Happy Easter

Easter is in full flow here, today the streets and the countryside are full of people going from house to house in search of a good hiding :-) and beautifully painted eggs. The Czechs take their Easter with as much passionate regard to traditions and customs as they do their Christmas.
As I don't want to repeat myself, for those of you who are interested in Czech Easter, please visit here for decorated eggs and traditional food, and here for the actual customs.
We've been having fabulous weather - the nights are still cool (yesterday morning there was still thick frost as I arrived at the Lake house) but the days are in mid-20C, hot and sunny. I even saw some first brave souls trying to bathe in the river here at Krumlov :-). But the best thing is the way Nature is opening up, as it should be for a proper Easter feeling: the trees are beginning to green nicely, the catkins are out, I even had proud hen with her cute new brood of fluffy yellow chicks cross the small country road on my way back yesterday evening. How Easterish can you get?
Here is a picture sent by a friend who followed Potdog's Easter Lambkin recipe with much success.
Happy Easter!

Easter Lamb Cake 2009

Easter Lamb Cake 2009

This is another version of last year’s recipe (my once a year blog) from a little book called The Best Czech Recipes published by Vitalis which we bought in Cesky Krumlov. Actually the recipe is for Vanocka the Czech Christmas cake but it is similar to Jana’s lamb cake although I expect I’m missing some vital subtlety. I made half this amount and it is currently in the mould by the fire rising beautifully I hope.

30g yeast
100g sugar
200g butter
200ml warm milk

Mix all together with

500g flour
3 eggs
Pinch salt
Tbsp vanilla sugar

Knead all together and add

100g raisins soaked in 5 tbsp rum

The more you knead the dough now the softer the cake will be. Work it for at least 15 minutes then leave in a warm place to rise for half an hour.
Alternatively bung all the ingredients into a bread machine on the dough only setting. (My Czech friends won’t approve of this but then they did turn up with a live Carp in a bag one Christmas having been asked to get a fillet of Carp from Tescos. The English recipient of this offering was temporarily lame and unable to get to the shops to choose his own festive fish. When confronted with the writhing plastic bag he found he couldn’t muster sufficient thanks to avoid the accusation of ingratitude. But what could he do? Czechs keep their Christmas carp in the bath for a week and he has a wet room). Anyway once the dough is made and proved, knock it back with greased hands and arrange it into the bottom half (the part with the face) of the lamb mould. (Or you could use a gugglehopf/rum baba type mould.) Put the top on and leave to rise in a warm place.

Just as mine is supposed to be doing
But isn’t.

Progress report in half an hour.

One and a half hours later, all spent on this damn computer trying to get the next posts off the new blog which I inadvertently started - you'll have to get the final installments of this thrilling cake saga by going to the blog

Easter Lamb Cake 2009

(Zoe Help)

A proud vision of the future???

I just had to put this one up. It's by a local artist who wanted to immortalise the fabulous sentence uttered by the Cesky Krumlov Mayor, Lubos Jedlicka, now published in our local paper by his ever loyal (and seemingly the only) journalist - about re-shaping the island into a 'stable hydrodynamic shape akin to an aircraft wing'. (the text on the wing is a wordplay on the word Starosta = Mayor, made up of two core words: starost = worry, fear, and ostrov = island).
For more on this story, read the post below.

PS
Today (11.04.09) we got a reaction to this post which I'd like to have up here, so here goes:

gaviota said...

I read the comment of Luboš Jedlička in the newspaper that you quote, which I repost for the Czech to light up more... I cannot believe it, he really said it:

„S investorem jsem diskutoval možnost úpravy ostrova a jeho stabilizaci. V úvahu by mohlo přijít vymodelování ostrova do stabilního hydrodynamického tvaru podobně, jako jsou konstruována křídla letadel. Ve stávající podobě není možné ostrov zachovat,“ konstatoval v úterý starosta Luboš Jedlička

