our house, is a very, very, very fine house...

..........with two (four) cats in the yard, life used to be so hard....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7G6cFtsxKz0

I'll light the fire, you place the flowers
In the vase that you bought today

Staring at the fire for hours and hours
While I listen to you play your love songs
All night long for me, only for me

Come to me now, and rest your head
For just five minutes, everything is done

Such a cozy room, the windows are illuminated
By the evening sunshine through them
Fiery gems for you, only for you

Our house, is a very, very, very fine house
With two cats in the yard, life used to be so hard
Now everything is easy, 'cause of you

Our house, is a very, very, very fine house
With two cats in the yard, life used to be so hard
Now everything is easy, 'cause of you

I'll light the fire, while you place the flowers

In the vase that you bought today

Happy New Year All !

biokovo stone igloo, in and out

Outside

Inside

Close to the place where the wolf cage is (see blogpage about it),
we discovered this stone built igloo.
Already interesting from the outside, I was delighted to see he inside.
Brilliantly built from rough material, dome shaped strong,
and plenty of space to find shelter on a lesser day.
And (or but)....no wifi, tv or airco :-)

Click on the inside picture, a priceless painting without a painter.

biokovo, year round a beauty !!!

I'm not gonna spend many words on this one,
just click on the picture to enlarge it.
Robert ( my good friend from mali mlin agency ) and I,
once every week or so, get out on a tour, trip, hike.
Always impressed by the wealth of nature around our houses,
this time again we went to Biokovo Nature Park.

And again it was fántástic !
This giant area is so full of rough beautiful nature,
you are a complete idiot (sorry, but true), if you do what many visitors do.
Drive to the top, look around and return to the beach or a beer.
No, nó, NÓ.

Forget about the top at Sv.Jure, stop anywhere, and get going !
And if lucky enough, like us living here, of season it only gets better,
between summer and summer :-)

biokovo, and how to catch a wolf

How to catch a wolf, you might want to know ?
Build a trap like this one, with doors that close after entering.
And again, as the further a wolf enters, the narrower it gets,
till there is hardly any space left, and no chance of escape.
Do not forget to put a hamburger inside :-)

The trap on the picture, we discovered on Biokovo,
and however a bit neglected, it still shows very well how it works.
Entering on the front side, it ends in the right side, and there,
poor wolf, there is no escape no more.
Better than being shot illegally, return it to where it came from,
being Bosnia or Serbia, tagged, measured and registered.

Currently there is a discussion going on about the increase of wolves, and the problems they seem to make.
For centuries wolves have been feared, sometimes fair enough,
much of it however pure "hear say".
Same goes for the risk of snake bites here, all talk about it,
but asking for names of people who got bitten, or worse, never a name occurs.
Wolves are well protected in Croatia, along with lynx and bears,
and seem to increase in number.
Which is good, in my opinion, but most hunters are less amused.

This is pure and pristine nature, so it makes sense to take care, however the chance of seeing a wolf is more a moment to be delighted, rather than to be scared.
In other words, you might discover where this cage is, the chance you'll see a wolf is zero, as they see, smell, hear you long before,
and hide away from human eyes.

So when they manage to eat a dog, goat or sheep,
a mistake was made in the first place.
As those animals should have a safe shelter for the night anyway.
As goes for humans :-), because when wolves are around,
better take care, both of yourself ánd the wolves.

Total Inland Dalmatia (thank's Santa for bringing it)

Details to follow, but thanks to Paul Bradbury,
the guy behind Total Hvar and Total Split, there now is:

www.total-inland-dalmatia.com

The website focusses on áll those less known, but véry inspiring spots behind the coastal mountains.
And believe me, there are thóusands, pure, original and undiscovered.
For those of you using Facebook,
also there you'll find Total Inland Dalmatia.

Wishing the people behind it lots of success ánd pleasure.
And of course you readers of my blog a lot of new inspiration to both enjoy the Adriatic Coast ánd all gems behind it.

As this is Croatia, and this is Dalmatia,
and the better you get to know it, the more you'll love to return.

And again, and again, and again.
(Or like us, immigrated from Holland to enjoy our retired life here).

sretan bozic, merry christmas, prettig kerstfeest

Is this tree going in or is it going out ?

