The heat is on

The summer sun beating down everyday is making for the current unpleasant and excessive heat. 
My only place for solitude is to start laying down near to a thousand floor tiles in the bathroom and kitchen. 
After a couple of sessions there are now 42 carefully placed terracotta squares squashed down in Havrans special cob mud mixture base. 
Having been reluctantly putting off this humongous task for an excessive amount of time (no such thing as a small job at this cottage..), there is now a dash to have the job completed before the summer disappears. With the way the hot stifling days are it seems a very long time away. 
Certainly the hot weather has given nature something to think about. A collection of unfortunate stiff insects is mounting up, crispy tinder dry grass has given up to grow anymore, and the crusty ground is becoming to appear like one large broken egg shell. 
Our dogs, panting like a couple of steaming locomotives, are happy to sleep the days through for relief.
And the plum season has finally arrived in full. Falling like stones, and in abundance as normal, the heat is certainly on.



  

Sun cream

Another day at the office!
After watching the beetroot coloured faces returning home from Havrans' own wild swimming hideaway it has crossed our minds whether sun cream is ever bought in this country.
When it comes to pain my morning had been pretty spectacular too. 
It started with a vicious attack by a bramble bush which left blood dripping and a thorn piercing the back of my ear without noticing it until lunchtime. The secateurs though had the revenging last laugh.
Next were the nettles. Wearing in-appropiate gloves with conveniently placed holes on the fingers, regular stinging pursued whilst making a new batch of natural fertilizer feed for the vegetables. Intensive scratching followed.
Over ripened pears have been falling quickly from our two old trees lining the track outside the cottage. Bruised and battered, they make an excellent addition to the compost. As I picked up this content I heard the regular ruffling of a new pear falling through the leaves, too late to take cover as I softened its landing with my head. There was still time to be stung by a wasp enjoying the inside juices of one of the fruits.
And it is not a good idea to wear gummy slippers and use a pick axe to excavate hard dry ground. Nothing needs explaining as to why I had a sore toe. 
Consequently I decided it was time to leave before any further injury. Sun cream packed, as I was already red-faced from all the other previous events of the day.       

Unbroken sunshine

When your bum sweats after a few seconds in the sun you know it's hot. 
Whilst all nice to have such warm weather it is proving as much a hindrance towards work on the house and in the garden as did the winter months before. 
This has pushed the focus of attention back inside and the final strokes of lime wash are added to the open plan kitchen walls. The off-white tinge rather than the hopeful polar look can stay now as far as I am concerned after 7 attempts of adding to the wall content taking a day each to do..
DJ Playboy has his party posters up all over town to advertise his latest contribution to Slovak life, the heat is rising more this summer.

Lazy sunny afternoon

The summer whizzing by; guests coming and going, kittens growing, weeds growing even more but life here stands still if it wants to. 
The regular blue Travant seen in the town, beautifully dressed elders with their cooperative shopping bags, and the death board attracting the attention every friday to see who's not left in the local population. 
So what's new here? A bizarrely named 'deaf kebab' shop (complete with hearing aid symbol logo!), D.J 'flirt' party in some remote village location and constant rays of sunshine. With ever-lasting pointing of the stone on the cottage walls and countless limewash coats still to apply there is only just enough time to catch up with some relaxed swimming in the nearby lake.
In fact there should always be time made for this experience on a lazy sunny afternoon no matter how quickly the summer passes by.

At your convenience

I was convinced I saw wobbly clouds last night reflected by the moonlight whilst on my way to the outside convenience (we prefer the fresh air when we are perched and the view is better too).
I may have been tired and I promise there was no alcohol or drugs involved but the clouds wobbled in front of the moon. I have even tried to find any information regarding this phenomenon but so far nothing has related.
Obviously Jana thought I was crazy which is understandable in this instance and her conclusion suggested I had pushed the lawn mower for far too many hours that day (over excitement to cut some grass after a productive visit to the hardware shop and two fixed front wheels!).
Our outside loo does have a great view though whether night or day. The privacy allows the door to be left open as you watch the countryside view.
The early morning or at dusk it isn't uncommon to see a deer munching in the fields. There are plentiful of birds all day, usually oblivious to what you are doing. And you face the sun setting on a clear summer's evening. The only issue with all of this is that you may spend longer sat there than anticipated.
As for the wobbly clouds, it is a full moon tonight and I will be taking another trip outside later.  
  

Strawberry fields

Summer heat and bugs munching on the garden produce. 
Constant source of irritation picking off stripy hard shelled beetles from the potato crop leaves and squashing their little heads as a yellowy orange paste squirts out. Even worse to exterminate are the pre-shelled babies and over-fed teenagers with their slimy exteriors.
On the contrary the strawberry transplanting from last year has given us a scrumptious quantity this time round. Having almost got tired of eating so many, jam making was back on the agenda. A rich, flavoursome, dark-coloured mixture which will only be used for emergency special treats in the darkest months of the winter.
And as temperatures swell so do the weeds. Less work can be done without a dripping perspiration requiring a bucket to collect the precious drops of lost energy. Controlling the jungle garden a lost task until the heat drops. We love our poppy collection though.
With thunderstorms back on the horizon it is not a good time to have two broken front wheels on the mower. A trip to a hardware shop and then some pretense to think I can fix it. Otherwise there is the broken handled scythe to relive my nightmares from the first year at Havran..
  

Here comes the summer

Here comes the summer, well up until a few days ago it couldn't be said. Gloomy people were predicting more of the same washout weather we've just had which is not much good for our onions. But thankfully at the moment it seems they can eat their words as we wake to rays of sunshine with only the regular dew on the grass sparkling my attention to any dampness. We need this to persist now after the last couple of weeks of stormy downpours.
It's been quite a baptism to life for the kittens up in the old hen-house. The constant cracks of thunder and strobe-lightening affect bursting through the small glass panel on the roof above their nesting, quite a frighting occasion for all of us. 
Unfortunately one of Mici's little babies has not made it. Constantly it had struggled to feed and never was able to gain any of the growth that the other two had managed. This countryside has a habit of showing how beautiful the nature can be but also how cruel or rough it plays too. RIP little one.