The travel journal

Hi everyone,I spent a happy hour photographing my June travel journal for you...just in case it's of any interest.Do you remember me making this late May?Well, I've been chronicling my days here with drawings, collage, snipets of this and found bits of that.It's a bit complicated and thick and folded over on itself, and so some of the pages I had to photograph twice so you would get the idea of the layout.There wasn't much thought put into this, just an organic collection of days...one after the other...just like life.Here it is and I'll try to link the posts to it.The book is bound in a vintage yellow book titled, "A Scent of New-Mown Hay" and like usual, the book came form my friend Dalyce's used book shop Booklovers.I used found paper and Mucha postcards for the pages and added two bookmark ribbons.I tied a little vintage fish, which I had around for a while, on the black ribbon, and, eventually in Piestany, I found a tag with the number 13 on it...my lucky number...and so tied that onto the burgundy ribbon.Now at the end of the month, it's a bit thick!But I have plenty of elastic bands to keep it closed.As you open it, you'll find photos of me, Chloe, the grand babies, and my Mother's day flowers on the inside cover.I took those with the Fuji instax mini camera Chloe bought me for Mother's day.The first page is the flight and a collage of flight detritus and torn BA magazine pages.Post is hereThese pages commemorate my flight and arrival in Prague.These commemorate my first day in Prague.One thing I really wanted to remember is the exquisite smell of the lindens all over the Czech Republic this month so I painted some. It'll forever be linked with this trip for me.All these days I rented a car and parked it at my friends Helena and Zdenek's place and took the train into town. The train is much faster and so much less stress than trying to battle thru the traffic. Here is the post from Helena and Zdenek's.Next was a visit to Pribram and the Holy Mountain pilgrimage.Post is here.Then came a visit to my favourite castle Karlstejn.The post is here.The next day was a trip into town and a meet-up with my cousin, and we went to lunch and a visit to see Mucha, Dali and Warhol.Then a trip to the horrifying and fascination collection at Konopiste Castle.The post is here.Then the high and low migraine day!The depth of the Macocha abyss and the height of Pernstejn Castle.The post is here.I left the Prague area and started driving towards Slovakia.Stopped in Brno for a couple nights. That's a night photo from my hotel room taken with the fuji instax mini.Next stop was the palace Lednice.I also stopped that day at a war memorial but chose not to put that into my book. I have a terrific problem with wars and have a very hard and emotional time being at war memorials. Those wildflowers are from the war memorial. That's all I could manage to have in this precious book.The post is here though if you want to see the entirety of it.Then I left Brno, crossed into Slovakia, stopped at Trencin castle and finally arrived at my spa in Piestany for five days of pampering.The post is here.And then, my darlings, I just hung out!Luxuriated!Got wrapped in mud, got massaged, got submerged naked into hot whirl pools, swam at night in bath water temperature outdoor pools and ate the most fabulous food.Post is here.So I was totally prepared for no posts and just a few lovely pages in my travel book......and then a tree fell! Miraculously, no one was hurt.Post is here.The days wound on with massages and a funky gold plastic wrap. Twiggy massage it was called. I was swaddled like a baby. Thank goodness I didn't get an itchy nose!!!I commemorated my days with this page and a little snippet of that gold plastic held into my room key card holder.I also painted a little piece of that bark from the horse chestnut that fell into the pool.Then I left Piestany and continued on to Bratislava to meet my cousins who I haven't seen in about 40 years!Just luck of the draw that this beautiful Mucha postcard came to this page because I remember my cousin Zdenka with red hair.The painting on the left is a branch of the most magical looking silver willow which grows everywhere here like a weed. It just sparkles at the roadside. And the little pine cone was right outside Zdenka's home.I made myself a few personal, emotional pages in my book, including pictures, found things, photos and even a recipe my cousin Kveta gave me, but took the days without posts for myself.The one post is here.After this emotional overload, came another emotional overload. I drove all over Austria looking for the perfect place for my aunt Vera's last resting place.Then I finally found it in Salzberg.Two emotional pages, and one post right here.Then I had a slow meander back up to Prague.First stop and these pages Cesky Krumlov.I painted the wild geraniums growing everywhere and the hawk moth I photographed.Then the Trebon pond system of farming carp.Then Hluboka castle and I ended up in Tabor......where I mined a few raw garnets!Real Czech garnets! You can see them better in this photo where I put a white card behind them. I mined them out of a sand mix which was put on a light table and the garnets shone ruby red thru the light.These three pages have one post here.Suddenly a heat wave washed over Prague and I went swimming in a bio habitat and underground again into Koneprusy caves.The post is here.Oh this page, the most amazing visit to Krivoklat castle.I fell in love with the sundial on the front. In Latin it says, do not count all your hours, only the ones filled with joy.Post is here.All along I've been dealing with government this and official that trying to get my Czech citizenship reinstated.These pages describe a frustrating day in this heat wave made better by escaping onto the Vltava fro a few hours.Post is here.This page is from the day reserved for taking care of my gradparents' graves and visiting a little star shaped castle called Star, and opera tixs necessitated a few nights in Prague.Post is here.A day running around Prague. Caught up on prezzy shopping.Tripped over some four leaf clovers.Then my second opera, and another day of running around Prague.The post is here.There is only one post for these two journal days because life!This day it's back into Prague and dealing with citizenship stuff.Helena and Zdenek's granddaughter drew this lovely picture for me and I saved it in my book. On this page is a small scrap of beautiful blue paper from the chocolates I had one of to ease my frustrations, and a perfect Mucha of woe-is-me-ism landed on the right day. I swear I didn't plan that!Post is here.Yet another day much the same as yesterday!But I did get to back to Canada for an hour!!!It actually was amazing to visit the embassy.Post is here.And then, when I seemed to have exhausted all possible Prague venues, I was forced to go to the Northern Czech Republic to the township which was my last known official address.And it was a coming home.The post is here.And that's where my posts end for Prague, but not this little book.Here is a little spread remembering the Metro and shopping and my walks around this golden town with lindens blossoms perfuming the air.And the last couple of pages are a bit complicated.On the left is a collage of Prague, and a little snippet of a map showing London and Oxford.On the right is a postcard by one of my favourite illustrators, Josef Lada. He illustrated almost all the books of my childhood.This last pages has a spread which pulls out.Under it is an envelope with pressed silver willow and oak and linden leaves.The pull out is the cover of a found vintage book of Prague.And the last thing in this book is a companion book I found in a vintage shop on how to keep geese.I figure if I ever needed to keep geese, this would come in very handy.Well there you go, a month worth of memories all wrapped up between golden covers.I hope you liked this very long post and if you have any questions about the pages in my travel journal, I'm happy to explain everything.