October 2009

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Officially, October

October 31, 2009 in Camping News, Den, Team News | 1 comment

For most of October we were consumed by planning, worrying about & preparing for our ‘official’ Open Day.

Duncan had the great idea of raising our local profile and using the British Ambassador as ‘bait’.  When Gospodine Mandic heard that His Excellency, Mr Kevin Lyne was coming for a nose-around the ‘Eko Kamp’ surely he would want to come too?  We certainly hoped so…  It would give us an opportunity to ‘come clean’: “Here we are Municipality officials.  Here’s our campsite & the buildings upon it, so what next…?”

As usual, we could not have pulled this stunt off without the help & support of dear friends.  Here are the folk who are, officially, *stars*:

  • DD for having the idea in the first place & pestering us into submission
  • Matt for being the Ambassador’s buddy & making sure he turned up
  • Slobodan for getting the invite to the Mayor and helping to ensure an official Opstina (local council) contigent on the day
  • Cedomir for translating our informative posters into Serbian, quickly & brilliantly
  • Jovica for translating the invite; for charming the villagers; for being the local interpretor on the day & so much more…

The week before the ‘big day’ the weather was awful.  It rained every day.  The drainage ditches we had dug were doing their job so the site wasn’t the boggy swamp it could have been but it was still wet & miserable.  We got on with ‘indoor’ jobs like preparing posters in English & Serbian to explain the eco facilities:

Open day - posters

Saturday came & Steve & Jovica went to meet some of the neighbours in Malta & Prijevor and give out invites to the Open Day.  The weather was still gloomy but the collective wisdom was that Tuesday would be fine.   Sunday, was exactly that – a day of sun, glorious.  The heat really started to dry everything out.  Monday was a fine day too.  We spent the day on site, getting ready.  The garden had hung onto its flowers despite the wind & rain but needed a good tidy up so I dead-headed, staked & weeded.  Steve swept and scrubbed and mopped the shower block until it shone.

Tuesday dawned – misty & cloudy.  Nothing to do but put on a brave face and get on with the day.  Maybe the plates of prosciutto, cheese, olives & tomatoes & the bottles of wine and homemade loza would compensate for any gloom & muddy shoes?  By the time we got up on site the sun had burned through the clouds and it was turning into a jolly nice day.  Phew!

Steve, Jovica & I arranged tables & chairs outside; laid out eco books and reference materials (thanks to Mon for sharing books that made our eco library look so much more impressive!); put up posters and spread pots of flowers around to make the place look attractive.

Open day display

Flowers & books - on every shelf!

One of our neighbours, Filip (we think, although all the names became a blur) was the first to arrive with a bottle of 5-year old homemade wine.  And then suddenly, things got mad.  Matt arrived with Kevin and as Steve was showing the ambassador around a bunch of villagers showed up.  Then members of Montenegro’s emerging Green Building Council – Misa, Robin, James, Anke & Amy – arrived and… more villagers.  Then key people connected to our project showed up including Esad (solar thermal tank supplier) & Mil -  although he couldn’t convince our builder Miso to accompany him. Then Slobodan arrived with the Opstina contingent.  The Mayor couldn’t come but he sent his Deputy (who is from the nearby village and is well respected) and some others who all spoke great English.  Friends showed up to lend their support and… more villagers!  In all, there were around 45 visitors!!  It was particularly lovely to see Sonja (our architect) & Jelena (the water system designer) who had never seen their drawings come to life and were visibly delighted with the result.  They stuck their heads down the toilets and in the compost chambers and looked at all the pipework in the basement, beaming and saying: ‘Unbelievable!’.

Steve gave a fantastic speech.  He begged forgiveness from the villagers for not inviting them earlier but we had to get the site to a state where it would accomodate visitors – they forgave him; he explained a little of the good eco things we were attempting and invited the Opstina to use our expertise & the site to make things easier for themselves – they thanked him; he explained that in order to make ends meet we were operating a campsite & had already had visitors from around the world – the villagers said they hadn’t noticed; no-one from the Opstina batted an eyelid; he thanked everyone for coming & we all applauded.

