The Treasures of the Land

Look at this little beauty! I am hoping that finally this year nature will give me a watermelon. Last year didn't work out due to the intense dryness of the summer but this year there is a chance. It's hot this year as well but there is rain on a weekly basis at least. Nature can be kind or just as cruel. Today I picked seven tomatoes and was so happy to finally see red tomatoes on our plants but when I looked at the bottom I saw that four of them were diseased and inedible. What causes this, I don't know but it affected some of our harvest last year as well. 

Sometimes this happens. You put a lot of work into growing something and if slugs don't eat them, something else possibly will or else it simply won't pollinate like one of our pumpkins last year. It produced many flowers, crawled about five metres, looked nice but ultimately produced nothing to eat. 

There's still a long way to go for this little one but it looks promising and it's not the only watermelon we have ...

Wine Time

This is just a short one to show a bit of the process of making wine. We've been pretty lucky that we have a decent harvest but now we have to use it.

We are very lucky that all the equipment is already there and just needs some cleaning.

Picking the grapes is not the hard part, removing the good ones from the vines is.








First we crush them in a mill type device and then it's time for pressing to drain as much juice as you can from the grapes.

The juice is so good that I was tempted not to bottle it at all but to enjoy the delights of freshly pressed grape juice.

We disinfected the demijohn with sulphur, which should not be breathed in. Unfortunately we got a bit of it and were coughing for afterwards.

The juice is then poured into the demijohn and now we wait, for a couple of days at least until it's time to relocate the juice to another demijohn and leave the sediment behind.

It's a fascinating process and there's still a lot to learn but I'm eager.

Cycling in Morava

I didn't know anything about the region of Morava (Moravia in English) but was pleasantly surprised by the great number of castles and interesting small towns that are there. I was also impressed by the biking infrastructure that exists there, not only the bike paths but the restaurants and camp sites built next to the bike routes.

Starting from Skalica in Slovakia, we rode as far as Petrov. We were very unprepared without a map or a plan at all. Skalica is a very nice town but unfortunately we never got to try the famous pastry "Trdelnik" as we arrived a bit too late.
We rode until we reached the Bat'a Canal which was built by the famous shoemaker Tomáš Bat'a, hence the name. It connects some of the towns in this region and was built when water transport was the most effective form.  For about one euro we camped in Petrov and managed to get a map of the region.

 The next day we set out on a trail alongside the canal and passed through some attractive towns such as Strážnice and Veseli nad Moravou. The curiously named Stare Mesto was quite disappointing in comparison with the other towns. In Uherský Ostroh we just had a quick stop to have an embarrassing picture taken of ourselves which you can see below.

We managed to find a place to camp at Spytihnév for free. It was ideal as there was a pit stop for cyclists with a restaurant and a bar. There were also paid toilets and shower facilities which was heaven after such a hot and sweaty day. The worst thing for me was using sun cream on my freckled Irish skin to prevent sunburn. Either I use it and don't get burned but have to feel all that slime on my skin or I fry. I chose the former option.

In Napajedla there is quite a nice castle worth visiting. We had a tour guide in Czech with Yulia translating for me. It was a bit short but there were some interesting things to see. Kroměříž is a city I could definitely return to. Architecturally there is a lot to see. Unfortunately we didn't have too much time. We had Yulia's bike stand replaced in a bike shop. The guys there also pumped up my wheels and fixed my speedometer for no extra charge. After that I ate fried cheese once more. In a total of six days of traveling I ate fried cheese 4 days and the other two days we cooked our own food using our small gas stove. The vegetarian options are pretty limited so I'd recommend cooking your own food if you are of the veggie only kind.

 We'd heard a lot about Zliň, the home of Tomáš Bat'a's famous shoe company but we were very disappointed when we finally made it there. It took us such a long time to reach it as the bike route was much longer than the road for cars and meant we had to do a loop before we reached the city. We didn't find anything interesting there, except for an industrial city so we took a train back to Otrokovice and spend another night at the free campsite in Spytihnév.

The next day we had to go back all along the route we had just travelled upon in order to get to the south of Morava. Hodonin was our aim and we reached the outskirts of it in the evening. It was another hot day and the chance to cool down in the evening was very welcome. We stayed in a very interesting campsite which was all for ourselves and contained fruit trees and wigwams. The nearby bar was interesting with their own brewed beer. Polotmavý or half-dark beer is amazing in Czech.

