Words

Today I received my Calvin&Hobbes cartoon in my mailbox which says:

Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.
Yeah, right!

I love Calvin&Hobbes cartoons, they make me smile every day. So clever and so human. Sometimes words really don't hurt me but usually they do. I can't help it. I cry a lot but I think that this also prevents me from being fatally ill because keeping things in myself hurts even more. I think that I will have to organize my life a little, so that I will be more satisfied with what I do. Writing blog with a name Another beautiful day should be justified in some way. Though, really, every day is special and in some way beautiful.

How do you cope with words? With those, which (might) hurt you?

Memories & food

Yesterday I cooked myself this for dinner (home alone!):
It is millet cooked in a bit salty milk with prunes. I poured over some melted butter and sprinkled it with sugar. It is an old dish that my grandmother used to cook when I was still going to a primary school. She cooked lunch for me and my brother when our lessons were in the afternoon. We were always late for school because she took care that her husband, so my grandfather got his dinner at exactly noon, which was of course too late for us to get to school in time. I have so many memories of these lunches which were not really pleasant. Once we received a soup in which beside parsley black lice was floating on top of it (my grandmother didn't see well). When we mentioned this to grandmother, grandfather roared that there are no lice in the soup and that we should eat it and be quiet. Right, we tried to eat soup without lice and we still laugh today remembering my grandfather enjoying his soup with lice. He was always listening to classical music before lunch and I liked that. What I didn't like were the obituaries after that. My grandmother's cooking was always the same. Right, she had a kind of broad repertoire of dishes but they always tasted the same. I mean, she could cook a dish which tasted exactly the same like the previous time. My dishes are always different; if this means that I am a bad cook, then I am. I can't properly cook classical dishes. They taste differently than they should. I tell this to everyone who happens to be my guest at dinner. Nobody complained this far but you never know.

I have a snack right now and I am eating a delicious dried persimmon. I receive those from my colleague and sometimes I bake him something with chocolate that he adores. My oven is clean again (yes, men!) and I can't wait to bake bread during the weekend. Or cookies, who knows!

A day off

Yesterday I took a day off work, mostly because I had an appointment at my doctor. I still have 7 free days to use up from the last year, so 6 more to go until the end of June. I am not really fond of visiting doctors but once in a while I just have to. A few years ago when I had kidney infection I went to the doctor after about 10 years. And they couldn't find my files! "They are probably in the archives", I was told. They were not found up to this day. Funny, how they just put the files away like if you perished or something.
I went to the library after that and in just a few hours read one more of Arto Paasilinna: Isoisää etsimässä (Finnish name of the book, I haven't found an English translation). The story is about travels of a man named Avgust who is following his grandfather over the Europe and spends unforgettable time with him. Perhaps another reminder for me to go out and play, to live my life fully and not just keep reading tons of books... Though, I am reading another one of Paul Theroux about his travels to South America. Rather depressing but I keep hoping that he will describe some more cheerful events going south. I still wish to go to Peru one day but I think I will wait that one of my colleagues who married a Peruvian girl in 2006 will move to Lima once in the next five years. At least he says so. Everything is so much cheaper in Peru that he decided to live there. It is amazing when you hear that you can build 30 houses in Peru with the money you spent here for just a very small one. Beside I know I will have to spend loads of money to finish it in the next few years. My kitchen is still halfway finished, I have bulbs for lights, I have only two chairs and and old table that I borrowed from my parents, I have no couch but only two armchairs, there is only one closet in my whole house... but funnily enough I take a good care of my books that found a neat place on Ikea's Billy shelves... My balconies have no fences, I have no blinds on the windows (obviously I will have to take care of this first as the sun is too strong and it gets too hot in the house) and the list goes on and on. First I will have to get rid of some old stuff I brought along from my ex-home. I haven't used those things for 5 years now, so I suppose I don't need them. Plans, plans...

So, a day slowly passed yesterday. I went for another walk but didn't take my camera with me. The landscape will be more or less the same for another month when the first green leaves will emerge on the trees. It is colder where I live than in the city center, I saw crocus blooming yesterday not far from where I work. Mine at home have shown some leaves by now and it will take at least another 14 days before they start to show some flowers. Can't wait. I thought of sowing some tagetes but forgot about it completely. I will try to do this today. I sow and plant by seed calendar by Maria Thun. I got used to this and my grandmom says that it works. I believe her.On Monday I received two more Valentine's day cards - together I received 6 of them. There should be 10 coming to my address. It is tempting to take part in a swap but at the same time I see that people are not really serious about these things. When I go into a swap, I try to do the best I can. So, maybe no more swaps for some time now. What made me really happy when I opened my mailbox on Monday was this:
A postcard from Australia! Thanks V! You really made my day! I was so happy, so excited! It is really something else when you receive a piece of paper written by hand. We got used to typing. It is faster and you can write more but nothing beats the postcard or letter with a nice stamp on it, written by hand. I still smile when I remember receiving the postcard. Pure joy! And so beautiful!

