The village of Vrbanj is home to Frane Abramović, and his ceramics studio. Through the Udruga Varbonj society, he organizes an international ceramic art colony each summer. Ceramicists from around Europe participate, and an exhibition of their work from last summer, “Varbonj 2017“, is on now in the Zvijezda Mora church in Hvar (Open: 21st…
It’s the end of June, so it’s lavender harvest time! Shame, really, as I love to see the purple hummocks decorating the hillsides. Unlike Provence, where the lavender is grown in great long stripes, here the bushes are kept separate, giving more of a pattern of dots. And, given the steepness of the fields, the…
Between the Mura and the Drava rivers lies Međimurje, Croatia’s northernmost county. In fact the Mura river is the border at that point, flowing east between Croatia and Slovenia on its way to join first the Drava, and then the Danube. This is a very green landscape, just at the edge of the Pannonian Plain,…
Our lovely stone courtyard is turning green for summer, slowly but surely. It’s a different kind of gardening than I’m used to, involving more hardscape, pots and quirky artwork, but it’s looking good for much less work. We really enjoy sitting out there and we have visiting bees and toads and geckos, so it’s working…
We’ve been thinking for a while that as people living on an island, we should have a boat. Especially here in Vrboska, with its long tradition of boat-building and fishing. To that end, we’ve recently signed up for the Royal Yachting Association’s Day Skipper course, which involves an online theory part (in progress), and a…
Good news! Our nesting swallows from last year have returned to us again. At least, we assume this is the same pair, moving back into their nest from last year. And it obviously saves time not having to rebuild your home from scratch, as we’ve reached the fledging stage some 2 weeks earlier (June 6th…
It’s been nearly 5 years since we took the old Liburnia ferry from Stari Grad down the coast to Dubrovnik. That took a leisurely 8 hours, including stops at Korčula town and the island of Mljet. Things are speedier now. Krilo’s fast catamaran service does basically the same trip (leaving from Hvar, not Stari Grad)…
The town of Ston, and its partner Mali Ston lie at the base of the Pelješac peninsula. This place is famous for its salt, an extremely valuable commodity in past times, and the lagoon with its salt ponds was vigorously defended by Dubrovnik, who owned the local salt trade. To keep it safe from predatory…
March is certainly throwing a serious amount of weather at us, and such a variety too! After last week’s snowfall and overnight frosts, we’d resumed a more normal temperature, and were really enjoying some quite warm balmy days. And then this morning, we were caught totally unawares by a hailstorm as we took our walk…
Now here’s a thing I hadn’t seen before – a very large webbed nest up high in an Aleppo pine tree. Was there some form of large spider building these? For there were three similar to be seen on the same tree, each one about the size of a rugby ball or football. When we…
Go Hvar 
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