Tux the Gardener

See the pretty bouquet and vase my husband gave me as a homecoming present. See the self-appointed gardener, Tux. He believes flowers are not to be too bushy, so he trims everything with his teeth. This has been a problem for the wisteria growing over the back porch, but he insists. Anyway, I love the hollyhocks, roses and irises. It's a really pretty piece, and the shells underneath remind me of my recent visit to the Adriatic.

Virpazar

After we left Split, we had to drive home. Considering the roads in Montenegro's interior, it definitely wasn't going to be a one day trip - cutting through Serbia was out of the question. So we decided to spend the night in Podgarica. Big mistake. Podgarica, Montenegro's capital, is permanently locked into communist flashback. No hotel that we could find. The place is depressing. It was getting late and we'd already driven quite a ways, so we pulled out the Lonely Planet to find a place to stay. The result: going back over Lake Skadar to Virpazar and entering (weird music here) The Hippie Zone.

Virpazar is right next to the lake, a national park that is a wetlands preservation project. Most of Virpazar's meager income is the result of tourists going out on the lake. This place is at least as poor as many places in Kosovo. It was built on a medieval fort, and most of the fort is incorporated into people's houses. For example, these stairs lead up to a decrepit place that's still used - it has a dog and sheep in the yard and some flowers, but no electricity, no running water, and so on.

This is across the street from those stairs. You can see these houses were built shabbily also on fortifications. In the valley below, there's a gypsy camp that's even more pathetic than the houses. Total population of Virpazar can't be more than a couple of thousand people. It did have one advantage over the town on the other side of the lake - no huge dump right next to the road.

And now, why I call this The Hippie Zone. The place we stayed was Hotel Pelikan, founded in the Sixties and still stuck there. We ate at the restaurant, which is more what the place is than a hotel (it has four rooms, which are basically bedrooms in the house: ours was across from the family's living room. It was small, spider-filled, and the bathroom floor was always wet from the shower overflow. We were desperate, though. The next nearest place on the way home was through all those tunnels and such, and a ski resort that might not even be open in the summer. So stuck we were.

We took a walk around the town (taking all of ten minutes to do so), and went to the restaurant for dinner. It was at least as much of an experience as the room. i was given a wilted bouquet of local wildflowers when we sat down to dinner. With the exception of the frozen mixed veg, it was obvious everything was from the local area. Our first course was mulberries. I don't think I've -ever- been served mulberries before. There was a cold fried dough, some honey, and olives - uncured, new olives. The veal was from an old milch cow from its toughness, but at least it was thoroughly cooked. Someone associated with the place came by with fresh water chestnuts he pressed us to try. By the end of the meal, we had somehow acquired a basil plant on top of that. The only other customers were a foursome of French caravaners who decided to eat out instead of cooking. All in all ... weird and definitely an imitation of an acid trip.

Exchange Received

I'm participating in the Christmas in July ornament exchange and I got my surprise yesterday. Pascale in Belgium went overboard, and I love every bit of it. Thank you, Pascale.

Little Yellow One

I finished off the berries and added the yellow flower this past week - it's coming along, but I need to get it done in the next two weeks. The closed fly stitches made cute little petals, though I think the satin stitches on my berries look somewhat ragged.

A Treat for Me!

When I was alone in Vienna, I was walking along the main shopping drag and came across a shop named "Petit Point". Naturally, I had to stop in. This is one of two purchases I made there; the other's waiting for another blog post. The thread is DMC, she was working on it in her shop, and we talked about stuff. I gave her the names of several silk floss manufacturers and she was really interested in switching production to silk. She's not the only one who does it. As the work is hand made and well executed, its price is commensurate. She had a lot of lovely purses too, but they were out of my price range.

You can tell her attention to detail in how well the inside's finished off. Anyway, if you want to go (she has no website), it's southeast of St. Stephensdom on the main pedestrian street, a couple of blocks down.

Trogir

Yes, I'm still writing about the road trip weeks later - cause I keep getting photos put up and there's much to tell. On our last day in Split, we went to Trogir. It's about half an hour north of there and UNESCO has marked it as a World Heritage Site because it's the best-preserved medieval town in central Europe. It's a great little place. The old town is on an island in the middle of the newer parts, and there's not a single modern building in it. This top picture is the former town hall; it's used now as a school. I'd imagine it's hard to study there with the view of the boat basin out all the windows.

Here is part of the inside of the "fort" part. We walked the battlements and inside that tower is a great big pigeon den. It stinks, literally. The views from the walls are pretty, though.

And this is the landward entrance to town. The walls encompass everything to the water side.

Lots of little alleys like this one run in a crooked way throughout the town. It's easy to get lost in them if you don't keep your bearings or don't keep the water in sight. The place was crowded; again, my companion had to wait to get a shot without people in it.

This is the footbridge to one of the newer areas of town. It's just a pretty bridge, so I put it here. There was also a market on the new side and we were lucky enough to see a line of parked classic cars on the quay as we ate lunch. My companion took a lot of pictures of them for my husband. If you want to see more pictures of Trogir, go here.

Part Six Done

I got part six done just before I went off on my three day airplane odyssey (it wasn't as bad as it sounds). They mailed me part seven, but I haven't started it yet. I probably will in the next day or so. There's definitely an inkling of the overall pattern now, and with all the leaves, I'm glad I picked a green thread.