protest continues

Well, what can I say. There is so much going on that to be brief is hard. The new letter with the embankment residents' denial of the accusations by the Town hall that claimed the works are in response to the residents' exact demands, has now effectively disproved any such claim. So the Town hall called another meeting with the river authority yesterday. Today they issued an official press release.
The press release is 2 pages long (unfortunately just in Czech). It's proud title says 'The town council asks the River authority to consider the possibility of keeping the island under Lazebnicky Bridge'. Hooray, one might think. But read on and soon the arrogant manipulation of its message becomes apparent. Remember, what we want is to keep the island, in its natural form, even if perhaps somewhat reduced in length for compromise, and not to have the banks encased in concrete. Well, this is a quote form our Mayor, Lubos Jedlicka, who says he is trying to find a compromise between the demands of the CK citizens and the council's need to protect them from high water: 'I discussed with the investor the possibility of modification and stabilisation of the island. We may consider a remodelling of the island into a stable hydrodynamic shape, similar to the construction of aircraft wings (!!!?). The island cannot be kept in its present shape...neither the town nor the investor can bear the responsibility of the consequences of some rash scoop-out of the river bed that would leave a dangerous mass of material on its bottom. We must wait for the expert analysis of the project engineer'.
The same project engineer who designed this brutal project in the first place, that is. So that much for the louded and benevolent attempt to keep the island. The rest of the 2 pages then tells us again and again how the island will be disposed of, or kept in this 're-modelled' form. How convenient. Here is another quote, this time from one of the protesters: 'It seems I live in a surreal world. Our striving to retain a natural enclave in the centre of this town has beautifully played into the main investor's hands, in fact it has helped all of those who will participate financially in the project. So the island needn't be removed, but will have a hydrodynamic shape - as if its present shape wasn't formed by water, or was somehow blocking the river at 90 degrees! What fantastic reasons to have to invest more and yet more millions. ... We asked the Town Hall questions*, we sent them to the appropriate departments, to the appropriate officers. We published them on our website. And save for a few evasive phrases in response to our first question, we got no other answers. Why? Because every question is a call for responsibilty. So we complicate the officers' lives, and they in turn erect Don-quixotian mills in our path. What's certain is that we have smoothed the way to yet more lucrative jobs for certain companies...'
I wish someone would have the courage to open the Pandora's box of the opportunities and relationships that underlie this huge investment project. Or should we just give up, and look forward to sitting by a sterile bank of the river in a town that once attracted tourists from all over the world.

*- Why was it necessary to cut down mature trees in the centre of town by the river Vltava?
- Who is directly responsible for the felling of the trees?
- How and from what materials will be reconstructed, and what character will take, the left bank after the works?
- Will there be any changes to the right bank?
- How will the river be in the Summer months, during 'low water' periods when Vltava in its newly deepened bed changes to a narrow 'brook' and the drying mud on its (concrete) sides stinks?
- Where and how can one access detailed plans to the project for the riverbed changes and the reconstruction of the weir? Will they be publicised so the citizens may be informed adequately and early about the planned changes to the historic townscape?
- Is, and has UNESCO been informed about the tree felling and other changes to the look of the historic town?

The renovation works continue

Every day, I wake up at 5am and drive to the Lake House for 6am to meet with my project supervisor and the workmen. The Czechs get up early. For someone used to a British timetable this is quite something. But the works are now progressing at a good pace and the ground floor is coming to the point when I can see the end of the tunnel. The electrics, the water and the heating are now in place and the wounds that their installation has caused the house are healed over. Being a house built of stone - and some stones are enormous - one has to try to take all pipes etc through floors rather than hack into walls. But even then some bits of wall needed to be rebuilt - for example, most of the lintels over doors and upstairs windows were completely rotten so their removal meant having to dismantle what's over them. Without causing too much damage. Not easy. But the guys working there are so lovely and careful, I am quite happy with the result. The next big stage will be the roof - I dread to think about it as all of the main beams that rest on the top of the walls are also rotten through. We hope to hever up the roof (once the old tiles are removed) and replace the rotten beams without the need for taking the whole structure apart. Right now we are interviewing roofing companies. Of course so far all of them think we should make a completely new roof. The search continues....
Meanwhile, at the house by the river in Krumlov, the attic has been cleared down to the top of the historic ceilings and we have an expert restorer who will start carefully taking them apart to renew them. It was funny to listen to the workmen clearing the mud-and-brick insulation over the ceilings: they think we are completely mad, of course. Especially looking at the salvaged bits of the even older ceiling that makes our conservationists friends burn with passion: The planks of wood, blackened by centuries of use and with bits of them eaten through by woodworm, look like something that should be burnt straightaway but the workmen are not allowed to touch them, just VERY carefully clean the top of them. 'OK', they humour us, shaking heads and winking at eachother: 'If that's what you want...'

another short update on protest

We now have a copy of the original 'petition' from 2002 which the Town hall so victoriously tried to use as ammunition to argue this whole huge project is happening in response to the residents' wishes. It was interesting that when we asked to see the petition, no-one in authority was able or willing to produce the original. But one of the embankment residents has kept a copy which clearly shows that all that is being asked for is what I already listed in my last post.
So we went round all the past signatories and managed to get every single one to sign a new letter, denying the Town Hall's interpretation and re- asserting the original wish, with emphasis on the fact that NO trees were asked to be removed and the banks were to be left natural!