Whatever the answer you wish to hear, 
or what you believe,
it's Christmas, wherever you are.

Wishing you a peaceful Christmas, and every next day.
Nives and Pim.

beautiful bosnia (sorry, but it's herzegovina :-)

Yesterday, because we had to bring our car to the service station in Imotski, we decided to cross the border into Bosnia-Herzegovina.

First I must tell a small joke, made by one of the border officials:
after our papers had been checked (a formality), and were allowed to continue, my wife said "so now we're in Bosnia".
The friendly officer answered however "no, you're now in Herzegovina".
You may say "oh well, big deal", that's like going from one state to another in the US, but it's not.
The Dayton agreement may have ended the war, creating a new country called Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH), there is a húge difference, but that would lead me to explaining politics, and I promised myself to nót use this blog for politics.

Better it is to make you see how f*cking beautiful this region is, and that not only means Dalmatia, and móst certainly not only it's fantastic Adriatic coast.

By the way, the picture was taken in Nature Park (park prirode) Blidinje.
A magnificent area, ánd, as soon as snow falls, a nice place to go skiing to !
Not a big piste, but sufficiently equipped for those who like to combine a stay in for instance Makarska, between palm trees at the Adriatic and a bit of snow fun, as it's less than two hours by car .

cetina cave man

Between must do and have to, me and my good friend Robert of malimlin always plan some "expedition".
This time we went to have a look in one of the many holes and caves in our area.
This one, as you can see, is high above the Cetina River near Omis.

So, up, up and up we went, not easy, but worth the try.
Lot's of loose gravel on the slope, but also interesting plants.
After a while I reached the first "cave", just big enough to enter it,
so I did, and waited till Robert showed up.

As far as we could see there was nothing very special inside, but for someone looking for a cheap place to sleep during the crowded summer season it's big enough.
Waking up here at least rewards you with a splendid view.
As this picture shows.

For me it's all about getting to know the finest, unknown places around Omis, as is for Robert, but he also uses his detailed knowledge to inform his clients, making it a win-win, even for you in case you like to discover hidden secrets.

from pig to prsut

 

For those of you who never eat meat,
please ignore this one and see my posts about domaci vegetables.
As being vegetables, meat, or eggs for that matter, here in our hidden valley all of it comes from local soil.
Domaci, remember that word, means home made.

To bad, the word domaci today is misused many times by clever marketeers, the origin however is truly home made food.
And thank God, in valleys and villages like the one we live in, people still take care of what they eat, much of it truly home made.
Being jam, wine, olive oil, vegetables, potatoes, eggs, chickens, meat and so much more.

These days, as the new wine is ready and olives have been pressed, it's pig time.
A simple reason why this is pig time, is that these cold(er) winter days are excellent for preparing meat, which starts with the last walk of these noble animals.
You may say pigs are not noble, like noble as horses are noble,
but no doubt they are noble !

The process starts already after summer has gone,
as that's when many people here go to buy one or two pigs
at the local farmers bazaar.
And already long before that moment figs are picked and dried and a variety of carrots and such have been planted,
all of it for them pigs to eat.
For months they get their daily meal of natural tasty food,
including those home made sun dried figs.

They even may loose some weight, no problem,
as long as they enjoy their food and lazy life.
As that diet increases the quality of their meat in a tremendous way.
(Think about this, when buying your pork chop, wrapped in plastic).

So, as all life is limited, so it it for those pigs,
as they are not kept for their friendly company.
No, sorry again to all you vegetarians, but when eating meat,
that also means killing it.

So face the truth and thank the pig,
as it provides us with truly fantastic meat.
Nót the industrial anonymous peace of plastic wrapped "meat" on a tiny pamper, but réal food.

I followed the entire process from last walk to the final cut,
and I must say I was impressed.
The kill is a less pleasant moment of course, we all agree don't we, but from that moment on the whole process is a true local tradition, ánd a traditional skill !

Each and everyone helps, resulting in a variety of ready cut meat, hanging in the cold dry air till it's processed in the next steps.
As nothing is wasted, truly everything finds it's way to the kitchen, now or later.

