Sommer menu

Diner is served: tomato soup, barbecued meat and sausages, bolied cabbege (zelje na leso), and a glass of good red vine.

The soup is a modified rest over from the previous day´s stuffed green pepper. Delicious!

I prepared my cabbage in the morning after breakfast. It´s importent to  cook it in advance. In this way the various flavors can integrate by the serving time.

Here´s my recepe:

1. Boil cabbage and some potatoes in salt water. Better if you use  Vegeta instead of salt.
2. Strain the liquid. You can use it for a soup the same od the next day.
3.  Still hot, season the cabbage with peper, persil, if necessary salt, and excellent oliv oil.
4. Stir it carefully, cover with a lid and let the flavors integrate till serving time.

Short before serving we barbecued our meat in the stone hut in the garden. 

The hut is not only used for barbecuing but also as a favorite place for chatting, reading or napping.

In about 20 minutes our barbecue was ready. Some fresh tomatoes, a glas of wine and - Enjoy!



A Rainy Day in July

The high season on the Adriatic coast does not  guarantee every day sunshine. There are cold, rainy and gusty days  as well.  I tred to make the long hours sunny without sun.

It was raining the whole night with lightning and thunder. In the morning after it had stopped raining I  went to the post office to send a new letter to Nina

 and then I made a short hiking uphill on purpouse to collect manure for my rock garden. On my way home I had a basketful of „ pure, ecological, handpicked!“  horse manure - a priceless treasure that still can be find along Croatian country  roads.

In the afternoon I ocupaied myself creating a new sommer shopping bag for my neighbor Ivica,  a hobby fisherman,

and when my eyes had grewn tired I went in my garden,  mixed the collected manure with earth and sowed rucola in a prepared patch.

The evening was rather chilly. I spent it with my friends sitting  and chatting around the fire in our stone- hut.

I did it – I turned a rainy day to a day filled with sunshine, by living in accordance with the nature and my friends and doing  pleasure to them.

Respect the Nature

Our holiday settlement was built abaut twenty years ago. Rows of houses, all with balconies turned to the blue sea and a stony plot around of them. We, the new settlers, comming from the inland began to turn the apartments to holiday homes and the plots to gardens according to the habits in home places. What a range of visions - rose gardens, orchards, green meadows, ....
Wagons of earth were transported from far away, trees and flowers were planted, gras sown, ... All attempts were doomed to failure until we looked around, made a selection of native plants,

filled the gaps in the rocks with earth and manure, waterd the shoots of the fragrant immotelle,

pruned the hornbeam, nursed the self grown maritime pine, planted and cultivated our rosemry

 and reduced our orchards to olives

and figues.

We lerned to respect the nature and now following its rules we can enjoy our happy gardens and happy plants thriving in harmony with  the sun and the winds of the charming Mediterranean climate.

What a delight

to sit on the balcony and experience the magic of those precious hours of daybreak when all day projects seem realisable and when I can be by myself surroundd by the the joyful trilling of the blackbird  signalling "It´s my home here, I´m happy!"

Drinking my morning coffee my day begins with reading a short story, a very short one. At the moment it´s again one of Margaret Attwoods collection The Tent.

Next on my programme is an English lesson given  to myself  by myself.

In the meantime the sun burst out and it shines over the rock face of the neighbor islend, Krk.

I hear the fishermans boat returning with its fish traps and long lines.

Soon the fisher will sell the night catch on his stall at the market. Should I run down and by some fish for dinner? Now it´s time to beginn realising my day projects. First - breakfast.

Good Neighbors are a Blessing

There are  many people nowdays who don´t know the name, age or pofession of their neighbors. Well known is possibly only the number of yelling children. Many of them say  "Hallo" when meeting someone  on the staircase or in the elevator without knowing that She or He lives next door. It´s a fact to lament but it could be changed. It´s much nicer to be a part of a community then to be an anonymous among strangers.

We are lucky here in our small holiday community in Klenovica. We have been knowing each other for years, we share parts of our life with our neighbors without disturbing each other or intruding in privacy. Yesterday, while gardening in my rock garden my neighbor Jozica showed up with a plate of fresh figs, my favorite fruit.

And today an other friend, Duska, brought dried  lavander for my wardrobes. The air in my appartement is now fragrant with its smell.

 Besides lavander she brought  some fabrics and lace and asked me if I would sew gift bags for her lavander.

I´ll do it with pleasure. We are friends and are pleased to do favors to each other. Good neighbor relations are a real  blessing for a community.

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