More meetings with the officials at the Town hall. This time their argument is 'well, it's up to the River authority to make the final decision. The Town hall can't as we don't want to be legally responsible for any flooding to your houses if another flood comes'. And the river authority says that it will do whatever the Town hall decides. And so on and so on. So really we must hope that UNESCO starts asking some questions. We don't have the means to hire lawyers. But we aren't giving up. The thought of the river and the town suffering such an ecological and aesthetic damage is worth the fight.

Protest update

While the ducks struggle to nest on their denuded island and the now treeless banks, the protesters are still fighting an uphill battle. Last Thursday there was a regular monthly council meeting at the town hall which is open to public. The flood-prevention issue was one of the points on the agenda, as the result of the pressure that the protest caused. A time limit was allocated. One 'expert' after another spoke at length using powerpoint and much engineering jargon to explain how their 'taming' of the river will prosper the town*. All their calculations were based on a projected 'potential 100year flood' event - not the normal levels which are very low most Summers. Flood may or may not happen again (and it is common assertion, of course denied by the authorities, that the last big flood was caused by mismanagement of the dam upstream) but the damage to the natural environment would be permanent, and the aesthetic damage to this UNESCO monument is incalculable - after all, what is it that brings a million tourists into the town every year? The gentle organic banks with their greenery and trees were in beautiful harmony with the higgledy piggledy architecture of the town. Imagine what will be seen (after all, most of the time there's no flood and the water is low): a neat, straight, computer-calculated concrete and stone embankment with narrow stream of water. Possibly with mud and rubbish alongside it.
But the authorities' 'piece de resistance' came when they said that this whole effort is in response to an open letter from 2002, by the residents in Parkan street - the embankment - who specifically asked for flood prevention works to be done. Apparently this included the complete removal of the island and the chopping of the trees. The councillors didn't have the document on hand, but spoke with much fervour about it, using it to embarass one of the chief protesters, who apparently signed it then, and now wants the opposite! Much sarcasm and laughter in the audience, especially at the top table. What tactics! The poor man was totally lost: he knew that neither he nor any other residents signed any such thing. There was an open letter, it is true, straight after the huge flood but it was asking for a removal of a concrete barrier lower downstream, and a deepening of the existing riverbed. So now our friend has to go and prove it (I will report on this as we go along).
Anyway, our side spoke for 4 minutes and there was no more time allowed after the 45 minutes have elapsed. We waited for two hours for the end of the council session for the 'any other business' window. By which time everyone wanted to go home. But we did manage to bring up a couple of points, and there were some councillors who were on our side, asking for an alternative project to be commissioned. But they were more or less laughed out of the court by the pro-works side: now? Why didn't they ask for it earlier? The project is ready, the works should commence, planning permissions are in place... 'our' side argued that all the documentation was too vague - deliberately?- for them to realise the projected extent of the damage. OK. Maybe mistakes and oversights were made. But at least what they achieved for now is that there will be more discussions on the theme this coming week.

Whatever happened to bring this on, the issue still remains - the uglification of this beautiful town, and the damage to its nature. So if you want to help the councillors who are on our side, you can do two things -
1/email the Town Hall (addressed to the Mayor, Ing. Luboš Jedlička) c/o Bozena.Kaliskova@mu.ckrumlov.cz adding your name in support of the petition of March 2009 that asks for the retaining of the small island under Lazebnicky bridge
2/ write to UNESCO and ask whether they are aware of this situation, the citizens' protests, and the extent of damage the projected works may cause. The name and contact details are:wh-info@unesco.org

*We cannot argue the engineering side of things as we have no supporting documentation or qualifications. The experts' presentations neatly showed how removing the island, deepening the riverbed and strengthening the banks with a mix of stone and concrete at a 26degree angle would reduce the flood levels by up to 60 cms. None of it made real sense to us, as according to even their own calculations, removing the island alone would only make a small difference, maybe 5-10cms, and anyway by the time the water level reached the level of what is now the top of the island, it would spill out over the new barrier. And we believe that to calculate a true behaviour of a flood would need chaos theory anyway, as water cannot behave according to tables and one'd need to take into account all sorts of factors such as the amount of debris flowing, etc. But all that's perhaps not the point. The point is that these experts didn't once mention any other water levels except the highly unlikely '100year flood event' or indeed any cultural and environmental aspects.