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Meeting warmth
One of the things that make me happy in my garden is a little clump of chives that I love to add to soups or to scatter them on boiled potatoes. They are best in late spring or early summer before hot days dry their juiciness out. I usually cut them a lot at that time prior to their flowering and keep them in our freezer for later use. I’ve learnt to use more herbs and spices lately and a week ago I remembered a spice mixture which I used to buy years ago. I decided to buy and taste it again so I made a mental note and when…
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Trip to Lhota – Part 2
After the Vision-and-Verb intermezzo of the last post, let’s get back to the trip to Lhota I’d told you about before. When we left the horses, we continued along the path and in some parts, we had a wonderful view. We met a group of friendly people who made me realise that the blue area in the photo below wasn’t water. They explained that it was a solar power station, the largest one near and far. Then we came to a cross erected in memory of someone and I really regret to say I don’t remember who it was. And I have no idea where to find it so next…
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Trip from Modrava
I’d like to get back to those few days we spent in Šumava this summer. We were staying in a camp, going on trips and for one day we planned a trip from Modrava to our camp. We had to go by bus just a few kilometres and then follow a marked track. When we were getting off the bus, it was already drizzling and we needed to take on our raincoats. Well, I don’t mind walking in rain, but our cameras had to stay in our bags and I regretted that so much. On the one hand I felt really annoyed and on the other I tried to persuade…
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First snow
It was snowing all day and night yesterday and as the temperature was stuck under the zero, we woke up into beautiful whiteness this morning. Just on Friday I finished covering some of the plants in our garden with branches to protect them against harsh winter and I’m so glad I managed to do it in time. We have a saying stating that “Martin comes riding a white horse”, which relates to 11th November being the Martin’s name day. It is quite usual that in the middle of November we experience the first snow, hence the white horse. This year the snow has come a bit sooner and I find…
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Admiring bouquets
A few weeks ago my mother-in-law celebrated her 70th birthday and invited us to come and join a party thrown on that occasion. She has known that both her son and I like taking photos and asked us to take a camera with us to preserve some memories of the party for her. We promised, how could we not to? When the date came, we sat into our car and went 500 kilometres to spend the following three days with her and to meet other more or less close relatives. Some of them are really nice people and we don’t see them very often (not even once a year) so…
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Flowers I can still admire in my garden
There are still some flowers in front of our house and in our garden and I’d like to share their beauty and my experience in growing them with you. I love this variety of Pelargonium, they are so easy to grow and have never disappointed me. If I forget to water them from time to time, they don’t fade right away and although they need fertilising if they are supposed to be rich in flowers, they endure somewhat harsh condition too. I used to decorate our windows with them but now I plant them into pots and big containers in front of our house to prevent our new outside plastering…
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Sunday afternoon walk
Unlike his older brother, our 9-year-old son has been eager to ride a bike and demands riding it every day. To make him pleased we went for a longer walk on Sunday afternoon here in the village where we live. There is a minor road leading to a distant part of the village and as it’s not used much by cars, it is suitable for walking and cycling. I decided to take a camera with me, what if there was something worthy of catching… There was, of course, as there always is, only the sun was quite sharp. Let’s take a few stops along the way. We have a pond…
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Bečov nad Teplou – castle, palace and chateau in one
There are not many places where you could find a Gothic castle, Renaissance palace and Baroque chateau as parts of one complex but I can show you one. If you come to Bečov nad Teplou, a wonderful view of such a complex surrounded by deep forests will open in front of you. First reliable information on the castle’s existence comes from 1349 when it was unequivocally documented in a charter. To a considerable extent, period decoration and many building features have been preserved as well as the medieval look of the castle. The chateau was built much later, at the beginning of the 18th century. After the WWII, when Beauforts…
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Bečov nad Teplou
This time I’ll take you to Bečov nad Teplou, a town whose name I’d translate for you as Bečov upon Teplá. We found out that there is a castle we hadn’t known about and went to see it. When we came to the town, I was surprised by its atmosphere, it looked good. Deep woods, a picturesque castle, pieces of metal plastic art displayed in the streets and reminding blacksmith symposiums having taken place during previous years. While we were passing by the first houses, we saw the following flower which immediately caught my attention. Later I was trying to identify it with the help of on-line field guides but…
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Minor localities of major importance
Full of impressions experienced during our trip to Kladská we were exploring maps of the area to find more destinations of our future outings. So it happened that during the next weekend we visited the following places, quite small areas but all parts of nature reserves. Locality No. 1: THREE CROSSES The name of the locality comes from the crosses which were put up in the place in 1859, reportedly as thanksgiving for the curing of ill brothers. No details known. The importance of the locality consists in its unique flora whose occurrence there results from two conditions. Firstly and essentially it is the underlying rock serpentine – soil covering…
