Look up!

Usually when I walk through the city center, I don't look down in front of me like I do in the mountains, but I look up, where the beauties of skilled workers of the past are hidden. Ljubljana has so many secrets but if you look only at the windows of the shops, you can't see them.Yesterday we ate our lunch in Le Petit Cafe, where the food (and coffee) is good but too expensive for everyday lunch, and while walking back to work (and looking up!) a colleague of mine coincidentally mentioned her art teacher who had ordered her students in the secondary school to go to the city center and check for these little hidden treasures I mentioned at the beginning. I could hardly believe but it was the same teacher I had 10 years before. She was teaching my dad too, so she must be quite old now. Narcisa is her name (yes, she has a name of a flower) and she was strict but one of the best teachers I had. I have learned so much from her about art. I joined one of the excursions to Italy (where Slovenian is still spoken) she prepared every year for those who were interested in culture and art. It was an amazing experience! Weird, but I was the only one from my school at that, or any excursions she prepared. Yesterday we agreed on two things:

1. that we can learn so much from some people and waste lots of time with others
2. that Ljubljana's city center is really beautiful if you look up! :)

When I say too much

I was thinking if I should share what happened to me yesterday, and today while driving to work I decided to do so. I know that I say too much quite often and I apologize to all of you who think that my comments on your blog were harsh. But I meant only good by writing whatever I had written. I was very surprised to find out that Holly from decor8 deleted my comment on her Haus Maus blog. I am not that kind of person who would pretend that I like something that I don't and I also tell so. You won't see it written WOW! if I don't really mean it. My comment on her post was that she should simply look at some other smaller shops to find what she wanted to have. If I didn't have below average wage, I certainly wouldn't buy all my furniture in Ikea when there are so many wonderful shops in this world with more quality stuff. And Hamburg in my opinion is not a small city, so I suppose the choice is huge. Never mind, nothing is wrong if someone decides to delete my comment but I only wonder - do people do this so that their blog would look prettier, nicer, friendlier? To make them look superior - you know - to look that they always choose the best of the best?

It is 10 September approaching that is also why I will share this story with you to show you who I really am. A Slovenian, obviously sometimes a bit too harsh to people of other nationalities, because we are a kind of a mixture of Italians (temperament and loud) and Austrians (cold, serious, tidy) but above all we are still Slavs (friendly, homey, hospitable).

So, on that September day in 2001 I was standing with B on Denver airport to check in for the flight back to Venice in Italy (via London) from where we traveled by train to Ljubljana. We were there very early, the only passengers to check in at that time. When we handed over the flight tickets and passports to a lady clerk, she looked strange at us and after checking something on the computer she wanted to have Italian visas from us. We couldn't believe our ears! In whole our lives we never needed a visa to travel to Italy. Never! And now some lady required it from us. At first we were friendly, explaining to her that we don't need one and that we had flown from Italy to get to the USA and nobody had required anything else than passports from us. She was firm in her decision to see our visas. It lasted an hour of arguing, I wanted her to call our embassy but she refused, to check if she didn't mix us with Slovaks but she refused. She was almost crying. Lucky for us, a man clerk came around then and the woman, on the edge of tears, telling him how rude and harsh we were talking to her, told him the story. I didn't think that I was rude, I was just talking and persuading her that we do not need any visas to travel either to Italy or the USA. I wasn't shouting at her or telling her bad words, I was just in a bad mood and very serious at that time. We both were, although B is the friendliest, calmest, nicest person I know. That man simply told her to let us go. I had Indian spears with me and nobody bothered about them at the Denver airport. I had to check them in at the Heathrow airport because they looked dangerous to the clerk. You know what happened then - exactly at the same time that we were flying from London to Venice, the events of 11 September happened in the USA.

So, this is a story about me, how I can look (or be?) rude and harsh to some people. I guess Holly thinks the same too, me being some impolite woman from some (whatisitcalled?!) Balkan state. Anyway, I am very proud to be a Slovenian and a European at the same time.

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On the photo: we call this bread žemlja (pl. žemlje) (my dictionary says that they are called rolls in English and die Semmel in German). I baked them yesterday and they came out quite delicious. They were made and baked in one hour which was really quickly.

Colorful world

My world is world of colors. In Ikea magazine I received yesterday is an article about a woman who's apartment is white. Everything is white. The walls in my house are white too but this won't last for long. I hope that someday the walls will be painted with nice colors and drawings. I just have to practice drawing on paper first or find someone to do the drawing on walls for me. Ideas, plans - I have so many of them but usually most fade with time. I spoiled myself a bit again by ordering some felt from Waldorf Toys. Colors are very vibrant and I plan to make some birds of it. A mobile for my working place to brighten the white walls. Or something else to make someone happy again.

At the beach

When I say that a real vacation is only when you go far away, I mean it. It is the only way to relax and switch off the thoughts of everyday life. It was short but sweet. I haven't been at the seaside for more than a day for 5 years. It felt good. It was about two hours drive to the camping site called Colone near Rovinj in Croatia. When I was a child we were spending lots of time on the beach, usually on island Cres where the water is clear and, if not in a crowded camp, you feel like being on another planet. I wouldn't like to live there but to get off the beaten track of your life, it is nice to go there.It was a quiet camp, the electricity was available only at the toilets and in a near bar/restaurant. We discovered the mini (mini!) market the day we left. All was basic. There were mostly Germans and Slovenians in the camp which was nice. Italians can be rather loud during the night. It was amazing that I slept to almost 8 o'clock in the morning! I usually wake up before 6 a.m. The silence was stuning in the morning, there was only sound of waves from the beach across the road to be heard. Ž wasn't very often at the seaside, he learned to swim in a swimming pool. He had bought himself a mask before leaving for this short vacation and most of the time he was watching the underwater world. There were plenty of fish! The sunsets were gorgeous, ice-cream too. We didn't go to Rovinj or to any of the near towns, perhaps next time when I will drive. There was no need for any special food, so I was mostly eating figs, we prepared some tomato salad, fried eggplants and one day we had pasta.I guess this was not the last time at the beach, we might be going there for few days again. It is quite close to Ljubljana, very cheap, clean and quiet. We don't need more. Maybe just a bit more comfortable bed? :)

First day of September

First day of meteorological autumn. Mornings are cool and afternoons are hot. Summer days have passed so quickly. I know I will miss them. I love summer, I love time, when leaves are on trees. A bit more than two months and they will fall off. Half year of bare twigs and short days follow.