A party

It is funny but I am kind of fed up with these parties we have with my relatives. It is always the same. One of characteristics of us Slovenians is envy and another one gossip. And there is plenty of both on such parties. All right, gossip comes later. But envy... Frankly speaking, I avoid inviting my relatives to my home (well, not all of them but some for sure). You cannot tidy the house enough not to hear later from the third person that you have a real mess at home. Or something like that that bothered them at that moment. They judge you how much you eat, if there was enough to eat and what was available to eat, how you behaved etc. I avoid such people and try to avoid such events. Sometimes I can't. After all, it was my mom's party. She is not 60 every year. I was tired when I came home on Saturday. The food was good, I also liked the old farmhouse in which there is a restaurant now. The view was beautiful and the weather was great. Perhaps it was just me and my feelings, I don't know. Although I had a feeling that people were not really enjoying themselves. I don't know. I felt lots of anger after that. Can't explain why.
Yesterday in the afternoon I went for a walk. It is surely spring coming to Slovenia. It smelled of dry grass. There are yet no flowers blooming. It was too cold. And there has been no rain for weeks now. It was so nice when I was sitting on a stone enjoying the sun rays caressing my face. Wonderful. Peaceful.

Oh, yes. A news. Our ex-president Janez Drnovšek died on Saturday. They say he was a great man. I can't say that I really liked him. At least not in the last year or two when he became rather weird. He died of cancer.

Dinner & Movies

So, we had a small celebration for my mom's birthday yesterday in the evening. A dinner. She actually looked very tired. I always take a day off work for my birthday because events at work can be really stressful and can completely ruin you day. I also take care of this that somebody else prepares the party following my instructions. This way I can really enjoy MY day. One day a year. I hope my mom will look happier on Saturday.

And finally here is a photo of a present I made for her, an eye pillow, filled with lavender and wheat. She liked it very much. Nice. :)
As I told you I don't have a TV at home. I know I would watch it too much and life would slowly pass by and I would have no story of my own to tell. I know myself this much. Yesterday I watched a documentary about II. WW at my parents' home and Super G (skiing) - one of our guys was the third, great!

I don't watch movies a lot but once in December or January I went to the movies to watch one of most popular Slovenian movies this far. It is called Petelinji zajtrk or Cock's breakfast in English which actually refers to a sex before breakfast (or instead of it). I heard many good critics, I heard friends talk that movie is excellent but to tell you the truth, I didn't like it at all. Mr Ž comes from the eastern part of Slovenia where also a story in a movie takes place (well, a few kilometers away, to be exact - it is a different dialect and those people are really sensitive about this). Visiting those places I saw too many drunk people. I know what's the story behind such faces - broken families, wives at home taking care of everything, sometimes also violence, unhappy children who eventually become like their fathers (and mothers). The movie shows the Slovenian reality (at least what it was about 15 or so years ago) and I suppose that it is not only a Slovenian one - I know, such things happen all around the globe. I think that watching the movie was a waste of time and money. It meant nothing to me. A hollow story. Right, guys liked it because it shows lots of flesh of one of our good and very beautiful actresses. And there are many males in our small country...

I prefer cartoons. Or at least movies that have a touch of a fairytale. There is too much of everyday reality in my life, I don't need that in a movie. Unless it is really a good one. I liked Ice age, I liked Ratattouile. My favorite to this time is Dances with wolves. Of course, me, a prairie and Indian fan! :) I also go and see the (romantic) movies in which Keanu Reeves plays as he is in my opinion (I don't know why) the most beautiful actor I know. I don't think that he is a good actor but I like watching him in the movies. I cried for an hour after seeing The Lake House. I also prefer documentaries. About plants, animals, traveling, other countries. Instead of movies I read books. It takes longer, I know, but I prefer it this way. Reading versus movies. I would choose reading.

