Nine days in South Bohemia
Monday
The journey yesterday seemed to take forever. Tiago gave us a lift to the airport, but we went really early because of potential delays for extra security. Everything at the airport went smoothly, though we had 5 hours in the departure lounge because the plane was late. I was concerned that the car hire place at Prague airport would have closed, but we were okay… they’d kept it open after hours for us – for a fee. At least we weren’t going to be stuck in Prague for the night.
It was dark, so we didn’t get to see the beautiful countryside as we drove down south from Prague, though the moon was huge and low.
We were going straight to the house, until we realised that we had no torch – essential to get the electricity switched on. Mike insisted in going on past Tabor to the roundabout at Tesco. I was convinced that we’d be able to get by torchless (ps… why is it that so much of our navigation in CR is Tesco related?) It was after 10 so I wasn’t hopeful about the store being open – but they were. I know it’s not quite the point, but we just felt a little bit more confident going in there – on our first night in the CR. We bought a cordless drill, as well as food & a torch.
The journey back from Tescos to Novy Mlyn also felt very familiar… past the lake where we stayed in a shipping container… up the cobbled hill (why cobbled there only?)… turn right at the forest, through Vlčeves, left and through the forest again… avoiding a rabbit in the road. I was anxious by the time we were nearly in sight of the place. What if the roof was down, or it had collapsed. We’d have to sleep in the car. When the barns came down (shortly before and just after we arrived at Novy Mlyn for the first time since we bought it), we took it in our stride; mainly because far worse things had happened in the previous year… damaged property aint worth worrying about. But still… I was anxious … we just seemed to have had such impossible amounts of bad luck recently. But even with everything else going on we managed to buy this big house in the middle of nowhere, and then left it for months at a time unoccupied. Anything could have happened to it. It appeared.
It looked okay… overgrown and dark, but okay.
The last time we’d been about was Easter weekend. Now there were apples on the trees in the garden, last time there weren’t even leaves… winter was just finishing and it had been long and hard. This time we didn’t need to hack our way through the ice with an axe (our first entry). We opened the front door and the house felt… warm! Warm and somewhat dark, however. After several minutes of attempting to put the power on, switching things on and off in the electricity cupboard, we gave up. They must have cut us off. Thank goodness we’d bought that torch, and that Zé had given us candles as a Christmas present. So, no water, no drainage, no electricity as well. It really was going to be a basic holiday… our Czech really wasn’t good enough for the challenge of contacting the relevant authorities about electricity bills.
We made ourselves as comfortable as we could (for Mike this meant opening a beer). Once we’d made the bed, it already felt homely, like we belong here. I reminded myself that there were only friendly ghosts here – though there was no way I was going to the toilet on my own.
Today our wonderful next door neighbour came round while Mike was attempting to light the stove downstairs to make coffee, Hynek showed us that we’d just not hit the right switch, ie the biggest one in the leccy cupboard. In fairness it looked more like a door handle than any ‘on’ switch I’d seen before – more like the kind of button you’d press if you were trying to blow something up. But – lo behold – then there was light. Thank goodness.
Hynek then insisted we go round to his house, and he made us coffee & breakfast & invited us for lunch at 1pm.
We spent the morning wondering round the house trying to work out what to do next. The insects have certainly been to work since we’ve been away… cobwebs everywhere like Miss Havershams house. The place was clean when we left it last time and now looked like it’d been empty for years.
We walked round the outside, which is quite overgrown, but there are loads of fruit trees laden with apples, pears & plumbs. The woodpile has been nicked though! All 15 metres of it! Mike is therefore going to spend some time cutting wood from the fallen barn and storing it away for the winter – my great uncle Glenis pointed out that we need to age the wood for a year after cutting it down so that it does not block the chimneys with tar.
So, I’m currently taking a break from filling woodworm holes with a mixture of putty and borax. I hope that’ll kill em. There’s only a few places that are showing woodworm in the main parts of the house, and I’ve no idea of it’s active woodworm or historic woodworm. However, there’s loads of holes in the attic, I could probably spend the next eight days filling holes. What’s a girl to do?
Hynek cooked us rabbit for lunch, we explained that in England people only had them as pets, not dinners. Not much space for vegetarians here! It was nice to spend time trying out our appauling Czech. He is very accommodating. We also met another local man who came round to see Hynek. He was asking us why we wanted to come and live in such a quiet place – our Czech vocab for describing Birmingham is clearly getting better!
Mike has come up with a plan to build a composting toilet in the garden. I’ll leave him to it.