Onwards to Lednice via Hodonin and Břeclav. Lednice is quite a touristy spot but it's easy to see why. The impressive castle and massive garden surrounding it is well worth visiting and we could easily have spent a day there. Instead we only had the evening as it took us some time to reach the city and the campsite. This was previously owned by the Liechtenstein family who were forced out of the region in World War II and then set up their own country which exists today. In the evening we were treated to a folk festival with musicians not only from Czech but also from Hungary, Slovakia and Poland.

Mikulov is only ten kilometres or so from Lednice and boasts equally impressive history and architecture. As this is a rich wine producing region, there is even a museum in the castle dedicated to this. The wine barrel in the picture to the right dates from 1643 and has a capacity of 101,400 litres.

After Mikulov we went to Valtice but the road there was horribly busy and not for biking at all. I don't know if we took a wrong turn but I was just so happy to get off the main road. This castle is equally impressive even though it is not as clean or as well restored as a lot of other castles in the region. We spent the last night enjoying a good bottle of red wine in the campsite before crashing in the tent.

One more thing we saw on the way home was this castle in the picture below - Januv Hrad. It was not open so we just took a walk around it before heading back to Břeclav and the train back to Bratislava via Kutý. 6 days was just about enough time to see a lot in this region. We were very lucky with sunny weather every day and no accidents on the bikes. There's lots of culture and interesting sites to visit and by bike I always feel you get to see a bit more.

 

Preparing For the Grapes

 These pictures were actually taken two weeks ago when we finally went into the basement and cleaned everything in there. As you can see there was a lot of stuff there including these massive wine demijohns which we were informed have a capacity of 50 litres.
Thankfully there was no sign of the rats who had been there previously but the smell down there wasn't the greatest. The mould on the walls was also not very good for the air down there.
Some of the wood had to be replaced as it was rotten.

Finding a wine press was a pleasing sight as we have all the tools now to prepare wine. It's been a good seasons for grapes as it's been very dry. There's just one more month until harvest time but some of the grapes are already ripe. Wine making is an art and my expectations are not so high for the first batch as I really don't know anything about how to make it but I am looking forward to trying it.

Harvest Time

Strawberries have come and gone but there's lots more to pick and gorge on.
Now is the time when fruits such as cherries, raspberries, currants are all ready to be picked. We also have two courgettes and I have to say that eating a barbecued one the other night was possibly one of the tastiest experiences of my life. I am really looking forward to harvesting tomatoes, peppers and grapes. The latter is going fine but we are both stressed about all the diseases we have been warned about. We are still using an ecological spray consisting of iodine, soap, milk and water. Fingers crossed ...

There's still lots of work to do especially as temperatures are now in the mid to late 30s. It's just so hard to do any work when it is so scorching hot. The shower in the picture below is a great way to cool down and what could be more natural than washing outdoors?

Watering is the main thing as the earth is extremely dry. We need some rain but not vicious storms. It's amazing how much more I focus on the weather now that plants are dependent on me and on nature.

Groped - Weird, homosexual experience # 3

As the title says, this was another one of those weird experiences. The first came when an old, drunk Polish guy offered me a blowjob when all I wanted was to get to a campsite. The second came in a sauna in Georgia when an Israeli started rubbing my leg and asked if I was gay. When I replied no, he left.

The third in the series of strange encounters happened last week when I was out for a run. I'd chosen a forested area as it's a great spot for a run and far from the concrete and noise of the city. I was running along enjoying the greenery and the Danube to me left when I came across a youngish guy. I started him as he jumped when I ran towards him. He mumbled something that sounded like 'hello' so I responded and ran on. Then I heard some footsteps behind me. I ran a bit faster and the footsteps increased their tempo. I thought it must be another runner but when I slowed down I saw to my surprise that it was that strange guy. He mumbled something that sounded like 'so' and then touched me in an area that I didn't appreciate. I didn't know what 'so' was supposed to mean and didn't want to find out so I quickly ran this time, more out of fear and shock than anything leaving the groper behind.

Once I was sure he was far behind, I slowed down. Planning the way back was tricky as I'd no idea where he was. I decided to talk the bike path as there were more people there and it seemed the safer option. Once I got close to where one of the bridges was I saw a runner being dragged back by the groper. He was struggling to get his hands off him but finally succeeded in getting away. After seeing this I went back into the forest hoping that there were no other similar characters around. When it came to the point when I had to cross over the river, I looked around very carefully but didn't see him so I ran up the steps and onto the bridge. I was enjoying my run again when I looked over at the other side of the bridge and there he was. My biggest fear was that we'd meet again at the end of the bridge so I ran at a fast tempo and kept watch out of the corner of my eye for any fast movements on the other side of the bridge. Thankfully there were none and the rest of the journey home passed by without incident. I must say that it left me feeling a bit vulnerable to say the least. Beware of the groper.

