Tin and Me

In the evening on the Riva I tipple with Tin Whose bronzed throat by now must be drier than the stone of Brač dead summer ... so I must do the work of two dedicated men, Serious work, Serious work, Drinking the vine, Singing the brotherhood of men, Moaning our fate, In a style already half forgotten. Far enough into our cups We may put our heads together and whimper "Io, Io papapai!" But just in pose, In solidarity with those gone before, drinking as it were from that common cup, As we remember our childhood in the sun and golden grass Of Brač... Imotski... Skagit Valley...

Cold, Cold Last Night

Slavko's little lizard
Flicks its tail
And disappears.

Winter dragon's
Smacks us
But good.

Slavko, after Zadar, 4/21/16

Green lizard
On the stone, staring
Heart beats in accord

(Slavko sent this in the evening during a mad week between Solin and Zadar and Solin and finally a mountain village for the funeral of an in-law.)

Rain, After a Month

Who would believe it?
Water from the sky. . .
Sign me up:
I like this place!

Roberto and Maria

A couple of photos of our Italian neighbors on a small trip we took together in Bella to an abandoned village.   In the photo of Roberto with the book on 103 flowers of Brač, he is counting how many of them he has in his garden in Italy.  (Hint: most of them! )

Roberto and. Maria had the good fortune to leave the day before the destruction of our neighborhood began.

Katastrofa!!!!

Last night I tell Tim  how deserted and quiet our little street is.   This morning,  Julia and I awaken to the sound of machinery and the smell of smoke.   This is the scene just outside our gate on the adjoining property.    A new neighbor from Zagreb has begin building a three story apartment next to our house and blocking some of our sky. (Maybe good in summer?)  So I suppose we will see construction at our gate for the remainder of our stay. ...

Well,  we have been expecting this for about two years.

Ps.  First casualty, a lovely little orange tree probably damaged or killed. ....

Our Internet Connection

So our good friends stopped by and gave us the password to their Internet connection.   We have to step outside our gate to connect.   This is what it looks like.

Grandchildren and Horsies

Big and fearless fun!

Some Wildflowers Along the Way

Anemone

Asphodel

Bladder Campion

Poppy

Cuckoo Pint

Grape Hyacinth

Purple Irises

White Irises with Julia

Blue Periwinkle

Pimpernel

Pink Sorrel

White Rock Rose

Wildflowers

Some of the Wildflowers Along the Way

Bikes and Boats -- So It Begins

The Tourist Season is Imminent

Wednesday

8.9 kilometers walk today.  Whew!   Julia says it was invigorating.   I have another word for it!

Roberto and Maria showed up on our street today direct from their home in Italy so it is a little less lonely at night.

What Brač Is This?

Under the olive grove
Purple hyacinth
Endless pimpernel
A friendly sun
And rain upon the wind?

Bella

Here's a photo of Bella Bijela  (Baka)*  (in front) waiting expectantly on the Riva in Milna for her next big adventure. 

*Beautiful White Lady -- (Grandma)  aka Bella Bijela 2

Walking the Narrow Road to Osibova Cove

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Julia Hurd <julia@qsoup.net>
Date: Apr 12, 2016 8:18 PM
Subject: photo
To: "'JRH (John Hurd)'" <jhurd@qsoup.net>
Cc:

Slavko sends haiku from Solin

A bug spills it's life
Under the boot --
Scent of magnolias

And

Grass's green.
River's calm.
She's feeding ducks,
Weeping willow

Sunday morning with figs and towel

Beneath My Fig Tree

Each day
Being filled
With nothing
But sky.

Flower update

A couple new wildflowers spotted:

Manna plant
Anemone
And second species of grape hyacinth

And behind my house,  while clearing grass:

Blue periwinkle
Holly hock
And a bird of paradise, escaped from the neighbors garden

I want to plant some of these in my garden but I can't dig them up!   My trowel has gone missing somehow in the past year and none of the hardware stores in Milna,  Supetar, or Nerezisce have anything like it for sale.   Strange.

Friday

Friday, 2nd week already!