I’m really not sure what to do… is there any point in filling woodworm holes in the attic. Should I get on with the cleaning. Try to figure out how to put the window locks in? Ne vim (I don’t know).
Now we’re in the car, on our way to meet Martin and his parents in Brno. Martin lived with us in Birmingham for a couple of months over the summer – helping us organise things for the house in exchange for a free room. Martin’s parents were really helpful, going over to meet a builder Martin had found in the village Vlceves – the closest village to our house. Looking round, I can’t see anything that the builder has started yet! The grass was about a foot deep – so I don’t know when it was cut last. Anyway, now we’re driving through the rolling countryside of South Bohemia: tree lined roads, natural pine forest, little summer houses that the Czechs come out to every weekend they can.
So, I put a lot of putty in a lot of holes today. Mike built a shed type thing for a composting toilet. I’m a little worried because it doesn’t have solid walls, just open slats on one side, but he seemed to be enjoy hammering the wood together. Mike’s also taken up the lino where the kitchen will be – the floorboards seem fine, so we’re going to hire a sanding machine so we can have wooden floorboards in the kitchen.
Mum and Phil should be arriving soon. They’re spending tonight in Prague, and coming down to see us tomorrow afternoon. They’re going to stay at Cervena Lhota – a red castle in a lake which is 7 miles from Novy Mlyn.
It feels so good to be here! There’s so much to get done, it’s rather daunting.
Tuesday afternoon
We’re travelling back from Brno after a lovely evening with Martin, Barbora (his girlfriend) & Martin’s parents. They were funny and accommodating – and had running water. The luxury. We managed to speak with them a bit (well, all night), and Martin translated. I was given advice about the best shops – Albert is better than Lidl apparently. Their home is beautiful, with an inspiring garden. There is a redcurrent bush that has been adapted to look like a tree. There are spider plants and flowers in the large window boxes on every window sill. It was good to be able to practice our Czech language. We understand so much more now than we did staying with Jana’s parents in Kromerjis.
So – trip to Hornbauch – bought spade for Mike, nails, a hammer (the Ikea one broke almost immediately). But, forgot the head torch – I need this to spray for woodworm. So, on the way back to the house before Mum & Phil arrive it would be good to buy
Feather duster (DONE – at the expense of being forced to reenact ‘Feather Duster’ in a buzy local shop - there was a bloke our age in there laughing at us and trying to figure out what we were on about)
Milk
Beer
a headtorch (DONE),
water barrel (DONE)&
look at hiring floor sanders (DONE – but leading to much confusion as they don’t exist in Baumax).
Instructions to reach Novy Mlyn from the airport.
Follow signs for TRANZIT – which is the ring road round the south side of Prague. Road no E48. Stay on this for about 20 km travelling round to the south east of Prague looking out for signs for the E50 and E55 in the direction of Ceske Budeovice – C BUDEOVICE.
Signs to LINZ and BRNO are also the right direction.
Immediately after a huge factory on your left hand side, painted to look like cartoon characters, next to hotel Zapa, you will need to take the RIGHT exit from the Tranzit onto the E50 and E55.
After 20 km you will reach a turn off for TABOR onto the E55 (This is where the countryside starts getting pretty).
A further 20 km on you will drive through BENESOV, and carry on towards Tabor. Stay on the E55 through Tabor until you get to an exit signposted PELHRIMOV, road no 19 – (junction Tabor Jih – 80km from Prague). Follow this road heading east for about 5 km to CHYNOV – where there is a K shaped junction. At the junction follow signs to Cernovice – the top right road from the K. This is road 409. You will be driving through open countryside. As soon as you reach the forest there will be a road off to the right through the forest, signposted to VLCEVES. Follow this road & it will come out of the forest, go through Vlceves & out the other side, staying on the same road. Again, you’ll be driving through open countryside. You’ll reach a T junction. Turn left here and Novy Mlyn is in the first clearing in the forest.
Words I’ve heard, but don’t know the meaning:
Mistnost
Dalsi
New words
Tool hire? Puchovna na (nahradi)
First time – poprve
Friday.
How is it Friday already? It’s 8am, I’m in what will be the dining room. I’ve lit the stove to make coffee… making fire lighters made of old work files (very satisfying – but they didn’t light very well – some king of similie?)
The week has run by. There’s lots of light in the stove, but the top doesn’t seem to be getting very hot. Last time I tried to make coffee, I forgot about it & it went out. Now it’s gone quieter. Is that right?
I need some kind of a manual. Maybe we could find a book on how to live in the Czech countryside? Or write one, supposing we manage to survive this.