Open day - Stevo's speech

The villagers had the full tour of the facilities, with Jovica translating.  They seemed genuinely fascinated by it all but surprised that we were going to such lengths to clean and process our waste water.  “Why don’t you just run it straight in the stream?” they asked…  Hmmm – more education needed!

Finally the numbers dwindled and we sat down to relax with a drink, to toast a successful afternoon…

Here's our 'main man' Jovica looking very, appropriately 'green'

What else to say about October?

Autumn is here, it’s official.  The colours of the hills are truly stunning.  As ever when you try to put a frame around things in nature the impact is lost but here are some autumn leaves…

Autumn leaves outside Mil & Mon's house

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    Thankful Anyway Thursday

    October 22, 2009 in Den | 10 comments

    I am having one of those days…

    A day when I’m wondering what the hell I’m doing here.  Surely we are nuts?  The likelihood of us making enough money to survive another year here is slim.  Camping is low cost = low income = a heck of a lot of paying guests needed.  Realistically, we’re not going to go from zero to hero in a few short months…  Isn’t it time to give up & move on?

    Things in the Camp Full Monte camp are tense.  Steve & I are working on marketing material for our project and, as usual, we are having “differences of opinion”.  We are both smart, opinionated individuals and when we are trying to agree on things as important as ‘words’ things can get very messy.  All the things we know about giving constructive feedback, building on the positives, blah, blah all go belly up as we fight to keep this sentence, delete that one, re-phrase that, find another way of saying this…  It’s really difficult to compromise on such matters.  This is our business – we can’t just say ‘well I don’t care…’ because we do, because we both have to be totally comfortable with every word on the website, every image used, every phrase on a poster.  It’s exhausting trying to keep the battle at the appropriate level – remembering that we are actually saying to each other: ‘I think my idea is better than that yours’ not ‘I am better than you’.

    I am frustrated – with my own shortcomings, at playing the waiting game and many other things.  As a partnership, we have always played to our respective strengths but I have to admit that strategy is wearing thin.  We have a current list of tasks to be done & I’m waiting on Stevo for all the important things (web site re-design – so we can market our business; making curtains – so we don’t freeze to death in this house; fix the dishwasher – so we don’t flood the kitchen every time we wash up etc) whilst I get… mmm, let’s see, oh yeah: cook, clean, make Green Tomato Chutney.  It’s hard living with such a talented individual who can turn his hand to all things DIY.  He doesn’t mean to make me feel inferior – I do it to me all by myself…  And it’s the waiting for him to do stuff that kills.  I’m not a patient person and sitting on my hands and keeping my mouth shut whilst he gets ‘A Round Tuit’ – phew, that’s tough.

    The frustration runs pretty deep.  If I look at it hard & honestly enough I realise it’s a feeling of powerlessness that’s about much bigger stuff.  I got over most of my ‘control freak’ issues many years ago when I faced my fears & did it anyway.  Goodbye panic attacks; Hello Montenegro!  But occasionally, like today, I have delusions of grandeur…  If I could, I would:

    • get one dear friend a job that satisfies him & pays him well enough to come to the Balkans whenever he likes
    • give another dear friend what she wants most in the world that only God can give her
    • find a soulmate for someone close who’s suffered enough & been on her own for too long
    • find us a bunch of money (magically!) so we can buy a big enough solar PV system & a wooden house & live up on the land with chickens, goats, pigs and a dog

    The physical manifestation of my frustration, inevitably, became a headache.  A real stonker.  Then I dropped the big glass jar with the last of the precious Branston Pickle.  Tiny slivers of glass everywhere and no chance of saving the condiment.  Great!  Perfect!  Just what I needed to help my pounding head – a hoovering and mopping job (not to mention the fact that the kitchen had only just been blitzed)…

    Aargh!

