UPDATE. SUMMER SOLSTICE 2005

I have now been at Potok over 6 mths, working as the seasons and maintenance needs demand.

A week ahead of the Tsunami, our track became a raging torrent and all its stones were deposited in a vast pile outside my gate. A week later my TV exploded, together with the downstairs socket circuit.

Pushing barrow-loads of stones back up the track and collecting food and firewood plus maintenance and decorating, took up much of the Winter. The hardest thing to come to terms with, was being unable, because of the language barrier, to make my own phonecalls, so that a kind bi-lingual friend always had to get help for me!

Late- Feb to late-April were extremely busy months as I pruned and planted. Some of the trees, especially the olives, were so neglected it would take me half a day to do one!

Digging out the compost pit and pushing the contents down to spread on the garden or in the orchads was even harder work than the stone replacement,

In late April, in the gap between pruning and watering, I returned to Wales to collect my car. A contingent from Animal Friends in Zagreb, came to look after the place in my absence.

On my return, the air was heavy with the scents of Rosemary and orange blossom and I started swimming.

During the strawberry season Lucky, my young black rabbit, had to be contained as I could not keep him off the bed! Now, however, he and the hens again have the freedom of the grounds and outbuildings 24hrs a day.

I have started to build a compost toilet but have decided that its completion can await the cooler temperature of the Autumn.

Now that it is hot, I try to avoid being out in the heat of the day, except when I go to Supetar. I aim to rise at 5am and work outside till 8 or 9am. I work inside till 11 or 11.30, then do my yoga practice which at other times of the year, I do on rising. Towards 5pm I go swimming, have supper and water till 9.30 or 10pm.

Onerous as I find this, I have only to glance up and see the sun setting over the Adriatic and the glow spreading over the mainland mountains to be followed by the emerging glow at dusk of the coastal lights and then moon-rise, to realise that I would not want to miss a moment of being outdoors at this time!.

I am picking kwumkwats and cherries for breakfast, watching the melons ripen and delighting in the promising bunches of grapes that festoon my patio and drive and the figs, now just beginning to form.

Many people dream of living in paradise and Potok is the closet place to paradise I have found in all my travels. So why am I still alone here? Surely there are one or two self-supporting people, preferably with gardening and maintenance skills, who would like to come and join me . They could have a flat to themselves and this would leave two bedrooms free for volunteers and guests. There is a fulfilling life here awaiting someone.

This solstice marks the start of the final 7-yr cycle before the year 2012, the point, according to a number of teachings, where creation moves from expansion to contraction and unprecedented spiritual energy pours into the earth. I would like Potok to help stabalise this energy. Even on the merely physical level, it has so much potential that it would be a tragic loss were I forced to sell.