Mike is in bed. Hynek took us to see the builder, Mr Bourian, last night. He showed us their supply of rabbits – there must have been thirty there in cages. There is a strict slipper regime in Czech homes. You must always take off your shoes at the entrance and sometimes you’ll be offered guest house slippers. At the Bourians – they also took off their house slippers to walk on the lounge carpet – which was fluffy and looked new. It’s all very sensible!
Mr Burian & his wife were very welcoming & we managed to understand a little of what they said. They also had a young neighbour who had learnt some English and did his best to translate for us. I told him my arms were aching after all our work & he said ‘welcome to the countryside!’. People look really healthy round here… large bouts of physical exercise such as wood chopping and cycling to the local shops. Clean air. Good beer…
We have a list of things that are urgent to do – support the roof for the winter, fix the windows, woodworm spray the loft & take wood from the fallen barns to replace the wood pile. How much wood will we need for the winter? How do we work out something like that? So, after a few drinks… beer & strawberry snapps (a 50th birthday present for Mr Burian) we invited them over for food on Saturday. That’s tomorrow. At the moment our outside barbeque is a muddy hole in the grass. Luckily it will be ready for tomorrow 5pm!!! Our first party.
Anyway, after we drove home we went round to Hyneks so that Mike could have a beer (there’s a no alcohol rule with Czech driving – I think that it is frequently ignored but not worth the risk for us). I left them to it & snuggled up in bed with ‘the time traveller’s wife’. Mike is doing brilliantly over here – despite skiving off Czech class so much, he’s spending a lot of time with Hynek & they’re communicating fine. I’m really happy I married someone who is so sociable that he doesn’t need language to get on with people. Beer talks!
The stove sounds ominously quiet, and last time I looked, the coffee maker wasn’t even tepid! Hmm. This whole firestarting thing is more difficult than first appears. Now I have gently glowing embers, which look very pretty but don’t seem to be doing a fat lot for my coffee. I’m loathed to go wake Mike up and admit that I can’t even make a cup of coffee on my own. I’ve put on some more bits of barn, so I hope that’ll help.
I’m hungry. Now I think about it, we didn’t eat last night (apart from beer and crisps). I have the remains of a rum flavoured sweet soya bar (it may be okay if I can eat it with coffee to disguise the taste). This is what happens when you can’t read the packets on stuff.
Mr Burian told us yesterday that there’s an English woman who has a house near here. She’s from London & he said he’d introduce us.
Mum and Phil were here for a few days. I’m really pleased that they’ve seen the house. And South Bohemia made an effort to look really pretty for them – big skies, pine forests, tree lined roads. They said it reminded them of Canada. We did some general DIY stuff – like putting in a water barrel (now hoping for rain so that we can at least have some sort of water supply) – and ate out at at local restaurants – one by a lake & another – the Old Dragon – which does fantastic duck
Mike took them round to meet Hynek & he got his motorbike out. He used to have 20, and spent much of his life racing them. Now he has only one – an Indian with a sidecar. He took Mike out for a spin, then Phil & I also had a go.
So… I have a choice of things to do today… there’s more barn to take apart (I’m sorting out the bricks, stripping off the mortar & stacking the whole ones) I could break up some wood for the fires – clear some of the wood and tiles from the barns. Now Mike has come down and sorted out the fire. It’s roaring. He says I was impatient and didn’t start it off with small bits of wood. Maybe we’ll have coffee soon!
We now have a toilet (of sorts) – it’s rather romanesque – and really very exposed. But better than nothing. I think I need to persuade Mike to put more wood around it so you can’t see straight into it.
Yesterday the 15 year old grandson of Ludemilla came over & used lots of words we didn’t understand. Bless him, he carried on talking anyway. Mike asked him about swimming places & he took us to a beautiful swimming pond a couple of kilometres away in Boretine. He’s called Vojtek, which sounds like utek.
Hooray! The coffee is done. Haven’t got food, so maybe I could have a cigarette for breakfast.
Sometimes I feel quite lost. There’s so much to do to fix this place up. It’s difficult to know what to do next. Mike & I can’t decide what to do about the barns. Mike wants to just bulldoze the whole lot, but I want to deconstruct them, so that we take out only what needs to go, use the wood for the fires & take out any bricks which we can reuse. Not sure what to do with the roof slates. Probably best not to scatter them round because of the asbestos. Maybe they need to be contained in one place. I need to find out how safe it is to use asbestos tiles as hardcore. Other times, I put a blanket out under an apple tree and laze about looking at the blue sky through the leaves of the apple tree, and think about walking up to our local swimming pond. One day we’ll make our pond into a swimming pond. Once all the work is done on the house, we’ll be able to explore the local area. There’s 6 world heritage sites (other than Prague) in the local area; miles and miles of paths and cycle routes. Sometimes there’s paths between villages where there aren’t roads between them. We’ve also yet to walk up the valley (Apple Tree aptly) to the nearest swimming pond. That’ll be a nice thing to do on a hot day when we haven’t been labouring for hours.
