WINTER SOLSTICE UPDATE 05

Now that I have completed a year at Potok, I am feeling more in tune with it.  Its problems are less-inclined to throw me into a panic and I am more than ever in love with its situation and the closeness of the earth that it offers.  I  would hate to live again where I could not use rainwater, firewood, a compost toilet or pick from trees or garden for a meal.

My fruit has seen me beautifully through the Summer and Autumn: strawberries, cherries, kwumkwats, grapes, apples, pomegranates,  almonds, walnuts and now mandarins, oranges and lemons.  The laden orange trees on the N.E. side of the garden  compete with the view over the Adriatic and the mainland to the N.W.  Both are captivating and frequently interrrupt my work.

It has been a cloudy Autumn, however, and the citrus fruit needs some sun to bring it to perfection.  Last year we had sun puctuated briefly by wind and rain.  This year is the opposite.

In late Summer I made a number of seaweed and firewood runs, which was fortuitous because in early October the road became a torrent that made last year's  disaster look like a dribble!  It left nothing but boulders and chasms and a 2m drop outside my gate!  People from all over the Island came to see it.

I took a letter to the Town Hall where it was stamped, copied and returned to me, and neighbours expressed their anguish by phone.  We have been promised reparation in Jan.  Meanwhile, I am stranded with a bumper crop of oranges, a car and rapidly diminishing firewood.

Fortunately I was not stranded with my olives as Fabian, a local builder, kindly took them to the Press for me.  They yielded 7 1/2 ltrs plus a few kilo to give away and a few to eat whole.  I find they are lovely cooked with vegetables.

I planted plenty of greens for the hens, Lucky and me but they are suffering a plague of caterpillars and snails.  I think my seaweed mulch must be the attraction.

Lucky is again having to be confined, this time because my neighbouring farmer, Tonci, has complained that he is damaging his grape-vines.  The hen-enclosure must be over 30 sq. ms but after being used to the freedom of the whole countryside, he cannot stand it and frequently finds somewhere to get out.  In restricting him, I also have to restrict the hens,  keeping them out of their premises during the day,  but they have other shelter and are no longer laying so do not need access to their nestboxes.  Feeding time, for them all, is a real pantomime!

His combined wild and domestic life has made Lucky a superb specimen of a rabbit: fit and agile with bright eyes and a glossy coat: a joy to observe and to cuddle!  He still hides if I do not approach him tactfully enough,  pausing mid-run to decide which of his hiding-places to use.  Once there, he is not at all ruffled at being scooped out of it!

Probably the most welcome benefit that Potok has brought me is freedom from the arthritis with which I came.  The slight hardship of foregoing weekly chocolate and, less frequently, a dairy product, was a triviality compared with the joy of pain-free joints.  It baffles me that everyone with diet and stress-induced afflictions does not reach a similar conclusion.  My basic diet remains vegan-wholefood with as much raw as my dental condition allows.

In Sept. I had my first visitor, Martin.  His friend, Christa, has kindly offered to cover for me in May while I drive to and from the UK to get my Polo MOT'd.  My letter in

the VEGETARIAN brought the same offer from a number of people and Stella amd Keith will be coming from Easter till 6th May.  Dave is coming for Feb. Half-Term and.  I look forward to seeing the others at some time.  Their support makes me feel much more positive about my project, despite no one being interested in joining me long-term.  Pobably my year alone will enable me to provide a sounder  base for visitors and I look forward to seeing how 2006 develops.