striking, classically modern (if there can be such a thing?), spacious & brilliantly concieved.  The plentiful windows kept the house flooded with natural light and provided stunning views, across fields to the front and into the garden at the back where purply trellis glowed against green lawns, punctuated by a riot of colour even in October.   We then travelled on to Matlock for lunch Chez Carrie, to admire an equally impressive but totally different home: a renovation of 3 cottages.  It was a heady mix of ‘ye olde’, traditional farmhouse cosyness and modern style and the attention to detail was stunning.  I brought Pumpkin Soup (surprise, surprise), Edith brought Date & Walnut cake and Carrie provided endless cups of tea, fresh bread and stacks of yummy cheese.  We gossiped, did some business networking and thoroughly enjoyed being together.
  • Dinner in Churchover with Kate & Roly whose local pub has an Italian chef.  I had steak in a rich sauce with chips and veg washed down with some cider.  Then it was onto the village social club for a glass of Port with the locals and back to The Old Stores for more Port & giggles & gossiping.  I slept like a log that night.  Breakfast was smoked salmon & scrambled egg followed by a hearty walk in the country by which time we’d worked up an appetite for the Pumpkin Soup.

Nature Watch

Apart from a few wet & miserable days, the weather’s been OK.  A shock to the system after Monte’s mildness of course, but it could be worse!  The fiery colours of leaves burning out and long walks through wide open fields full of horizons make the chilly temperatures bearable.  We’ve had some cracking Autumn days with bright sunshine that zaps everything with a seasonal intensity:  the skies are vividly cold steel blue; the green of the grass glows so deeply it almost makes you wince and shimmering about everywhere are the reds & golds & oranges of leaves going by…

Me & the dogs regularly see squirrels, rabbits, pheasants & deer on our daily walks, with a Kite or 2 hovering gracefully above.

There are so many photos I would love to have taken to visually share my October with you.  However our sole camera remained in Monte with Steve so let’s hope he’s got some interesting pics for us!

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September in Review

October 7, 2012 in Campsite Improvements, Den, Environmentally Friendly, Fun Stuff, Nature, Organic Gardening, Reduce Reuse Recycle, Team News, book review by fullmonte | No comments

Growing Green

We had some rainy days in September and a drop in temperature (albeit briefly!) which the garden was appreciative of but it was mostly a case of too little, too late.  Despite that, last month we picked:

  • Rocket
  • Silverbeet
  • Aubergines – Stripey & Black Beauty
  • Peppers
  • Chillies
  • Courgettes
  • A pumpkin
  • Tomatoes – regular, cherry, plum & green grape variety
  • Fresh herbs: chives (garlic & ordinary), tarragon, sage, rosemary, lemon thyme, thyme & basil

And even, finally, a few runner beans …

Great excitement as we picked a Camp Full Monte first – Butternut Squash…

We left the carrots alone.  I can see the top of a Purple Haze specimen poking through the soil now, so October might be time to pull but hopefully the extra month in the ground has improved their size.

It was a fruity month.  Strawberries only came a handful at a time but were delicious:

The wild fig tree by the stream finally bore enough fruit for us to compete with the birds and the edible doormice for the fresh pickings:

And we enjoyed grapes from our vine at our rented house and, unexpectedly an old vine on the land finally recovered enough to fruit and bore some nice dark grapes.

Towards the end of the month as things slowed right down and we finally had more time to potter in them and water well, all the gardens were looking great:

And the tobacco plants finally started to flower!

As the temperatures dropped to mid/ late 20’s rather than 30’s and the evenings were much cooler, we decided to sow more seeds and this autumn/ winter make a concerted effort to get more produce from the garden.

And since I am off to the UK to look for some ‘real work’ (well, paid work at least!) Steve has finally got his position as Head Gardener back again!  He always was the green-fingered one of our partnership but practicalities around sensible division of labour (i.e. Steve could do plumbing, electrics and other other such stuff much better than me) meant I was given the gardening gig.  Now Steve’s getting back into his earthy groove and has so far sown:

  • local green beans
  • broad beans
  • a variety of different lettuce
  • radish
  • rocket
  • blitva
  • rastan
  • spinach

So we can all look forward to his updates on his gardening successes from now on!

Baking & Making

My enthusiasm for cooking petered out this month.  I confess that with very few guests and mostly just us & our volunteers eating, I churned stuff out and passed the culinary buck to others too.

