visitors

Although the reconstructions of Lake house are progressing slowly, the house already lives and serves its purpose, which is to be a haven and a retreat for us and all our family and friends - including the four-legged ones. And so this weekend five of us and five horses travelled over and stayed the night. As to the human visitors, it was great to see that they didn't mind the spartan conditions (loo only in a garden cazzy, water from pump, sleeping amongst the builders' tools and bags of lime etc...) They had a swim in the lake, so who needs a bath? And as usual, the wonderful ride each way - some 25kms over virgin ground - 'virgin' because we always try to find a different route which includes getting lost in the woods and such adventures.
Well, the builders are coming back this week again - but in a way I almost regret making the house more conventional :-) Well, it needs to be repaired, can't leave it to rot away! And so the future bathroom and other bits of civilisation that are part of reconstruction, seem to be inevitable.

Embarrassment of riches

The apple tree at the Krumlov house has been shedding 2-3 big bagfuls of apples daily for the last 3 weeks and there's no end in sight. In fact it is as if the apple tree was one of those magic trees that no matter how much you take, they always grow exactly the same amount overnight! I am one of those people who can't stand waste so I can't just throw them away - so I've been baking strudles and pies and other apple delights, anything that is bruised goes to the horses, but no one wants my apples or apple pies any more because EVERYONE has their own embarrassment of apples so they are in the same position! And still they come....
Same with the beans - broad and runners. Back in April I innocently stuck a few beans in the ground, here in Krumlov and at the Lake house. Now I have kilos of beans every day. Help - what to do? The freezer was already full to bursting with the harvest of berries and currants, and of course, mushrooms from the forest. So, at a risk of sounding completely bonkers, I admit I bought another freezer. In go apples and beans. But what to do with all the mushrooms that I am still intent on picking (can't stop, too much of an obsession) ? Will I have to have a third freezer? Well, then you'd all have to come and visit in the Winter to help us eat all these goodies.
I suppose the most entertaining bit in all this is that the local Tesco is still stocking its shelves with apples (and beans and marrows and all that) from foreign lands - which sadly sit there unwanted, as most Czechs have their own plentiful harvests. What's more, the countryside is full of fruit trees growing along the paths and on the edges of the forests that are there for any passer-by to pick freely. How come? That's a subject for another blog sometime.

New roof at Forest House

It was going to be the last week in July, but better late than never: finally the roofers have arrived to start the dismantling of the old roof structure.
As you can see from the photos, the new timbers are all here. All the old timbers that are in good condition and will be re-used, are stored in the garden, and will be covered up for the Winter. The rest is for burning.This is the first phase of the house reconstruction - the barn will be done later, possibly next Summer.

lake house works

At last the Lake house works have progressed to the point that the first stage of clearing up of junk and rot is over, and we are actually renovating. The poor house looks like a bomb's hit it and I wish we could at least give the facade a face-lift but of course that will have to be the last job! We've also decided that we'll leave the roof to later: we are working from the inside out. It will be slow progress (finances permitting) but it is VERY exciting.
The first renovation job we did was to install some strengthening rods that will hold the house together: the house was first built, of stone, at the time when the lake was created (see*below) and later added to. One of the later additions (probably around the end of 18th century judging by the roof timbers) were brick vaultings to the north half of the ground floor. These were not tied in very well, and as the house has no cellar, the pressure of the vaulting has been pulling the walls apart. The vaults are in extremely poor condition, with gaping holes, and currently supported by several props. So the strenghtening rods are installed to prevent any further movement. We'll now have to see whether it will be possible to save the vaulted ceilings - hope so. There were vaults in the cowsheds, too, but they were mostly fallen down and not really worth saving, but the ones in the house would be good to keep, fingers crossed.The next job is to create floors for where the downstairs bathroom, pantry and hall will be. (that's where we found the treasure - see earlier posts) These were spaces with just earth floors, but on the whole dry so the challenge is to create floors that suit today's bathrooms but let the house breathe and don't insult the overall feel with some horrible new tiles.

So the guys who are working there are creating floors that have breathing channels around the walls and consist of a sandwich earth-shingle, with unglazed brick-type tiles laid into a thin layer of specially mixed concrete that's got lots of lime and sand, on the top. All the piping for water etc is laid in the shingle layer. Hope it works!

We won't be able to go much further for a while, but what excitement to be going even the first positive step forward.

