On the Road

Being stopped for road construction is rather normal in Croatia and Montenegro. You have to build it into your transit time when going places. So we thought nothing of it when we were stopped in this rather scenic area (yes, they're all scenic, really) on the way from Dubrovnik to Split and waited for a few minutes. We were about a dozen cars back from the light. Paying more attention to the view down to the sea than the road work going on up the mountain, we were slightly startled to hear a series of booms. Oh! They were blasting a new place to build the road and get another couple of lanes. Great. Then... rumble, rumble, bounce, rumble.... one boulder comes crashing down the mountainside. Sure enough, it landed right on the road. We saw it coming down, but my companion didn't react quickly enough to take pictures on the way.

It was kind of funny to watch the construction workers afterwards. All of them at the top stood in a line with their hands on their hips, looking down and shaking their heads. In unison. You could tell they were cursing, even from that distance. This poor guy was the flagman below, kicking off the pieces of rock to finish tumbling down into the sea.

And this is the boulder in all its glory. Notice the guard rail is -still- intact, and only bent. It gave my companion a lot more confidence in driving on the roads that if something happened, the rail wasn't as flimsy as he thought. On our way back three days later, the boulder had already been removed but the guard rail was still bent.

Flaming...

I got the flame started this week and completely finished the blue. I promise, in a few posts you'll see why I've been so slow stitching!

Ston

When we were driving from Dubrovnik to Split, we had plenty of time - we ended up with a whole day to do it and it was a three hour drive. Sooo... we saw a sign for a tourist spot called Ston and decided to explore. It's a teeny tiny town on the peninsula west of the coast road an hour or so north of Dubrovnik. For a small spot, there's a lot to see. This top picture is of the salt pans there. It looks kind of like a rice paddy, but they're evaporating sea water to make salt. You can even buy it.

The first thing you see on entering Ston is the walls, though. This picture was taken from the back side, where most of the town is. These walls go over the hill and all the way down the other side. Not quite as high as Kotor, but still very impressive.

More of the wall here, and you can see the town fort in it, too. We didn't walk up these, either, but you can.

I have a fascination for town clocks, so my companion took this picture of Ston's city hall and clock for me. Really fancy for a town of no more than five hundred people. If you want to see more of Ston, you can go here and click on the Ston set.

Dragonfly Petals

I got a couple more petals done this week. After I get home next week, I'll get lots more stitching done. Maybe. Someone's asked me to marble papers and dye fabric to sell on etsy. I'm thinking about it. I'll at least do some and see how they go. The lack of lines is really telling in this area, and I hope I can finish this sunflower so it looks decent.

Some of Split

These few pictures are of Split's old town. The place is weird because it's built of the palace of the Roman emperor Diocletian (end of the third century AD). The roads are the palace's corridors, and the buildings, former rooms. This top picture is an example. The columns are part of the old palace and the cathedral was built inside. Kind of neat looking.

This is a picture of the north gate. You can tell it looks a lot more like a single building here than a bunch that are protected by a wall.

And this is a picture from the harbor, on the south side. Unlike the harbor for Dubrovnik's old town, this harbor is much more a working one. The ferries depart from this area, and they're constantly coming and going.

A Bit More Color

I have fallen sooo far behind on stitching on this trip, between the road trip to Croatia and something else that you'll hear about in a post in the near future. Some progress on Tuscany, though. I added more color to it and am about halfway done on this fourth section of part three. Once I'm done with it, I'll start in again on part two and finish it off. This is obviously going to be a very looong project.

Stash from Split

While in the old town of Split, which is also Diocletian's palace, I found three! shops. Two were trim shops and one was a fabric shop. I helped the daily receipts of all three. This top shop shows some cute ribbons and a wide piece of lace I found.

More trims here and the only piece of fabric I bought at the fabric shop. Fabric was top quality, but I really don't like paying nearly a hundred euros per meter for stuff I could get in the states for about thirty dollars a yard, especially since I can dye my oen silk. So I bought this piece of linen, which I found really interesting. Now to figure out what to do with it.

The metal trim snaking across this picture is heavy and was expensive, but I really like it. It's made up of basket charms and Swarovski crystals. It'd make a good bracelet with some left over, but I have other plans. The ribbon on netting will do well on some projects, too.

Both of the trim shops had a wide selection of very nice buttons. Several were dichroic, even. I bought a bunch and also this neat little coin trim, where it's all old Roman reproductions in tin.

And here is all the stash I bought, laid out together. It looks like a lot when it's all spread across the table.

This shop was off by itself down one of the streets running down to the harbor.

And this was one of the trim shops. It was directly across from the expensive fabric shop shown below. Very nice people in all three places, and willing to help.