Sausages are made, dried and smoked over a daily fire,
and the prsut is prepared to ripen over time.
"Prsut" my dear readers, is the ultimate smoked, air dried,
ripened ham in Dalmatia.

And once you've tasted this HOME MADE ham, you're never ever gonna buy the industrial shit they sell in stores under the name
"domaci dalmatinski prsut".
!!! IMPOSSIBLE !!!

As it all started with a well selected pig, fed with natural quality food, butchered and prepared with care and respect, salted, pressed, dried, smoked and ripened, for a minimum of one, but preferably two years.
As thán, and only thán, the prsut gets it's deep red colour, it's intense flavour and overwhelming taste, a combination of sweet and salty, and however dried for two years,
still with a unique soft juiciness only domaci prsut has.

Thanks to them noble pigs, thanks to the people who care for traditions, and thanks to all of you who think a bit longer
about what you buy and eat.

Domaci is the magic word in Croatia, local the English name.
But whatever the name in your country, respect yourself,
respect your food.

"Domaci".

Remember that word, and ignore the marketing use of it.
As domaci means home made, and nothing else :-)

(Thanks to the noble pig and the people who kept it, 
there still is true prsut).

Say NO to Brussels, when they force you to eat other than the best !
And home made still is the very best.

(PS: the Croatian word PRSUT is pronounced as PUR-SHOOT).

Those of you who are truly interested, I took pictures of the entire process, 
showing how respectful and skilful a whole pig is processed.
If not afraid of some blood, look here:
https://plus.google.com/photos/117782136748269501249/albums/5957869470739439489?banner=pwa
My email address as always is in the top right corner of this blog.

wanna see some snow ?

OK, you'll have cross the border to experience winter conditions.
But in less than an hour's drive from Split
you're in a totally different climate.
Crazy huh, coming from Split's boulevard (called Riva),
between palm trees at the Adriatic, you drive to Livno in Bosnia,
and there it is, cold snowy winter.

A bit further, all together (just) about one hundred kilometres from Split, and you're in Kupres, the nearest ski resort.
Lot's of people from this part of Dalmatia leave their sunny life
here at the coast, for a weekend on ski's in Bosnia.
Didn't do so yet, but be sure I will, as it's one of the many possibilities regular tourists never thought possible.

But it is !
One hour by car from palm trees to piste, wow.
Indeed, Dalmatia is WOW, and nót only in summer.

FOSAL.HR, a new local informative website

Recently a new website was launched in Omis.

Only available in Croatian language, but that's pretty normal, 
as it's specially for the citizens of Omis :-)
For others, like me as a Dutchman living here, 
there is the help of Google Translate.

For all people from Omis, especially for those who live anywhere else on the globe nowadays,
it's very interesting and informative, 
specially because new visions occur in Omis.

As a happily living foreigner living near Omis, 
politics are not my thing.
I just observe, and what I read and hear looks like at last Omis is stepping up to the position it deserves.

THE CHICKEN WITH 
THE GOLDEN EGGS 

And it looks like the new mayor, dr. Kovacic, is finally taking care of Omis the way it deserves.
As Omis has a unique combination of possibilities, 
with sandy beaches, Cetina river, an old centre and a tremendous lot of breath taking nature around.
(And a couple of problems to be solved).


So, besides well known Slobodna Dalmacija, now there is:

www.fosal.hr

So dó follow the local news and dó see that website.

wild horses in Livno (Bosnia Herzegovina)

A couple of years ago I already wrote about this magnificent group of wild horses, time to do so once more.
When Al Jazeera, National Geographic and Bavarian Television mention it, it's time for me to write again.

It came to my mind again, as tomorrow me and my friend Robert are crossing the border again to have a look once more in beautiful pure Bosnia Herzegovina.

It only takes one single hour by car to visit Livno and surroundings, and the whole trip is magnificent.
BiH (in short), is totally different from Dalmatia, and still much to unknown to all tourists visiting our also stunning region.
Most people come here for a sun baked holiday at our beautiful coast, but most of them think about some excursion while they are here.

Well folks, forget about that "original", "special" and "exclusive" fish pick-nick, because you ain't seen nothing yet
till you've visited those horses in pure nature.
Not just a couple of them, but more than three hundred !!!

