By Ricky, on January 31st, 2020
My small act of defiance today. The EU flag is proudly flying on the front of my house © Ricky Yates
Today is a very sad day. At midnight tonight (CET), 23.00 (GMT), the United Kingdom will cease to be a member of the European Union (EU) and consequently, I will lose my EU citizenship.
All this has come about through an ill thought out referendum, held more that three and a half years ago. It was called by the then Prime Minister, David Cameron, not for the benefit of the country but to avoid a complete split in the Conservative party. In that referendum, which was only advisory, 37% of the electorate, which was then 27% of the population, voted to leave the EU. Which means that 63% of the electorate and . . . → Read More: Brexit
By Ricky, on January 12th, 2020
The dais of the Frauenkirche © Ricky Yates
On the evening of New Year’s Day, I once more visited the Frauenkirche in Dresden. However, on this occasion it wasn’t to conduct an English-language Anglican service, but to enjoy a complete performance of the oratorio ‘Messiah’, by George Frederick Handel, or Georg Friederich Händel as the German programme correctly declared.
Therefore, instead of being seated on the main dais, or standing in the forward pulpit, I was located in a balcony, high up overlooking the dais, from where in advance of the performance, I took this photograph, leaning over the balustrade. During the performance, I had to be seated and could only hear the orchestra, soloists and chorus as the said balustrade blocked my view 🙁 However, I did stand for the Hallelujah . . . → Read More: Neujahrskonzert / New Year’s Concert
By Ricky, on December 7th, 2019
Winter has been rather slow to arrive in North Bohemia in 2019. We were blessed with a wonderful Indian Summer during the second half of October and the weather remained mainly dry and fine, well into November. This allowed me to make a lot of progress in the garden about which I hope to write another blog post in the near future.
But now it has turned cold with overnight frost on several occasions. I noted yesterday afternoon that the the tub into which rain off the roof of my carport drains, was still solidly frozen on the surface. However, we still haven’t had any snow. In my two previous winters here in Stará Oleška, the first snow fell in November.
Wood-burning stove well alight © Ricky Yates
. . . → Read More: From Autumn to Winter 2019
By Ricky, on October 31st, 2019
The house and vine in March 2017 © Ricky Yates
On the front of my house is a well-established vine. In this photograph, you can see the outline of it, in between and along the top of the double-glazed windows that enclose the verandah. The photograph was taken by me in March 2017, at the time I agreed to buy the house. It has appeared previously on the blog, in this post entitled, ‘The new house in Stará Oleška‘.
At some point in the previous six months, the vine clearly had been pruned for which I am most thankful. It was the only thing in the garden that appeared to have received any attention in the months before I purchased the property. I believe that once the previous . . . → Read More: My Vine
By Ricky, on October 3rd, 2019
The old wood-burning stove with heat proof walls on either side © Ricky Yates
When I had the kitchen in my home completely refurbished, back in January 2018, other than the tiled floor and an overhead florescent light, the only other thing that was retained from the previous kitchen, was the wood-burning stove, because it was the only source of heating for the whole house. As part of the refurbishment, two heatproof walls were built, either side of the stove, in order to protect the newly installed neighbouring kitchen units.
Once the stove has been alight for a couple of hours, it does heat the house quite well. But the associated oven takes a very long time to heat up and it is very difficult to judge what should . . . → Read More: Out with the old and in with the new
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