As I explained in this post, the winter of 2019-2020 was remarkably mild. However, the winter we are currently experiencing is bearing a much greater similarity to my first two winters living here in Stará Oleška and a week ago, winter arrived with a vengeance.
Before Christmas, we had a dusting of snow on a few occasions, but it soon melted. On 26th December, Boxing Day, we had a further light snowfall but which again, mostly melted in the following twenty-four hours. But overnight Friday 8th – Saturday 9th January, snow fell once again and didn’t melt. And since then, snow has fallen, snow on snow!
Later that day, I went for a walk to Olešský rybník, the lake at the other end of the village. As you can see it was almost totally frozen at the surface with snow lying on top of the ice.
The photo at the beginning of this post was the view from my front door on Tuesday 12th January, before I cleared my front path. And above is a view of my house from outside of my front gates, taken the same day.
The new path across my back garden, from the rear steps to the woodshed, has very much proved its worth during the current weather. You can just about make it out in this photo, taken before I cleared it of snow. But being smooth and even, it is relatively easy to scrape snow off it.
A few days ago, my Czech friend Kát’a, who has helped me with language issues in recent months, saw one of my snowy photos and said she would like to make a snowman. She lives in Decín, which although being only 11km from my home, is 135m above sea level, whereas Stará Oleška is nearly 300m above sea level. Therefore what falls as snow here, often only falls as rain in Decín.
Therefore yesterday, ironically when Decín did get some snow, I picked her up and brought her to my house and together, we made a snowman and a snow woman 🙂 The snow woman was Kát’a’s idea and her creation 🙂
Today we have had yet more snow. Once more, I cleared the path to the woodshed, past the snow people 😉 , in order to split some more logs and bring them into the house and keep the wood-burning stove going. But as you can see, within an hour it was once more being covered in snow.
As a recipient of a UK state pension and living in the Czech Republic, last Friday I received a letter from the British government. The letter was organised by the Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab, and the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Thérèse Coffey. Below is the text of what I have written in reply, sent this afternoon by email, to both ministers.
Dear Mr Raab, Dear Ms Coffey,
On Friday 4th December 2020, I received a letter entitled, ‘UK Transition Period: A message for UK Nationals living in the Czech Republic’. Ostensibly, it came from the British Embassy in Prague. However, as is acknowledged at the end of the letter, it was actually compiled by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) in London. Interestingly, it was posted to me from Port Louis, Mauritius – so much for the UK government’s commitment to reducing its carbon footprint 🙁
At least on this occasion, the DWP managed to address me with my correct name. Just over a year ago, I received another letter from the DWP dated 7th October 2019, assuring me that following Brexit, I would still continue to receive my UK state pension. However, that letter was addressed to Rev Warwick Panayiotou – one of about 98,000 letters that were sent out with incorrect names on them. Please note, my surname is Yates. Both that letter, and the recent one, contained the assurance that at the DWP, ‘We treat personal information carefully’. If ever there was an empty promise…..
I knew that I would receiving this latest letter because I had already seen the press release announcing that the UK government would be writing to me. Mr Raab, in that press release you are quoted as saying, ‘Protecting the rights of UK nationals living across Europe is an absolute priority for this government.’ I see you are following the example of your boss, the Prime Minister, in saying something that is a complete and utter lie!
British citizens living and working or, in my case, now retired in one of the 27 EU member states, have never been a priority for this current Conservative government or its two predecessors. Rather, we have at various times been called ‘cards’ and ‘bargaining chips’, by Conservative ministers and MPs. The only reason we have been able to retain any of our rights that the British government is happily taking away from us is because of the of the work of the ‘British in Europe’, a voluntary organisation.
The timing of this letter is a very clear indication that UK citizens living in the EU are at the bottom, and not the top, of your list of priorities. Your letter tells me about all the steps that I need to take in order to secure my future here in the Czech Republic. But when have you chosen to impart all this information? Less than four weeks before the end of the Transition Period, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic when many Czech offices are working shorter hours and with reduced capacity, and with the Christmas/New Year holidays at the end of the month.