*the lake is a 138hectare man-made pond, created in the early 15th century by the local aristocrat for fish-farming, on the site of a boggy valley, by building a large retaining wall which is still there today. From 16th century it belonged to the Zlata Koruna monastery, a well-to-do cistercian monastery near Cesky Krumlov, later it was part of the Krumlov's aristocracy, the Rozmberk's, estate, later still by the Schwarzenberg estate. Now it's owned by the Czech Army, lying right on the border of its vast training area, Boletice. It is the highest-lying pond in Bohemia, at the altitude of 731m.

Summer camp, Czech style

Our little Anna is coming for the second year to the Summer camp, organised by the wonderful riding stable we so love. Am I right in thinking that only the Czechs could be so relaxed about letting the children have a real experience of living in totally close proximity to the animals, in very basic tents and facilities but fully engaged in the daily care of the horses, learning to ride but also just letting go and being free to enjoy nature, the Summer and all the fun that goes with it?Actually, it's not just the kids that get given a fabulous time as you know from my previous posts. Only this evening 6 of us adults with 9 horses (3 foals that simply came along with us) went for a five hour ride, ending at 11pm - which meant a moonlight ride home. What an experience, one of a total trust with the horse, as you, the rider, see nothing of the terrain you ride, simply let the horse fly across the fields and try not to be in its way. And as to mad trots through totally dark forest paths, where you see absolutely nothing at all, just have to bend right down to the animal's neck so you don't get decapitated by overhead branches - well, I would love to know which other stable would allow such a ride and not get scared by some health and safety regulations! Thank god for sanity still prevailing - needless to say we all got home in one piece and much envigorated - best thing for one's health, I'd say.
Sorry no photo, understandably.

Riding stable recommendation: www.stajpohoda.cz

Another Czech obsession - canoes and rafts

Living as they are in a land-locked country, the Czechs have developed a passion for their rivers. And so every Summer the rivers become highways for masses of rafts and canoes of all description as they all 'take to water', as they call it, for a week or two. Some do it year after year, well into their middle-age, but I don't know any Czech who wouldn't have done it at least once in their lifetime, when young, as it is considered to be one of the most important rites-of-passage.
It used to be a more adventurous undertaking 'in the old days' - you'd start at the point where the river becomes navigable and then let the flow take you over calm waters as well as over the rapids, stopping here and there for a bite to eat (inevitably prepared around a campfire and using as many free ingredients such as fish you might have caught or food found in the vicinity, such as mushrooms). Sleeping was done 'under the stars' or in small primitive tents, and the whole ethos was one of being at one with Nature.
Nowadays the rite-of-passage involves more alcohol, and the sleeping happens mostly in privately owned campsites that have sprung up along the banks - this is one result of the country becoming business-minded in its post-Communist era.
But not all is lost; while the concentration of canoes can be scary in places like Krumlov and the camps, if you actually take a canoe you can find yourself drifting through breathtaking gorges and forests and not feel crowded at all. And it is still possible to find a solitary spot under a tree and sleep under the stars.

In praise of ...wild mushrooms

I've already mentioned the Czech obsession with mushroom hunting, or foraging. But after my eulogy on wild strawberries below, I think really the Czech obsession is with anything that their forests offer. They just love them: after all they are a nation of fairy-tale tellers and no wonder. The forests here really are magically lovely, and the freedom to walk anywhere combined with the relatively well-kept state of the forest floor means you can immerse yourself there for a whole day and not meet a soul.

The beauty of mushroom hunting is that it forces you to walk extremely slowly, noticing every detail as your eyes scan for the tell-tale little mushroom head half-hidden in the moss or grass. This kind of focus gets one into an almost meditative state, because you don't actively look, just meander, and all the senses seem sharpened - in the stillness, the sounds of insects and birds, a dropped pine-cone, a nearby brook; the different scents of mosses, grass and pine-needles, the cathedral-like play of light and shade.
It's been extremely dry in the last few weeks, and very hot, so much of the forest floor is parched - but there are always areas where dew collects, or where springs start, and that's where one can find one's mushroom treasures even now.
Problem comes -as with the strawberries, raspberries and all those other treasures of the forest- when getting home, down to earth: what to do with all this bounty now??
And then come the hours of cleaning and cooking, but because one tends to always pick more than one would need for one day, also jam-making, bottling, pickling.... madness, these obsessions. That's why I often end up doing my real work at 2 in the morning.
But wouldn't miss it for the world :-) (a large anthill I met on the way...)