San Servolo is a well renowned independent craft brewery in Buje, in northern Istria, producing excellent beers and pale ales. I'm not a beer fan, but have been known to have a bottle or two of the gorgeous red beer, so that's a recommendation in itself. As well as...
Although it seems like no time since the long, heady days of summer, we're well into October now and only a week away from the clocks going back an hour. Usually, we've had the wood-burner lit by now, and our logs delivered. But not this year. Since early April, we've...
Looking back over photos taken when we came out to view the house in Istria, and stay over as guests of the owners, has been a real experience. I can remember, obviously, what condition the house and garden was in - pretty awful, to be fair! - but as we live in the...
Sunday 16th October 2016 saw us meeting up with the couple who we were buying our Istrian home from, and staying over in the house. With hindsight, all a bit bizarre. But then, not much about this adventure has been normal, so I guess we started off as we were meant...
Not too far from our house, but a little off the beaten track, along a country road, through beautiful scenery, to the end of the village of Medici, is the last of the closest restaurants to us, which we're ashamed to say we only investigated recently. We've always...
2022 is going to be Grow Our Own year. We've tinkered around the edges of growing vegetables and herbs before, but it's always been pretty half-hearted as far too much else has been going on in and around the garden. We've had minor success with lettuce and tomatoes...
The kitchen was the first room in our Istrian stone house to receive the full renovation treatment. The units we had inherited were ripped out, the flooring taken out, the ceiling taken down, a new window installed, brand new units and appliances fitted and under...
When we viewed our stone house in 2016, we found a very sorry looking room - a cellar, of kinds - down the stairs from the living room. The stairs were treacherous to say the least. Very thin pine treads, on a steep vertical with no handrail. These hinted at what we...
So, the last renovation blog detailed the thinking behind creating the Secret Garden. Although it's not a real Secret Garden - it's pretty obvious it's there when you look out of the living room window - it feels quite secret, when you're in it. And, we are delighted...
So, we've finally made a proper start. The old industrial unit, which has sat unloved and empty for as long as we've lived in Istria, is being internally dismantled in preparation for the major renovations. A scaffold unit, an extendable ladder and a demolition drill...