Birthday

It is my mom's birthday today. She is 60. She looks younger, though. Yesterday in the evening I was sewing, making a present for her. I didn't take a photo of this thing I made because I forgot and light was poor anyway. I will do this today when I come home and hopefully post the photo tomorrow.
Yes, we, the beginners at sewing! I forgot to wash the fabric first and when I'd sew everything already, I remembered... So, I washed the rest of the fabric and started the whole process from the scratch again. It happens, all the time. I am not really happy with the result but I think it came out nice anyway. I will give her also some coupons for a garden shop because she loves plants as much as I do. She always spends lots of money buying all sorts of seeds, plants and other things that go along. I will go to visit her in the evening, together with Mr Ž.
On Saturday we are having a big feast with all her close relatives. I find such feasts rather funny, sometimes also boring and tiring too. All sorts of people come and judge you and your deeds. The most amazing thing is when you hear a gossip about yourself from a person who doesn't know you at all or who has never met you before. You know, like that game 'telephone' when you whisper a word to your neighbor's ears and he does the same and so on... and at the end the last person says aloud completely other word than you told it at the beginning to your neighbor. So, it might be fun again on Saturday. I am looking forward to a cake my mom will bake, I haven't eaten one in quite a while. Mmm, can't wait!

P.s.: It is a full moon today; perhaps you watched a lunar eclipse which was about 10 hours ago (I was sleeping too tight)?

Little treasures V

Sometimes I think that my blog is really boring. Anyway I like writing about the things that come up my mind and share this little world of mine with you, rare and dear readers.

Let's get back today to my little treasures which my home hides. The whole week I was reading a book Riding the Iron Rooster by Paul Theroux which I really liked. He has that special way of describing things which enables you to experience the travel like it was you on the way. I was in China back in 2001 (what a great year it was!), I spent 3 weeks there. I was traveling with a group of different people; we were together but each of us was on his/her own. Mostly we stayed in Shanghai (perhaps we should travel there tomorrow on a map?) and strolled around the city indulging in its vibrant colors. Well, Chinese are making lots of bad things, like ruining their history and building high block of flats that surely don't attract tourists. The air is polluted and so is the environment. People use their elbows a lot. If you don't move, they walk over you. This was my experience and it was Paul's too. But I liked China very much. I really, really liked it. I felt like home although China and their life is 100% different than what we have here. I wouldn't like to live there but I liked it anyway. I don't know why.
In 2004 when I celebrated my first birthday where I work now, I received a beautiful teapot for my present. I don't know if these are Chinese letters on it but anyway, I connect it with the cultures which are present on the other side of the world. I like this teapot a lot and it is one of the objects that belong on my little treasures list.
Reading that book I mentioned above led me to this that I post a photo of my favorite teapot today. Please, don't mind the dust on it, I have lots of that in my home. :)

Award

I almost forgot to tell you: I was awarded with "You make my day " blog award by Eva! Usually I never win anything, I have to work hard for everything I have and you know, such little things really make you smile and make your day. I will pass the award to 7 bloggers. If we can give the award back to a person we received it from, then on my list is Eva too. So, here they go, 7 blogs that make my day (besides Eva's, of course):

• 13mimosa
• good-ness
• SouleMama
• Salt and Chocolate
• Paperseed
• Hollabee
• m.writes
  

There are a lot more than 7 out there who deserve this award. But let me stick to this lucky number. Like in fairy tales that I like so much.

Bubo bubo

Bubo bubo is a Latin name for the biggest owl that lives in Slovenia. And in Europe, I suppose. It is Eagle Owl in English. Each year at this time, most of the ornithologists go out and search for them. I am not an ornithologist but anyway, each year I take part in this search. It is a good news that they are slowly spreading around Slovenia. There are quite a few in the vicinity of Ljubljana in the last few years.
Yesterday I went out into the woods with Mr Ž. to listen to one. To tell the truth, I am scared of those woods in the night and also in a daylight. I don't know why. Maybe because the history of those hills is not so bright. Many people died there during the II. WW. There are bears wandering around. I rarely cycle in those woods. When I do, I am restless. But owls like them and other living creatures too.
The sun was just going behind the nearest hill when we drove up there. We had to walk for about 500 m from the road. There we stopped and at 17:38 we heard it: uuu. Deep and strong. About 8 seconds later followed another one. And he continued to do so for another 5 minutes. Not long after that we heard the shrieking sound of a female. The sound reminded me a bit of a sound that I make when I blow into a primrose. Not all primroses make sound but I like playing with (on) them. And eating them when I get bored with making noise.
It was getting real dark and I was a bit cold, standing still in a light but freezing wind. I always take a blanket with me and wrap it around my waist, so that I have a kind of skirt around my legs. It is much warmer this way and I don't complain about the cold like I would normally do.
My favorite feathers are those of the owls. They are so soft to the touch which enables them that they fly noiseless.
Later, when walking back to the car, a deer barked. There was no fox making sounds. And we made another tick on our (owl) list and hopefully there will be young owls in a few weeks time making their weird sound from the hills near my home. And then it will soon be time to go on another bird monitoring near my home. In May and June I will be searching for Corncrakes (Crex crex). Another scary middle of the night expedition.

