Happy holidays!

A vacation time! :) I'll be back on 5 November.

Favorite colors

My new pullover in one of my favorite colors at the moment, bought a couple of weeks ago at Zara.

The people in our lives

While searching for some information for a brochure I make, I ran upon JumpinJack photos on Flickr. What's a possibility that you find a Slovenian, publishing photos on Flickr? ... Not that I am thrilled about his photos but he seems to be an intelligent man with sparkles flying around him and I found it interesting that in his profile he wrote some words from a song by Natalie Merchant. How many people in Slovenia do actually listen to Natalie Merchant? I guess that only a few. And I am one among those few. I found out about her in 1994 when she was still playing with 10.000 Maniacs. Great songs. I own a few CDs with her music. Oh, I just see that it is her birthday tomorrow. What a coincidence!

I met many people who entered my life for no special reason - at least it seemed so. Still sometimes I ask myself: why? Perhaps I can find an answer in these words, written by Jane Green in Straight talking:

"I do honestly believe that people enter our lives for a reason. That everyone who we meet, who forms an impression, has something to teach us. Everything that happens to us is an experience, and because of this it can never be bad. An experience can only be good because it all serves to shape the person that we are, the person that we become."

Elections

Yesterday we voted for a new president of Slovenia. We will have to vote again, in November, as the results were tight. I am not interested in the politics but I hope we will get a good president this time. I think that we are a bit fed up with whimsicality of our present president. Using our money for curing his disease isn't very nice of him. We have enough problems in our little country and there's no need to interfere in other countries' problems. I think that most of the people I know agree with me. However, I will vote again. Who? Let this be my little secret. :)

Fall Reading Book Swap III

I received it, a package from Kari! :) I was so excited when I picked it from the post office and later when I opened it. I loved the cookie cutters which were included in the package and of course, I immediatelly backed the cookies. I couldn't help myself. ;)

I also liked the bookmark very much, with my initial on it. I have to admit that I keep looking at it all the time as it feels so personal.

Finally, the book. As I had just been reading The food of love by Anthony Capella, which is, btw. a great book with a happy ending (about the Italian food and love), I started to read yesterday in the afternoon The virgin blue by Tracy Chevalier sent to me by Kari. Do you think that I could put it down for a moment? NO. The story just sucks you in and you feel like you are there, right in the middle of it all. Perhaps I feel like this even more as I had been several times in France. :)

Recently I read The labyrinth by Kate Mosse which has a very similar story. I read it in English and soon after this it was translated into Slovenian. It is impossible to get it in a library right now unless you make a reservation. Like The Perfume, the book I wrote about in my previous post. I can't wait to sit in my chair today again and continue reading. Thank you Kari for a wonderful package!

Other books on the list

When I went to a bookshop to get a book for Kari, I noticed some other titles that I liked. Usually I get the books from a local library and very rarely buy fiction for myself. So, when I saw so many other books I couldn't really decide which one to send to my swap partner. Later I stuck to my first choice.

The other three books that I was holding in my hands and deciding among them:

1. Perfume by Patrick Suskind - I read this story about 15 or so years ago and I loved it! The book is a real hit of this summer. Funny, how forgotten books become popular again.
2. The Reader by Bernhard Schlink - I don't really remember the story of this book but I know that I liked it a lot. Perhaps it is time to read it again and remember.
3. A year in Provence by Peter Mayle - a funny story for cloudy days in our lives. I spent 14 days in Provence ten years ago and it is nice to remember and get to know a different culture through the eyes of a foreigner. You will love it!

Yesterday when I was in the library I noticed another three books that I liked reading:

1. The Lost Men by Kelly Tyler-Lewis - I used to read lots of books about the travels to Antarctica. I don't like the cold but I enjoy reading the books of faraway places like Antarctica and the brave men who were discovering it.
2. Berserk in the Antarctic by David Mercy - this is another book about travels to the Terra incognita, this time the story is told by one of those 'mad' guys who did it. Pure madness!
3. Hombre by Elmore Leonard - I loved this book! I read this one in the spring and it remembered me of the days spent on the Great Plains and my youth when I was reading Winnetou by Karl May.
   

One of the best books I have ever read was The Trifle-shop 'Lucky hand' by Goran Petrović but I don't think it is translated into English. Praise to the author!

Happy reading!

Fall Reading Book Swap II

Today I received an e-mail from my swap partner Kari in which she told me that she received the package I had sent her. I can't wait to pick mine at the post office today!

I sent her a book by Arto Paasilinna, The Howling Miller. I don't like the front cover of an English version and I noticed that it had been translated from a French version of the book. Slovenian version was translated directly from Finnish by a woman who has a Finnish husband and I have to say that the translation is excellent!