    That was the proverbial straw… And that’s the moment I remembered the solace that comes with writing it all down and here I am…

    Thankful anyway, because…

    • We have a dream, even if its a crazy one.  Better to have a vision than to be blind to the possibilities.  Better to try & fail than live with the regret of never having tried…
    • Steve & I have the luxury of building this dream together – however frustrating that may be for us both sometimes.  I feel sad at times when others around me tell me how their partner has no role is this or that – how convenient for them, how controlling… how lucky for us
    • The only thing I bemoan is that my life partner is so damn smart & versatile with a strong mind of his own?  What a trial for me!  Honestly – how did I get to be this blessed?!
    • I’m great at making Green Tomato Chutney
    • It’s healthy to recognise the things I am powerless to change, remembering limitations – it makes me understand other’s frustrations and not ever be supercilious.  My past experiences of ‘feeling the fear & doing it anyway’ has liberated me in a way that I am every day grateful for.  I hope it makes me more emphathetic &  a better friend.
    • My ‘patterns’ – headaches, clumsiness – remind me of the things I can work on and give me a chance to focus on me.  I will accept the long-promised massage, I need it; I will go to bed early with a book, & get well-deserved ‘me’ time
    • If things (possessions, money, friends, lovers, pet dogs) were so easily won they wouldn’t be worth having.  Think what a huge achievement it will be when we are in our wooden house in the hills – I will be SO proud of us.

    Links: Mon

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    The times they are a’ changing…

    October 15, 2009 in Team News | No comments

    Things are shifting and changing around here…

    Mr Nik has left the Balkans.  After years of living & working in Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Croatia and most recently Macedonia, he has packed up his world and moved to Portugal.  Whilst we know he will be in safe, supportive hands living & working with Jo & Anita, he leaves behind an emptiness that’s hard to explain and impossible to fill.  We wish him every success (aka ‘hard cash’) and look forward to welcoming him back with warm hugs and loza as soon as the grown-up practicalities of life allow.

    Stay grounded my friend...

    Nik’s not the only one to leave.  The economic crash has seen some folk – mainly property developers – leave in a hurry!  The crowd of local friends has dispersed – Alena, Chedo, Aleksa & Tomo are all in Belgrade; Lara has gone back to the UK to be with Ben and have her baby and Blazo will go back to sea.  This winter will be strange without them.  Of course we have lots of nice folk around us but their lives are all changing too – kids growing up into Angels & Devils; relationships maturing; responsibilities weighing a little heavier now that world’s recessed and depressed…  We will hold each other tight and thank the Universe for email and skype which keeps us close to friends and family around the globe.

    The weather has turned a cold corner.  The Bura (cold, infamously fierce wind from the North) came and blew our tents over.  Time to pack up camp for this year then!  The shades of brown on the leaves are mouth-watering – mocha, caramel, chocolate, hazel & chestnut – and remind us that Autumn is here.  As do the delicate Cyclamen that pop their delicate pink frills up everywhere at this time of the year:

    Autumn-flowering cyclamen

    The temperature has plummeted and, shockingly, we are dressing up to watch TV in the evening – woolly hats and jumpers!  The walls of glass in our beautiful house are now our biggest enemy and ironically we are craving small rooms with doors rather than the 3 floors of open space!  Time to assume a new position… We are decamping from our bedroom with the stunning view to one we can shut the door on and heat.  We have gathered all the throws we possess and are cobbling together some curtains to insulate the glass doors and to curtain off the stairway to the upper floor where currently the heat rises and disappears.

    Things are changing on the campsite.  We have recognised the value of our eco credentials in giving us a ‘respectable public face’ and are exploring possibilities in the environmental arena.  Since Montenegro purports to be an ‘Eko State’ and since there is growing awareness of the need to preserve the natural resources that feed this country’s only real source of revenue – tourism – we are going with a new flow…

    Rushing to save water!

    Our dear friend Vince is helping us to build a new website that will reflect our growing obsession with going green.  Following a brilliant idea of Duncan’s, we are taking the proverbial bull by the horns regarding our local profile and have invited the British Ambassador and the Mayor of Herceg Novi to an Open Day at our Eco Camp.  For the next 2 weeks, we will be in a state of nervous anticipation as we count down the days to showing our official visitors around.  Please folks, keep everything crossed for a dry day on 27th October – if it rains just before or during that day the site will be a mud bath!

