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 learned both are correct, actually, probably relearned) “two years” because I needed the title to stay in one line – looks nicer. He congratulated me on two years since we started Pruga. And he was being ironic. I think. Hope. I mean, we do drink a lot of coffee but the lying in the sun bit…

I toyed with the idea of writing a “realistic” post about running a B&B after his comment and after talking to my sister about the seemingly unrealistic portraying of working mums who manage the work, the home, the children and have time for the amazing DIY or cooking – not only to do it but also to (often) post on Pinterest or their beautifully designed blogs equally amazing photos of it. Both me and my sisters are suckers for such displays of talent/effort/ability.

Then it dawned on us that I do kinda similar thing with this blog. Of course that all the stories and pictures on it are real. And I genuinely can write sentences like “You can pick a plum while reading a book while lying by the pool” (as the plum tree by the pool this year is bursting with still green but hopefully soon purple fruit almost to the ground).

Maybe it was time for the “other side”. Is there other side? Or is all of it really perfect. Of course it is.

Then as rain added enough frustration of not being able to lie in the sun, I decided not to bother you with more mundane details of my charmed life in Lovrinići. And not explain what else not lying in the sun consists of. So back to not weather.

There were sunny moments and glorious light as reflected in the first picture.But not that many.

The upside of all the rain we had in the last two months is that Istria in July is as green as Istria in May. Feels like England. Or even better (worse?) Ireland. I even try to do the English thing of wearing flip flops because calendar, rather than the temperature, suggests I should do so.

On the bright side, the bread oven is finished.

And it seems like it might be able to bake a pizza or even bread.  We are yet to try.

We got the wood. From the woods. Car “that turns heads like it turns corners” is probably not the obvious choice for getting the wood out of the woods, but we did it and all now awaits the right moment of making the dough, finding someone who can light the wood firing oven fire (the one above was just the first one to burn down the dome construction) and trying it on! I imagine that will happen only if I had at least three sunny days in a row to get inspired.

BBQ we did try and it is pretty cool. There is this amazing butcher in Žminj who even debones a chicken for you if you ask nicely. I report that I did it once and it is possible to do, but as there is a nice guy who can do it for you – yes please!

A spot of Mju Mju and why not.

The above was memorable meal. Very simple and very yummy.

Another upshot of all the very annoying rain is that there are mushrooms galore.

This was taken before the rain converted this lovely yellow into mushy brown.

And the garden is lush and green, but not many things (ie tomatos, peppers, aubergines) get to ripen and sweeten as they miss the sun.

Yes, there were cherries sometime in June.

As well as our wonderful and interesting guests, we hosted some very dear friends and met some cool people who also settled in Istria. Full time or part time like us. Meeting lovely people reinforces how good our decision to do this and to do it in Istria was.

And there was really very nicely executed pasta festival in Žminj. Žminj is a tiny town close to us and not much cool and interesting happens there. They really made up for that with this festival.

We made it all the way to Zrenj to try Agritourism Tončić food and it was very nice. Traditional and well prepared. And I saw this project and started thinking if I am ready for a new one. But judging by the building material near it,  this one is probably not ready for me, but for someone else.

Poor Miki is currently suffering the e-collar (and probably all sort of pains) after he has been neutered and had his tonsils out. Five more days.

Unlike Mju Mju who still sleeps by day and wedon’twanttoknowwhatshedoes by night. I know she is also annoyed by the rain.

I think I managed not to talk about the weather at all!