Things are definitely sent to try us on this planet, we have such a good life here that I think sometimes we need to be brought back to reality. The storm that came in July was a wake up call to everyone, it is starting to look better in the area around Vratna, they are sorting the roads and making the river banks a bit more substantial. Maria and I have been into the mountains to look and photograph the damage, I am putting a lot of the pictures on my website to give people an idea of what nature can do but it has to be seen to be believed, some of the mountain streams that were not so big, now have gulleys 3-4m deep and up to 10 metres wide carved out of the rock and soil by the flood waters.
This where it all started way up in the mountains.
We had just returned from one of our trips taking pictures, we were wet and not paying attention to what we were doing, the camera equipment was on the floor in the back of the car, Roxy jumped out, caught her foot in the camera strap and catapulted it into the road which sheared the lens off the body, it was the 16-35mm that I use all the time. anyway, it is now in the UK for repair as to replace it would cost £1500, I will let you know how it goes next time I write, to be honest I have been very lucky with the camera gear because it does get abused when you lug it up into the mountains but that is what it is for, no good leaving it at home.
The next bit of bad news is that all Maria’s bees are gone, one of the hives got robbed by a mean swarm of bees who then started on the next one and we think the third hive just upped sticks and legged it before they could be cleaned out, it was very sad to see so many dead bees and my heart went out to Maria,she has worked so hard over the last couple of years and we just got our first honey last month, but nature sure can deal a bad hand when it wants to, so, next year we start again, new bees, we have hopefully learned from our mistakes so should be much smarter this time round!!!!!
It doesn’t seem to have stopped raining this last month or so, the ground is so wet everywhere, we did have a good harvest from the garden, amazing amounts of onions garlic and beetroot, we have made loads of chutneys and jams plus we have quite a bit of wine on the go, tomatoes are still coming, beans are now drying out, just need a bit more sunshine, the seasons are completely up the creek this year, autumn crocuses are out which is a month too soon but that is the pattern because everything has been a month early and if the hedgerows are anything to go by the winter will be harsh but we will wait and see eh….