Category Archive: eastern europe

Wildlife Highlights 2021

greenwoodpecker

Title photo: Green Woodpecker I know the year’s not over yet but I figured I’d update my blog with some of the wildlife highlights from this year. This is by no means all the animals or birds I encountered, or even photographed/filmed, but the ones presented are some of the more memorable. Probably the most […]

COVID Christmas and a White New Year

snowyvillagechurch

It’s again been a couple of months since I updated my blog, and quite a bit has happened. One reason I haven’t been posting often is that I’ve been focusing on making videos for my YouTube channel Carpathian Adventure. I’ve been procrastinating for a long time, and the adpocalypse (plus the major censoring) had me […]

Annual Pilgrimage to Goral Country

otoolefamilyslovakia

This week Slovakia celebrated its independence from Communism. As it was a bank holiday, many traveled to the capital to protest the government’s lock down policies. Our little family instead made the 2-hour trip to Pieniny National Park, by the River Dunajec, to visit my wife’s father’s family home. We usually do this for All […]

Poland Trip August 2020

p9b

Thanks to the bloody pandemic, our original plan to drive across Europe and follow the Templar/Cathar route across the South of France and the Pyrenees/Northern Spain was out of the question. As was our backup plan to go to Croatia due to Hungary making it impossible for me to pass through. So, right at the […]

Quarantine Violators….

redfoxvixen

As soon as the world went like this: we packed up and bugged out to the village house. While we were planning to move there over Easter for the holidays, we decided to move early. This was both a plus and a minus as, while the house allows us more space and there’s less people […]

Art Exhibition Svidnik January 2020

edwardexhibitionemail

On January 31st, the opening to my latest art exhibition was held at Podduklianske gallery, Svidnik, Slovakia. The main focus was again on my art on animal skins. It was quite well attended, including by my father and step-mother as they came over for that and also my wife’s 50th birthday party. Because of her […]

Another Year Passes, My 21st in Slovakia

edwardotoolelesnicahill

Our lives out here are completely affected by the seasons and the various events and changes which happen within them, far more so than if we lived in an urban environment. Autumn brings with it the crazy rush to get wood in and prepared for winter, both day and night Red Deer stags cry out […]

Tilters Motorcycle Club Year 2019

tiltersairfield

This year started with multiple open casket funerals (with a few more interspersed throughout the year) – thankfully none of club members – but on the whole it was one of partying and travelling around the country to visit the numerous events hosted by other clubs. We also managed to improve our relations with the […]

Broken rib and mushroom picking

dubak-cep1

Things had been going too smoothly this Summer but that ended on Sunday when I fell backwards on to a rock pile and broke my 6th rib. That’s the third rib I’ve broken in four years and it really sucks. I didn’t go to the hospital until Wednesday, hoping it was just a bruised lung […]

Gazebo and Woodshed (Altanok a Drevarka)

gazebo6

This year’s big work about the house was to build a woodshed as last winter saw us woefully unprepared. We had the wood but because there was nowhere to cut, chop and stack it, my sons and I had had to go out in literal blizzards to chainsaw metre-long logs, then chop them on an […]

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