Rastoke, - a Paradisian Patch in Croatia

The other day I was invited  by my former fellow teachers to a day trip to Rastoke. It was a warm, sunny day and we were all under the spell of the enchanting beauty of nature. Look at it - try to imagine  the warmth of the sun, the gurgle of water and  the smell of the first autumnal breeze.

villa means nymph in Cratian!

That´s not a nymph - it´s me enjoying the beauty of  the day!

Shopping Bag for Ivica

It is ready to be delivered.

I hope he´ll like it as I enjoyed creating it.

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.

Happy Birthday!

My friends granddaughter celebrates her birthday today. My gift created for her - a bunch  fairy-tale flowers. Happy birthday, Zala dear!

Love Letters for Nina

Here are envelopes I made for Nina  following a tutrial. I can´t remember whose tutorial it was, but anyway, thanks to the author. Nina has already recived two of them and, so far her foster mothr told me, she was delighted.

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.

 .

News from Nina

It´s sommer and we have school vacations in Croatia. Before parting for holidays Nina has as usual spent one week with her school mates on the Adria. Here I must allow the Croatian state realy takes care of socially and otherwise hadicapped children. 

As Nina´s special boarding school is closed during the  vacations she is supposed to spend the sommer at her foster familiy in the country - about 100 Km from Zagreb. I met  the family last sommer and was deeply moved by the  warmth I felt visiting them. They give a home to three  foster girls during the vacations.

 

It is a modest working man´s houshold. However the girls are well supplied with all they need and the most important is the kindness, generosity and love they get from their sommer foster parents.

During the sommer months I´ll send Nina post cards to let her know I care. Should I visit her once or twice? I haven´t made my mind yet. She was the happiness itself when I visited her last year and the miserablest child when we had to part ...

(All pictures in this post were taken last sommer)

Have you ever ....

felt the urge to kiss a book you are just reading? To kiss the book as expression of gratitude to the writer who had the wit and talent to put into words your vague ideas about a subject.  

 It happened to me reading on my Kindle  Margaret Atwood´s collection of short stories The Tent. In a concise way she speaks about live and lifes, this and that - and in eleven sketches about orphans - the topic that concerns me very much because of my orphan friend Nina

 ... is blank.
M. Atwood opens our eyes telling her stories with wit, witticism, irony and dark humor here some exemples:

....... they´re so easily broken.
Or:

and further:

and

The longer I ponder the condition of orphanhood the more I´m worrying about Ninas future. What will her life be like? What will happen one day when she sets sail  and heads to the open sea  without advice and help of a generous benefector ?

Easter holydays with Nina

We had a wonderful time, Nina and me, at the seaside in Klenovica. She was so happy stroling along the beach, baking, cooking, playing with her new doll, ...

Meet my Sweet, Belowed Friend Nina

That´s Nina in the age of six when I met her, four years ago, in the home for orphan and abused children in Zagreb. In her group she was the only one sitting without saying a word. It turned out she can´t pronouce words due tu some sirious injures in her early childhood. I arranged myself in the way I could visit the children twice a week and take one by one out  - to  the zoo, the children´s theatre, for a walk ..... Some of them were not free to go out with me because their parents  or relatives had came to visit them. Nina was always avalible - nobody visited her.

In the course of weeks I  became Nina´s teta Dunja (teta menas aunt in Croatian). Entering the children´s home I heared them calling: "Nina, teta Dunja came to visit you!" So everybody considered I belonged now to her and I was happy with this progress. For, I liked her from the first glace. She was, and still is, a sweet, gentle, little girl. 

Our relation became closer and closer. As for me, my emotions twords Nina  are grandma´s affections. I´m a "substitute" grany with the best wishes for her grandchild. And -  I have chosen NinasSmile for the name of my Etsy shop because I want very much she would smile in her future  life. 

There is also  a blog about Nina posted in Aprile.