    Sunset inspiration

    We have had a lovely summer – a gentle start, with gorgeous, well-behaved guests who said all the right things and made us feel it was all worth it.  But the harsh reality is that next year we need 10 times as many guests for many more weeks of the year.  The website will be a key marketing tool so we eagerly await its re-launch.  We are writing articles and networking on web forums – doing anything we can to raise our profile and give us a fighting chance of making this business work.  It’s time for Camp Full Monte to grow up…

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    Honey Moon

    October 10, 2009 in Camping News | 2 comments

    The moon was about the only thing that was kind to our honeymooners who stayed for 2 nights the first weekend in October.  It was big and beautiful (and full, on their second night) and the moonshine was so bright there was no need for torches…

    We had a couple of days of rain before Keith & Ulla arrived so the site was muddier and less attractive than normal.  The turn in the weather caused a drop in temperature too so the nights were really chilly.  As usual, we fretted about whether our guests would have a good time and as usual, we needn’t have worried.  The peace & beauty of the site and quality & cleanliness of the facilities more than made up for any shortcomings.  They didn’t mind (probably didn’t even notice) that the shower curtain rings were made from plaited plastic bags – so happy were they with the hot showers!

    Plarn shower curtain ring

    They enjoyed the food which was homemade & healthy.  Ulla wasn’t a big meat eater so she really appreciated the tasy salads and veg straight from the garden.  The cool evenings gave us an excuse to light a fire and toast ourselves around it:

    Steve, Keith & Ulla around the fire

    And the fireside fun reached new heights when we ceremoniously burnt Nik’s shorts.  Honestly, what a treat?!  What else could you wish for on your honeymoon but to watch a pair of tattered, smelly shorts go up in flames?!

    Flaming shorts

    The real shame was that their last morning was the start of a stunning day, with the sun shining brightly and they had just a couple of short hours to go before catching a plane back to the States.

    We wish them a long & happy marriage and better weather next time!

    Ulla & Keith

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    Snakes & Adders

    October 10, 2009 in Nature | No comments

    There’s been lots of wiggly wildlife on the land over the past few weeks… Well, this little fella wasn’t doing much wiggling – we found him dead when we arrived at the campsite one morning.  Looked like he’d been taken out by a bird or something:

    Juvenile four-lined snake?

    We think it’s a young four-lined snake – does anyone have any other ideas?  We know these snakes are found in the area as Steve spotted an adult four-lined snake in the stream, basking on some rocks but the photo is very blurry.

    Steve’s Mum & I went on a little nature walk around the campsite whilst the men were digging and barrowing and saw two snakes! The first was an adder, with the distinctive zig-zag pattern, wiggling about the banks of the stream, flicking it’s tongue in and out.  It was beautiful but we were worried about the dogs spotting it and coming a cropper.  By the time we had got Louis & Mollie back on the campsite and grabbed the camera, the adder had slithered off.  But another snake that I noticed in the grassy bank along the road was still there, with Pam on guard!  It was a real beauty and although we were unable to identify it, I’ve since found some pics and info on the Smooth Snake and think that’s what it might be…

    Smooth snake?

    If it is the Smooth Snake then it’s quite a coup because they are notoriously shy and hard to photograph!

    This was the tail end of something wiggling about in the woodpile.  Louis was going mad scrabbling about & sniffing manically but when he finally caught his prize, the creature simply discarded it’s tail and buggered off!  Steve thinks it may have been a Rock Lizard or some kind of gekko.  Pretty colour isn’t it?

    Tailing off...

    And whilst we are walking on the wild side, here are a few pics of interesting things found on the campsite over the past few weeks…

    A ginger spider! Any ideas on a more scientific name?

    Swallowtail butterfly

    Mushroom - we think it's a Bolete

    Hummingbird Hawk Moth

    Mushroom... Can we eat it?

