First Hedgehog of the Year!

 I've been here since the end of July, and last week I finally saw my first hedgehog!  It was the middle of the day.  I was on the bike path by the river.  I heard a noise and there he was, just off the path, nosing around energetically in the fallen leaves and grasses.  I watched him for a long time, taking a bunch of photos.  He wasn't afraid of me.  I even touched him very gently and he didn't seem to mind one bit.  A few people came by and I'd point him out.  Some were like, "Nice," and watched for 10 seconds before continuing on.  Others were like, "I have hedgehogs in my garden" and didn't even slow down.  But I probably watched for 15 minutes.  

A very happy day.

When I told my students about it, most of them laughed at my enthusiasm and talked about how hedgehogs had fleas or how you see the pests everywhere.  One claimed that a hedgehog had attacked her chicken!

But I still think they're adorable.    

Czech mushroom schnitzel

If you read my last post, you know that on my short hike yesterday, my friends and I found four entire edible mushrooms (I've been on hunts where we find hundreds, so this is laughable for many Czechs, but I was still happy)

These are "bedla" mushrooms, and normally you'd harvest them when they were bigger, but I'd had such little mushroom-hunting success that we picked them.  My Czech friends confirmed their edible-ness, and advised me to make řízek (snitzel).  Snitzel is something breaded and fried, generally pork or chicken here, but it's also common to do it with bedla mushrooms.

My friend gave me this recipe:  mix an egg with a little milk, salt and pepper.  Dip the mushroom caps in the egg then in bread crumbs.  Then fry it.

I found a recipe online that recommended three steps of breading:  First, flour with a little carraway (kmín).  Second, egg beaten with salt and pepper.  Third, bread crumbs.  I opted for this version because, while I was pretending to be Czech, I might as well add kmín, the most Czech of all spices.  

DELICIOUS! (though I'd use less oil next time)

This is a before and after:

    

Lukov Castle, Czech Republic

Yesterday some friends took me to Lukov Castle in the Czech Republic.  Not so long ago it lay in ruins.  History lovers restored it enough that now it's just half ruined.  Very cool.  Perhaps my favorite type of castle.

There are a few small exhibitions, and otherwise you can just wander around the grounds and take in the views:

Here I am at the top:

And my friends at some fun nearby rocks that you can climb around on:

The leaves were changing colors (not as beautiful in the pictures as in real life, of course):

And we found four edible mushrooms (not an impressive haul by Czech standards, but still cool):

A review of my story, "The Lighthouse Keeper," in Reactor Magazine

I just stumbled on a review of "Must Read" short stories from November last year.  And my story's there on the list!  

Read it here:  https://reactormag.com/must-read-short-speculative-fiction-november-2024/