For many years this has been a place where we recorded life at Pruga. From looking for the land and building the house to day to day pleasure of running a perfect rural hideaway in Istria. It is so nice to have this record. We continue to capture the spirit of Pruga on Instagram – please visit us there as well!
Special year
Here we are. Near the end. Special year. And special (Pruga) people! The summer was laced with mixed feelings and the illusion of normality that Pruga provides. I am very grateful for all of you who managed to come and spend the lovely summer days with us! And those...
Pruga and COVID-19
Dear Pruga guests, I hope you are well and healthy. This link should be useful to see what is going on in Croatia relating to travelling - whether you booked your stay with us this season or you are planning to. Let us know if you have any questions! We are looking...
Hibernation
C'est l'hiver! I don't know French at all, just like it a lot and have a t-shirt that I like with "C'est l'hiver" written on it. Yes, winter is indeed here, at least in Zagreb. Pruga is in hibernation for two months now and I though this is good time to review 2019...
Perfect(ly hot) June
I have learned by now that complaining about anything really is at least boring if not unnecessary. Still, I do complain, most often about the rain and cold weather and how I need socks when one most definitely should not wear socks any more. But then June came and it...
Spring!
First there was glorious end of April. We came down from Zagreb for Easter break with friends. And had the most amazing weekend. Big Easter breakfast that turned into lunch outside, sun, talking and even biking (!). Traditional onion skin coloured eggs. And less...
Hello season seven!
And here we are again. With the hint of spring in the air - it was a perfect, sunny morning here in Zagreb today - I am back at summer Pruga thinking and doing. Lists are written and re-written, handymen contacted to try and get Pruga time booked with them, garden...
Height of the season
And here we are again. Really far apart from the latest blog post and in the middle of yet another lovely season at Pruga. The bouquet (brought to me by a friend who hid this talent well, he picked these on his walk not far from Pruga) really illustrates the...
Getting ready for summer 2018!
Writing again from kinda wintery Zagreb. Going over all the photos since last blog post (22 August!?!) thinking how while I too often feel not much is happening, so many things happened since August. Small selection follows. After saying goodbye to last guests of the...
A bird was harmed during making of this post
So, cats. Pets or predators, pets and predators, pets or predators,…. Still so confusing. We thought Mjumju was a hunter. There were few mice, countless grasshoppers and lizard tails, even a baby bird or two. But ‘lightning speed claw’ Mitzy is becoming scary…
Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance
That is five stages of grief. There is also a model where there are seven stages (shock and denial; pain and guilt; anger and bargaining; depression, reflection, loneliness; the upward turn; reconstruction and working through; acceptance and hope) which maybe explains...
Pruga 2017 – so far
Huh, uh. Ten months since last post. Crazy! Better get on with the updates. Lots has happened since August. Mostly good, some bad. First picture is how the meadows looked in April. And this one is how they looked in October. Both beautiful. Spring always wins for me...
Stresses of country life
There is, I think, a serious point to be made on the "stresses of country life" subject.Living here, wanting to be part of at least some of the things that "country" means: having a garden with some food, flowers and trees, living in sync with what seasons offer,...
Season 4 is here
And here we are again. Pruga, Lovrinići, Istria, Croatia! Our first guests just left so I sit down to review last two weeks since we moved. Our wisteria finally decided it can flower - from one branch only for now, but apparently this is a good sign. After driving...
Blog debt
I am sitting here at my desk, in a drizzly and kinda slimy Zagreb, trying to bring some illusion of order to my photo collection (as if even that is possible) and I came across these lovelies that I seem to owe this blog since November 2015. The above is our finished...
Season 3, nearing the end of
Sunday afternoon. Vanja is in Zagreb for EuroBasket 2015 (!?!), Mjumju and me relaxing, thinking "let's enjoy those last warm hours of the summer 2015". By looking at the sky. Little did we know that the summer will keep going on and on. It is glorious. The two...
All along the watchtower
Whenever I sit to write another post Joni Mitchell and her Circle game song just starts playing in my head. We have been here - some of the pictures below will look familiar to careful readers. Above are the two first tomatoes of season 2015. Now there are more....
Cat on a hot tin roof
Two months since we moved down for season 2015! Lovely, sunny (yay!) two months. What happened at Pruga during that time? Food was prepared, including a new thing - sage flower cordial (beggining of the preparation above right). Very nice and already drank. Kinda like...
Cat and birds
This is the said cat. I know I am not the first one to be fascinated by the transformation from a warm, cuddly, fuzzy gorgeousness into a ruthless killer. Still... It is fascinating! The above is one of the said birds. Weather in Istria is amazing this May - proper...
End of season round up
The main reason why my last post is from July (geee!) is that I found myself thinking about writing and then concluding that I would only repeat what I wrote last year at about same time. So I was kinda waiting for some excitement to happen that I would be happy to...
2 yrs of drinking coffee and lying in the sun
I said to myself the other day "I will not talk about the weather" and then all my conversations start with "I said to myself that I will not talk about the weather". The title of the post is a quote from my very dear friend. "2 yrs" is not spelled/spelt (i just...
Tiny castle
Let's start with a tail. Or the tail. Mju Mju's tail. We had some lovely, talented people visiting who took some beautiful photos that I will soon scatter around the site. We moved to Istria on 14. April and waited for sunshine since. It has finally arrived and I...
New season
Winter has been very uneventful at Pruga, hence no posts for such a long time. There was not even the snow drama of last year. However, as spring sprung I spend days editing todo lists before our "transhumance" (word I just learned - "seasonal movement of people with...
Remembrance of things autumn
As overcast is the norm here in Zagreb, plus some serious cold from yesterday morning, I decided it is time to finally write the last post of the season. It may look like a selection of fruit and vegetables photos - which it is of course. The only thing going for this...
Ajvar
Small digression from the usual Pruga topics. Autumn is, especially if you are trying to embrace country life, time for preserving food. I did quite a bit throughout the summer but there is this one thing, pretty important in the continental part of Croatia, that...
Leisure
More days have gone by, the summer is still here although autumn can be felt in the air. And in shorter days and colder nights. Ah, the inevitability of change. Those tiny (and rather tart) yellow plums (called ciburini locally) happened in such abundance that two...
Summer
Yes, summer is definitely here and with it the life at Pruga as we planned and imagined... Quick overview in pictures of the last month and a half. We are enjoying it all, guests are lovely, breakfast routine has been established. In it there is a time for making the...
Devil is in the detail
I have survived the visit from an inspector in charge of deciding whether Pruga is officially ready for guests and if it meets the criteria for a star rating (I've asked for three stars). I will not bore you with bureaucratic intricacies - I believe it all went fine...
Flurry of activity
Spring is (finally and seriously) here and with it a flurry of activity at Pruga. The "missed at Easter" asparagus frittata was enjoyed, there are spring blossoms galore, and we are finishing things, finishing things. At first, I thought I must work on the apartments...
Waiting for the sun
Me and the rest of Europe it seems. We just came back from almost ten days in Lovrinići. While fun was had and work was done, I cannot escape mentioning the weather. It sucked. Despite that, some people - in form of our dear friends who spent Easter with us - who have...
Winter victims and survivors
After three months of waiting for a sunny weekend coinciding with us not being busy in Zagreb we have finally packed a vanload of stuff and, braving snowy mountains on our way, headed sunless towards Pruga. It was really cold, we met some people, arranged few things,...