Nowadays well protected by volunteers and the law, and if needed helped with some extra food during harsh winters,
they became "victim" of mechanisation.
Once people discovered the power of tractors and cultivators,
their power wasn't needed anymore, so they were freed around Livno.
With enormous wide territory reaching from Dinara to Cincar, including Livno Polje (flats), they now live in pure natural conditions, mating, giving berth and becoming an ever growing bunch.

For those a bit clever on internet it's not very difficult to find details, should you want someone to organise your visit, ask my good friend Robert, as he is running tourist agency malimlin , where he helps people to book a house or apartment, rent a car or organise a trip.
Not only the average well known excursions, also all worth doing,
but also very special ones !

Tomorrow we are going to have look in BiH, for ourselves,
but also for you.

PS
To help you search on Google, see:
http://www.divljikonji.org

http://www.br.de/fernsehen/bayerisches-fernsehen/sendungen/welt-der-tiere/wildpferde-winnetous-pferde-100.html

http://balkans.aljazeera.net/vijesti/livanjski-divlji-konji-i-zakonom-zasticeni

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/wallpaper/ngm/photo-contest/2010/entries/wallpaper/week-11/2010-11-26-21733-nature/

David Bowie lives here !!!

Having a couple of cats around (not ín) the house.
Well taken care of, and extremely social, a typical habit of people like us is to give them names.
One is called Feet, because he all the time tries
to make you stumble over your own.
The next one is called Little Feet, just to know who's who.
Than there is Monster, a cat with icecold blue eyes, extremely quick, a perfect hunter, and quicker on your lap than you sitting down.

And than, ladies and gentlemen, there he is:
the one and only

David Bowie.

Still in his Ziggy Stardust age when this picture was taken,
but already and clearly Bowie.

The two different eye colours made us call him Bowie,
and I think he understands his name,
as all the time he is singing to the ladies in the village "Let's dance".

Never in my life I would have thought I would like cats, but I do now.

Yes, Dalmatia does change a person.

early morning mosor mountain

Our view.

No need to add many words.
Mosor Mountain pictured early this morning, when the sun was rising.
(Had to run for my camera, as it lasted just some minutes).

Click on the picture to enlarge.

Croatian wines and grapes, to much and to many

If you are a wine lover,
than Croatia is a perfect reason to plan a visit.
The unbelievable variety of grapes and wines is simply exceptional,
no more, no less.

Already the good old Romans like Diocletian, knew this is one of the very best wine countries.
Perhaps that even was the true reason they came here and built their towns and palaces in Dalmatia.

Even today, each and everyone here grows olives and grapes,
making private wines and olive oil.
And more, but this page is about wine, so forget about them fruits.
(Oranges, lemons, kumquats, mandarins, figs and many more).

No doubt, everybody visiting Croatia and Dalmatia, once in a while drinks a wine, in summer I suppose more white ones, but to accompany some grilled meat a glass (or more) of red wine.

Most of the white wines served here are called Grasevina, a wine that comes from the North-Eastern part of Croatia, called Slavonia.

The red wines however, served in Dalmatia are most of the time called Plavac Mali, as that is the main grape that grows here,
on each and every patch of land.
(And: is evidence based the mother of the famous Zirfandel).

But that is much to simple, as there is a giant amount of different grapes here, both red and white, and each and every location has a different character, due to local conditions and soil.

Not being a specialist (at all) on wines, I like a good one, being local, bought by the liter, or a more sophisticated bottle from one of the better wine makers.

Much of my slowly growing knowledge I get from a gentleman called Cliff Rames.
Originally from Croatia, he lives and works as a sommelier in New York, and writes a splendid blog on Croatian wines.
If looking for an expert, he is, and no doubt the very best !!!!
do please click here:

 wines of croatia 

Once in a while I get his newsletter, and each of them is both very charming and informative.
I highly recommend you to see his blog, called "Wines of Croatia".

I hope one day he finds the time to put it all in a fine book,
which takes you to all those areas, grapes and wines.

As for sure, his blog already is an attractive trip through wine wonderland Croatia, putting it all in a book would provide every visitor with a tour guide leading from one beautiful region to another.

As Croatia is both beautiful and tasty,
certainly if you like a glass a day to dream away !
Still thinking if or when, I would say:

"Stop Thinking"

scotchmen, dutchmen, and seven straws.