Steve and Andy buddied up on a cracking Thai curry after I chopped the end of my finger whilst prepping veg.  Having retrieved the fleshy bit still stuck on the knife (yuk!) I sat down with a Rakjia and an elevated, bloody finger and conceded defeat.

Feelings & Musings

September was a tough month to get through as we had few bookings, some drop-in business but not much and too many volunteers for the workload.  We had hoped that the weather would be less intense and we’d be able to crack through more projects but it was either raining & stormy so the site was a quagmire that couldn’t really be worked in or still too hot for comfort – at least for the rock-moving, stone-walling, back-breaking mission we were on…

Even without those difficulties, we were too mentally disengaged to be the motivating coaches & cheerful hosts we should have been.  We were pretty much over being sociable and jolly – a bit over-exposed on the people front to say the least!  Having decided to close for business on 21st September we suddenly couldn’t wait to get to that point because we could just see what was beckoning us beyond: the comfy sofas of our house, the space & peace of being alone and the giant bed that we could get an uninterrupted night’s sleep in…

But on some level we were also feeling pretty proud of ourselves and relieved to have made it through another season, relatively unscathed and having successfully welcomed so many great people into our world.

We’ve re-established connections with more returning visitors than we dared hope, we’ve met many interesting people and made some new friends.  The www reviews and Guest Book comments continue to be fabulous and I am absolutely sure we have made an important impression on quite a few folk regarding ways to reuse, reduce and recycle & the benefits of a lower impact, more balanced lifestyle …

We may work hard & exhaust ourselves physically and spiritually for 5 months of the year but honestly there are worse ways to earn a living!  Our campsite grows more beautiful every year, more comfortable, more of a joy to live in for us and for our visitors.  We are brown as nuts and sometimes as mad from living outdoors in the (mostly) gorgeous weather and closer to nature than many folk can dream about.  So – no regrets and minimal moans, we are lucky, lucky buggers!!

Reading

Isabel Allende’s ‘City of the Beasts’ had been passed to me by a friend and I didn’t realise she was a ‘young persons’ author.  It was one of those stories that tries to cram stuff  in every corner and was overly-laden with proverbial tales: ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover’, ‘All that glitters is not gold’ etc, etc.  Allende was trying to entertain a certain age group with exotic tales of jungle adventures with murder, mystery & suspense, whilst weaving in messages of saving the planet & a lot more besides.

It was too fantastical for me and it didn’t compel me to suspend belief enough to enjoy the story – I already knew part way through the book that it would have a happy ending & that she’d be urging a chant of “Hurrah for the Goodies and Boo for the Baddies” so by the end I just felt irritated and craved a beautifully written book.

Enter Julian Barnes with his “Sense of An Ending”…

Carrie was reviewing the books she had recently read and was ranting about this one.  Depressing, morose, blah, blah, blah…  Something about the way she was passionately going on about it made me think it was worth a read.  When she said “Oh, but it’s beautifully written”  I was hooked.

I LOVED this book & it was just the tonic I needed.  I didn’t find it depressing at all, despite death featuring highly and no-one having especially happy endings.  I like the realism in those kind of tales and any attempt to ‘jolly up’ would be incongruous anyway.  I luxuriated in the gorgeous words – I re-read sentences many times because I loved the construction and melody and sense of them so much.  You can probably flick to any page in this book and find words that move and affect.  I’ve just done it & here’s what I found:

“But then you begin to understand that the reward of merit is not life’s business”

He finds a way to say simply but brilliantly what I would have taken pages trying to explain.  The writing is not ‘up its own backside’ clever with pretensions and over-postulations, nor is it laden with unnecessary poetry or goo.  It’s just right.  The sleeve notes bang on about concluding scenes gripping like a thriller… Mmmm not for me.  I sussed out the ‘mystery’ half way through (mostly) but it didn’t detract one jot from my enjoyment.

Work

Despite the heat, our flagging enthusiasm and having too many girls and not enough boys (!) as volunteers, we managed to get a fair bit done.

Mari joined us at the beginning of the month.  She was French and despite only understanding 50% of what was going on, she got along with us all fine.  She transformed the old cupboard we had in the kitchen during her stay, first by patiently picking off all the residue from old vinyl coverings, then sandingthe entire cupboard down and painting it:

Finally, under Steve’s supervision a splash back was attached and tiled:

Yvette remained glued to the sewing machine for most of the time in the mammoth project that was sewing the cover for the massage space gazebo.  She was very patient and thorough and skillfully manhandled the metres of patchwork material around the machine:

Andy made a wooden frame for the massage table to sit on and the finished gazebo was something to be proud of:

Yvette was keen to learn new skills and she made a great job at helping Steve with tiling the bottom of the steps and entrance to the basement:

The result when finished looks great don’t you think?