So, here is a story why I like this book so much and why I chose to include it in my swap package:
Many years ago I was living in a nice apartment in the city centre of Ljubljana with a beautiful young man who eventually became my husband. I didn't have to wake up early in the morning as my office was very near my home and therefore I had time to read the morning newspaper. I was always reading it from the last to the front page and somewhere in between there was a feuilleton, which I sometimes read and sometimes not. Depending on the story. One day a new story was beginning to be published, by a Finnish author Arto Paasilinna that I had never heard of before. The story was somehow weird but I was attracted to it. I asked my man if he wanted to hear it too. He said yes. So, each morning I read a new piece of The Howling Miller aloud to both of us. Later we discussed the happening in the story and each day we wondered what would have followed. We both liked it very much! I cut out those feuilletons and I still keep them somewhere in my boxes. Those were ones of the most precious moments in my life!

The book was a great hit in Slovenia when it was published later in that year, as is almost every book written by the same author. He writes strange stories but sometimes, after reading them, you find courage and strength to do the things in life you have never imagined. I hope that Kari will find some inspiration in those plain sentences of a magnificent story.

Mornings

Today is another beautiful day with a clear blue sky. Each day during the week I have to wake up at 5:45 at latest, so that I arrive at work by 7:00. There are two reasons for this. The heavy traffic after 6:40 and no free parking places in front of my office after 7:30. It is easy in the summer when I am woken by the daylight but it is so difficult to wake up at this time of the year when we still have the summer time and it is pitch-dark when my alarm clock goes on. By the end of the week I am really tired, and surprise, surprise, on Saturday morning I wake up at 5:45 by myself, without any cruel alarm clock. The good thing about these early mornings is that I come home at about 3:30 p.m. and this gives me lots of time to do the things at home (like cooking, cleaning, gardening, reading,... or just doing nothing at all).
I think it is time for a short vacation to get some sleep! And the good news is that it is just two weeks until then! I can't wait! :)

Munich

I used to travel to Munich in Germany quite a lot, usually for business. But that was some other time in my life. I liked some shops there very much, like Kunst und Spiel, which was my favorite. Their web site is not very nice, but the shop itself is amazing. Small, but full of beautiful items. Visit of one of the Reformhauses or Naturkosts was of course obligatory, as in those times the shops with organic food in Slovenia were really rare. Today you can buy organic food on every corner and as you could probably notice in my post with the photos from the market, all sorts of Demeter food as well. For lunch I almost always went to an excellent Buxs self-service restaurant. Sometimes I ate in a local Italian restaurant with home made pasta. I also bought natural paints for the walls in my ex-home in one of the small shops in Munich. Once a year I went shopping to Ikea and just recently I found out that all the furniture I have in my home is from there.
I miss those days a lot.

Beautiful places

After our Saturday's party I went to my colleague's weekend house where he prepared a picnic for a few of his friends. He has a lovely cottage, you know, the one like you imagine in a fairytale Snow white and the seven dwarfs. Cute. I love it there. We had a barbecue and later in the evening some chestnuts as well. The fall picnic. It was the first time I had a chance to shoot with a crossbow. A dangerous weapon, indeed, but I had lots of fun shooting with it.
We also visited a magnicifent property. In a middle of nowhere, this beauty. There are so many hidden treasures around Slovenia if you have a local guide to show them to you. And my colleague was an excellent guide yesterday. He also took us into the only cave in Slovenia which has a hot spring in it. There was a pool with warm water nearby and if it was a bit colder we would probably just jump into it. It was such a pleasant Sunday!

Anniversaries

Anniversary No. 1:
This Saturday we celebrated the 60th wedding anniversary of my grandparents. I made little favors for this occassion. It took lots of time to do these small packages. Fortunately my hands were not trembling. :)

Anniversary No. 2:
October 14 and 15, 1995 have a special place in my memories. The weather on those days was as beautiful and clear as it is today. Clear blue sky, no wind. It was so peaceful. I drove with a charming and beautiful young man to an island Krk in Croatia, where we boarded a small sailing boat and with that little wind there was, we sailed around the beautiful bays with azure blue water. It was too cold to go swimming (at least for me, the water temperature was 19 degrees C). I don't remember what exactly we were doing but I remember that he cooked a delicious lunch for us, a risotto with saffron, and tomato salad. I was so happy I hadn't have to cook as at that time I wasn't cooking at all. In the evening he told me half of a fairytale I used to listen when I was a little girl. That evening he gained my heart and I gained his. Unfortunately our fairytale didn't have a happy ending. I think I will never know why.