Post Valentine day thoughts

I took part in the postcard swap organized by Karen. I liked the idea and I was making different Valentine's cards during the previous week. I hope that all the recipients will get them sooner or later. I sent them by random - I put the names into a bowl and picked a number for each card I made. I hope that every of them will get into the right hands. I have received two until today. Perhaps some more are waiting for me in a mailbox today. It is so exciting to receive lots of mail and so many different thoughts.Some strange mushrooms grew next to my amarylis. Weird. I keep wondering what kind of soil I managed to buy because it is also full of small flies that annoy me while I read, eat or do anything else. I have no heart of killing them, I hardly kill a mosquito or any living creature. I removed the mushrooms anyway.
I am much better today and hopefully I will be able to go for a walk tomorrow. There was no Valentine's cake for me yesterday but I had a nice day anyway. My dad came to visit me and we talked about the old days. His health is worse every day but we all have big hopes that eventually his illness will slow down a bit soon. Time to remember. Special time. With a special person.

Travel with me on Valentine's day

Roses are red
Violets are blue
Sugar is sweet
And so are you.

This is a song that we had to learn in 5^th grade when we started to learn English language at school. Valentine’s day has become popular in Slovenia after our independence in 1991. Like Christmas and Easter which were until that time almost forbidden holidays. I can’t say for myself that I put any special meaning to Valentine’s day but it is nice to remember people you love or you used to love on this day. Well, any other day is fine with me too. ;)

On today’s day in 1849 a man was born, and his name was Valentine McGillycuddy. He was a doctor who treated Crazy Horse when he was wounded on 5 September 1877 in Fort Robinson, Nebraska while trying to set free. There are rumors that Valentine, as a very young and not very experienced doctor, gave too much morphine to Crazy Horse and therefore he probably died because of that and not of a ‘fatal’ wound. Valentine McGillycuddy’s remains are entombed at the top of Harney Peak in Black Hills, South Dakota, behind a plaque that reads "Valentine McGillycuddy, Wasitu Wacan." Crazy Horse supposedly liked him a lot, this Wasitu Wacan. I was driving through the Black Hills National Forest in August 2001 but there was no time to go up the Harney Peak. The park is a nice place, full of pines, one of my favorite trees. It is so different from everything that we have here in Slovenia. Slovenia is a real jungle compared to those places I visited in US. I hope that we will keep this abundance for our future generations too.

So, let's travel to Harney Peak today:

43°51'57.91" N
103°31'53.69" W
Elevation: 2194 m

Happy Valentine's day to all of you!

P.s.: Our internet connection is due to some unknown reason still very poor (usually not working at all). But I am glad that at least my cold got much better (also a reason why I haven't been posting anything for the last few days).

Friday

Tomorrow is a national holiday in Slovenia. It is funny that we celebrate the death of our greatest poet, France Prešeren. I wrote about him in December last year when we celebrated his birth. Though, it is not a national holiday then. We are funny people, Slovenians.

All museums in Slovenia open their door for free tomorrow and I might go and see some exhibition again. If I am not too sick. I caught cold again, hopefully a mild version of it. I am eating tons of fruit and drink liters of herbal tea.

Tomorrow is also a day when somebody celebrates his birthday. I met this English guy in August ‘94 in Lillehammer, Norway. I slept in a cozy hostel called Gjeste Bu. Coincidentally I was writing my diary right at that time when he, two girls from Holland and Michael, an Australian, had a chat next to my bed. I joined them. Somehow guys were making jokes on us, girls. So ‘the boy’, like he called himself, wanted to write a note into my diary. Ok, I let him. I was surprised because he simply wrote a few encouraging words on my pages of my ‘red book’ and beside them his address and an invitation to meet him again. I have never experienced something like that in my life. The next day we met in Oslo and I spent a nice afternoon with him. I experienced the whole new world. When saying goodbye he hugged me for a whole minute and kissed me briefly. You know, this was a shock for me and since then I had been floating on a cloud of happiness. I have never been so happy in my life, not before and never after. All the things seemed to be nice, each and every person friendly. A time of pure JOY.

