Blue Moon

Tonight there will be a Blue Moon, which in case you didn't know is when you have a second full Moon in the month. It does not happen that often and I am told the next one will be in 2015. It seems we will be lucky to be blessed with a clear night here in Sarajevo. They a Blue Moon has a special energy so hopefully it will have a positive effect on things.
It is as crazy as usual at work, which of course is good because it means we are busy and we need that. We are supposed to get some rain over the next few days which is good for many things, but may effect business, school is also back in session so not as many families during the week.

An old friend

I had a visit from an old friend on Monday. We both lived in New York for quite a while and now spend most of our time in Europe. Due to bus and airplane schedules he could only be in Sarajevo for 1 day, but I got to show him around and he was suitably impressed and says he will come back for a longer stay.
The hot weather is continuing, but thankfully the mornings are cool when I go out for my run. I heard that there is a water shortage in the city, but they don't want to say anything so as not to upset people in an election year. Yes there are elections here too.

My Niece

I just came back from spending 6 days on the World Harmony run in Bosnia and in Croatia, check out my running blog for a report. On the second day it was my sister's Birthday and I sent her a message to wish her a happy one. She did however give me give me the news that my niece is quite sick and will have tests son the determine what the problem is. We are hoping for the best and I will post here when I know.

New Place

It has been a while coming but I finally moved into my new place in Sarajevo on August 2nd. Earlier in the week I bought a new bed which is very nice.The new windows were supposed to be installed last month, but things don't move that fast here and they are now supposed to be put in this week, they say Monday and Tuesday they will take 2 days.right now my room is very basic, a bed, a desk and internet :). I will slowly improve things as time goes on and keep everyone informed.

Cooler

There has been a change in the weather for the start of the week, actually it started last night. There was a sprinkle of rain in the morning and was mostly overcast. The high temperature for the day today was about the same as the low temperatures for the last few weeks or so. I have to say it is most welcome and is supposed to last for the next few days.

Survived II

Well I managed to survive my week of being in charge of the kitchen at Ecofutura, it got a little intense at times, but you just have to get through it. I will say one thing I didn't have a problem sleeping at night. Staff numbers are back to normal and yesterday when I finished my run it completed 18 months without missing a day, which equals my second longest streak of all time
The Sarajevo film Festival is over and I am sure the city will be a little quieter as a result, though I was told that the numbers were down from previous years.

Survived

Survived the weekend. It was really hot in the kitchen yesterday and we were busy, it seemed even more so because we were short staffed. Things will be a little quieter for a few days and the other cooks will be back by the end of the week.
The mornings are quite refreshing and it is nice to go out and run .

Hard work ;)

It has been getting quite busy at work and this weekend it got even more so. Normally we have 3 cooks at the peak of the day, but on Saturday the 2 cooks who have been the mainstay of the kitchen went on a trip for 6 days. So now I am the main guy with one assistant. It was quite intense at times because we also had a Birthday party to deal with, but we survived. It was a little cooler in the kitchen which helped. When I got home I had a hard time staying wake and eventually just sacked out on the couch. Sundays have been quite busy the last few weeks so we will see how we get through this one.

Longest day

OK so it is June 22 nd, which is supposed to the longest day. The forecast here in Sarajevo is that it will be quite warm, but with a chance for thunderstorm's later, from an Hortic's point of view this will help the plants since it has been hot and dry for a while now.
After my little break I am settling in again and actually starting to feel comfortable here.

In Sarajevo we have been experiencing some hot weather kind of like New York, but without the humidity.  of course I have the chance to go up into the hills where it can be cooler and we have even had some rain which cools things down a bit

Since I git back in Sarajevo it has been getting hotter and hotter, but I have to say it feels quite fresh when I go out for my run in the morning.
My weekend job in the restaurant at the Eco village can be quite intense at times, but the nature up there is so nice and I am slowly trying to landscape some of the areas there and create some nice plant features and introduce some new trees and shrubs.