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    Sociable September

    October 1, 2009 in Den, Fun Stuff | 1 comment

    Another month has whizzed by!  Time for the usual round up and September was all about people…

    Mil was with us for a while.  For a special birthday treat we took him for a day’s sailing on the Monty B.  Here he is looking very relaxed at being 40…

    Mil relaxing on the Monty B

    Nik joined us for the sailing experience and had a wonderful time.  Here’s a gorgeous picture of our gorgeous friend:

    Nik looking cool on the Monty B

    And here’s me teasing Louis & Mollie aboard the beautiful ketch, Monty B…

    Den teasing the dogs

    Then came Ray & Shona.  Unbelievably we don’t have a picture of them together… but here’s all the wine they drunk!

    Green bottles

    Then came Jess & Drunc, I mean Dunc, I mean Hunk…

    Sew Jess

    He's so hunky!

    Then came Laura & Tony’s wedding…

    Mr & Mrs Browne

    Then Katie’s hen night:

    Den, Heloise & Katie the Hen

    Then came Louis & Mollie, when Mummy & Daddy (Katie & Tim) went off to the UK to get married:

    Den& the silly dogs

    Then came my wonderful sis Chris & her hubby Dave…

    Sister Chris & her sexy secretary look

    Dave - cool as cucumber!

    Then came Annie & Jimmy.  I don’t have any pics of Seamus as he was always behind the camera, but here’s his lovely wife:

    Annie & sister Chris

    And last but not least, Pam & Gerry…

    Pam & Gerry in Topla

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    Hot Water Bottles!

    October 1, 2009 in Environmentally Friendly, Reduce Reuse Recycle, The Build | 1 comment

    With a honeymoon couple arriving the first weekend in October, we needed to crack on & get the hot water supply sorted.  Esad, our Croatian contact, had supplied us the hot water tank and expansion tank and talked through the installation of the solar thermal system with Steve.  Steve had donned his plumber’s hat and done as much as could but was nervous about plumbing in the copper pipe that would connect the solar panels to the tank.  Perfect timing then, that my sister Chris and her hubby Dave – a plumber – were arriving!  Dave was kind enough to bring a bunch of plumbing stuff with him and bless him, he got stuck into the task of cutting pipes, fixing angles, securing joints with hemp & Plumber’s Mait and generally being a total STAR!!!

    Steve & Dave plumbing in the copper pipes

    In the picture below, with Dave in full flow, you can also see the hot water tank, with all the inputs & outputs carefully labelled by Steve…

    Dave plumbing pipes to the hot water tank

    Dave & Steve were keen to see if the system actually worked so they filled up the tank and pipes with water and watched the thermometer rise!  We were all delighted that there were no leaks, that the thermo syphon action was working effectively and the sun was really heating up the water even in late September and with a fair amount of shadow over the panels from late afternoon!  Yippee!

    The next step was to get the hot water connected into the water supply for the building but for this we needed a special tool to heat seal the plastic pipes.  Whilst we were waiting for our neighbour to show up with his machine and finish the job, Dave & Steve decided to finish the wine bottle window.

    This was the window before they started:

    Wine bottle window

    They looked great but the gaping holes still had to be filled…

    Steve & Dave cementing the bottles

    And this was the finished window, pointed with cement and painted:

    Wine bottle windows - finished

    Meanwhile Chris got busy washing up green bottles as we started to prepare the bottles for the second window:

    Chris washing up

    Unfortunately, the heat machine did not arrive in time for Dave to see hot water coming out of the taps.  Steve got on with lagging the copper pipes whilst we waitied patiently for our neighbour to show up. Finally on Sunday27th September Milerad arrived and sprang into action with his magic machine!  There was a tense moment when we turned the water back on and turned the tap…  Would the system leak?  Would the water actually be hot?  No leaks and gorgeous warm water – not boiling hot (we can adjust the blending valve to increase the temperature) but more than adequate for washing dishes and having a shower.  Hurrah!!!

    In the picture below you can see Steve insulating the last of the pipes.  Notice the green pipe to the right of the tank?  This is pipe that Milerad plumbed in for us to finally get hot water into the system.

    Steve lagging the pipes

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