Today we headed off to visit Magdalena (another cousin) who invited us to join her and her family for lunch. She and her husband run a very productive property. They keep chickens, pigs and cows. They also slaughter and prepare these livestock & freeze the meat for winter. They maintain a large vegetable garden and an orchard which includes a variety of apples, quinces and sour cherries. Lunch included home-made clear beef soup with noodles followed by the...

Today is the 10th anniversary of my cousin Danka's death. She suffered from cancer of the uterus and died far too young. She passed away at 46 years of age. Two of my cousin's Mato & Cvita who are also two of Danka's 6 siblings and Ljubica (Mato's wife) & John & I went to visit Danka's grave. These types of visits bring us back to reality & remind us that we too will perish one day - hopefully not too soon. After a short walk down the hill from t...

Finka (cousin & sister of Cvita) invited Rođo & Mato (my cousins & her brothers) & Mato's wife Ljubica; Milorad and us to lunch. On the menu was fish paprikaš and fried fish with salads. Finka's husband Antal makes a mean paprikaš in a pot over hot coals. The pot is a kotlič. He also made a lovely hot & spicy paste for us to add to the paprika because we like chillies. When we got there the fish paprikaš was bubbling in the kotlič &...