The Good and the Bad

The Bad

Slugs are eating their way through lots of the things we have planted. They have eaten our pumpkins, courgettes and nearly all of our cucumbers. Desperate attempts to save one last pumpkin sadly failed despite going round at night and rounding up as many slugs as we could. Below is just one portion of snails just before they got boiled.

The Good

Flowers are blooming and it's strawberry season. I don't have a picture yet but there are so many strawberries that we are finding it hard to think of ways to eat them and preserve the ones we can't possibly eat. We are in the process of making jam and have been enjoying smoothies the last few days but there are so many there that we may have to just restrict our diet to strawberries for the next while. Radish has been picked, the salads are growing well and we have finally planted the tomatoes that we had been growing at home. The vineyard is proving to be a challenge. We have pruned the shoots and branches without grapes and are carefully monitoring them for diseases as this seems to be a big problem here. Fingers crossed.

From Gardening to Farming

As a certified horticulturist I thought I knew something about how to make things grow but it turns out that beyond the basic requirements of watering, providing sun and keeping plants in reasonable conditions, I don't know so much.

It's been a long time since I studied Horticulture and there is very little I remember, however I didn't think that my skills were so lacking.

I have gathered some knowledge in recent times from helping out at a my friends' land and have learned to distinguish weeds from strawberries for one thing. Working on my girlfriend's grandparents' land has also helped but when you don't have the help of experienced people it's not so easy. My girlfriend, Yulia, has a lot of experience but there are questions that need answering when it comes to planning and preparation of certain crops.

Before all of that, we had to figure out how to obtain a piece of land to grow things on. With our limited funds we thought we would just ask as many people as we could and also search online with the unrealistic hope that someone had a piece of land that they would be willing to let us use for free or at least for a very low price. This was a very idealistic plan but it actually worked.



About 25 km from Bratislava we now have the place we envisaged for some time but never really thought was possible. It is a proper farm with a neighbour with hens. There is even a vineyard on it and we've been told that on a good year, the owner produced as much as 300 litres of wine.

There is a big patch of land and also a little cottage and basement. Absolutely perfect.


It does need some work and we've just started to realise how much of a commitment it is to plant and maintain such a large area. We've also had rat problems in the basement. These horrible creatures have made a mess of potatoes that were stored there and it seems that there are quite a few of them lurking in the depths of our cellar. Poison has been put there and we've found two dead bodies to date but suspect there will be more. The soil is also a bit stony in parts. We've been given lots of advice on how to take care of the grapes but most of them involve spraying them with chemicals which we are reluctant to use.

So far we've planted carrots, beans, onions, potatoes, radish and weeded a large area of strawberries. We've also lit a huge fire of old vine branches which probably put us first on our neighbours' hit lit with all the smoke that blew in their direction.

There's a lot to do but it's been enjoyable so far despite the aches I'm feeling in my back right now.

This Time Of The Year

I'm a big fan of spring and what has amazed me this year (I hope I don't jinx this) is how quickly temperatures have risen and how rapidly the days have become longer. By longer I mean brighter. It's a really quick change and daylight savings hasn't even kicked in yet.

What do I love about this time of the year? For me there is a sense of renewed optimism, and yes I am very influenced by the weather and by the light. The evenings have possibilities which winter hides away. There is the chance to bike after work, go for a walk and see what's around - basically the evenings have more life in them. I don't feel like I have to get home as quickly as possible and wrap myself up in blankets, secure in the knowledge that I'm protected from the harsh winter.

Life begins again, buds appear on trees and everything doesn't seem quite so grey anymore. The trees may have always been there but without leaves, they have been camouflaged, matching the grey buildings around.

Festivals begin. People want to be outdoors more often in the city instead of escaping to the mountains to ski or remaining indoors at every opportunity.

I can wear less clothing and feel more freedom. I can stretch my arms and not be bound my all the layers of items I am wearing to trap out the cold. My skin can breathe at last.

The biggest thing is the way the whole atmosphere in a city changes. People more visibly smile and seem to have more time for each other. We can see them drinking coffee, beer or whatever on the streets. We can join them or simple sit alone, read a book or people watch.

So this time of the year is a good one for me. I only hope I'm not writing this too soon.

Some Sunday Musings

The Pages

The pages are blank waiting to be destroyed, their innocence taken away. Right now, that’s only a thought, a distant idea that might or might not happen. It doesn’t really matter if it does or not. There’s no shame either way.