Mum suggested that we start up a cider press here. There’s certainly enough apples – and Czech people don’t have cider. We’ll have to look up the recipe when we get home. I bet we could use some of the machines in the barns which were part of the starch factory for it.
In someways it’s nice that we haven’t had lots of visitors this year. I’m sure as soon as we have a bathroom people will be over like a shot. Without our friends we have had the chance to spend more time with people here, speak in Czech and get to know people.
Sunday morning
Last night, after we’d cleared up from our first party, we sat on the porch watching a thunder storm. Lightning filled the sky & lit up the pine forests moments at a time. I was hoping for heavy rain – to fill our water barrel. It was good to be a little bit drunken & talk about our lives, the weekend, what we want for the future & how things are now.
We’ve had a great weekend. And it’s felt like a proper weekend – lots of time spent with other people. On Friday night we decided to walk into Cernovice – rather than eating cheese sandwiches for yet another meal. We went to Hotel Mlyn – which is the only place in town guaranteed to do food, ate, and met a couple from Prague & an old man who was staying in his cottage for the weekend. We had a good few glasses of beer, and communicated at some level in Czech. At least people can tell us that they don’t understand, and we understand that. Unfortunately I have mixed up the words for ‘remember’ and ‘forget’.
We’d worked hard all day, again. Mike digging out the area for the patio/outside kitchen while I went through a second hand shop’s worth of clothing. There are lots of wardrobes in the house, though mostly empty, I discovered the other day that they had been emptied into bin bags and stored in the loft above the front porch.
Despite sneezing, and help from Voitek – (the fifteen year old seems to be our new best friend), I looked through each bag. Most of the clothing is fine. Embarrassingly there are better coats than we have in Birmingham. I now have a warm navy army jacket, bomber jacket and we have a fantastic moleskine hat, also traditional style Czech work clothes. Mike has navy dungarees, and mine are red and black – and heavily patched. We really look the part now. I think this is helping with integration – we are obviously getting on with work ourselves.
There was also a uniform of some description. It has riding trousers with it and two stars on each lapel. I need to find out when this uniform was from. So, clothes sorted. There’s a few that I’m going to keep as well as the work clothes – some really nice green woolen trousers to take back to the UK. Need to figure out what we can carry so I can decide on the rest. May just need to put the bag back in the attic space for now. Wonder what to do with the books? Could just bag them up and store them in the sheds for now. Maybe that’s a task for the next visit.
Though it rained last night, our water barrel is empty. The tap was switched to ‘on’. We live and learn. This means that we are completely out of water. I have had an apple from the garden (we have so many apple trees – making Cider is definitely an option – I had a go with the press the other day. It turns, but the apple juice squirted out of the top of the machine, so it was rather messy. So, it needs a new seal, some tlc, and maybe a coat of Hammerite). Anyway, maybe I will go get some water from Hynek. I think I can hear him. Then I can make coffee for Mike to wake him up.
While I was sorting things out for the party yesterday – I worked out doing washing up out of the window using the water mister, so now we have lots of clean plates & mugs. Hmm – shall I go fetch water for coffee – or carry on writing? Coffee.
Guess who was tapping at the kitchen window as I walked into the room – our new best friend. He followed me to Hyneks & helped me fill up the water bottles. I had a chat with mrs next door (not sure if she is his ‘lady friend’ (if that’s the right word for a woman in her 60’s) or sister, but she’s very friendly and made fantastic strudel for us. I think that she said that as the car hire is very expensive, we could catch something to Tabor & Hynek could pick us up from there next time. I also explained about wanting my old orange skoda (I think). That was a whole conversation in Czech! And I think I understood most of it.
So, now back in bed with coffee. Just had coleslaw sandwiches as we have a small mountain of it left from the party yesterday. The food seemed to go down okay, Mike said that if they were just being polite – they wouldn’t have had seconds. We worked our way through a crate of beer, a bottle of cherry snapps and made a dent in the bottle of Merunke (?) made for us by Martin’s mother.