Fall Reading Book Swap

I took part in a Fall Reading Book Swap on Karen Beth's blog. I like reading very much. I never make plans what to read, I just pick the books in a local library and read the book if I like it. If not, I return it, as simple as that.
As you probably noticed I have been reading the latest book (Summer light) for ages. This doesn't happen very often but I am very busy at the moment and the book is also in my opinion not so good that I would read it late at night.
So, my partner for the swap is Kari and I am happy to say that I managed to post the package for her yesterday in the afternoon. When she receives it I will share with you all why I had chosen the book I sent her and give you the names of some other books that were on my list. I am amazed at how many good books I read in my life!
To make you a bit curious I am posting a little part of the package I sent to Kari. :)

10 facts about Slovenia (Slovenija) chosen by me

1. There are only about 2 million people living in Slovenia.
2. I heard that Slovenia is the only country in the world which has a word LOVE in its name (perhaps this is a good way to distinguish it from Slovakia which is located more to the NE of Europe and has no sea coast). I haven’t checked this by myself, so is this really a fact?
3. The language we speak is Slovenian and it is one of the most difficult European languages to learn. Slovenian language doesn’t only have a singular and a plural but also a dual which makes it also a bit special and even more difficult to learn.
4. Until 1991 we have always been a part of another country (well, except once in the 7^th century A.D. when Slovenians were united under, so called, Samo’s country (lead by a man named Samo)). We gained our independence by the war which fortunately lasted only 10 days but unfortunately cost lives of some people.
5. The first book in Slovenian was printed in 1550 A.D. but the first written document in our own language had been written about 500 years before.
6. There are 12 statistical regions in Slovenia and each of them has many different dialects as well as characteristic customs and food.
7. More than half of Slovenia (some say 70% of it) is covered by woods. That’s why we are proud to have bears, wolves and lynx living in them (sure, some would like to shoot them all).
8. We are a part of the European Union since 1st May 2004 and our currency since the beginning of this year is Euro. Our currency used to be Tolar.
9. Slovenia has 46 km :) of the coast on the western part of the country, Alps on the N-NW, flatlands on the E. All in one, that’s why we love it! :)
10. Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, is the wettest capital in Europe. We get the highest amount of rain of all the capitals in Europe. This doesn’t mean that we have lots of rainy days but the rains are usually very heavy. Ljubljana was first mentioned in the documents as a city in 1243 A.D.

Saturday morning in the old part of Ljubljana. The river is called Ljubljanica. No one exactly knows where Ljubljana got its name from.

Thompson & Morgan seed catalogue...

... has arrived! I know that I will spend hours just looking at the pictures and planning which flowers I will grow on my 50 square metres big (well, small) garden beside the house. As there is so much shadow in it, I have to reduce the selection of all the beauties I wish to have around the house. Besides, the seeds are not so cheap either. There is another problem I have in my garden - the lovely cats I feed. They love freshly dig up earth. (Sure, I would too if I was a cat. :)) That's why some of the seedlings never grow into the strong and beautiful flowers...

The market day

I wanted to write about the market day in Ljubljana two weeks ago when I visited the market and took some colorful photos.

I don't go often to the market as I grow most of the vegetables in my garden and buy the fruit in a local shop (if I don't get it from my relatives which is of course the best option) but from time to time there are special days when people bring different products from all the regions of Slovenia.

It feels like home on such days and as Ljubljana is a small city you meet there many friends and other people you haven't met in ages.

It is possible to taste so much good food that it is difficult to resist and not to buy some of it and bring it home.

The weather was nice, the temperatures were pleasant, the colors vibrant and it was very crowded.

I bought myself some figs, my favorite fruit, the last but the sweetest ones of this season (the price was astronomical, though!). I ate most of them before I got home. :)

Me

Kras

If I am asked which one I prefer, the sea or the mountains, I would answer with no hesitation: the mountains. But sometimes my roads lead to the littoral regions. This time I was roaming around Kras (Karst). It is so beautiful there at this time of the year. The grapes have already been harvested, also figs are gone but the golden apples are slowly getting their golden-orange color, the rosemary is in full bloom, the leaves of the vines became reddish yellow and the sumac will slowly cover the landscape in red color. It is beautiful. Most of all, it is warm. I love sun and warmth, that’s also why my favorite season is summer.

The food was: divine! I had fig crostata for my dessert (actually fig pie). I almost couldn’t breathe until I went to sleep! Mmmm…

Stickers

I have finally made stickers for the Cornelian cherry dogwood (Cornus mas) jam I made a few weeks ago. It has a delicious, sweet-savory taste. We will have the fungi on the shelves this winter as well, though only two glasses. I don’t eat fungi anyway but I like picking them. It’s great fun :) If you don’t recognize them, they are Saffron milk caps (Lactarius deliciosus). There were plenty of them in the woods in September.

My blog in English

English! I am not sure I will be able to express my thoughts in English the same way as in my native language Slovenian but I will give it a try. Please, forgive me my mistakes… At least more of you out there will be able to understand what I write. Photos say a lot but sometimes they cannot tell the whole story. Enjoy!