         This morning I woke up and had a number of powerful images in my mind from strange dreams during the night. I was living in an enormous house except that it was too big. The dimensions were so unrealistic that attempting to put it into words is a waste of time. That’s why I won’t write about it here. It will remain in my mind until it’s lost like all those other fleeting thoughts that get pushed out and replaced by the most current and engaging ideas.

         So why am I sitting in front of these blank pages? The answer to that is a mystery to me and I’d be grateful if you could enlighten me. Do I think I can produce something extraordinary which is better than anything ever written before? Do I? Of course I do but it’s not happening today and this is why I’ve chosen to write in this way than in that way.

         When I was a child I had a typewriter. Remember them? An error could not be corrected as easy as nowadays. It scarred the page. Typing was not as smooth as it is on this keyboard. Each letter punched the page and left a bruise on its white skin. It was very satisfying to see my work on a page rather than on a screen. It was something I could touch and smell. I didn’t like typing too much. It took a lot of energy to punch in these letters on the white page. Ink was more precious than it is now and the ribbon had a horrible tendency to become knotted in itself. There were some days when I spent more time trying to regulate this machine than actually getting it to perform my will.

         There is also handwriting of course. I keep my black journal at home. It’s not a moleskine unfortunately but a cheap imitation. Sometimes I think if I had a moleskine I’d write a lot more. Wishful thinking? Perhaps but it’s easier to make excuses than to take responsibility for the lack of output I produce on the lined pages in my notebook which is not a moleskine.

         Keeping a diary was always a good habit but reading back what I’d written was not an enjoyable experience. It was better to simply write what was on my mind and forget about it. It felt good to release these words onto the page and never look at them again. Occasionally I tore up the pages and threw them out into the bin. These were not words I wanted to share and besides who would even want to read them? They were confessions, outbursts of anger or frustration, records of the day and musings. They were not interesting. It was a form of therapy with a psychiatrist who was very good at listening but not so effective at giving advice. That didn’t matter though. What was important was that the words got out and didn’t remain inside where they did no good at all.

         Now where was I? Oh yes, the pages are in front of me again. I have thought about a whole range of prompts such as taking an object in the room and writing about it but I’ve done that too many times. Have you tried the one where you close your eyes, open a book on a random page, point at a word on the page and use that as your inspiration? It’s not bad but I’m not in the mood for that. There’s also the one where you think of a memory and recall it in your own words. Not a bad one that. It’s usually easier to write about what you know than you don’t. Another one I like is the one where you take a picture and use that as a prompt. It is a good one if you have a good imagination but today there’s not much going on in my mind. It’s having an off day and there’s not much I can do about that except stare at the page or just continue what I’m doing now. At least I’m writing something. I don’t have to share it or even save it. I can do what I want with it and no one need know about it. Now, that’s a very liberating thought, isn’t it?

Phone Etiquette

Why is it that some people are not aware of how to use phones in public situations? They don't put their phones on silent at the cinema, they talk loudly on public transport or prefer to communicate on their phone rather than with the person in front of them?

I often see the panic on people's faces to respond to their phone during a lesson even when I am waiting for an answer to a question I have just asked. It seems that we sometimes pay more attention to this little devices than to the people around us as if this type of 'human' contact is more important.

Another things that irritates the hell out of me is when people decide to share their taste in music in public spaces. Headphones? No? If the music was good I wouldn't mind so much but it's always the same type of Euro disco crap. I have often thought about counteracting this by blaring some Neil Young or some Simon and Garfunkle on a bus or train just to see the reaction.

The interesting thing is that mobile phones are still a relatively new piece of technology but can we spend time without them? How did we contact each other in the past? I guess it was more about planning in advance. Perhaps we were more punctual as we had no way to inform someone we were going to be late.

Of course, there are some people who don't use them. Once I heard about a manager of a language school who doesn't have a phone yet somehow she manages. Try going out without one for a day. It's a very liberating experience.

Baring All

After coming back from a fantastic run I feel I have banished my demons for a while at least. By 'fantastic' I don't mean that this word applies to my performance but rather to the feeling gained from it. There really is no better way to clear the mind and to get the endorphins working.

I can see why Christopher McDougall in his book Born To Run advocates it so much. He believes that, like the title suggests, we are indeed made / born to run. This is how we humans hunted in the past. We were able to tire animals but by running them into submission before killing them. Before reading about this I always thought that we were not made to run at all but running was simply something I enjoyed despite the fear of injuries from doing it too much.

What he argues is that our methods are all wrong and that we should run naturally without trainers. This whole concept of barefoot running is very interesting and makes sense. If we wear thick padding under the soles of our feet, our feet don't react naturally to the different contours of the ground beneath us so we are blocking our muscles from working naturally. The problem is that how do you change your methods of running or indeed walking after wearing modern footwear for so long?

