Tastes like home

I do like a bit of comfort food. I can't buy scones here, so decided to make some. It is also not possible to buy self raising flour here. So, I had to concoct my own with baking powder.

I love a messy floury table when baking. I used a recipe by Mary Berry that I found online.

The sun is shining and I like to sit at the table close to the window, so that the sunlight filters in.

Then a bit of magazine reading.

Since uploading more pics, it has started to rain and thunder rolls in the distance. I love the sound of the rain on the windows. It seems a bit more fitting to be eating them and sipping tea when the weather is poor. xxx

A Fairy Bed

Here are the bun case dollies. I have lost the stickers for them, so they are not totally finished yet, but a cute idea, I think. Putting the dolls together is obviously far too fiddly for a child of Eliska's age, but the clothes were stickers and she was also able to glue the little skirts on. She does love a bit of sticking.

I changed Eliska's bedding and put a different canopy up and some fairy lights.

I put some cute pics in frames next to her bed and roses from the garden.

Despite now having a bed fit for the most royal of fairies, I am pretty sure Eliska will be out of there at some point during the night and finding her way into mine.

I saw this cute little door on a walk around the village today.

The apples are growing well in our garden.

We also have peach trees. Due to the scorching weather, there is an abundance of fruit grown most summers. A lot of people make their own alcohol here, using fruit. It is mighty strong and could put hairs on your chest!

Pretty roses have been flourishing too.

It has been a sunny, happy Monday with Eliska inventing a new song, 'Golden Star...' Quite poetic, I thought...

x

The Whispering Trees

I had some more Cesky Krumlov pics, which I thought I would share.

 The tree lined path leads up to the town.

I have been to so many places here and have lots of photos and also really enjoy writing about them. I have decided to put some pics and words into articles and start sending them to places in the hope of publishing them. Wouldn't that be just dandy?

In myth, folklore and fairytale, the trees whisper. They seem like a gateway to a timeless place.

At home, in our village, there aren't many trees. I sometimes find myself venturing to places where I can be enveloped by trees. I think this is something that humans have probably done for years, for a sense of protection.

I am hoping to visit Prague in about a week. I get very excited about visiting these beautiful places.

'Music of whispering trees
Hushed by the broad-winged breeze
Where shaken water gleams;
And evening radiance falling
With reedy bird-notes calling.
O bear me safe through dark, you low-voiced streams.'

Siegfred Sassoon

Whilst walking around Cesky Krumlov, I pointed to a building and said, 'I think that was the battlements.' Not understanding the English word, Roman said moments later, 'That was where the soldiers lived.' I don't really know what told me that the building was where the soldiers preparedfor battle. Perhaps a lifetime of seeing castles in books and film had imprinted itself on my memory.

It is easy to say that the twists and turns of fate happen for a reason. Perhaps sometimes events happen for no reason at all, but as humans, we must find a reason and meaning in them.

I think I am closer to realising what has brought me to the place I am at now.

Back at home, we have had more fruit and veggies from the garden.

We also have homemade jam. I hasten to add, this was not made by me. It was made by Roman's mum and has the pips in, which I lurve.

I bought some cute paper dolls and put one together. They came with bun cases to make the skirts. It is a very cute idea. I will show you the results tomorrow.

I fell in love with this cute vintage army bag that Roman bought recently for about four pahnds. It is leather and very sturdy.

I hope you have enjoyed my pics and random Sunday thoughts. xxx

Dream Town

We have just returned from a trip to the Czech town, Cesky Krumlov. It was my fourth visit to the town which I absolutely love love LOVE!!!

On our way there,  I  read 'Green Darkness' by Anya Seton, a peculiar book where the medieval past and  the present meet. A character in the book comments that time is only happening now, that the past and the future are all happening at the same time. It seemed fitting for our destination. My head felt pleasantly confuddled as we coasted the winding roads.

We passed many villages that have a lake in the middle and I was spooked when Roman told me that they were made back when houses were wooden and villagers needed to swiftly put out fires in their houses.