Life is expensive, right :-)
People from Scotland or Holland (we), know how to keep things cheap.

No, not by ordering one Coca Cola with seven straws,
but using a cheap phone connection.
Using Localphone for instance makes it possible to order seven Cola's ánd seven straws.

If you are living far from your homeland, like we do, originally from Holland, once in a while some contact with relatives or friends there can be pretty expensive.
Not anymore, if you use this service:
www.localphone.com

Don't ask me how they do it, to me all them tricks are rocketscience,
my wife however is extremely clever with such things.
Only when she goes shopping, as than she always comes home
with some bargain, to which I (always) reply:
"it may be cheaper honey, but you still had to pay for it" :-)

Anyway, if you want to stay connected to the country you left to live in paradise (Dalmatia !), or doing business abroad, try Localphone.

The only thing cheaper is getting a piece of Swiss Emmental cheese,
asking why you have to pay for them holes too.

"sunny" dalmatia (most of the year)

For those of you who believe Dalmatian weather is all year round sunny and warm, forget it.
Sunny, nice and warm it's "only" from April till October, sometimes a bit earlier and/or later.
Between October and April our weather here is typical for Mediterranean winter season,
but also influenced by continental weather from Bosnia and beyond.

Today's satellite image for instance, shows a giant depression
over Italy and Croatia.
That means rain, wind, more rain and more wind.
Two wind directions are dominant here, one called bura,
the other called jugo.
Bura (boeh-ra) means dry weather (cold in winter or hot in summer), Jugo (you-go) however often brings rain, both in summer and winter.

Having been a (hobby) sailor all my life, checking the weather was as normal as putting up or taking down sails, and fantastic internet today provides me with a stunning amount of details.

This picture for instance shows a satellite image from a website with both daylight and infrared images.
With this, and a couple other links,
I regularly check what the weather is, and/or will be.
In other words, I am our own local weatherman.

Snow or no snow on Biokovo Mountain (free entrance during winter),
a simple click tells me when it's time to get into the car and drive that half hour to hike in alpine conditions.
Faaaantaaaaastic !!!

Living here is great all year round, but especially great in winter.
The variety of micro climates makes it even greater.
Each and every valley has a slightly different climate,
the coast differs from the Zagora (hinterland).
And for instance, while summer nights at the coast are almost as hot as during the day, our evenings are much more pleasant, as here evening temperature drops about five degrees C. compared to the sun baked coastal area.

Example:
Waking up in our hidden valley, enjoying cats, coffee and a cigarette in a mild winter sun (when it's not raining),
driving ten minutes down the mountain to see Adriatic or Cetina, another half hour or so to Biokovo, walking around in winter wonderland, after which an espresso on Makarska's best terrace (Kavana Romana) is enjoyed, and returning home to either
grill or cook a nice dinner.

If you like to see how weather is or will be, send me an email
(see top right side of my blog),
and I most gladly send you a couple of links to check local weather.

Rain, sun or snow, bura or jugo:
Dalmatia is always great.

BBQ & Grilling, but not the Croatian way :-)

Let's face it, Croatians like to grill, however...........
......Americans know how !

Now before my dear Croatian readers go mad, yes yes yes,
I like my grilled anything here in Dalmacija,
and yes, open air grilling or in the so called black kitchen
over pure wood or grape-tree clippings tastes great, but.......
there is always "non plus ultra" or "primus inter pares" if you like,
and that's the American way !
 Oprosti, oprosti, oprosti :-)

Hope you are still with me,
and did not click on the link below immediately,
but I simply have to share this item with you.
Cooking is one of my (to many) hobbies, and grilling is (just)
one of the many ways to create a delicious meal.

Occasionally I receive a smoke signal from Amazingribs,
and the things these people share with interested folks like me
is absolutely fantastic.

No, you do not have to get a green card,
and no, I would not recommend you to cross the ocean
(sorry USA, but this country is far more beautiful than yours).
But ignoring such rich tradition of BBQ-ing, grilling, smoking
would be a true cooking shame.

You don't have to follow every cooking step they take, but if you only use 1% of all the knowledge available on that site, you will have added a thousand new tricks to create delicious meals.

