Mariina skála is a prominent rock outcrop, 428 metres above sea level, located north of the village of Jetrichovice, which is in turn, around 12km north of Stará Oleška, the village where I live. Perched on top of the rock is a gazebo forming a viewing platform, with spectacular views across the surrounding area.
Back in late March 2016, I did climb up to Mariina skála as I describe and illustrate in the latter part of this post. But more recently, I have wanted to return for two reasons. Firstly, the weather on that previous visit was somewhat misty, which restricted the views. Secondly, I had seen in local news reports, that a brand new gazebo had been erected earlier this year, replacing its predecessor which had become unsafe.
Therefore, when Monday 6th September dawned fine and sunny, I drove to Jetrichovice and then set out on the red waymarked route, to climb up to the top of Mariina skála. Jetrichovice is around 230 metres above sea level meaning a fairly steep climb of about 200 metres or 650 feet.
This photograph, taken standing on the first section of the viewing platform, shows some of the steps I had to climb to get there. But the spectacular views made the effort in climbing more than worthwhile as I hope the following photographs illustrate.
As is illustrated in my previous post about how, on Sunday 25th October 2020, my house was connected to mains water, part of the work involved digging a deep trench right across the front lawn. Because late October is the end of the growing season here, I realised that I wouldn’t be able to do anything to repair the grass, until the Spring of 2021. The photograph above, taken on 13th December 2020, after I had finished severely pruning all the bushes down the right-hand side of the lawn, shows the extent of the damage.
As I wrote in that previous post, there was also excess earth that needed to be taken away from where the contractors had dug the hole for the ‘shaft’.
And the strip of public land between the concrete gully and my front hedge still needed to be made good, which also involved removing excess earth and rubble.
Earlier this year, I decided that I would use the need to repair the damage done to the grass, as an opportunity to make other improvements to the front garden. I wanted to get rid of two unsightly trees, a half-dead bush and a shrub. I also wanted to remove three lumps of concrete near the house, two of which I believe were the base of steps up to the original front door, which was on the far side of the now enclosed verandah.
Believing that some of these tasks were beyond my capabilities, my friend Kát’a kindly found me a landscape gardener, Mr Bezdekovský, and in mid-April, he came to look at what I wanted doing. He gave me a very reasonable quotation and promised start work on Wednesday 5th May, providing it wasn’t raining heavily 😉
And this is how it looked a few hours later, after the unwanted trees, bush and shrub had been removed, together with the addition of a pile of fresh earth to help with reseeding all the bare patches.
But what I and Mr Bezdekovský had not realised was how deeply embedded two of the three lumps of concrete were. Here is the first one that they tried, and failed 🙁 to remove, using a pickaxe and spade.
So the following day, they returned with a pneumatic drill/jack-hammer and eventually managed to extract all three concrete lumps. Here is part of the first one.
And here is the resultant hole! However, the excess earth that the contractors never came back to take away in October/November 2020, proved highly beneficial, as Mr Bezdekovský was able to use most of it to fill three large holes 🙂 The remainder, he loaded onto his trailer, along with the lumps of concrete, and took it all away for disposal.
I am very aware that it is now two and a half months since I last published a blog post. I am also aware that, either in the text of previous posts or in answering comments, I have promised to provide further updates on things I’ve written about. So this post is my attempt to kill two birds with one stone.
Back in late April I complained that ‘Someone keeps trying to kidnap Spring‘. Well Spring did eventually arrive as I hope is illustrated by this photograph of wisteria flowering at the back of my house, taken at the end of May. But it has been noticeable how much later plants and trees have been producing leaves or flowering, in comparison to previous years. The time lag has been in the region of two to three weeks.
I pay for my electricity by a monthly direct debit with my meter being read once a year in June. At that point, an invoice or refund is issued, depending on whether I’ve paid too little or too much over the previous eleven months. In June 2020, I received a small refund of CZK 750/GBP25.00. In June 2021, I received an invoice for CZK 6,985/GBP232.80 🙁
As I’ve said, I did anticipate that I would be asked to pay a little extra, though probably not as much as nearly CZK 7000. I was very aware that, because of the severe weather last winter, I’d made considerable use of the electrical heater in my study bedroom, whilst waiting each day for the wood-burning stove to fully warm the house.
But the other reason is the COVID-19 pandemic. In any normal year, I would spend at least three weeks away from my home. During that time, the only things using electricity would be my fridge and freezer. Everything else would be turned off. But after returning home from the UK on the evening of 27th December 2019, I haven’t spent one night anywhere else but in Stará Oleška 44.
No direct debits were made in either June or July. But because of my increased usage of electricity, my monthly direct debit in August until June next year, will be CZK 600/GBP20.00 more than it has been in the past two years 🙁
No caption required!