I adore the beautifully preserved medieval buildings. It is a charming place of almost gingerbread house sweetness.

Before the restoration of the town's Gothic, Baroque and Renaissance architecture, Cesky Krumlov was known as a bit of a 'ghost town', due to its abandoned and neglected state. .A lot of work has been done on the town. In 1989, restoration began and it became a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1992.

I like to think of Cesky Krumlov back then as being rather like the castle grounds in Sleeping Beauty, dilapidated by time and overgrown, before all awoke.

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There was a lot of walking and Eliska did well.  There were only a few Suri Cruise moments of carrying.

We saw some sweet shops, with lovely trinkets and dolls with a folklore flavour.

Roman and I, who are sometimes a bit stuck for words on occasion for Eliska, thought this sign quite apt.

Legend tells that the White Lady is said to haunt the castle seen in the pic below on the left. In the fifteenth century, she made an unhappy a marriage to  the Moravian lord Johann von Lichtenstein. It seems she had a  cold and uncaring husband who did not treat her kindly. It is said that on his deathbed, her husband asked her to forgive him his ill treatment of her. When she refused, the story goes that her husband cursed her to walk the castle forever.  

Some have said that the figure of the White lady had been seen before significant events, perhaps as warning of ill tidings.

Cesky Krumlov is only around two hours from Prague, yet many visitors to the Czech Republic only visit Prague. Prague is an amazing city, but Cesky Krumlov is equally as stunning and definitely worth visiting. It  bemuses me that so many people are scared to stray from the beaten path.

 I think, because it is a town and not a large city, it has a unique atmosphere. Whilst spending time there, you almost feel whisked away to a place removed from time, momentarily detached from the modern world.

There is a feeling of refusge peace here that you wouldn't get in a city. There are a lot of tourists, but there is still a feeling of solace. 

Ah, don't they look relaxed, sitting in the sunshine?

Do not be fooled! The sky darkened during our visit and this became my first rain soaked time in Cesky Krumlov. Luckily, being the organised and terribly practical sorts that we are, we simply changed into our wet weather clothes.

Don't be silly! Of course we didn't. No, I had happily believed that the sunshine would hold and hadn't brought any waterproofs from the car. So, a return trip to the car for waterproofs was made. There was then a big trek back up the hill to the town.

All that walking and the damp weather meant that a trip to a tea shop was in order. We drank coffe and ate cake and we watched the tourists outside.

We ate  a tasty treat ,sort of doughy, cinammonish and smothered in sugar. You can see the little man in the pic cooking it. Clever little thing isn't it?

We bought a brolly and Roman bought an enormous platic poncho in a fetching shade of purple. He looked rather like a giant baby in it. I am dying to post a pic here, but I think he would kill me. It tied at the front like a funny bonnet. Oh how I laaaughed.

Rain can actually be a relief in this country, when summer is usually soaked in sunshine and my pale skin is surrounded by honeyed limbs. Oh, the joy of a mackintosh and a brolly!

You can't tell from the pictures, but this shop was like a gorgeous grotto. An arched passageway led to the shop interior. I would like to give the artfully arranged fairy lights on twigs a try.

It is a curiously higgledy piggledy town. The streets are cobbled and the buildings are sometimes a little wonky.

I even love the crumbling bits. Oh, I could stay here forever. It is a sort of spiritual home for me.

All too soon it was time to leave our refuge from the trials of the outside world. We walk away slowly, longing to hang onto a dream.

Sadly, I didn't leave in this car. I did love it though. I have always wanted one and the colour is a corker!

So, back to the comforts of home, to  a delightfully crumpled bed. The English like weather continues. So, with a Sunday feeling, I climb into bed and read and sip tea. Jarvis Cocker's voice belts out of the radio and I examine my pale limbs and I think my incongruity with my surroundings might be something to be treasured after all.

I hope you enjoyed my little trip. xxx