We were going to do bbq fish, but forgot that everything shuts here on Saturday afternoons (well, from 11am). At 11am on Saturday we were drifting round Hypernova (a huge supermarket in Tabor) with raging hangovers… ie carrying a sick bag & looking dazed.
They have a machine at the supermarket for bottles – it works out what sort of bottles you’ve put in & prints out how much money they will give you back at the till. We were too dazed to remember what Hynek had said about the shops shutting – so didn’t buy any beer – and then went out for lunch in Chynov instead of searching for a Rybnik (the fish ponds where they (hopefully) dispatch the creatures in front of you). So, shortly after 2, we realised that we had no fish and no beer. Luckily, Jesus was going to be at the party later, but not the miracle one – Mr Christ from next door.
Voitek has just walked into our upstairs room! He was helpful last night, but as ever, we didn’t ask him to help. He managed to wrestle control of the bbq from Mike (Mike was becoming increasingly annoyed).
I have told Voitek that if he wants to work, I will pay him to take bricks from the area round the barns and stack them up by the fence. I hope that he decides to do it. I’ll check with him later. We’ve told him we don’t need help today – and he can come back on Monday. The message does not seem to have got through. It’s been good having people around who don’t speak any English – and though he is always talking & stopping Mike from doing whatever – I think Mike is probably picking up quite a lot of language from him.
There were more people than we were expecting last night. In Birmingham we had an Italian flatmate called Marco living with us for a while. One thing he taught me was what a difference it makes to dress a table when you have people round. He would always find flowers for the table when we had a house meal together. As the house is such a mess, and the patio area Mike is making still a muddy hole, we put the kitchen table out on the front porch. I got out a tablecloth & picked some weeds/flowers (depending on your perspective – butter cups, cow parseley, thistle, chamomile, clover, what must be hare bells) & covered the porch bench with an old quilt. So it looked really quite civilised when Pan Bourian and his wife arrived, with Honza, and also a girl called Misha. Misha was absolutely charming – and is soon moving to Brno to study at vetinary school. She spoke excellent English – and said that this was the first time she’d spoken in English with English speakers. Hynek came round with his lady friend (and strudel), and also Ludemilla came over with strudel – as well as a present for us – a picture of a wild flower meadow, mountains and blue sky in a metallic finish. I’m going to put it up in Birmingham.
Mike just came in and said ‘ I wonder when they go back to school’. I think we’ll go to Tabor in a bit. Maybe we’ll even find the mysterious lost centre of Tabor – so far we’ve failed to find it.
Now on our way to Tabor. Bloody James Blunt on the radio again. Finally escaped the house, Vojtek is a very good teacher. We simply must be able to communicate with him. Anyway, so we’ve loaded up the car with the 3 crates of empty beer bottles for the strange machine at the supermarket.
When you drive out of the forest you can see how high up we are here.
So, last night was fun. I was nervous, and annoyed, before hand as Vojtek said he knew a place which sold fish on Saturday afternoons, so he and Mike were out looking for it until half four, meaning Mike was not able to help with sorting out the house. But still, when everyone arrived, the meat was cooking, salads made & table laid. Mr Burian & Hynek showed us where the roof tiles were missing & the chimney damaged. We talked a bit about the house – again no-one understands why we don’t want all the windows replaced etc. Mike explained about doing stuff as we can afford it, but to a high standard, so it might take us ten years. Hynek said that though he was unable to do physical work, he would be able to help by giving us advice.
So, despite horrible hangovers, the evening was fine. Misha said that Hynek had everything from the house he needed & I explained to her that I thought it might be difficult for him because we were essentially sitting on the porch of the house he lived in for most of his life, around the kitchen table he grew up with… cups, chairs & tablecloth as well. Misha said he had no emotional attachment to it. Again, we had a sociable night.
On Friday, after food, we’d decided to call in at a bar we’d seen in Cernovice… where the people who looked a bit like our friends in Birmingham seemed to go. It was kind of nerve racking because it would be great to have a pub like the Jug of Ale in Cernovice, but we didn’t know if people would be okay with us. We’re English, & we’ve bought a big house in the countryside (despite it being a bit of a wreck). But, we went in for one drink before we walked home & ended up staying for several hours. The first person we saw was the bloke from the shop the other day. Later I tried to play Snap with him, but it’s not a very good game. People kept buying us shots – absinthe, rum & a mint spirit. No-one spoke English at all, but they were welcoming and it gave us opportunity to practice. (maybe I could make myself a badge to say in Czech - please correct me when I say anything stupid – (Misha pointed out last night when I said ‘mejte se hesky’ that I was saying ‘you must wash well’!)) Later one guy turned up who spoke English – why would I think he was a dealer? Probably the Absinthe talking. There was a bloke called Zdenek in there who had a really expressive face, and seemed lovely. The guy from the shop was really happy. The first people who bought us a drink asked us if we wanted a ‘big green’ – I asked if that was Absinthe, and that’s what they bought us. We walked home happy, and woke up ill.