Get going, have a look, and if interested, put your name on the list, so you get those smoke signals too !
You won't be disappointed, and still can do some Dalmatian grilling, once in a while.
Which of course always begins with good quality food
(meat, fish, poultry, vegetables),
and boy do we have a lot of great (domaci) quality food in Dalmatia.

please do click here !

PS
You can always mail me at the @ in the top right corner of this blog.

archaeology=science+fragments+tape.

Recently my attention was drawn (again) by Alan Mandic,
the guy behind Secret Dalmatia.
He wrote about a highly interesting location, on which fragments of very old primitive life were found.
Supposed to date back the very first presence of human activity.
(Presumably Neanderthals).

Stunning news that is, but not uncommon for this area.
A couple of years ago, excavations on the Cetina borders produced a rich find of ancient and well preserved historic material.
See: Cetina in Wikipedia or Cetina in World Archaeology .
But more than that, as all around here are fragments of ancient life, historic and prehistoric.
As this area was and is offering all the basics for human life.
Water, wood, fertile soil, relatively mild temperatures,
trade routes both on shore and sea.
And, plenty of locations to hide when things got rough.

And rough they were, those ancient and more recent times,
with more fights and wars than "normal".
Sad enough, many of those conflicts resulted in destroying a lot.
Salonae (Solin) for instance, first by Avars and later by Ottomans.
Today's Solin and it's impressive Roman remains is absolutely a "must visit" !!!

Many times archaeologists have to reconstruct fragments, with tape and glue, in order to get the picture of what was going on in the area they are researching, so in the end they give us an idea of life before our's.

For that reason I do not dig or search for artefacts nor fragments,
and should I find something by occasion,
I will immediately register the exact coordinates with my little gps.
Next step is to inform the specialists,
as what may seem "nothing" to me/us,
can be that one and only missing link in a chain in restoring history.

Therefore I would like to ask you, walking or diving, to respect what you see or find, and leave it to the experts to do proper research,
so we can all learn from history, and enjoy it !!!

Those of you interested in Roman and other history, the whole Dalmatian area is blessed and sprinkled with hundreds of  interesting and beautiful locations.
The Imperial palace in Split, Trogir as a whole, the fortress of Klis, the remains of Salonae, and many many more.


PS.
Recently heard about visiting divers from Belgium, who took some truly interesting artifacts they discovered under water 
and took it (ILLEGALLY) home.
!! IDIOTS !!!
Shameless idiots, as it's stupid, highly illegal and without ány respect !
And.......: punished with severe penalties, up to imprisonment.

So if you see, find, discover something/anything, 
behave as a guest in the most beautiful part of Croatia, 
as that's what it is: 
Dalmatia.

off season, hell no !

"Inspector cat" checking progress of a new path.
Pile of stones on our land changing into a pleasant footpath.

What used to be the top of the septictank near our house,
will change into a friendly terrace.

Not having a septic tank at our garden house yet,
we decided for a decent next one, solving, distance/level problems,
creating a nice new little terrace at the same time.
And nice it will be !

When finished with borders and flowers,
another great place to enjoy the view, sitting in the shade.
And relax !!!!

The Chinese may have their wall, soon ours will be ready too :-)
On the left side will be my three level botanic garden
(yes, another hobby).
The "Chinese Wall" will be finished with so called "benkovac kamen", hiding the concrete.

So if you think nothing happens during off season, now you know.
Two neighbors/friends are excellent workers,
so I do not have to do/think of everything on my own.
The finishing part, including planting and decorating,
will be my job again, as that's one of my (to) many hobbies.

Sometimes however, I am more than happy when we have a rain day.
With still much to do, crushing my old Dutch brains, translating my thoughts into understandable Croatian,
sometimes makes simple ideas into a twice as difficult job.

"Svaki dan malo vise" is my motto, and "polako" can wait !
Till the rain starts pouring again,
as than I have my needed rest, my "slobodan dan".
Ajmo Svinisce !

building future's archaeology

Many times when driving/walking around this area, I see old walls.
Much crumbled, fallen apart and forgotten, many however also in good order, as they are still necessary,
preventing the ground from washing down when it's raining.
Yes indeed, we have a rain season too, 
and it can be pretty heavy.