So last Tuesday I took a bus to Ljubljana, it was sort of a last minute thing since I was supposed to drive with a friend but there were car problems, so I just jumped on a bus.
I sorted out a way to get the rest of my stuff ( well almost all of it ) to Sarajevo. It involved me driving with some friends to Biograd in Croatia where another friend would take it back to Banja Luka. I got to spend 3 days on the Dalmatian coast which was great, then spent 1 night in Zagreb, before taking a bus to Banja Luka. The weather in Dalmatia was great and I got to spend a lot of time swimming and visited a place called Murtur on an island near to the coast.
Yesterday one of my friends from Sarajevo picked up me and my stuff, so now I am basically moved to Sarajevo :)

This weekend I was in Hresa which is near Sarajevo, I am helping out in the restaurant at Eco Futura which is an Eco village . One of the locals picked some wild mushrooms for us. On Saturday she brought a Bolet mushroom that has quite a strong taste and on Sunday she brought some very nice Morel's like the ones I found in Slovenia, both of them were very tasty. She knows where all the mushrooms grow and will bring us some throughout the year :)

Well it's Friday afternoon and I have completed my first week working at Sun foods. It has been interesting and I mad a couple of mistakes in the first few days. I managing to run every morning, it has rained almost every day that I have been here, but I think I have only run in the rain once.

I took a bus from Ljubljana to Sarajevo on Wednesday night and arrived in Sarajevo at 5 am yesterday. The trip was fairly uneventful, though there was a lot of rain. Everything was done at the last moment, a friend was supposed to come and pick me and all my things up and drive me to Sarajevo. Now that friend will pick up the rest of my stuff next week and then I will be fully moved. It is a little cooler here and they in fact had some snow at higher elevations earlier in the week. My back is bothering me a little from the 10 hour bus ride, but I have managed to get out and run. I run by the Bosna river and notice that it is running quite high, probably from all the rain and snow melt. I have a few days to recover and then it is off to work on Monday.

Last week we had some holidays in Slovenia May 1st being the big one I took advantage of the time to go to Novo Mesto, which is a place I have visited a few times when traveling by bus to Belgrade and a few other places. but never stopped and took a look around. There is a path along the river where you can run and since most people go to the seaside during holidays it was quiet. Of course that meant that there were only a few places open where you could get a drink and something to eat. However the weather was beautiful and sunny and I had a nice day out.

I had said that I would probably go to Sarajevo this weekend, but once again things have been delayed. The move is now set for May 17 one of my friends will come up on the 16th stay over night and we will drive back the next day.

Spring weather is finally here and tomorrow is a holiday in Slovenia. April 27 it seems is the anniversary of when the people decided to rise up against the German occupation during WWII.

Yesterday I set out early and ran out to the Sava river to an area where I picked Morel mushrooms last year. There a re 3 places that I visited just over a week ago where I picked some small mushrooms and due to the steady Spring rains we have been getting there is evidence that there will be much more than last year when the Spring was quite dry. Almost as soon as I arrived on the trails I saw a morel in a new place and when I came to my usual places I saw some very nice large specimens. I decided to explore a few new places and in one of them I found 5 or 6 nice sized Morels hidden in the leaf litter. In total I found 150 g of mushrooms. I also picked some garlic leaf which grows prolifically in the woods too and I use instead of lettuce in salads.
Morels have a very nice flavour and I usually saute them with butter or oil and a few other veggies, they also go well in an omelet.

So on Thursday I went by train to Zagreb, I usually go on a Friday and the train was so less full going a day earlier.
On Friday I had lunch with friends and then we drove to Banja Luka, Bosnia. It was Good Friday or Veliki Petak in the Orthodox church and a group of around 13 of us got together for a celebration.
Saturday was a mix of light and heavy rain, but 7 of us went up into the hills and hiked 10 Km while also gathering some nice healing herbs and edible plants which were pointed out to us by a friend who is an expert in this field ( no pun intended ). We later had a nice lunch that included some of the plants we had gathered.
I had a little meeting with my friends from Sarajevo and it now looks like I will move there on the first weekend of May. So a new adventure is about to begin.

Yesterday I made flying trip to my place in Croatia. It was a beautiful day and I have not been there for about a year. There has been this pending problem with some missing tiles on the roof of the house and I finally replaced them, thus hopefully eliminating a water damage problem in one of the rooms. It is interesting that the tiles on the old house that are probably 80 years old at least are in good shape, but the ones on the new house that are about 40 years old are showing wear. As they always say they don't make them like they used too. I was actually only in the village for about 5 hours, but got to meet a lot of neighbours and some of them helped me do some of the work, I of course returned the favour. I also got some homemade cheese. I am hoping to make another trip near the end of April and this time take a few friends with me. maybe we'll spend the weekend.