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

From the store:

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

From the garden:

• Onions

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

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

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

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

Sowing & Planting

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

Too hot to sow anything…

Baking & Making

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

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

And making…?  Ends meet… just about.

Reading

(Love sharing the books I’m into)

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

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

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

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

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

What’s the vibe?

(This month’s gut reaction)

Stuffed!

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

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

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

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

Listening to

(Trying to listen to some new tunes every month)

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

Fun Stuff

(‘Nuff said)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We had some fun nights playing TacTic…

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

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

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

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

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

Tim Time

(Bizarre & extraordinary happenings?  This is Montenegro)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

One Green Thing

(One more step along our green journey)

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

(Charting the weather for us and our garden)

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

So here’s a run down of all the tasks ticked off the list this summer:

The basement door has been painted a tasteful silver grey and the ugly piece of pink polystyrene that was wedged in the top of the door to stop people hitting their heads as they enter has been replaced with a strategically placed piece of wood, nicely painted white to blend in with the building…

The kitchen is looking great!  All shelves, cupboards & hooks are up.  Now everything has its place and commonly accessed utensils etc are within easy reach.

The laundry sink is tiled!  It was a labour of love for Steve who patiently, single-handedly completed this project.  It has really grown on us and has become our favourite thing in the kitchen!  Almost the day after it was completed, guests arrived and innocently asked: “Can I do some some washing?” – “Yes!” we gushed! (and then ran off to quickly erect a washing line and dig out the pegs!!).  Despite our reservations about it not being wide enough, everything fits in it fine!  It’s great for scrubbing the big ole pan I use for most of the cooking and its a good place to leave pots and pans soaking over night.  This is a poor picture of it (taken at night with a flash) but you get the drift…

A scabby old cupboard we salvaged has been painted with white gloss and is a nice addition to the communal building.  Our eco books and Guest Book live atop and I try to keep fresh flowers displayed there too.  Inside live all the board games, packs of cards etc…

We have signs!!!  This one was artfully drawn up by Gav during his stay with the chalk board pens he brought with him from the UK.  A piece of old wardrobe is transformed into a posh sign, varnished and protected from the weather…

And here’s another of Gav’s masterpieces… A back of a wardrobe was painted dark green and became the perfect canvas for our roadside sign.  He even tried to reproduce the letters in our font and using a part of our logo:

The final sign is Mr Nik’s great work… The campsite name & phone number positioned here draws people’s attention to the bell (just above the sign) and means we can leave the site without worrying about missing business – people can phone and let us know they have turned up and we can dash back…  You can’t see it in this picture but to the right of the sign is a motion-activated solar spotlight.  It illuminates the sign and the gate at night and works brilliantly!

The last shower has been tiled!!!!!  All 3 showers are now in use, shower curtain up – job done!

A random shelf unit that we salvaged was transformed into a handy bathroom cabinet by Nik & I.  It’s a place for guests to put their toiletries and has hooks to hang shower puffs, back scrubbers etc…

Access around the site is an issue.  We really need purpose-built steps in lots of places down from one terrace to another but its just too costly right now so we are trying to do the best we can with the materials available.  One of the routes our guests want to take is from the basement down to the lower terrace, without having to walk up stairs, through the building and down stairs again or the even longer route of all the way down the garden to the steps by the stream.  Nik loves to work with stone and doggedly sought out the necessary stones, lugged them up to the building, wrestled them into place and created a set of steps that run down alongside the concrete steps from the building…  You can hardly see them in this shot but that’s a measure of how well they blend in with the existing stone wall!

