Sometimes things just go wrong

This week: Sometimes things just go wrong; All dried out; Island supermarkets;

The weather has been much better this week. We have had a lot of sunshine, however because of the finger of cold which reached down from the Arctic, the start of the week was cold.

The early hours of Monday was mostly around just 3.6°C and the high temperature was 11.9°C.

Contrast that with today, Saturday, where most of the early hours the temperature was 9.5°C and we had a high of 22°C. This is the more normal temperature for early April.

There is another change coming though with wind and rain next week. But then on Thursday night, Maundy Thursday there is the annual Za križen procession. The weather is almost always poor for this annual religious parade around our villages.

The Cross Bearer walks barefoot through the villages of Svirče, Vrbanj, Vrboska, Jelsa, Pitve and Vrisnik. There is a smaller parade from Stari Grad to Dol.

In the past up to 1,000 pilgrims have followed the processions from Jelsa.

In warm spring sunshine I had a walk through the Maquis on saturday afternoon.

I was looking for the first signs of the spring orchids. One of the earliest is the “Naked man” and I had a good look round but couldn’t see any.

There was a carpet of common wild flowers everywhere I looked. Also the pollinators, bees, butterflies and other insects were very busy visiting the flowers.

Some are tall like this yellow Perennial Wall Rocket Diplotaxis tenuifolia, and others are tiny, ground hugging like these Star’s of Bethlehem, Ornithogalum_umbellatum.

Spring is my favourite time of year because it lasts for so long (from February to May) and because of how much there is to see.

Sometimes things just go wrong

Wednesday morning saw me on the way to Grad Hvar at 8am. The sun was shining and the Adriatic looked beautiful shimering in the gring spring sunshine.

First stop was MÜLLER for cat food. The felines really like their “own brand” chicken.

Next stop was the Urban Planning Council office. Once again it was about trrying to get my planning permission for two walls and a roof to join my buildings together.

I need an “Occupancy permit” for buildings built before 1968. But to get that, I need yet another certificate from the Cadaster Office. This time, I have the form to complete and I can submit it by email so that saves yet another visit.

Afterwards I had a meeting with my architect and then went to a new builders merchant on the way home for some bolts. They had a huge supply so it was worthwhile stopping to get exactly what I needed.

I also needed some electrical connectors for a repair job.

Sometimes things can just go wrong. This is the power cable between an 18v battery and electric secateurs. The “curly-wurly” cable is supposed to keep it out away of the jaws. However being black, the cable can get caught and cut by the powerful cutters.

A new cable is €60, so it is worthwhile trying to repair it.

Laying everything out on the work table, it took a little while to get the three cables into the connectors. These were then crimped up.

After testing to make sure I had good contacts, I wrapped the joint in electrical tape then used heat shrink tubing to make a completely waterproof joint.

It is always satisfying to complete minor repairs and get things working again…

All dried out

A month after extremely heavy rain flooded my workshop, it is now all dried out.

And I should add, it is a terrible mess inside!

My priority was to get everything out of the way of the water and very quickly. This meant piling boxes up on every available surfaces.

The immediate mopping removed the standing water on the floor. However damp is pervasive and it has taken a month for the dehumidifier to really dry out the inside.

On Monday when I was looking at putting things back in place I realised that in one corner where I plan to locate the integrated thermal store, (once I have my extension) had just become a place to dump boxes.

With the cardboard boxes gone, there was a space so I ordered a set of steel shelves from Pevex on Monday afternoon. They were delivered on Thursday. Pevex is the “amazon” equivalent for Croatia.

I had made the decision to not do any more tidying up until I had the shelves in place. My OHIO policy in action again – Only Handle It Once.

I also ordered a new LED strip light for that area of the workshop. It did not take me long on Thursday afternoon to wire in the strip light, replacing an incandescent bulb.

I started building the shelves on Thursday afternoon and finished the job on Friday morning.

Next was moving storage boxes onto the shelves.

I have another LED strip light to fix, however that will wait until next week when it is raining. I always feel somewhat guilty doing inside jobs when the sun is shining.

Island supermarkets

There are five main Croatian Supermarket chains and four international brands, but of the nine brands, on the island we only have five and these are really quite small.

In summer when there are perhaps 25,000 visitors on the island, they are packed out. In winter when the population is around 4,500 I often go to my nearest, a Tommy, and staff outnumber customers.

Even within brands there are differences. The Tommy at Stari Grad carries different lines to the Tommy in Jelsa. But also their stock range is seasonal.

In Jelsa where the customer base is around holiday makers, in summer the freezers are packed to the gunwales with ice cream. In winter, some freezers are taken out of use and the remainder are filled with vegetables and frozen pizza.

I was at Plodine this week, also in Jelsa. This is another small supermarket with a limited range of goods, geared towards visitors. Here thinks lots of beach wear, buckets and spades etc…

What Plodine does have is a large in-store bakery with a really nice range of breads and pastries. They often also have some unusual plants for sale too.

So being in Jelsa I called in. As you walk in, the turnstiles are in front of the fruit and vege section. On the shelves next to the tomatoes (?) there were some long, cream roots, wrapped in clingfilm.

I thought they looked like Horseradish, and checked the label. It was indeed horseradish, or Hren in Croatian.

I have tried since 2017 to grown Horseradish in my herb bed. The first roots came from the UK.

It grew, but only just, and was not happy in the herb border.

This border gets a lot of sun and even though I kept the plant moist, it hardly thrived, then I noticed it had died.

Horseradish is believed to have originated in south-east Europe, so here in the Balkans, it really should grow.

A few years back, I found a garden centre near Zagreb that had Hren in its catalogue, so orderd a root.

In due course the root arrived, costing €12, is was about 10cm in length and I duly planted it.

I moved it to a more shady location hoping it would thrive. The root didn’t and I can’t see any shoots there this spring.

So when I saw the 30cm root on the shelf, at just under €5, I bought one.

After a couple of days in the kitchen, there are green shoots showing on the cut ends of the roots, so it is obviously alive.

I have planted it in a big tub of soil. Horseradish are substantial plants so I want to give it plenty of room to grow strong roots before I plant it out in a final position.

As I passed the plants section, there were some small glass jars with an aquatic plant inside. I didn’t recognise the plant or the name on the label, but bought one anyway.

Bach home, I found it is a type of algae which grown in the shape of a ball and is sometimes called a Lake Roller.

As an aquatic curiosity, I want to see how it grows and how long I can get it to survive in the little glass jar.

In some countries Marimo are protected, although not in Europe. I do find it strange that something so exotic and rare is offered for sale in a supermarket on this obscure island! NCG