First day of school. Pupils will fill up the school desks again. I don’t envy them. Perhaps just a little bit; they have many more opportunities today for additional education. I was interested in so many things when I was a pupil but there was no possibility for a child to learn more!

Birthday of my friend from youth. We spent time together during the weekend. Sometimes not even that because she had to learn (her parents were teachers and so their expectations were high). She got married 14 days before me because she was pregnant. She has two daughters. I haven’t seen her for so many years now. Since we were teens. Happy birthday, Barbara.

2003. Five years ago. It was a sad day when a part of my life ended for good. Part that I have thought would last forever. I have learned that nothing lasts forever. I have just read a book His ‘n’ Hers by Mike Gayle and found a bit of my life story in it. With one slight difference – I never give a second chance to a man who had once left me. Never.

It is also Monday on 1 September this year. It feels like a new beginning.

From here to there

It is time to change the scenery, so I will move from my kitchen to the Croatian seaside for few days. On the photo is cooked chopped squash with parsley and mozzarella cheese and kus-kus. I expect to eat lots of figs in the next days. Yum! My favorite fruit.

Enjoy yourselves too!

When you are as high as the birds fly...

... then you have no wish to go down again. There was delicious food in a hut, clear sky, magnificent view, horses. I walked up Kladivo (it means hammer in English) which is a little above 2000m high. Enjoyed each and every moment of a day. There was fun corner for children and little dwarf peeking out of the flowers. The latter made me smile (though I really can't imagine to have one myself). Saturday is a good day to stroll through Ljubljana. If you are there before 9 a.m. you can see stalls being prepared by the artists, you can check the little shops that open at 8 a.m. and buy all sorts of (expensive) vegetables and fruit at the market. Don't miss that, if you ever visit Ljubljana, you won't regret it. It seems that only market is alive at Saturdays in the city center. I met Mojca Fo, happy and talkative young woman. I couldn't resist and bought a postcard made by her. Pictures are rather expensive, so I put them on my wish list. I watched her while she was drawing and it looked so easy. Yeah, right! It is time when the blackberries are ripe. Not only that I make marmalade out of them, I also make very simple ice cream with them too - I freeze them, then add a little bit of cream and maple syrup and mix everything together (I added some mashed banana the other day - yum!). Each day I pick some fresh vegetables from the garden; there is something ripe everywhere you look! First figs are ripe too and it is time to go to the seaside to eat some more. A plan is to go to the beach on Wednesday, I just wonder if Ž will really fulfill his promise. Let's wait and see.

New home

Do you remember this bird on the photo? It found a new home. One of my friends adopted it and I am sure Bird will live a happy life in my friend's home. How wonderful it is when you can make someone happy at least for one single moment!

At home

There are lots of vegetables growing in my garden and lots of weeds too. I had a fight with the latter in the afternoon and now the garden looks much better. Squash feel better, too, now that they have some sunshine only for themselves. :) It's been the third year since I have this garden and it sounds very promising if I say that it looks better every year. I admit, I am a bit lazy when it comes to weeding but I will learn over the years how to do it right and eventually my garden might look as beautiful as my grandmom's one day. :) Anyway, flowers on my windows look wonderful! I've been messing with elder berries for the last three days in my kitchen. It's lots of work for little effect. First you have to clean them, pick out all the green berries because they are poisonous (all have to be black), then slightly cook them, press through a strainer, cook the juice with sugar or honey for more than half an hour and finally fill hot glasses with this mixture. This was jam (no photo). Then I made some syrup. I mashed the berries, added some water, left the mixture for a day to settle. Then I pressed the berries through a strainer, cooked the mixture with sugar and when cooked, added some lemon extract. Both, jam and syrup have certain taste though I can't say that they taste as good as the ones made of barberries or raspberries.

Yesterday at 8 o'clock in the evening I found out that there's no more bread so I quickly made the scones. I had no plain white flour therefore I made them with wholewheat one and they taste even better. It feels so good when you learn something new.

Goodness

I wish there were more days like yesterday. Days, when no matter what you do, everything turns out well. Good things come to you on such days and nice people surround you.

I like receiving mail, especially snail mail. I am always so excited when something nice and new finds its way to me. I found this goodness in my mailbox yesterday. Thanks, Leslie. Whoohoo. :) I love it red this season. It is amazing that I liked violet last year and now I can see violet clothes in the shops. It is always like that. I won't be surprised if I see red clothes in the shops next summer.

I promised myself not to spend so much these days but when I saw new issue of Wohn Idee in the shop last evening, I just put it into my shopping cart. I used to buy this magazine when I was living in block of flats for some years. It was a cozy apartment and I have always thought I would make it as nice as these rooms in the magazine look like. I'd moved out before I had a chance to make it a perfect place in my little world. I guess that I bought the last issue of Wohn Idee about 7 years ago. Such a loooong time ago! I hope that one day rooms in my little house will look as nice as those on the photos in this magazine. Do you recognize the fabric on the left lower photo? :)