I have totally re-vamped my Month in Review post. I’ve been thinking a lot about how I can make this interesting and meaningful to me. I suddenly had this ‘Duh!’ moment when I realised I could actually use the monthly round-ups as a useful journal to refer back to so let me walk you through my new headings to explain my rationale.
I’m sure I’m missing something but I can’t figure out what it is? Would love to hear your feedback…
What’s fresh?
(If I want to grow more of my own produce I need to document what produce I’m buying fresh & local so I can then work back and figure out when to plant. Noting here what we pick fresh from our garden – including weight if I can remember to record it – will help me plan better for planting plans, managing gluts and to note if different varieties yield for longer)
From the store: ….
- Carrots
- Rotkvica (big radishes!)
- Raštan (spring greens)
- Kale
- Parsnips
- Spuds – a certain, white variety?
- White cabbage
From the garden: …
- Rocket – I dug up the plants from the raised beds in December and put them in a pot – is just over & starting to seed…
- Parsley
- Chives
Sowing & Planting
(So I can build a record of what I need to prepare for next in the garden. I would like to get more strategic about mulching & fertilizing – organically of course – ahead of time so my plants have the best start in life)
Onion sets – reds & whites. We were SO chuffed to buy HALF A KILO of onion sets for 80 cents! It would have cost 5 times that in the UK! Have planted one bed up already and the edges of the flower garden.
Flowers! I have been preparing my new flower bed in the ‘orchard’ area…
And yesterday I sowed loads of seeds. More on this and pictures of my planting plan in another post soon…
Baking & Making
(A chance to reflect on the culinary success & failures of the month. I create things all the time & forget to share my crafty moments)
Veg samosas for the wedding party were a hit – must confess I used the pre-bought filo pastry tho’.
‘Maskenbal’ is the highlight of the Mimosa/ Boka Festival so not surprisingly we were making masks. We teamed up with the Watson-Lanes to get crafty for Gracie… The mask below was sent back from school because the teacher wanted only homemade masks – yes, they actually thought it had been shop bought!
Luckily this was the reserve:
Notice how the grown ups are all wearing the masks – not Grace! WHO’S the kid here???
And I made a tail for the wedding party:
Reading
(Love sharing the books I’m into)
You can tell it’s been raining – look at all the books I’ve read! Thanks to Fiona, I’ve had some riveting bedside reading…
I finished Rohinton Mistry’s ‘A Fine Balance’ or did it finish me…? What a powerful book… So was quite grateful for something completely different in the form of the first book in The Millenuim Trilogy by Steig Larsson. Compulsive reading!
Good but not quite as compelling somehow – the second book in the series:
And enjoyed the quirky writing style of Marcus Zusak – He handled the heavy subject matter gently but not lightly…
Now I am half way through Michelle de Kretser’s strange little book:
It flows as smoothly as a cup of lump porridge but her writing is beautiful at times:
“To the raw ache of solitude he applied his usual balm of work”
What’s the vibe?
(Being a kinesthetic individual, I’m big on feelings & instinctively sum up time & space with a gut reaction)
Soggy. Chilly. Bunged up.
Also feeling old… My knees, especially the right one is extremely painful & get considerably worse in wet weather so I’m sounding like a proper Montenegrin: “Oh the rain! “Oh my aching bones”
Listening to
(With over 15,000 pieces of music on our computer, I’m making space to listen to some new tunes every month)
The Eels and a load of great DJ mixes from Katie
Fun Stuff
(‘Nuff said)
OMG – SO much fun stuff this month…
- Herceg Novi Wine Festival – where I got even more drunk than last year, if that’s possible!
- Playing Tac-Tic with some of my favourite boys:
- Hanging out with some cool kids:
- Seeing an AMAZING performance by the youth of Herceg Novi: ‘Cinderalla Rockefella’ – a musical/ pantomime of the classic fairytale. The set, the costumes, the voices, the humour – odlicno…
- Matt & Amy’s wedding
- Katie & Tim and Matt & Amy’s wedding party
- Laura & Cecile’s baby shower
Tim Time
(Tim – like the dialogue from ‘Blood Diamonds’ when Tia is described as the global catch all for expressing the madness & magic of Africa – stands for This is Montenegro & when anything bizarre & extraordinary happens or we are foxed by the latest bureacratic nonsense, we shrug & say “Tim”)
Mmm – I’m not sure about Montenegrin electrics, are you? The snows not melting but the Garden Centre sign is!
One Green Thing
(1 new eco achievement a month will take me slowly, steadily, gently forward on my green journey)
I finally ran out of glass cleaner so I washed out the plastic spray bottle from the previous bought product and set about making my own. I used a recipe from this book:
and then improvised… adding pieces of fresh lemon rind to the half water, half white vinegar mix. It definitely works but smell of vinegar is still too strong so will add more essential oils…
Weather Report
(We keep having these bizarre conversations about the weather: “I’m sure it didn’t rain this much last Feb” etc. the truth is we can’t remember and it would be good for us and our gardening schedule to chart the weather)
Mostly, this month it’s been raining… It’s so soggy & foggy here right now. Here & on the campsite we seem to be in the clouds most of the time. It rains, then drizzles, then rains, then REALLY POURS DOWN, then rains again. Occasionally there’s wind and the odd storm too. Dry, sunny days this month: err, count ‘em on one hand.
The campsite is mostly under a few inches of water. No drainage ditch we could dig could cope with this much rain. The raised beds & baths are all full of water.
And in Topla… well things are NOT topla at all, they are damp & chilly & mouldy. EVERY window has water coming in around it and many walls have mouldy patches.
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