Hello and welcome to this edition of our newsletter from Čardačani, in the north of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Last week I made a monumental mess up by not including a workable “ Leave a comment” button.

I got ahead of myself, with getting Tamara to design some buttons (all of which work) except the comment one that needs special code.

So if you wanted to leave a comment, I have to apologise. The normal button is back this week 😀

Please use it as much as you like/want to.

The Weather

Waking up to misty mornings have now become the norm during these first few weeks of November.

And rain during the day as well. Lots of it. Rain. Rain. Rain.

So much in fact, that most of the ground around the house is waterlogged, even though we are on an elevated position.

So far, in the village at least, no flooding. We have a small river that flows past us into the larger River Vrbas about 2km away. In past years that small river has burst leaving the flat valley like a deep lake. On occasions, albeit totally safe, we have been isolated due to the roads being underwater.

Other parts of the country however haven’t been so lucky.

Like Sarajevo for instance.

What with the current stress levels across the country caused by political rhetoric, this is the last thing the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina need.

The weather is causing chaos. The bitter cold snap just after the fruit blossomed earlier in the year meant a crap harvest, so let’s all hope 2022 is better in that respect.

Leave a comment

Cheese and Beer - Sir i Pivo

We mentioned last week that we had visited both the the dairy where Trappist cheese is produced in Banja Luka and the monastery where the two remaining Trappist monks live.

It took us longer than we had planned, to edit and produce the content we recorded, however, we think that we have managed to tell this little known story from this part of the world in the best way we could.

We placed everything into a single blogpost.

Not only is there the transcript of a video podcast David did with the director of the dairy, Draženko Budimir (David asks the questions English, Draženko replies in Croatian), but there are also two smaller videos as well.

Plus, we produced our first Serbian language podcast as well.

It really is a fascinating story.

Please do check it out and leave a comment at the end of the blogpost itself.

Walking the ……. Horse

A Tale of Everyday Life 🇧🇦

Share An Englishman in the Balkans

What’s it Like Living Here?

I get this question asked so very very often.

I never am sure if the answer I give, is actually believed a lot of the time, as I am extremely biased.

Last year I published a post about it, which is as detailed as I have ever been. I really feel insecure about totally opening up on the “web”.

If you’re interested in my back story to how I came to be in a village in the northwest of Bosnia then here’s the link.

If you are living in, or have settled into, somewhere away from your country of birth, it would be great to hear your experiences. Leave them in the comments box at the bottom of the blogpost 👍.

What We Have Been Watching.

A Netflix Sci Fi thriller from Iceland.

Addictive. Highly Recommended, if you’re into thinking about the plot 🧐

And finally this week

If you’re reading this for the first time, we hope you’re enjoying, and if you would like to support us, then maybe you can …

If you want to read back editions of the newsletter, listen to previous podcasts (we have quite an archive now), or catch other content, all this is available on the web interface, just like a regular blog.

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Tamara and I appreciate your faithful readership, your comments, and your generosity! 

THANKS SO MUCH ❤️