Intent on tidying up the side of the building, Nik persevered with mattocking & raking the ground level and then barrowing loads of sand & gravel to cover the earth (which turns to a claggy mess when wet if not covered over!).  It was really hard graft but the look was still spoilt by the ugly side view of the steps.  Then I remembered the piece of bamboo covering we’d salvaged from Maja’s Grandma’s place and it fitted great…

I finally got my cork noticeboard finished and marketing material in place!  The signs inside the building still need to be branded with our logo etc but at least we have ditched the unprofessional looking bits of carboard and have decent, laminated signs in Serbian and English for all key messages…

Alongside all these projects we’ve done some tidying & prettying-up (made up word alert?) – the basement is a really nice space now with room for both laptops, a library for our guests, cushions for chairs and roll mats neatly stacked and easy to access.  The second plastic bottle window for the kitchen area has been completed and all these panels stack nicely in the basement.  The mess and disorder in the workshop finally got too much for me and I had a good old clear out.  The torn canvases soaked in mouse-pee have been removed (we managed to salvage some good pieces and scrub them clean); all the rags have been washed and sorted; the floor has been swept and boxes rationlised.  You can actually get into it and find what you are looking for without too much hassle now!  And the second wine bottle window that we decided not to grout around (it lets in more light this way) now has a neat wooden frame around it, courtesy of Nik the Carpenter, and its painted a nice dark green.  It finishes it off really well and has attracted approving comments.

Then of course there’s the ongoing maintenance of the site.  We’ve had to do some work on the greywater system and the compost loos have kept us busy too but these are for future posts in the autumn when I have more time – there is much to share here about our experiences of DIY green sewerage and toilet systems!

The waterless urinals are close to completion so I’ll report on this project, with pictures, soon.  There are only a few key projects outstanding in the building: tiling the toilet walls; making hand rails for the steps out of the building and tiling these steps with lovely old tiles donated by fellow eco warrior Paul.  Then, apart from the inevitable ongoing touching up of paintwork and further modifications to the kitchen to continue to use every inch of space to best effect, the communal building will be done, done, done!  We are very proud – knackered, but proud!

Having got this far, the work ahead for the autumn, winter & spring will all be focused on the grounds.  There is much levelling of earth to be done – we need more tent pitches and a level eating area for the 10 – 15 people we need to attract most weeks in the season next year.  There are also areas of the grounds yet to be uncovered – spoil from the building works remains and once this has been dug out and used to fill in and level ground we hope to create new nooks and crannies for: another hammock, shaded seating areas and at least one outside bathroom (we have one bath and an offer of another!)

Hopefully now you’ll realise that my lack of blogging is for good reason!  Wish us luck with the mammoth tasks ahead…

What’s fresh?

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

From the store:

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

From the garden:

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

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

• Cucumbers (in the weirdest shapes but all tasty)

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

• Tomatoes

Sowing & Planting

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

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

Baking & Making

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Reading

(Love sharing the books I’m into)

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

What’s the vibe?

(This month’s gut reaction)

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

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

Listening to

(Trying to listen to some new tunes every month)

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

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

Fun Stuff

(‘Nuff said)

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

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

And here’s the big guy himself:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tim Time

(Bizarre & extraordinary happenings?  This is Montenegro)

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

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

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

One Green Thing

(One more step along our green journey)

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

Weather Report

(Charting the weather for us and our garden)

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

The good news is that I have just been too damn busy to blog.  And not just with partying & having fun (I can see my Mum’s concerned face & wagging finger!) – although to be fair, there has been quite a bit of that too!

I have about 20 mins to get this post posted so I’m not going to mess around with fancy words & poetic descriptions of the events of the past few weeks.  I’m here to chuck up some photos and give you a brief run down of the visitors…

Bob, (Saint Bob, patron saint of lovley guests and general good luck charm), you know about by now.  Here’s a lovely picture of the 3 of us & sweet peas from the garden sprouting from Steve’s shoulder!

Next up came Benjamin, all the way from California.  The soon-to-be professor found us in the Lonely Planet (we had an entry long before we even had the campsite set up but thankfully the web address is correct and people can still find us!) and we stayed up til silly o’clock talking eco.  He commented on having the best night’s sleep in Montenegro at our campsite.

Then we spent a pleasant evening with Jonathon from Camping Cheque.  Sadly I don’t think we’ll be able to work with his organisation but he gave us plenty of food for thought and was our first French guest.

