Extolling the joys of a winter Christmas

Trees are decorated with lights for Christmas in the Czech Republic town of Dobris. Photo: John...
Trees are decorated with lights for Christmas in the Czech Republic town of Dobris. Photo: John Barker
In an occasional series, former Western Southland farmer John Barker shares his experiences shearing sheep and living in the Czech Republic.

Well, the Christmas trees have been thrown to the elephants, decorations boxed up and the outside lights all stored away. It is the middle of January here and not much remains of Christmas. But it is true that the zoos are very happy to take the Christmas trees for the animals. So just quickly, what is different in Czech from a New Zealand Christmas?

Well, firstly it is winter and for some reason Christmas just seems to fit more to a winter scene. Our village lights were up since the beginning of December when we celebrated "Mikulas" or Santa along with the angels and devils. The differences include celebrating on the evening of the 24th with the main dish, "carp" fried in breadcrumbs and served with potato salad. But the kids usually get fried chicken and as a starter, fish soup. No such thing as desserts here, only Christmas cookies and there are a lot of different types and they are very yummy.

Then, after eating, it is time to sit down and watch a Czech fairy tale and open presents. Each Christmas a new fairytale is released, then over the next week the TV is showing fairly tales non-stop.

Now what’s happening on the farm? The horses are fine, I am in the middle of either making new fences or repairing the neighbour’s to be able to graze the paddocks. Our winter situation is a bit different this year as we usually agree with a neighbour to graze the paddocks next to ours. But he has now applied for an eco subsidy (talking about subsidies is an article just on its own) and that means no animals can be on the land. And they do checkups quite often, so there is no getting around this. So I am left with only 1ha of winter pasture. But another neighbour who used to have horses said I could graze those meadows. But the fences are in a bad state, so with my motorised hole driller I have been busy fixing them. It is a bit nippy out at the moment and temperatures are around -6°C. No shearing for me over the winter. Well, that’s all from me. Enjoy the rest of the holidays.

 

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