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Season’s Greetings!

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

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

Our season has begun!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And look who else has been visiting:

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

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

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

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

Tags: friends, Giant Peacock Moth, grey water system, growing green, herbs, organic gardening, Painted tyre wall

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…

Tags: Butternut Squash, friends, growing green, Julian Barnes, month in review, organic gardening, Praying Mantid eating moth, Spider with a backful of baby spiders, Strawberries in September, tobacco plants, wild fig harvest

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…

Tags: Funny-shaped carrots, grey water system, growing green, Inspected & Busted, month in review, Of Mice & Men, off-grid living, organic gardening

July in Review

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

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

Growing Green

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Baking & Making

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

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

Reading

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

Work

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

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

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

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

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

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

Play

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

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

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

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

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

Nature Watch

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

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

The green lizards are still about though: