Festival of the New Wine

Seas surge, darkness gathers
In with the old and
In with the new,
The language is strange
But the music familiar
With madness, sadness,
Longing

Julia

The bura is stirring again, masts take up the whistle and soft croon, but Julia calls from Alger, safely back to home #1. 

Buckets

Buckets of blood, buckets of blood.
My little bucket of blood.

I dreamt that I went sailing
to the end of the world

In my bucket,
my little bucket with a hole in it,

my little bucket,
my bucket of blood.

(Ed.:  3 a.m., what did I eat for dinner? Best not think about that!)

Stormorica

Today I finally found the lovely little church of Stormorica after several years of looking and I don't know how many driving and hiking expeditions.  (It's a story but the only way I finally found it - damn the maps and gps -  was a pathless walk taken on a blind hunch  from the Franz Josip bridge through olive groves and a friendly family out picking their olives.)  Set on a hillside in a shady oaken grove, it incorporates a fragment of Roman wall.  The clearance mounds around it show plenty of Roman ceramic fragments.  There is a new stone plaza complete with white stone altar that shows this 900 year old church is still used occasionally today.

Fig

As you can see, not only is my smokva recovering just fine, but it has the approval of the young nightingale perched above it.

Maybe

A couple more paintings before I Leave?

Happy Birthday

Happy birthday, Uncle Tim!  Bright days, peaceful nights and the best life has to offer!

In the UK....

Julia is sight-seeing......and as you can see was welcomed into the royal family, now on to the palace and the tower.......

Croatian Cravat

Happy Belated Croatian Cravat Day http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/photobooth/2012/10/croatian-cravat-day.html

Julia's Last Day Here (found this unpublished from 10/24)

<p>We take a trip across the island, have a lunch in the sun in&#160; Puschica, get home and discover our front tire is flat.&#160; Julia is out of here tomorrow.  Slavko volunteers a 5:45 a.m. ride to the ferry and saves the day. </p>

My Beauties of the Night

Prayer Flags

Lynne has participated in this wonderful prayer flag project.  See her blog (to the right).  I love her flag, pictured.

Gazul

Drove to the top of the island and found a little medieval hamlet called Gazul.  A Parkside setting among protected black pine and white stone,  Uninhabited now except in early summer when shepherds bring their flocks and mid-summer, when a large and rustic livestock sale is held, complete with feasting and lamb-roast.  This area was famous clear back to antiquity for raising prize cattle.  But today it was peaceful, secluded, and empty.

Just found this

Photo from earlier this year when Amir, Inela and Mak stayed at Brizaks End.

Lori teaches Eason the Joys of Farm Life

Way to go, Lori!  Get 'em when they are young.  "There must be a pony here somewhere."

Sv. Lukas

I added another pre-Romanesque church to my list today when Julia and I tracked down St. Luke.  Built around 1100, atop a Roman settlement, as evidenced by the sarcophagi around, it features some very old medieval drawings of boats scratched into the still wet plaster.it

MEanwhile Back at the Ranch

BUsy, busy stateside while we are riding the rails in Bosnia . . . ELiot, Kyra and Eason back in Skagit Valley and enjoying a (until now) pleasant fall . . . LOri and John bringing in all those cuttings of hay wit their new-to-them hay equipment,  Tim running like a champ with his new business initiatve, Trevor getting engaged, Charles becoming "Prince" of the NA McLean clan as an uncle dies, Melanie turning another year young, Auth Ruth  -- Dad's sister -- dying . . .Spencer and Lynne busy, busy . . . Wow . . . . . .

HOme in Milna

A short three days in Sarajevo . . . We walked with Amir, Inela and Mak along the Bosna river on the old caravan road between Istanbul and Sarajevo and then had coffee back in their flat . . . VIsited Almir and his sister and mother at their apartment in another part of town . . .Enjoyed rock, sevdah, and homemade music and food with Almir and Dragana . . . walked and walked and walked . . . Road the train homewards through deep Bosnia valleys and Hercegovina rock . . .

On the Road

After a week or so of hiking, playing rummy, going where no man has gone in 2000 years, we are off for a few days to Sarajevo.  Guest House Rose.