1st July was a very special, happy day… Nik returned to his heart home – the Balkans – & became a key member of the Camp Full Monte team again:

Next to arrive was Wally… an old class mate of mine who found me on Facebook and made it to Monte after the second week of his tour in Belgrade got cancelled.  We hadn’t seen each other for 24+ years and he certainly saw more of me than he’d ever seen!  I was anxious about how the week would go but once he arrived I relaxed.  He was great fun, easy to be around and very supportive.

During that week we had visits from special friends:

and their kids:

At the same time, Nik’s friends Ema & Alex & baby Viktor came to stay at our house in Topla to combine a holiday with catching up with Nik who they know & love from his Macedonia days.   Sadly I didn’t get any pics of dear Alex but here are the Mums & kids…

Next up was Marcus & Annabel (from the UK and France respectively but now both living in Portugal).  They were pretty self contained but we understand that not everyone wants to eat with us and get involved and it didn’t stop them enjoying our space and leaving some lovely comments in our now very precious Guest Book.

Olivier & Tanja, a beautiful Belgium-Flemish couple became part of the family for nearly 2 weeks.  They were just the sweetest, nicest folk and loved the campsite, the wildlife and my cooking.  It was so easy to be around them, to play games, share a bottle of wine etc and we have so many great memories of their time with us.  Here they are with my friend Carrie (who hadn’t visited the site since the old days of field tent up top and was gob smacked by the progress)…

Two Hungarian guys, Adam & Christian, were waiting in the car for us one day when we all returned from the beach.  They hadn’t booked or even emailed a tentative enquiry – they just showed up!  Thank goodness we arrived when we did or else they might have given up on us!  (needless to say we are now on the case with proper signage & a telephone number).  They were great fun and so, so smart!  We learnt loads about Hungarian politics, history & culture in the 3 nights they were with us.  I turned 40 on the day after they arrived and they brought out a little chocolate cake with candles to celebrate.

My birthday celebrations brought a whole bunch of other folk – not exactly guests and I haven’t downloaded any of the pics from the week long celebrations so all that will have to wait for another post…

Yesterday, Emma & Andy arrived from the UK.  They plan to stay at  least 3 nights and maybe longer… August sees a steady stream of guests – mostly in their own tent and mostly for just a night or 2 but guests nonetheless and the Dish of the Day is selling well in advance…

More soon, I promise!

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

From the store:

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

From the garden:

• Lettuce
• Radish

• Rocket
• Runner beans

• Peas

• Courgettes

Sowing & Planting

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

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

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

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

Planted 2 tiny persimmon trees, grown from seed:

Baking & Making

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

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

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

Reading

(Love sharing the books I’m into)

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

What’s the vibe?

(This month’s gut reaction)

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

Listening to

(Trying to listen to some new tunes every month)

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

Fun Stuff

(‘Nuff said)

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

Here we are at our friend Therese’s villa:

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

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

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

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

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

Tim Time

(Bizarre & extraordinary happenings?  This is Montenegro)

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

One Green Thing

(One more step along our green journey)

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

Weather Report

(Charting the weather for us and our garden)

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

Then, ‘Bob’s your uncle’, Bob turns up!  Bob is our first guest and he came out of nowhere.  We got an email saying he was heading to Dubrovnik and was thinking about visiting the campsite and next came a text saying he’d be there on 16th June in the afternoon.  When we got the text we were at our house in town, struggling with our marketing.  We packed up our stuff and jumped in the car, arriving at the campsite late at night.  We cleaned and polished into the early hours so we would be ready for Bob the next day.

As ever, there was this horrible knot in the pit of my stomach all morning – waiting for him to arrive.  What would he be like?  Would he be suitably impressed with the tent we’d prepared for him and the campsite in general?  What if he didn’t like my cooking (he’d requested our Dish of the Day)?

As Steve went off to pick Bob up from the bottom of the hill, I finally saw my first tortoise on the land this year.  I took this to be a good sign… in the Chinese culture, tortoises are loaded with symbolism.  Its inanimate shell represents the lifeless rock that is acted upon by divine inspiration (the breath of the heavens) to produce life.  Maybe we were due some divine intervention?