I sadly have to report that I have had no reply to my ‘letter to Victoria Prentis MP‘, other than an automated email acknowledging receipt, despite sending it two and a half months ago. If there are any benefits from Brexit, then Ms Prentis has had more than enough time to compile a list and send it to me. Of course, there aren’t any benefits. But even if she knows that, she dare not say it because it would cost her job as a junior minister at the Department of Farming, Fisheries and Food. To remain in post and to remain as a Conservative MP, you have to be a sycophant to Bungling Boris 🙁
I do however, have one piece of very good news to report. On Friday 11th June, I was vaccinated at my GP practice in Prague and received my EU Digital COVID Certificate. And because I received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, I have only had to have a needle stuck in me once 🙂
The final post about which I promised update was regarding the house now being connected to mains water. The new mains water supply has been completely problem-free. But getting piles of earth shifted and disturbed areas of ground made good has been a long saga which deserves a post in its own right. So I’m going to finish this post now and promise to publish a further one in the next few days.
This past week, I have personally experienced the ‘wonderful benefits’ of Brexit. So I decided to write to my MP and tell her all about it. My letter to the honourable member for North Oxfordshire and junior government minister – Victoria Prentis MP.
Dear Mrs Prentis,
Although I have lived outside of the UK for over twelve years, I am currently still on the electoral register as a former resident of Finmere, in the eastern extremity of your constituency. So I am writing to tell you of my recent experience of the great benefits of Brexit.
On 10th April 2021, I ordered online, an item of clothing, manufactured in the UK, from a UK supplier. I paid £75.00, together with a further £18.95 for shipping via Royal Mail Track & Trace. When the UK was still a member of the EU, the parcel containing my order would normally have been delivered to my home in the far north of the Czech Republic, some seven to ten days later.
However, because of Brexit and the wonderful Trade and Cooperation Agreement negotiated by your party leader and prime minister, my parcel was instead held in Czech Customs, upon its arrival in Prague. I then received a registered letter explaining various ways for me to receive my parcel, all of which would involve additional costs.
I eventually decided to collect my parcel in person, whilst having to be in Prague for a medical appointment. As well as having to make a difficult journey across a city with a population of 1.3 million, (somewhat bigger than Banbury or Bicester in your constituency), I was also required to pay tax and customs duty of CZK 696/£23.60, increasing the cost of the goods by over 25%.
So as you can see, one great benefit of Brexit is that I have been forced to make an additional contribution to the income of the Czech government. The second benefit is that the cost of goods ordered from UK businesses by any of 446 million people resident in the EU, has been increased by around 25%. I am sure you will see both of these things as being highly beneficial to the future well-being of the United Kingdom.
Yes – I am being very sarcastic. But please explain to me; what are the benefits of Brexit? Do not give me the line about regaining sovereignty. The whole concept is nebulous and my question in return would be, ‘What have you done with your sovereignty today?’
The truthful answer to my question is that there are none! The Emperor doesn’t have any new clothes. And that truth needs to be said loudly and clearly.
Yours faithfully
Ricky Yates
Postscript
I promise to report the details of any reply that I receive. However, my hopes are not high for a truthful answer from someone whose party leader and prime minister is an inveterate liar.
As I have indicated in two previous posts, here and here, this past Winter has been a cold and very snowy one. And Winter has been very reluctant to release its grip. It seems that each time Spring tries to make its appearance, someone promptly kidnaps it 🙁
Altogether, we had over six weeks of lying snow, which only finally began to melt in the latter part of February. This photograph, taken on 20th February, shows one of my clumps of snowdrops, reappearing as the surrounding snow slowly melted.
And here they are ten days later, flowering beautifully.
Believing that we had seen the last of the snow for this Winter, during the first weekend of March, I moved my snow shovel from outside my back door, to its Summer home in the woodshed. On the morning of Monday 8th March, this was the scene that greeted me when I opened my back door!
But after the official beginning of Spring, the weather did finally become Spring-like. Therefore on Friday 26th March, I went on a 9km circular walk from the village of Ludvíkovice, exploring a route above Kanon Labe which I hadn’t previously walked. It included this wonderful view.
Then on Tuesday 30th March, I walked with my friend Kát’a, on a triangular route from Markvartice to the summit of Vysoký les (464m) & return. There was bright sunshine and a maximum temperature of 22°!
Whilst this is the view west with the conical hill Ružovský vrch on the right. The village you can just make out in the centre of the photo is Stará Oleška.
A week later, on Monday 12th April, I had to be Prague for two separate medical appointments which were several hours apart. So during the period between the appointments, in a mixture of rain and snow and with a maximum temperature of 3°, I walked around parts of the historic centre of the city. A combination of the weather, together with COVID-19 restrictions meaning there are currently no visiting tourists, meant I hardly saw another human being.
This is a never to be repeated photograph – Charles Bridge with absolutely nobody on it.
Winter did have one final fling on on Friday 16th April when we had yet more snow, which fortunately rapidly melted. But I won’t post yet another snowy photograph 😉 Instead, here are my tulips finally flowering.
And trusting that the kidnapper of Spring has made his final appearance for 2021, a few days ago, I returned these plants to their normal Summer location on my front steps, after their Winter sojourn in the house.