Today,  I was a plumber.   In previous days I was an electrician,   a wall painter,  and a gardener. (And a house cleaner,  of course. ) Tomorrow I will be an auto mechanic.   Then I think a gardener again.

The joys of home ownership are constant the world round.

Today,  we also found a modest olive oil museum in Skrip, the oldest village on the island, next to the islands history museum.   It was started by a man whose grandfather owned the village press and who wanted to try something other than building an apartment to rent to tourists. He did a fine job of presenting how the olive harvest used to be when a hand powered village press produced 350 litres of oil a day, working two shifts,   compared to modern presses which produce 5000 litres an hour.

My Garden

Since I am on the subject of flowers, I thought I'd inventory our garden here.

My two favorites:

Fig tree
Rusty back (small fern growing in my stone wall)

Some others:

Peach tree
Papyrus
Prickly pear
Spearmint
Cuckoo pint
Lavender
Capers
Pink Sorrel

And a few other plants that I can't identify yet.

I love them all EXCEPT the wall pillatory which I have torn  from my walls for years,  even before I learned how allergenic they are!

Spring walk 3

Since we have landed in the middle of the Springtime bloom, we continued our wildflower walks today. New flowers spotted on the hill behind our house:

Hares Thistle
Lotus
Pimpernel (White)
Bladder Senna
and some Vetch and plantain.

Also a beautiful deep purple flower which I can't identify yet but may be a type of Love-in-a-Mist.

Anniversary

Happy Anniversary to Tim and Lynne,  a perfect couple!

Charles Hangs More of his Wonderful Garden Paintings

New Flower Today

Fringed rue, on our walk by the beach.

Sunday April 3rd 2016

We identified five new flowers on our 5 km walk around the loop to Osibova today:

Grape hyacinth
Hollow stemmed Asphodel
Mallow
Sawbread
Bladder Campion

All identified thanks to the gorgeous little booklet, "103 Wild Plants on the Island of Brac."

Later, I drowsed by the sea:

Murmurs,
Ladies light laughter --
Sea laps stone.

My Garden's Smokva

Arriving in Dalmatia After Two Years Absence

Green figs swell
Winter's black branches --
Bok!

Warm Afternoon, Three Days After Arriving

In a day
Someone has painted
My fig tree green.

(Ed:  "Bok" is a current version of the formerly pervasive greeting, "Bog," derived from "Bogom," or 'God be with you.'  It means Hello.)

Irises Haiku

Ogawa Shūshiki (1669– 1725)

mishi yume no / samete mo iro no / kakitsubata

Even after waking
From the dream
I’ll see the colors of irises.

-- Translated by Alex Kerr

"This was Shūshiki’s death poem, meaning that when she awakens from “life’s dream” she will see radiant irises. Kakitsubata or rabbit-eared iris, is another five-syllable word favored in haiku. The intensely purple petals were used as dye-stuff, their color being associated with young girls. Bashō’s contemporary Ogata Kōrin (1661– 1716) painted a screen of irises that became as internationally famous as Monet’s water lilies."

From

The Classic Tradition of Haiku AN ANTHOLOGY EDITED BY FAUBION BOWERS

I still like this poem (from the POETRY mobile app)

You May Leave a Memory, Or You Can be Feted by Crows

By Allen, Dick

Three years, Huang Gongwang

worked on his famous handscroll,

Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains.

As he put successive applications of ink to paper

over the “one burst of creation,” his original design,

it is said he often sang like a tree frog

and danced on his old bare feet.

One day, he adds one hemp fiber stroke,

the next a moss dot.

What patience he had,

like a cat who comes back season after season to a mole’s tunnel.

Honors may go to others.

Riches may go to others.

Huang Gongwang has one great job to do.

And he sings like a tree frog,

and he dances on old bare feet.

Thank you, Little Ranger. My name is. ....

Sorrel

Arriving in Dalmatia, I Find My Garden Full of Pink Sorrel

--As identified in Blamey and Grey-Wilson's  "Wildflowers of the Mediterranean"

'Short.
Hairy.
Tufted. . .
With
Swollen
Rhizomes.'

Before I knew, I thought them
'Very pretty.'

Now I scarcely sleep at night
with them
outside my door.