We found Tabor! A hill town with a lake on one side and a river on the other… a university and lots of really impressive Art Noveau buildings. It felt really nice there. Some people were re-enacting the Hussite revolution. We were stalked again by James Blunt. At least it was just one song – rather than the whole album, twice through at Cervena Lhota restaurant. Also, went up to look at the Cynov caves, but they’re shut for reconstruction. We saw cows out in a field for the first time too.
Baufeld ecological services?
It’s Monday morning. We go home tomorrow. I can’t sleep. Mike is snoring, but I’m fidgeting. Wondering if the chocolate I ate a couple of hours ago was loaded with caffeine. So, my plan for tomorrow… fitting the window locks on the downstairs windows, general cleaning and tidying. We also need to get on the Internet to find out what we can take with us on the plane now.
It was my sister’s birthday yesterday & I’ve bought her some nice things that would have been several times more costly in the UK. But, we were just over our luggage allowance on the way over, so need to see what we can take. My fault for bringing so many library books. In fact I’ve only had time to read The time Traveler’s Wife.
While I was cleaning the other day I found two things on top of a wardrobe in the hall. The first was a photograph of a couple. Sepia. A winter wedding as the bride is wearing a coat. The groom is in uniform. I’ve put it up on the wall. Was this their house? Is it his riding uniform I found in the attic above the porch? The other picture is a painting of Czech countryside, a church & house in the distance, fields and silver birch trees in the foreground. It is very grubby and the frame has woodworm, but I would love to clean it up. I wonder if there are instructions somewhere on the Internet on how to restore old paintings?
When we returned from Tabor, our new best friend was waiting for us. Mike played football with him for a bit before explaining that he needed to sleep. Our new best friend was insistent on continuing to work in the garden, even though I explained very clearly that this was for monday, not now. He claimed not to understand. Later on in the evening he walked into the house & up the stairs, so I had to pretend to be angry with him so he’d realise that he’s not to do that. I shouted in English & he left unhappily. If we need to stop him being here, I think we need to actually lock him out. Mike has worked out the vocab we need to explain to him that we need to spend some time alone, and he is not allowed to come in uninvited. If he knocks on the door & we don’t answer, we are buzy. Wondering the house uninvited definitely tips the balance between new best friend and stalker.
We also amended the water barrel – there were a couple of earwigs floating around in it, so we’ve used part of a pair of tights clipped to the down pipe to stop debris falling into the water. Ideally we’d have some kind of filter at the top of the down pipe – some day! We also bought a garden shower for a fiver, as well as a solar water heater – nothing posh – just a bag that you fill with water and put in the sun. Now I wish I’d bought some hose as we could hang the solar water thingy from an upstairs window so there was enough pressure for it to feed the garden shower. This is only a summer solution, but worth trying. And it has to be better than wet wipes as a washing option (until we can find a local firm to drill a spring at a price we can afford). One day we’ll have all the mod cons – running water, safe electricity etc.
I also bought a couple of grape vines (£3.50 each). I need to plant those out tomorrow. Perhaps with something around the stems to protect them from the winter snow? Apparently you need to have 40 cm below ground to prevent freezing (I need to speak to someone who knows the effects of sub zero temperatures on reed bed filtration systems). I wonder if I could lag the plants somehow? Or I need to have the roots 40 cm below ground? I’d love to have a grape vine growing around the front porch of the house. Hmm.
So, after that, it was a nice, chilled out evening of rest and reading. We talked about walking up the valley to the swimming pond, as we’ve still not done this. There’s so much to explore yet, but luckily it rained (slightly filling our water barrel and preventing us from leaving the house).
Toilet: we bought a screen to go round it today, and it now works well. It was too exposed before, but we now have a descreet cubicle around it. It doesn’t smell or attract flies as you put a layer of earth into it each time it’s used (the earth that was dug out of the hole and put in a big wooden box, with a trowel, by the edge. I think this would probably get wrid of the fruit flies living on the compost heap at home – a layer of earth over each time anything they like goes in there.
I read an article on the Internet about using tuning forks to discourage mosquitoes. We’ve not had a problem with them this time, only a couple of bites each – and that was the night we stayed at Cervena Lhota with Mum & Phil (the accommodation doesn’t match the standards of the restaurant. I wish we’d booked them into Hotel Mlyn, which is walking distance from the house). I wonder if sound can be used to repel other types of insect from the house.