Seems that way… our first guest has turned out to be the most amazing chap.  He’s in his late 60’s but full of energy and a sense of adventure.  His partner was supposed to be making the trip to Montenegro but had to change her plans at the last moment, so Bob changed the traveller’s name and flew out in her place.  He found us on the internet and thought we might be fun.  He wouldn’t describe himself as a naturist but he’s enjoyed being naked in the sun on various trips so didn’t see a problem.

We hit it off straight away.  By the end of the first day, as we were sharing a bottle of wine over dinner, we already felt really comfortable in each other’s company.  He’s a fascinating character – full of stories of places he’s been, people he’s met, things he’s done.  He used to have a small-holding so he knew the struggles of tending the land, growing your own produce & trying to make ends meet.  We also share a love of music – he’s a massive Bob Marley fan and had been to Jamaica for the great man’s birthday last year; he was lucky enough to have seen some incredible gigs (Little Richard, The Everly Brothers, Ray Charles) and was a mine of information about almost every musical artist.  He was well impressed with the laptop & its 15,000 pieces of music.

Despite my worries, he loved the campsite.  He was awed by the views, the wildlife, the peace & seclusion, the birdsong and the stars. He would rise early and go hiking around the area, reporting back on trails he’d found and locals he’d met and in the afternoon he would doze off in the hammock. He had seconds & thirds of every meal – the plates wiped clean at the end of the meal told me all I needed to know about the acceptability of my cooking!

The nicest thing of all was how Bob made himself at home.  He volunteered to water the garden and to mow the terraces…

He insisted on doing the washing up after meals… Despite us pointing out that it was his holiday and he should be relaxing & letting us look after him, he was determined – he argued that he thoroughly enjoying mucking in with us.  It seems this is one of the ways in which the experience at Camp Full Monte is different and appealing…

He’s a footie fan so we took him to meet all our mates who had gathered at Izvor to watch the England game.  He had a great time and was in his element, shouting at the telly and getting to know new people.  He left us, reluctantly, on Saturday.  Plans had been pre made for him to spend time in Perast, but he left some of his stuff with us and will return later this week for another 4-5 days.  He’s adopted us, like a benevolent uncle, and we get frequent texts from him telling us what he’s been up to, nagging us not to work too hard and giving us weather & World Cup updates!

I swear he’s our good luck charm.  We now have another guy joining us for 2 nights this week  & a couple joining us next week, for 3 nights.  We have just got a further booking for 11-12 nights in July.  The idea of having someone else cook seems to be really popular with everyone, so the Dish of the Day is selling well.  On Sunday we’ll be visited by a rep from the camping team of a holiday company that specialise in off-peak holidays.  We’ll just let Bob do all the talking for us – he can sell us better than we can!  I’m dying to see what Bob puts in our Guest Book before he goes, but my favourite quote from him so far is:

“I love Montenegro.  I love it even more now I’ve met you two!”

Alongside all of this, there is hope for employment for us here in the winter months.  We won’t speak too soon but we may have found a great way to work with friends and earn enough money to continue to pay our rent here.

The beans are reaching for the sky, tendrils waving in the air.  Some of the sweetcorn is easily a metre high.  The lettuce is romping away, especially the bitter greens of the endive and raddichio which Steve loathes and everyone else loves!  Radishes are fat and pushing their deliciousness (made up word alert!) up out of the ground – they are moist & juicy, with a good peppery bite.  The cucumbers are climbing their frames and the courgettes are proudly fruiting.  The rocket is rocketing, especially the local style and pea pods are finally plumping up (that must be a word, surely?).

Here’s the harvest on June 10th:

That night we had an omelette with cheese, baby courgettes and wilted rocket, accompanied by a lettuce and radish salad, a rocket & pecorino salad and baby beans and peas.  Divine!!!  The peas and beans were soooo sweet and everything tasted, well, tasty!