The key focus of the month was continuing the repair and rebuild of the stone wall along the main path to the building.  Todd & Cat returned in the second week of September – they were killing time before Cat’s friend arrived at Dubrovnik.  There was a screw up with her flight so they ended up staying nearly 2 weeks in the end & although we couldn’t really use Cat for any projects, Todd was a great help in the stone walling mission.

We would all get involved in collecting rocks from the top piece of land, apart from Steve who was mostly banned from lifting heavy rocks due to an injured arm.  Even Mari & Yvette helped in the rock collecting slog:

It’s hard to show the progress on the wall but trust me it looks great, with new steps built into the wall up to the orchard area.

Yvette left mid September and Mari soon after her.  Paige finally arrived from the US on 19th September and we said goodbye to them all a couple of days later as they left for the 6.30am bus:

Andy remained to help us close up the campsite and was a star – lugging tents & mattresses about, moving furniture and generally doing a lot of the donkey work since we were a bit disabled, me with my poorly finger and Steve with his strained arm.

Andy finally left on 26th to continue his travels and adventures and will be much missed, especially by Daisy who loved the walks and runs that he would take her on every day:

Play

At the beginning of the month Steve and I left Daisy, Andy & Yvette in charge and had a much-needed weekend away.  We caught up with the Monty B crew in Muo, where David & Michelle hosted a lovely evening for us and Jen & Nathan joined too.  Nathan was hungover from a big sesh the night before so those 2 didn’t stay too long but the 6 of us stayed up til the small hours drinking, laughing & chatting.  It was wonderful to stay up ridiculously late with no dread of any early morning ahead on the campsite.  We slept well (no Daisy waking us up at 7am to be released from the caravan cage) and had a very relaxed morning with brunch on the terrace.

Then we went to meet Laura & Tony’s new daughter, Freya, just a week old when I had this cuddle with her and her adorable sister Amber:

Then it was off to Carrie’s house in Brugli on the Lustica peninusula.  We’d been dying to see what she’d done with the place since finally moving in this summer and getting all her furniture shipped over from the UK.  What a beautiful place! What awesome views.

We had a fantastic evening chilling outside with wine, good food and much nattering.  Here’s the Lady of the Manor herself…

We had an end of season gathering of sorts when Katie & Tim & the dogs turned up to camp and 4 of our local friends showed up too on a weekend that we had claimed for ourselves (Andy went to Sarajevo for a couple of days so we could have some space).  It was wonderful.  Truly relaxing – a chance for us to enjoy our campsite as people, not hosts.  We ate too much, drank too much and had a lot of fun.  The Monty B crew had such a nice time that they changed plans and stayed another day.  Bliss.

Towards the end of the month we got sociable again – having rejuvenated a little we had more energy for being with people, as now it was folk we chose to be with rather than the other way round.  Maja & Keith invited us over for an evening & we enjoyed an amazing Greek feast – the hummous was so laden with garlic we continued to enjoy it for days after!

The last weekend of the month Fi and Dave picked all 3 of us up on their RIB from Herceg Novi marina and we sped over to Zanjice, much to Daisy’s consternation!  She was rewarded by a very stimulating time with the Sawney pack of hounds (now only 7 of them after a couple of drop outs over the summer), including a nice long walk.  Having worn the dogs out we made our way over to Jash’s house in a nearby village.  He’s a great Irish guy we’d met earlier in the year and he had a gathering of some friends & relatives for his twin neices’ birthdays.  His house was beautiful, a really tasteful & well-finished renovation and a great space to party in.  We met his gorgeous girlfriend and his 6 month old son and were welcomed by everyone.  The bbq got fired up, the locally-made red wine flowed and his brother-in-law Dave entertained us all with great guitar-playing & rousing songs.  It was an evening of excess and we were all very much worse for wear the next day – but an absolute hoot!

Nature Watch

It was mostly hot & dry this month, unusually so for September when it normally rains a lot & considerably cools down.  The few downpours we had were impressive and there was some fun thunder & lightning too.  The ground lost its frazzled brown look finally and greened up a little.

Here’s some cool nature shots – a Praying Mantid eating a Hummingbird moth & a spider with all its babies on its back…

A few pretty butterflies & moths too…

And the Sunchokes are out, brightening the site…

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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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