I’m being bugged by a fly. They seem to be more insistent over here than at home, so I’ve just put some geranium oil on a baby wipe to see if that will repel it. I was looking for something that I could use for insulating the windows. There’s a gap that insects can get through. It’s not nearly so bad this time, but the first time we stayed, every day a new batch of them had crawled in around the window frames. Now you can buy plastic stuff to stick in the gap, but it doesn’t look very nice & will probably corrode & loose it’s elasticity relatively quickly. I wonder if I can use mum’s spinning wheel to spin some rough wool of the right dimensions? (I could bring it over here and buy a fleece for the purpose). I could tack that in around the part of the frame that lift’s out. Today I also need to put back in the window from the attic we fixed the glass from last time we were here – now most of the windows have been repaired the house is looking loads better, but filling in the gaps will mean that the house retains temperature far better and keeps out those pesky insects. When I described our house to Honza as a spider hotel – he at first took us literally that we wanted to set up a pension called ’spider hotel’. The spiders certainly had been busy over the last few months.
I’m still wondering what to do about the bloke who wants bricks. It would be useful to have material cleared from the site, but I would far rather save the bricks to rebuild the barns – whatever shape this may take. Mike is really not keen to do this & just wants to bulldose the lot. I don’t feel that’s the right thing to do. The parts of the barns which are still standing seem to be constructed of stone rather than brick. I want to fillet the wood and bricks out, dispose of the tiles safely and reuse as much material as possible. I would like to replace the fence with a wall, for example, because walled gardens seem really romantic.
Mike & I are having a bit of a fight about the kitchen. As the chief washer upper I want to be able to look out onto the garden as I wash up. As the window is ½ metre from the floor, this will mean that light is blocked out. I was thinking about this today because there seems to be flexible drainage pipes and flexible water pipes available. What I’d like to do is have a Belfast sink on a trolley, so that I can put it under the window when I’m using it, and scoot it back to the corner afterwards. There would have to be space to put things to dry as well. Need to think about the design.
Ditto the outside kitchen. Mike wants slabs, I want the small blocks of stone they use on roads and paths here. We walked past a site in Tabor where this was being laid. It looked really pretty. Perhaps Mike is thinking outside kitchen/skate board area & just hasn’t mentioned it? There was a skate board shop in Tabor – so Mike was encouraged by that.
Tuesday Afternoon
We’re on the road back to Prague. I feel sick & I don’t want to go back to Birmingham. I want to stay here, and make our house into home. Grow things in the garden, put up curtains. Nausea is because we’ve been trying to make a dent in the Strudel mountain. Mike has done really well, seeing as he doesn’t like apple. Then we also have some other pastries from Ludemilla – which were very sweet.
We spent this morning tidying up and packing things away. It rained overnight so we had a decent amount of water at last. So, now our has the basic basics – a water supply of sorts and a toilet of sorts. If I put up the solar water heater I wonder if I could persuade Lisa, Katy or my sister to come over for a weekend. I need to remember to tell my sister about the corn flowers & chamomile growing wild in the fields.
It’s been good though, being here on our own. It’s meant that we could practice our Czech in a way that would not have been possible if we’d had guests with us who didn’t speak Czech. We have met loads of people… and everyone has been nice. I was really concerned that people would be more reserved with us, but that’s just not been true. And now, when our friends to come over – we’ll be able to introduce them to the people we have met already.
Yesterday evening we went to Voitek’s 15th birthday party, with his mum, gran, sister & boyfriend, & Hynek. As ever, we were made very very welcome. We bought him a couple of books to help him learn some English. I wonder if he’ll manage to learn any before we come back. We sat round a fire and they cooked sausages on long sticks & of course we drank beer. We muddled through in our broken Czech until Veronika’s boyfriend turned up – who spoke good English. He has a band called 5 symbols (www.5symbols.com - who’d have thought that such a nice bloke would have a voice like that!) and music on myspace. (He, Zdenka, Mike & I are quite similar ages!). Veronika has a car for sale for 5000 kc – a gold Skoda. It would be great to buy something like that because the most expensive thing about our trips over is the car hire. If only we could find someone to look after a car for us in Prague.
