Ceska Posta VII

19 June

Photos:
Betty and Lowell with the potter they bought a little keramika from in Borsice
The Supalekovi and the potter were discussing "evangelicka" which sometimes
means any Protestant and sometimes means fundamentalist proselytizer
Betty and Lowell at the palace at Buchlovice
Betty and Lowell in the "green chapel" at Buchlovice
one of many peacocks at Buchlovice. Voytech got some shots of him with his fan spread but I liked this one best.

Sunday afternoon we drove to Buchlovice. From a distance Betty pointed out a huge hilltop fortress and said it was Buchlov. When we got to Buchlovice and parked I looked up at that fortresss in the distance and thought how in the world is my wonky foot ever going to climb up there (it appeared to be about 20 KM distant)? Well, it turns out that the fortress is the actual ancient castle and not our destination at all, but the much more modest and modern--well, baroque--Buchlove Palace which was right around the corner.

Buchlovice is prettier than most I have seen, with two separate residences facing each other across a graveled courtyard with a fountain and formal hedge plantings. There are low terraces behind stone balustrudes and all sorts of curvy noooks and crannies. The gardens alternate between bubolic curvaceous things and straight line greens and alleys with overarching rows of trees and graveled paths that are very comfortable to walk on.

We toured the exhibit of fuschias in every color including fuschia, the cavernous wine cellar (about 50 degrees inside and 90 outside) with its well in one corner and the orangerie which was fitted up with displays of keramika and 1900-1930 photography of peasants at work and funerals. No one smiled. My favorite keramika was a holy water wall thingy in the typical bright Moravian colors which featured Chirst crucified on the grape vines.

The return trip home included acres of white poppies which they grow for the seeds for culinary use but they are the actual opium poppies, I am told, and a bright red glider that seemed to just hang in the air.

Libor picked me up Monday morning to go to Hodonin to meet my friend (former student along with her husband Martin) Edita and her new little girl Martinka, who is named for and looks exactly like her very handsome father. We had a salad lunch at a sidewalk cafe almost directly across the street from your former flat, Theo.

Libor and I went to the teachers' library while Edita took Martinka to "the boss of the baby bath tube" which I think means to a diaper swim-gym class. We also went to a bookstore and probably horrified the other clients and employees. I walked in and the clerk stepped out from behind the desk and we rushed to embrace. It was Radek's girlfriend Veronika (not the same as Milan's Veronika) who speaks no English at all. She then resumed her place behind the cash desk as though this were an everyday occurrence.

Edita and I spent the afternoon looking through her English class materials for inspiration for my teaching and playing with the baby. Then Libor took me to a pub to work on the course but most of you know that it was much too late at night for an unfed, sleepy Lowell to get much done.

Every year I read a Jerome Klapka Jerome novel here when his name never rose over my horizons in English literature. This year it is a set of satirical essays in which he bats away at luck, science enhancing both women's appearances and characters, matchmaking and the like. On the whole, I prefer the novels, in which both the content and the writing are funny. In the essays, the content is so dark that the clever writing style doesn't stand a chance with me. Also found a couple of novels in a "Dear Vittie" series written partly in Czech and partly in English--ostensibly to ease Czech readers into learning English. Hm.

Tuesday I worked feverishly on the course and am rolling a bottle of frozen Magnesia water under my hurt foot here at the keyboard. Betty and I went back to Hodonin to buy vegetables this afternoon. I found my way to the teacher's library all by myself and even spoke enough Czech to get me admitted through two doors and to exchange some books!

We will pick all the rest of the green peas form the garden this afternoon so I am gearing up for a marathon bend and stretch session followed by a marathon of shelling out.

Fondly,
Lowell