And in the flower bed???  Well, the sweet peas are finally started to climb their trellises.  Thank God because frankly, the flower bed has been a bitter disappointment so far.  None of the seeds have taken – not really surprising I suppose, lots of them were years old saved from a life gone by.  The soil is pretty awful there.  I will really invest in fertilizing the area before I plant anything next year.  Any plant that does try to put down roots has to compete with the mass of roots from the surrounding trees and bushes, although I am starting to get these under control now.

Having said that, the pumpkin patch is flourishing and the sole survivor from last year’s passion flower cuttings is finally getting established and climbing the palm fence.  We won’t get flowers this year but it’ll be a picture next year.

And thank goodness for the trusty geranium.  It grows and flourishes there, against all odds.  Contrary to everything I’ve been told, I have been pruning the larger plants and putting the cuttings stright into the ground with a little compost and a lot of water.  Not a single one has failed to take and flower so far!!!

I am also setting off lots more marigolds as the hardy little plants will provide a splash of colour up there and I’ve just discovered that they are considered a good plant for deterring mozzies so it would be nice to have pots of marigolds around the building too!  I have been properly munched by the mozzies this year as the early evening when they are at their height is also the best time for watering the garden…  Oh, the sacrifices I make for my plants!

As for me… well, I’m not growing up at all!  In fact I’m back in the land of kids crafts again, enjoying spending evenings stringing holey stones to make a fanastic wind chime – organic in both sound and shape; and painting glass jars to make attractive candleholders for the building…

We’d went into denial  for a bit, kidded ourselves the leak would stop and generally dug our heads in the sand whilst tackling other tasks.  We could put it off no longer and it was time to dig out the last bath to see what was going on in there:

Oh I get all the best jobs don’t I?!

The good news was that the root system of the plants in the bath was incredibly well developed.  The mint, reeds and grasses had established themselves and thrived on the nutrients in the waste water.  We took this opportunity to split some of the clumps of bamboo and grass up and redistribute the flora to maximise plant filtering in each bath.  The bad news was, it was pretty smelly and yucky in the bottom where the water had been sitting and it ALL had to come out to check thoroughly for leaks.  It was about this time that we got the call from Amy to ask if we could host the Naming Ceremony for Eloise, in 3 days…  Right, well we HAD to have the bath reconstructed by Sunday and all smells and open baths GONE.

Matt, as ever, was a total star and helped Steve to seal all the possible area where the water could be leaking out – particularly the oversized outlet hole and the area around the original bath plug hole.  With heavy hearts, they dismantled the stone wall Steve had built – they had to be absolutely sure that all the pipework (now buried under the stone wall and dirt) was intact and functioning correctly.

Having sealed everything, adjusted the pipework and tested for leaks, the boys confidently declared the problem solved.  The bath was rebuilt (hurriedly, it has to be said) and that, we hoped, was that.

No such luck.  At the end of Eloise’s special day when the system was being put through its paces with lots of washing up, there was still greywater seeping out into ground and now the second from last bath was backing up.  Disaster!

We thought there was a number of factors contributing to failure:

• the tap onto which the hosepipe for the irrigation system into the beds fits was blocked.  Despite frequent cleaning it kept getting blocked as particles of muck were dislogded into the pipes from the soil in the baths being so badly disturbed
• the hosepipe system that fed the garden was not perfectly positioned for a 2% gradient.  It was simply laid on the ground and had humps and kinks in places – through which the water was not flowing, contributing to the system backing up
• the hosepipe into the beds was of smaller bore than the other pipework and therefor the water wasn’t running away fast enough

However we couldn’t be sure that the last bath hadn’t been damaged as it was rebuilt or the pipework dislodged.  Now very fed up with revisiting tasks that we thought were sorted, Steve dug out the last bath – AGAIN.

It was the right thing to do because he discovered that the bath was clay-clogged mess.  For the baths to function properly, filtering the waste water and acting as a  reservoir for the surge of water, it should be constructed of layers: big stones at the bottom, followed by smaller stones, followed by earth and compost.  These had not be reinstated properly plus there was too much clay and this was making it difficult for the water to permeate through fast enough.

