Wednesday
26Jul2006
Buzz buzz, cluck cluck
Wednesday, July 26, 2006 at 4:44PM
Novosibirsk, Siberia | 19:30 (13:30 GMT), July 26, 2006
It didn’t rain today. It was bright and sunny, so we spent the day visiting Mrs. tyger’s babushka and at the dacha (summerhouse) picking berries, watering plants, and hunting the caterpillars hiding in the potatoes.
When I had enough caterpillars in my saucepan I would throw them into the chicken pen, where the grateful hens and the noisy cockerel would greedily gobble them up. The kids loved it, although they preferred feeding the chickens redcurrants, as sacrificing caterpillars was cruel. I think we have some budding Buddhists in the family!
At the dacha they grow all sorts of fruits and vegetables. Potatoes, carrots, peas, squashes (what’s the plural for squash?), marrows, strawberries (already been and gone :-( ), blackberries, raspberries, gooseberries, redcurrants, blackcurrants, cucumbers, others I don’t know the name of or can’t remember, and copious amounts of roses, and other fragrant flowers. Insects fly in and out of the flowers and around the vegetables. Worms peak their head out of the soil after an occasional wrong turn upwards. The garden seems alive with the zest of summer, and the two-story dacha seems the perfect place to experience it.
I have some photos of the dacha, the garden, and some of the flowers, which as I said, I will upload to my Flickr account when I have a connection quick enough to make it worthwhile.
En route to the police station (visitors to Russia must register with the authorities) we stopped at the huge Ob Sea (the widest part of the mighty river at Novosibirsk, you can barely see the other bank!) with its huge hydroelectric damn, the wind had picked up and large waves crashed against its concrete hulk. As I explained to Nicky how the flow of water drives the huge turbines and how this in turn generates electricity, we took more photos, which again I will upload.
Tonight we have bought some fish and will have with some bread for our tea. For lunch we had tasty pelmini (ravioli with spiced meat), smetana (sour cream), and herbs, washed down with local spring water (very minerally) and ryazenka, a fresh yoghurt drink.
Hopefully tomorrow will be just as fresh.
I have nearly finished reading A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, and would advice anyone looking for a good well-written, can’t-put-down novel, they should give it a whirl. I picked an English version of Graham Greene’s A Quiet American for when I have finished it.
Toodle pip!
It didn’t rain today. It was bright and sunny, so we spent the day visiting Mrs. tyger’s babushka and at the dacha (summerhouse) picking berries, watering plants, and hunting the caterpillars hiding in the potatoes.
When I had enough caterpillars in my saucepan I would throw them into the chicken pen, where the grateful hens and the noisy cockerel would greedily gobble them up. The kids loved it, although they preferred feeding the chickens redcurrants, as sacrificing caterpillars was cruel. I think we have some budding Buddhists in the family!
At the dacha they grow all sorts of fruits and vegetables. Potatoes, carrots, peas, squashes (what’s the plural for squash?), marrows, strawberries (already been and gone :-( ), blackberries, raspberries, gooseberries, redcurrants, blackcurrants, cucumbers, others I don’t know the name of or can’t remember, and copious amounts of roses, and other fragrant flowers. Insects fly in and out of the flowers and around the vegetables. Worms peak their head out of the soil after an occasional wrong turn upwards. The garden seems alive with the zest of summer, and the two-story dacha seems the perfect place to experience it.
I have some photos of the dacha, the garden, and some of the flowers, which as I said, I will upload to my Flickr account when I have a connection quick enough to make it worthwhile.
En route to the police station (visitors to Russia must register with the authorities) we stopped at the huge Ob Sea (the widest part of the mighty river at Novosibirsk, you can barely see the other bank!) with its huge hydroelectric damn, the wind had picked up and large waves crashed against its concrete hulk. As I explained to Nicky how the flow of water drives the huge turbines and how this in turn generates electricity, we took more photos, which again I will upload.
Tonight we have bought some fish and will have with some bread for our tea. For lunch we had tasty pelmini (ravioli with spiced meat), smetana (sour cream), and herbs, washed down with local spring water (very minerally) and ryazenka, a fresh yoghurt drink.
Hopefully tomorrow will be just as fresh.
I have nearly finished reading A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, and would advice anyone looking for a good well-written, can’t-put-down novel, they should give it a whirl. I picked an English version of Graham Greene’s A Quiet American for when I have finished it.
Toodle pip!
Reader Comments (1)
Fantastic, Aaron. I see you are filling in your time non-stop, which couldn't be otherwise given your natural inclinations.
Squash, squashes, you can use either for the plural. I would use squash for the general meaning, and squashes if I want to give an exact idea of quantity.
It is not pontificating, I am almost sure LOL.