Category Archives: Diary Notes 2014 onwards

Updating at long last!

Life has moved on considerably. The court cases with Vasko Prorocic are rumbling on; but we are talking about a negotiated out-of-court settlement. We will see.

Anke has made enormous strides in both preparing what was Le Beton (the original concrete structure on the site) into a highly habitable apartment (Le Studio!), and in marketing it. We are now listed on booking.com; airbnb and Owners Direct. Still to get bookings, and then guest comments; difficult to get the first without the second, so somewhat of a Catch 22 situation.

Garden-building has taken a backseat as it is too hot (over 30) to work outside. I need to re-model the Westgarten, which involves building a stone terrace wall and levelling earth. Weeding the existing garden areas is a priority as the tomatoes in particular are getting overgrown with grass and other weeds.

We returned from UK to find that the team had done a great job in keeping the plants alive. There were some which succumbed but in general Anke’s garden survived pretty well. First task was water, water and more water.

The weather has reverted to the traditional heat, a stark contrast to last year when the rain and general cold affected everything, including our grapes. This year’s crop looks like being a bumper one, exceeding the harvest we saw in 2010, always providing there are no storms to smash the grapes or some other devastating event.

Now free of the Green Building Council (yippee!) James is able to spend time helping sort the Dachgarten. Dragisa did an excellent job in tiling it, and the lower terrace, as well as building a retaining wall and path along the north side of the house. The latter has transformed not only the look of that area of the house but allows us far easier access to the Ostgarten – previously a major expedition over loose sloping stones.