About 7 years ago, I uprooted my (hurly-burly) life in NYC and moved to this small, remote, isolated village in Northern Albania. I did this quixotically, with no planning or financial strategy, in a few suitcases. And no legality. After 6 years of uninterupted life here, I am now (I guess) firmly illegal everywhere. Not […]
The electricity was off all day. I ate at noon, got sleepy, and went back to bed. My nose was cold, so tucked everything under. Woke up at 3pm. Just in time to feed the trout, before so-called “sun-down.” Started writing a book, and drew this, as first illustration: Fig. 1. The dogs are barking. […]
O Krepa, Krepa – Nice and Round Your effect on me is quite profound So to the chef let’s all bow down And touch our heads upon the ground *As some of you no doubt know, Edward Lear was a runcible traveller in Albania. I hereby inaugurate some extra nonsense on our website in his […]
Dear Friends. A few days ago, strong spring breezes blew a few sparks from a fire into the house of Pavlin Polia in Theth. It is chillingly easy to image the small quiet minutes, seconds, that rapidly turned into the conflagration that destroyed not only his 300 year old house, not only everything he and […]
The room is large, and painted white, so it’s full of light. At the far end are black boards, and above them, slightly squiffy, hand colored drawings on A4 paper demonstrate the Albanian alphabet from A to Z (or Zh?). Q is Qukupiku, which I know! To the left, the wall is full of windows, […]
Today is the day after. And like Cinderella I am back in my sloppy house clothes, sitting here in the morning, in front of the computer, thinking: I should tell someone! After the excitement and rushing around, we slept late today – the long peaceful sleep of the justly satisfied – but this also means […]
Oh boy. Right around the time I managed to convince Alfred to keep Zana, we noticed she was getting really FAT. Puppy, anyone?
‘Zana’ showed up here about . . . 2 weeks ago? Some tourists said they’d seen her down in Rrogam earlier that day. She’s super clean and fluffy, and of course friendly, which makes me feel that she must be someone’s pet . . . . especially as the shampooed fluffy-clean thing is NOT normal […]
NB: This is of course a staged photo using a professional actor. Hee hee hee . . . . On the other hand, every year there are a couple of people who get lost and wander around in circles. THIS year there were the pair of Poles who decided to ignore our advice about […]
