The Slovak National Uprising

Thursday was 29th August which marks the start of the Slovak National Uprising (SNP) against the Nazi occupation in 1944. The centre of the Uprising was Banska Bystrica.

Jan Repta's Partisan Unit with British and American Pilots

There are a number of different views on the Uprising. ' In fact, many factions fought in the uprising, including large rebel units of the Slovak Army, nationalist and Communist partisans, and international forces. Given this factionalization, the Uprising did not have unambiguous popular support. Yet, the participants and supporters of the Uprising represented every religion, class, age, and anti-Nazi political faction of the Slovak nation.^{' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slovak_National_Uprising}

Today this event is commemorated with a bank holiday.

We went to the nearby village of Turecka and I took a photo of the SNP  memorial and a mural of partisans.

Each peach pear plum

This week I helped pick peaches and we chopped them up for jam. We also picked plums and baked plum cake.

My friends kindly gave me a lot of peaches so I am making peach chutney. Chutney is a kind of sauce from South India made with fruit or vegetables, spices, vinegar and sugar. It goes well with meat or cheese or with curries.

I have never made chutney before but it smells great. I am cooking it in the microwave which is easier than stirring it for hours on the stove.

Traditional Scales

Plum Cake Slovak-Style

An ant wanted to try the jam

Chutney Ingredients

The Chutney

Favourite films from the film festival

Here are some of the films I enjoyed most at the Four Elements film festival this year.

First up is Ninotchka (1939) - the film where Garbo laughed. A romantic tale of love between a capitalist parasite and a communist 'komisar' set in Paris. Seems ridiculous, then you love it - just like the strange hat Garbo wears.

Ninotchka (1939) USA

 

 

 

 

 

The Parade (2011) Serbia

  A Serbian film that deals in the most ridiculous stereotypes to confront both ultra nationalism and homophobia. A mafia boss finds himself trying to protect a gay parade through Beograd.

Tenderness (1991), Czechoslovakia

 'Tenderness' the first feature film made by director Martin Sulik in 1991. The first words in the film are, 'You beat your father.' The film explores a search for meaning in the life of the young protagonist after the end of Communism.

Vive L'Amour (1994) Taiwan

Three lonely people in Taipei begin using an empty flat. Sad, slow and beautifully filmed - this film is a slow burn. 

Parineeta (2005) India

'Parineeta' means 'married woman' in Bengali This film is based on a famous Bengali novel of the same name. The story has been up-dated and is now set in the 1960s. An epic production where family saga meets Bollywood musical - first the audience in Banska Stiavnica scoffed and then they cheered.

Preserving the harvest

Now is the time of year for preserving the fruit and vegetables from the garden to help us through the long cold winter. We made 'leco' which is a mixture of tomatoes and green peppers cooked with onion and put in jars. It is often eaten with scrambled egg. Yum.

Now I feel confident that we can survive the winter.

Went to mow a meadow

Sharpening your scythe (US President)

Recently we went up into the mountains round Banska Bystrica to do some mowing at my friend's weekend cottage. I took along a scythe and whet stone. Maros brought a motorised string trimmer. It was a classic face-off between traditional and modern mowing methods. I wet the stone and sharpened the blade and for an hour and a half I mowed the grass and brambles and nettles. The end result looked like a bad haircut.
Then Maros came along with the string trimmer and did the whole garden and redid my part so it looked better in about an hour. In this case modern methods won.
However, I have heard of competitions at village fairs between lawn mowers and scythes where that an experienced mower with a scythe beat the lawn mower.

A demonstration of how to mow

The whet stone in its case

The Four Elements Film Festival

Last week I went to the Four Elements Film Festival in Banska Stiavnica. We stayed in a nice flat where a musician lived. There were 14 guitars in the living room as well as other instruments.

Each day we walked through a wood and up through the cemetery to visit the town and back again at night. This year the theme was 'love'. We saw lots of films new and old from different parts of the world; India, Romania, Taiwan and of course Slovakia and the Czech Republic. It is a much better experience to see films at the cinema on the big screen and with an audience, and not just the usual commercial American films at the local multiplex. It was also great to watch films each evening outdoors at the amphitheatre. The atmosphere was more relaxed and sometimes it was more like being at a pantomime.

On Blueberry Hill

On Saturday we went for a walk and to see if there were any ripe blueberries to pick. I wore my sandals, which I discovered was a mistake. Picking blueberries means going off the marked trails, trekking through the undergrowth, climbing over fallen trees, tiptoeing through nettle patches and wading through briers. Sandals are not recommended footwear, but I didn't let that stop me.

There was a great view from the top of the hill. We didn't pick many blueberries, but I got to see how the blueberry comb works.

Homemade yoghurt and sun-dried tomatoes

Dasa gave me some yoghurt culture so every other day I boil a litre of milk, let it cool and pop it under the duvet with the culture for 12 hours. In the evening it is ready to eat.

Since it is very hot I am also trying to dry tomatoes on my balcony as an experiment. They are sitting under a tea towel to keep off birds and insects.

Garden update - the harvest begins

Thanks to friends watering the vegetable patch, when I got back from the Balkan Road Trip everything was doing well.

There are plenty of tomatoes and the cougettes are starting to grow. There were a few peas which I stuck in my Mediterranean fish stew.

The garden is never boring. I found goats grazing there the other day.

My aim to be completely self-sufficient in food by 2040 is one step closer to becoming reality.