Not being the flattest country in the world,
with plenty of stones and rocks, what do you do ?
Yes indeed, you build walls.
And that's what people did and do here.

Our private part of Dalmatia, our 2000 sq. meters, also has different levels, so also walls.
Some in good shape, some restored, a couple to be restored still.
And......some completely new ones.

The new ones on this picture are a cover up for concrete walls, and the floor beneath them wasn't built as a floor in the first place.
Being modern people, we don't hide in the woods to powder our noses, but retreat into the bathroom.
And where there is a toilet, there must be a sewer (not here)
or at least a septic tank.
So we built a septic tank, and a LARGE one it is !

Jokingly the title of this page is "building future's archaeology", as archaeologists like to put their scientific noses into old toilets first, searching them for delicious historic left overs.
Bad luck for future researchers, as they won't find anything in ours, as the system is self supporting, with a load of bacteria eating around the clock what we have digested already.
What remains is water, clear natural water,
dripping from one chamber to another and another,
as "dinner" needs at least three chambers.

The roof of the septic tank was just a concrete roof on what goes on beneath it when recycling is in progress.
No other use than being the roof of it, come on.
Than why not make it into another terrace I thought,
so another project was born.
With plenty of space one never has enough terraces to relax.

When completely finished, it will be a pretty terrace with borders stuffed with flowers and herbs, and perhaps even a large pergola covered with fine grapes for shade.
Do we have a septic tank ?
Yes, we had !

PS.
The guy on the picture is a pro, so if you have some walls to build,
not the modern concrete ones, but true Dalmatian stone walls.
mail me and I'll give him your address.
(My address, as always, is in the header of this blog).

I hate(d) cats

For some reason I hated cats all my life.
Perhaps because our dog was hating cats too, but even in my younger days (lóng ago), cats were not my favorites.

Things change, and the cats that live around our place here, made me fall in love with them.
Still some of their habits, going to the "bathroom" for instance on my freshly planted vegetables does not make me happy.

Any other moment however, even when enjoying the silence of the night outside, those purring creatures are charming company.

From time to time kittens show up, as they all live and give bearth in nature here, and we put a lot of efford in taking care, feeding them with both plenty dry or leftover exquisite food, and a lot of t.l.c.
And after some time each and every young cat finds a new home, as they are all socialised by my wife and not "wild" anymore.
One basic rule remains: no cats inside house or gardenhouse !

As you can see, nature provides us with mainly white ones, sometimes mixed with a bit of red, but mainly white.
And we know who the fathers are :-)

dirt or GOLD

From Alan Mandic, one of the true experts on Dalmatia's secrets I received a newsletter that will put Dalmacija
in a totally new historic perspective !!!

On his weblog, Secret Dalmatia Alan is informing about Dalmatia's special delights, offering the very best thinkable service, a truly interested visitor may wish for.

Dalmatia is known for it's historic places, like Split, Trogir, Dubrovnik and many, many other, but there is so much more.
Much of it still hidden, unexplored, and many times "only" visible to scientific experts.

Knowing a tiny little bit about the history of Dalmatia in old times,
I have a slight idea of the significance of it all.

I once in a while try to do some (google) research to get a picture of all that remains from early history, and sometimes go to places that are known to the public, but not yet to me.

Our area for instance, offers so much, it's hard to make a choice.
For many thousands of years ancient people discovered this is, like it is today, a splendid area to live.
Where I add some "future archaeology" building concrete walls, respectfully decorated with stones from all around us, ancient people left there traces all over this country.

Not being an expert, I recommend to make your own pick, or contact Alan, as I am just a simple guy living here, and enjoying whatever
I discover (and that's a lot).

I highly recommend you a look at Alan's weblog,
as he was lucky to enter the world of the Neanderthals recently.

Dr. Vincent Gaffney et al for instance did stunning research in the Cetina Valley in 2004.
The location Alan is writing about, might just be the reason for this highly respected expert to return to Dalmatia.

With a bag of money please, as proper archaeological research needs coins, not of the type ancient people left in the ground to be discovered after thousands of years, but Euro's !!!

Very well spent money, worth every kuna.
As respecting history is respecting the future.