Later I visited him in Liverpool, where I suppose he still lives today. When I came home the pressure of everyday life was too big and that joy that I had felt went away in about 3 months. A pity. I was struggling but without success. In autumn he visited me in Ljubljana but the magic went away. I went to see him for Christmas and New Year and I was deeply disappointed. Finally I realized that we do not and cannot belong together. I cried a lot. We heard each other after that a few times on the phone but I knew that he loved the world too much to be able to be with me. I am not sorry that it was over. I had the best time of my life that August and this is what matters most. I know I would not be happy with him today. We were too different. A world apart.

Happy birthday Adam G.M.!

Travel with me today

Where should we go today?

Let's travel somewhere in Slovenia again. Let’s climb up the highest mountain in Slovenia, Triglav. Triglav could mean three heads. This name probably derives from its feature because from some parts of Slovenia (e.g. Ljubljana) it is seen as a mountain with three peaks.

46°22'46.06" N
13°50'09.30" E
Elevation: 2864 m (on Google map it shows like it is only 2825 m high)

The first men climbed Triglav on 26 August 1778, so about a decade before French revolution. First woman (it was a girl actually) climbed the mountain almost 100 years after, in 1870.

There is a chapel built above the peak and a cottage in which the visitors can have a break or sleep. It is a day’s walk to get to the top if you are not really a racer. Hordes of people walk up there every summer. Also some stupid tourists who go there in sneakers and without sufficient clothes or food. Also some very clever women in high heels tried to climb the mountain. Very clever. The weather can change in minutes and so many times they have to be rescued.

I have never been on Triglav and to tell you the truth, I have no wish to join all those masses of people up there. Because there are so many other beautiful mountains in Slovenia. It doesn’t matter that they are not 2684 m high.

Carnival(e)

Let it be 'meat allowed' then, like Emily wrote in her comment of my previous post. In my opinion this is logical because we eat so much fat food during these carnival days. But tomorrow it will surely be goodbye meat!
So, I am a clown today. I think that people should wear masks on a Shrove Tuesday. Not just eat lots of doughnuts. It is a pity that people are so boring. I mean my colleagues. So serious. Some are later sorry for not wearing a mask but it will be the same next year, I tell you. On Saturday I was in the center of Ljubljana, doing some shopping for one of my projects. I was there just in time of a Carnival procession. It was badly organized and some masks were freezing in that cold besides I read later in a newspaper, they were soaked to the skin because of the rain. I went home before everything was over. I forgot to take my camera with you. A pity. I could show you some typical Slovenian masks but you will have to look at their pictures here instead. I suppose we, the masks, chase the winter away really badly because every year just after Shrove Tuesday it starts snowing...
On Saturday I baked krhki flancati, a kind of a fat pastry. Still today my house smells of fat. I will have to let in some fresh air because the smell makes me really sick when I enter the living room. Later I sprinkled them with some caster sugar and gave some to each mask that knocked on my door (yeah, I still don't have a bell at my front door).
So, now we will hardly wait that those 40 days until Easter pass quickly and then celebrate again...

Feathers & carnival

When walking over the fields and meadows near my house I find and see all sorts of things. I don't like meeting people when going for a walk. I prefer my own presence. That's why I don't follow the roads and paths but rather go my own way.The other day I found the remains of a Common Buzzard (Buteo buteo), probably eaten by a fox. Actually there were only feathers left. I like feather so I took them with me. Perhaps one of our ornithologists at work can make some use of them, you never know. They collect all kind of things. Beware of having an ornithologist for your partner because one day you might find a bunch of birds in your freezer. Or some other animal, of course. I tell you from my own experience, it happened to me once.

It is the carnival time! I read last week in one of the cook books that the word derives from Italian words carne vale which would actually mean goodbye meat. I am not sure if this is true. Anyway, I don't know if I will wear a mask this year. I still might sew myself a costume tomorrow. My mom will make doughnuts with an apricot marmalade like every year. I can't wait to have some. This is what I will have for breakfast, lunch and dinner in the few next days. Until Wednesday. Happy Carnival!

P.s.: Our internet connection is rather poor these days, it works only for a while or it doesn't work at all. I apologize to you all that I did not reply to your comments.