Later we walked across the fields (we kind of lost the path) to see Pan Bourian. The combine harvesters were still going even though it was getting dark, they must have known it was going to rain overnight so they needed to get the harvest in. They gave us even more Bohemia Chips (The first time I met them I’d told them in Czech that there are no better crisps!) – and wanted to give us plums & greengages. We had to explain that we couldn’t take anything else with us, though we were grateful. I’m pleased to discover that they have greengages here – it’s my favourite fruit (probably because you don’t come across them that often in the UK & there used to be a greengage tree on the otherside of the stream from our home in Scarborough).
We drank beer & chatted (with the help of the dictionary). Pan Burian got out his accordian, and their grand daughter (4) and son, who’s a mechanic, also joined us. They insisted on giving us a lift home. So, we went to bed with our library books, rather than face trying to sort things out for going home. I’ve nearly finished The Time Traveler’s Wife – the end is making me cry. I haven’t touched any of the other library books – really took too many books with us this time.
I think I am going to have to beg everyone to come with me here for a weekend before the winter sets in. Were driving towards Prague; the road through Milicin is high up, with beautiful views – there are miles of rolling fields with pine forests in the distance. Everything is green and clean and bright from the rain.
We left the house tidy, and as clean as we could manage. Much easier with our new water supply. It feels like our home now. Even though we don’t have any plumbing, no bathroom or kitchen. Hopefully soon.
We need to come out in the Autumn to cut back the fruit trees. There were masses and masses of apples. Yesterday I planted two grape vines outside the front of the house. There is a wire fence for them to grow up. Hynek came round and said that they would freeze to death over the winter… I’d still like to give them a go. I’m sure I’ve seen them around in the area – probably not as high up as our house, in fairness.
We’ve just driven past a field of sunflowers, about 45 km from Prague. Mike was keen to leave. He really doesn’t like the last morning at the house & is always keen to get on the road. I think it’s because there’s a lot of finikity putting away etc, rather than reluctance to leave. Anyway, we left the house just after 2, giving us loads of time for traffic jams, lunch & delays at check in. At least on the way back we’re now able to take the computer with us, so I’ll be able to sit and do some work.
Just seen a roadside memorial. Different from the ones in England, which always seem to have dead flowers rotting in celephane. This was more like a little garden/rockery. There’s such a sense of aesthetics in this country.
We’re getting close to Prague but the countryside is still very open – dimply, forest covered hills & small villages, sunflower fields. Jan Saudek photos on billboards on the roadside.
I’m looking forward to a bath when I get home.
We’ve just come over the hill and can see Prague suburbs, ringed by panelaks (blocks of flats). Here’s where all the new building start – corporate headquarters and factories… big big billboards and stuff written in English. New housing estates. It’s a different world from Novy Mlyn.
Mr Kriz & Viotec both came round to say goodbye earlier. Mr Kriz with more strudel (luckily it is very very nice, and Voitec with some cakes from Ludemilla. Ugh. We’re stuck in traffic & Mike is smoking. Not nice when I’m feeling sick anyway. We need to find somewhere to stop to eat. Thinking about going into the second hand furniture market on the outskirts of Prague. The problem is that we don’t know where it is. Hopefully we can find someone who does. I’ve lost Jana’s new number, so I hope she gets my email.
Yesterday morning we went to Cernovice Library. Its only open on Monday and Friday – and shuts for lunch between 11.30 – 1.30. It’s the only place in the village with public Internet access. So, we checked about hand luggage allowances, looked at our bank account, read and wrote emails. It’s frustrating not having a phone line to the house. As soon as we have Internet access there, working from Novy Mlyn becomes a real possibility. We’re in some horrible mobile black spot as well – we need to swap to Vodafone – (Oskar here) as they’re the only mobile company with a signal. Mike is quite confident that we’ll be able to use G4 when that comes out. Now we’re stuck in traffic outside the Sun Microsystems offices. Next to a brand new shopping centre with a Marks & Spencers. A Mercedes Benz office. Think we’ll go look at the shopping centre at Chodov – in the spirit of research.
So now on the aeroplane, nearly back in Birmingham. I wonder how long it will be before I think of as Birmingham as somewhere I go when I’m away from home.
The journey to the airport was fine. We left lots of time, and stopped off at the huge Chodov Central shopping centre – where we bought another SIM card (which will work at Novy Mlyn) and some contact lenses (invented in the Czech Republic). When we have visitors there are shopping malls within easy reach; inside it we could have been anywhere in the western world. Again, an age away from Jihoceska – where the shops shut at 11am on a Saturday, leaving us fishless.
So, back to Birmingham. Need to switch the computer off before we land. Birmingham looks massive. And orange. Prague was so tiny from the air in comparison. Anyway, we’re nearly home.