We have left the last bath empty for the past few days, anxiously checking for leaks…

With the last bath not functioning, the system has been deprived of a vital reservoir in the chain in dealing with surges of water.  So the second from last bath has begun to back up as the water isn’t able to flow fast enough out into the garden.  There’s been much adjusting of the hosepipe system, encouraging the water through and clearing the blocked tap…

We are hoping that if we:

• carefully rebuild the last bath, reinstating the layers and replacing the clay with soil and compost
• take out the tap altogether
• and level the hosepipe system on sand with the required 2% drop,

that the water will flow fast enough and the system will not clog or back up.

We are considering using a Y-shaped adapter in some places in the hosepipe so that 2 raised beds can receive water at the same time and therefore speed up the safe & non-smelly disposal of the water!  If all of the above doesn’t work then we will have to consider scrapping the hosepipe arrangement altogther and using larger bore pipe to carry more water.  We are reluctant to do this because: we’ve already invested in the hosepipe, which won’t be much good elsewhere; and because it will look ugly and clumsy.

It’s tough working all this stuff out ourselves.  Keep your fingers crossed for us folk.  We potentially have our first guest arriving in a few days and it has to be sorted by then…

When we lived in the UK, the ‘green’ stuff was always more expensive.  Organic produce had a premium attached and the eco cleaning products always cost more.  To be honest, we didn’t buy it – we couldn’t afford it.

Now we can’t afford NOT to be green.  Growing our own veg instead of buying it; saving 100’s of euros on cleaning products by making them myself; making meals from scratch and turning the tide against consumerism by reusing and recycling all we can, has saved us a pretty penny.  Adding that cost back into our budget now would be unthinkable.

However, Mr Green is a Time Thief.  It’s the hours that it takes and the preparation required to save the pennies, that is astonishing.  If you want tomatoes in late Summer, you have to sow the seed in Spring.  If you want your hubby to help clean the house you have to have suitable products ready to use – if he doesn’t find a Mr Muscle equivalent he’ll go and buy some toxins.  If you want free seeds next year you have to remember to save them from this year’s plants and take the time to clean, dry, store & label them. If you want jams and pickles for a year you have to process it all – for hours. Veg peelings don’t turn to rich compost overnight…

Now I know why we didn’t lead a greener lifestyle in our previous incarnation – we simply didn’t have the time.  I relish the fact that now we do have time and don’t take anything for granted.

The day started at 8.30 am when Matt turned up with Slobodan (Chief Lamb Roaster) and Anton (Assistant Lamb Roaster) who still hasn’t left Herceg Novi after wandering into the town about 3 weeks ago on his European tour! They brought with them the lamb, trussed and speared and wasted no time getting the fire going, assembling the battery-operated spit and starting the cooking process, which would take many hours.

Steve and I busied about cleaning and decorating the place.  Steve strimmed the grounds again, I scrubbed and polished and arranged jars of red and pink roses.  Amy turned up with bunting and strung the banners, including one with her name on, in amongst the trees.

We laid out tables and chairs and organised a soft, playing area for the wee, wee ones like Eloise and Emilia.  Amy provided games for the bigger kids, although in the end our pile of builder’s sand held a greater fascination for them!  We prepared a hole for the olive tree that was our birthday gift to Eloise and for the tree planting that would form part of the ceremony…

From 3pm, the campsite started to fill up with friends come to be part of Eloise’s special day.  In total we had 45 adults and kids that day and the sun shone on all of us…  It was a glorious day.  The lamb (19 kilos, 7 hours on the spit) was cooked to perfection:

There were only a few tears at the ceremony… and some laughs.  We blew bubbles as Danny and Paul did their Goddess Parent thing and then we relaxed with food, drink and music.  There was tug of war for the kiddies – boys vs girls, which of course got the competitive spirit going in the adults too.  We won’t go into details – suffice to day, it was a tie!

A few of us ended the evening around the fire, enjoying the peace.