Stating that, ‘Protecting the rights of UK nationals living across Europe is an absolute priority for this government,’ belongs in the same category as Boris Johnson’s claim to have an ‘Oven-ready deal’ for post Brexit trade with the EU, together with what was written on the side of that bus back in June 2016. They are all lies and falsehoods and you should be ashamed of peddling them.
I have already done all the things listed in your letter. But it isn’t thanks to the help and advice of the current British government, far from it.
As well as working on improving my garden, I’ve also been exploring more of the wonderful countryside in the surrounding area where I now live. I’ve enjoyed sharing several walks with my Czech friend Kát’a who, in turn, has been a great help to me in overcoming various Czech language issues.
Back on the afternoon of Wednesday 9th September, we climbed to the top of Vlcí hora (581m), a prominent mountain about forty-five minutes drive north-east of Stará Oleška, near the town of Krásná Lípa. Like so many Czech hills and mountains, Vlcí hora is completely forested. But also like quite a number of Czech hills and mountains, there is a viewing tower at the summit, which overcomes the problem of the trees blocking the view 🙂
Vlcí hora is the result of volcanic action during the Tertiary period. In the neighbouring photo, you can see the columns of basalt rock beneath the base of the viewing tower. Amusingly, you can also see Kát’a’s mobile phone which she was using to take a similar photo to me at the same time 😉
The viewing tower was open and manned so, after paying the 20kc/£0.70 per person admission fee, we climbed the 64 steps to the top. We were rewarded with these magnificent views.
On Saturday 3rd October, we walked from the village of Ludvíkovice, which lies halfway between Decín and Stará Oleška, to the Ružová vyhlídka viewpoint above Kanon Labe, which I have featured in a previous post more than two years ago.
I always think this view is spectacular. But what I particularly liked on this occasion, was the tinge of Autumn colours that you can see beginning to appear on some of the trees.
And here is me, contemplating the view in the other direction, towards Decín.
Earlier this month, on Thursday 5th November, we drove for about an hour, north and east of Stará Oleška, to the Lužické hory or Lusatian Mountains, as they are sometimes called in English. Parking the car in a small car park at the end of a narrow road, a couple of kilometres south of the small town of Jiretín pod Jedlovou, we set out to climb to the summit of Jedlová (774m).
We were blessed weather-wise, with the perfect day for walking with mainly clear skies and therefore very clear views.
Just like Vlcí hora, Jedlová has a viewing tower on the summit, along with a small hotel and restaurant. But all three were closed because of the current lockdown restrictions to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Fortunately, good views are available without needing to climb the tower.
Our return journey along the red waymarked route, (note the waymark on the tree on the right), took us between two lines of trees with an autumnal carpet of fallen leaves to walk on.
Across the road from where we had left my car, are the ruins of Hrad Tolštejn, situated on the top of a rocky outcrop. We both decided we still had just about enough energy for the climb, before setting out for home.
I must start by making a serious apology for not posting anything here for five and a half months 🙁 I will not make any excuses. Instead, here is a new post about what has been happening over these past Summer months and a promise to resume writing more regularly in the coming weeks.
In contrast to the Summer of both 2018 and 2019, this past Summer has not been so excessively hot and we have had far more rainfall. Across the Czech Republic in June, rainfall was double the average for the month. Throughout the Summer, the Labe/Elbe maintained a decent level, allowing the passage of commercial craft, unlike in the two previous years. My grass has also remained green and has immediately shot back up, each time I’ve mown it!
Cooler temperatures have encouraged and enabled me to make further progress in my garden. Even better, I finally found someone capable and willing to complete a number of tasks that have been beyond my capabilities – a man called František.
František lives with his wife Andrea and their three children, in the upstairs part of a house on the end of a public building, within sight of my house. Earlier this Summer, Andrea found me on Facebook and asked to be my Facebook friend. Through this link, I discovered that her husband has a Facebook page, which advertises his various building skills. Therefore one evening, when František, Andrea and I were all sitting outside at Bar-Restaurace U Soni, enjoying a few beers, I approached them, asking if František would be interested in doing some tasks for me, in particular, constructing a new path from the steps at the back of my house, to the woodshed on the far side of the garden.
The new path was to replace this untidy mixture of bits of rubber matting and roofing felt, left by the previous owners.