Recently I spent a small fortune on trainers called 'Vivobarefoot' which are designed to let our feet do most of the work. Needless to say, after one run I was in agony. Descending stairs was particularly gruelling for my calf muscles. I gave it a week and tried again with slightly better results. The biggest problem was trying to change my technique and land on the top of my foot in order to put less pressure on my back and spring forwards. It's difficult to change habits that are deeply ingrained into the body and mind and it does take the fun out of just running without thinking.

I haven't used this trainers for a while but that's not to say I am giving up on this method. For now I am happy to be able to run without injuries but little by little I will try out these barefoot trainers. I don't expect them to elevate me to superfitdom status but hopefully gain the benefits that the author has gained from using this barefoot technique.

For more about the barefoot debate -

Christopher McDougall's Website

Missing Something(s)

I don't like being materialistic and I try not to own too many things but fail miserably when it comes to music. I don't regret this or feel ashamed about this but when I am away from my vinyl collection and guitar, I feel like I am not quite the same.

Listening to music on tinny laptop speakers is horrible really but I guess it's a small comfort. As for headphones, the advantage is that I can appreciate the nuances you don't always hear when listening to music but (sob, sob) my head usually hurts after using them for a short time. On top of this there is always the fear that I am damaging my hearing by exposing my ears to such a concentration of sound which is being channelled directly at my ear drums.

Playing vinyls or CDs on something other than a laptop is so much more of an enjoyable experience and makes me appreciate the album format for what it is.

Now when it comes to the guitar it's a different matter altogether. This is the tool I use to express what goes on in my head or what is made up from the imagination. It is the instrument that holds options that writing just doesn't have. I do love writing stories or these snippets I post here for that matter, but the combination of words and music is something special. I love the spark, the new idea and also the thought that the next song will be better than anything that I've done before. The latter is the driving force. First of all I need to prove to myself that I can create a new song that I feel is god and only then does it come to the point of possible performance. There are many songs that I have never shared and never will. They are like diary entries that have been recorded to remember them but that's all.

So I guess all this does make me materialistic but I feel I can justify it by saying it's also very much a spiritual thing.

On The Move / Initial Observations

Moving is always tough for me. It amazes me that people can move once a year or even more and not lose their minds. I guess I have mixed feelings about it. I admire and am confused by these people.

It's funny how often people look at me and think I'm one of these travellers who can't stay put in one place for too long. When I tell them it's not true, I usually get the feeling that they are not convinced.

Ireland 22 or so years and Poland for nearly 8 years and that's it. Okay so I have spent at least one month a year in Oxford for the last four years but that has been for work purposes and usually out of necessity.

Now it's Bratislava. It's not so different from Kraków in some ways but very different in others. Initial observations are that there are less small shops and markets to buy fruit and veg than in Kraków. This is a bit disappointing as I feel I am being forced to use Tesco a little too often. The architecture here has more remnants from the communist / socialist past whereas in Kraków, there have been many attempts to remove these traces of history. People are generally friendlier here and are willing to help if they can. In Kraków I often found people to be a mixed bag, sometimes friendly and sometimes they looked and behave as if they hated every human on Earth including themselves.

I'm digressing here though, although my heading has allowed for this. It's strange to move again. I'm starting from the bottom again but this time with experience of what it means to live in a totally different place and know no one. It's still weird and fitting in seems like a big task. I do have to remind myself that I haven't even been here one week and yet in some ways it feels like I've been here much longer.

Selfies - Everyone Is At It

What is the big fascination with 'selfies'? It is hardly a new idea yet for some reason it has become very popular since the widespread use of the smart phone. In the past taking a photo of yourself would have been deemed an act of vanity or necessity if there was no one else to take your photo at an interesting sight. Recently it seems that it doesn't matter if someone else can take your photo or not. What's important is the ability to capture yourself and perhaps others in a photo taken by yourself. What is fascinating is that this is considered cool. Why is this the case? How can something so self-absorbing not be frowned upon and ridiculed?

It seems that even animals are getting in on the act. Recently I even heard of a story of a black macaque monkey who took selfies of himself.This cheeky monkey began snapping away after snatching the camera from photographer David Slater. The website Wikimedia has since published some of these photos stating that they belong in the public domain as the monkey took these photos and not the photographer. These photos have since gone viral making this particular monkey more famous than he realises.


If even monkeys are at it, what hope is left to end this vain act of self-photography?

Link to video about the monkey selfie.