Why I'm Here

"Why am I here?"

I don't mean in the philosophical sense, but why here in a half-restored old farmhouse on the edge of a small Czech village. I have talked about this in the past and regular readers of this blog will know the various answers I could proffer, but I suspect that there are new readers who might not know and also, more importantly, I have had reason to ask that question again over the last twelve months.

One reason has gone. The only reason I am in the Czech Republic is/was the fact that a dear friend, Hannah Kodicek, moved back here and then more importantly moved to Cesky Krumlov. If she had stayed in Prague I have no doubt that I would not have bought a house here. As you may know we are approaching the anniversary of her all-too-early death and sitting here in my living room I am surrounded by memories of her. A photo of her is above my desk, it's of her looking back at me as we walked on the hills above Cesky Krumlov. She's saying something to me. I remember the walk because we had been delighted to see carpets of purple buttercups in the woods presaging the arrival of spring. But I do not remember what she was saying.

I checked the date when I chose the picture for this blog: it says 30th March 2005. In September 2005 I found the farmhouse and two months later I was legally a temporary resident of the Czech Republic. On the 2nd April 2011 I was walking in the woods on Petrin Hill, Prague and enjoying the flowers. Hannah had taken me there too. I rang her in the hospice and told her about them. At the end of the call we said goodbye.

Spring

I am due my annual post about the wonders of Czech spring and so here it is. As always Spring has exploded here. One minute there is a pile of snow in my yard and the grass is brown and apparently dead, the next I am getting a suntan and watching the grass grow (nearly a centimetre in one day in fact) and contemplating when I will have to get the mower out.

The local birdlife is skittish with lovemaking - the male redstarts are busy chasing each other and the peregrine falcons that nest on the cliff of Cesky Krumlov Castle are mating in the trees under the walls. The spring flowers are appearing overnight - the primroses, the purple buttercup, violets, butterburr flowers on their stalks - and now I have just noticed even some blossom on a bush.

As I walk up the hill to the village I find the Czech Spring has put a spring in my foot ;-)

Spring Flowers 2009

Knowing from your response to previous posts about Czech flowers how much you like looking at photos of the flowers that I see on my many walks in the woods and fields of South Bohemia, here is another set for you.

Some will be familiar (violets,) to my British readers, some known only as garden flowers (grape hyacinths)

and some completely unknown such as the purple Phyteuma nigrum which grows in great numbers here.

I will blog again at the end of next month about the flowers of early summer, so watch this space.

Gold, the Colour of the Czech Landscape

The colour of the Czech countryside at this time of year is (for me) always gold. It could be the lovely shades of the new leaves, but for me gold has it. Here are a couple of photos why:

The first (above) is of a watermeadow below Horice Na Sumava station. Huge clumps of marsh marigolds bedeck the meadow.


The second could be of any field around here at the moment – turned a cloth of gold by dandelions.

Sadly it doesn't last, the heat of the summer soon turns the fields white and grey with dandelion clocks and the air full of fairies. If you want to make a wish, go to the countryside near Ceske Budejovice, where the dandelions have already gone to seed.