Our discussions were based on my pre-prepared Google translate text, asking whether he would be willing to do the work and if so, what would be his price? He clearly understood what I was asking and got out his mobile phone to show me a couple of photos of a path he had previously constructed. However, it did take a further conversation at U Soni a few days later, before I finally convinced František that I did want the work done.
Early one evening, a few days after our second conversation, František came round to look at what exactly I required. I told him that I wanted the path to be 70cm wide and he then measured the distance from steps to woodshed to work out the quantity of materials that would be needed. I also showed him the existing path through the front garden and agreed with him that my new path could be constructed in a similar style, using interlocking paving blocks.
A few further days later, František returned with my Google translated print out, giving me a price for materials, a price for his labour and saying that he would do the job the following weekend, 11th-12th July. In turn, I promised him that I would visit an ATM the next day and give him the cash for materials which I duly did.
The following morning, František arrived and started work, marking out the exact line of the new path and then digging two trenches for the supporting pieces of the sides of the path. An hour or so later, his wife and attractive assistant 🙂 Andrea, arrived to help.
In constructing the boundaries of the new path, František had a brainwave. He suggested the creation of an additional step at the top of the existing steps, which meant the new path would rise at a more gentle angle. Your can just see part of the new step at the bottom of this photo.
And here is how the new path looked at the end of the first day of construction.
The next morning, fine stone chippings were put into the channel of the path and then all the paving blocks were laid on top. Numerous blocks had to be cut into various shapes, in order to complete the path.
Fast forward to early October, and this is how the path looked after I de-weeded the disturbed ground on either side and then successfully grass seeded it.
In my back garden there are three trees – an apple tree, a cherry tree and a walnut tree. You can see all three trees in this photograph, taken in early October 2019. The apple tree stands immediately to the side of the woodshed on the far side of the back garden. The cherry tree is on the left front in the photograph. Towering above both of them is the walnut tree, in the centre of the photograph, with its leaves rapidly turning yellow.
As you can see, the walnut tree stands quite close to my garden fence, with many of its branches extending over the adjacent public land, across which runs a driveway to the house behind my garden, the home of my neighbours Pavel and Vlasta. In the Autumn of 2018, the tree produced a large crop of walnuts, many of which fell on the public ground. More than one local lady came around and collected them, and example of thriftiness for which Czechs are renowned 🙂
Raking into piles, all of those leaves which fell into my garden and then transporting them by wheelbarrow to the bio odpad/green waste skip, was a major exercise.
During October 2019, the walnut tree lost nearly all its leaves in little over a week. There was no more than ten days between when the photograph at the beginning of this post was taken and the one above. As you can see, large quantities of leaves also fell outside of my garden.
Whilst strictly speaking, clearing them up was not my responsibility, I did feel rather guilty being the owner of the tree from whence they had come. This was especially so after rain and cars being driven along the driveway, turned many of them into a squelchy mess. So one Saturday in late October, I raked the leaves from the grass strip along the outside of my garden fence, whilst Pavel used his leaf blower to clear the driveway.
Over this past winter, I decided that I must do something to avoid a similar or worse experience in 2020. In simple terms, the tree has grown far too big for where it is situated. So I asked Mirka, whose English conversation class I help with, if she or one of her friends knew of a tree surgeon who could come and give it a ‘hair cut’.
Mirka kindly found someone suitable who, in turn, asked to see photos of the tree. I sent several, including some in this post. Having seen the photos, the tree surgeon, Johan Beneš, gave me a quotation of 5500Kc/£180.00 to reduce and thin out the tree, together with taking away all the resultant debris. I accepted his offer.
On the morning of Wednesday 20th May, Johan Beneš and a colleague, arrived in their van, towing a small trailer, in order to carry out the work. By a series of ropes and pulleys, Johan hauled himself up into the tree and commenced cutting branches, whilst his colleague collected them from the ground and started stacking them into the trailer. Johan did all the work with a simple hand saw being very careful where he cut in order to conserve the health of the tree.
And here is all the debris, either loaded on the trailer or stuffed in the back of the van. I remarked that they should really have brought a larger trailer with them. In reply, Johan admitted that the tree was far larger than he had envisioned from looking at my photographs 🙂
