a walk in the woods

 oh look- they're leaving me in the dust! It's only because I'm taking lots of pix, you see... it might have something to do with the fact, too, that Svitlana is really itching to go hunting mushrooms. As we were leaving, her husb and mom both said- There's no mushrooms out there! Don't bother! Don't waste your time! Don't listen to her! S grinned and away we went.

 I didn't find any mushrooms... but it sure is pretty in here!

 sweet thing!

 S let me carry the bag with her mushrooms! She found a few; Hubby and Mom weren't quite right... ;)

love the light here... but tell me- What is going on with the bottom of this pic? I'm not really sure...

 looking up is good, too

 so much green around. This was very soft, springy moss. A lot of the walk was on this kind of moss.

 have we already seen this?

 never! It's the very first time ever! My imagination just went wild in here. I could be 6 again and playing 'Little House in the Big Woods'! Although these woods are exactly wild enough...

 not sure what this is. The soil here is very sandy and the vegetation largely unfamiliar.

 this was the 'antlers with velvet' plant

 :)

 a mushroom that S said is good for medicinal purposes but we left it there

 The 'Joshua Tree' of Western Ukr ;)

 a different kind of evergreen stand

 see the spider webs in the grass?

 leaving... gets dark early... must be November (even if is is warm)

 now- you've never seen anything like this... not on this post, for sure

 made a detour to an anthill! This one's large but we saw one at least twice that large several years ago... 

 out of the woods and heading home through the cow pasture

 they've left me in the dust again

Looking for an apple, probably. Notice the horse's front feet? He's hobbled. No fences anywhere so he spends his pasture time in hobbles. Has to hop to get anywhere. Very common here.

my favorite bus stop!

coming out of the pasture and up the slope

that's really a lot of swampy looking area out there. I imagine it to be between Bywater and Wethertop (if you've ever read the Lord of the Rings...)

You could sit here and wait... or do your homework ;)

the bus will be coming from down that-a-way

adventures of the non-human types

this mutt was absolutely eating the water in a (much) less than clean mud puddle. I stopped in awe to watch.

She finally limped off... with a major hitch in her get-along. 

Nobody here was much bothered by any hitches in their get-alongs. In fact, it's seriously doubtful if they have a get-along at all. The black and white dog hang around together all the time; T calls them 'Salt' and 'Pepper'.

often pass these horses on our way to the village. We walk through their field. They let us. 

Waiting for the bus on the Very Warm Day With Lots of Flowers- T suddenly says Hey! There's a bug. (Well, it IS November! You don't expect them at the end of Nov, do you?) The Bug is trying to cross the road. Time and again, a car goes sweeping by. Bug gets blown around, curls up in a tight ball and then uncurls and heads back across the road. We watched him. Amazing how he always unerringly headed off in the same direction. This shows him in the middle on the white line. Shortly after this, after a bus really blew him off course, I scooped him onto a piece of paper and took him the rest of the way. I just couldn't stand the thought of him possibly getting squashed after all that effort. ;)

T's comment? I wonder what he needs to do over there? Did he come from there? 

No kidding. What on earth does a bug have to do across the road that is so completely urgent. We could have stayed to watch but our bus came. 

The end.

are you sure it's November??

The ground was scattered with various small flowers in bloom when we were out in the village the other day! It has been unseasonably warm for a couple weeks now. However, the day after we were out there, it turned cold. And 2 days later, it snowed! I guess winter must come. On the bright side- only 3 1/2 weeks until the days start getting longer! I reckon the cold will get a lot worse yet, though, before it gets better..

not smiling

trying to get a shot of the drunk across the bus aisle from me. It was night and there were some lights on in the bus but obviously, not enough. Alcoholism in this part of the world is a terrible problem. My bus neighbors the other night seemed to typify the whole thing. A very nice looking lady holding a child (approx 3 years old, sleeping). They were there when we got on. Just before we left, a man sits down beside the lady. The next time I noticed them, the man had slumped over on top of the sleeping child on top of the lady. He was totally limp and fast asleep. There's a plastic bag with child's toys, scarf, clothing in it at the man's feet...which he proceeded to kick into the aisle while 'sleeping'. Mom, of course, can't do anything- she's got 2 sleeping people on top of her. I try to gather stuff up but the man's foot is on half of it. Finally manage to shove his amazingly heavy foot off of Baby's things and Mom (who must be a contortionist) and I manage to get the stuff back in the bag; she hauls it over to her side of the seat. We're approaching the end stop and I'm beginning to wonder just how she's going to manage everything. Baby is still fast asleep. So is the drunk. Mom begins trying to wake him up... and guess what, turns out he's a mean one. He hauled his fist back and was about to punch her... when he fell asleep again. Mom gave up for the moment. The seat in front of them was empty, so I scooted up there then turned around and asked her if she needed help. She didn't answer. We arrived. She waits for everyone to get off the bus and then tries to wake the Drunk again. No luck. I get into the aisle and begin shaking him by the shoulder- We're here, I say. Move. Now. The change in voice possibly gets through because he looks at me blearily. Then closes his eyes again. I use my most brisk and no-nonsense voice- Let's go, we're here. Move. And- surprisingly, he does. Wobbles to his feet and swerves for the front of the bus. Mom frantically begins wrapping up Baby. Toys fall out, I pick them up, hand her a scarf, mittens, take the bag. Take the other bag. Get off the bus. Drunk is there and takes the bags from me. I look at him. And then, pretending I'm his 2nd grade teacher I say, very sharply: Shame on you. How can you NOT be ashamed of yourself. Travelling with a small child in your condition. I felt like slapping him across the face but didn't... a very good thing. He opened his eyes a bit wider, Mom got off, I left. The last I saw them, they were clustered around a bench. I really wonder how they all got home that night. And how would it be living with him? A man who gets so drunk that he leaves his wife to cope with their small child and all their bags PLUS HIMSELF on public transportation, travelling from 1 city to another. A man who will try to punch his wife in the face on the bus... but doesn't manage it because he's too drunk. A man who would do that while his wife is holding their sleeping child. And sadly? It's not unusual. Not here. Not many weeks go by that you don't see a lady walking around with downcast eyes and bruises on her face. Most of them, likely, are because of an alcoholic (proly husband) in the household. I read recently that Ukraine has the highest rate of alcoholism in men in all of Europe. It's a huge and terrible problem. I could weep for that lady on the bus and the thousands like her all over this country. 

anyone know this lady?

she was here not long ago. A very lively and happy time was had by all!

well, these guys didn't have such a great evening, I reckon.

He'll turn and look at you, too. See those eyes? :)

but really? Connie? You can't scare me... not this easily! 

T and I were walking from the metro to K&P's when we passed someone with a bucket full of live crawdads. T knows Ange pretty well, having spent a year with her. She knows she loves seafood since she's from the Atlantic coast. She knew A would know what to do with these little dudes. I was skeptical at first. Usually when you visit someone, they have a menu in mind. Turns out, though, that crawdaddies fit right in so T bought a bagful. Ange cooked them. Someone made a delicious butter/garlic sauce. We all ate them. They were seriously good! Thanks!

And C? It was seriously great to see you again!! Glad you came!

smile!

Thursday after returning from the hosp I went to bed. Dr said sleep- and I did. My bed is across from the window. I woke up and looked straight outside to this sight. The colors were brilliant. The whole thing was beautiful. It made me more than smile. :)

I am Bus-Station-Lady... Hear me rooaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrr

As always, we spend a lot of time in bus stations...

LOTS of buses coming and going from here. 

This one has changed since I last spent much time in it. 

As T says, it now has dragon wings...

and here we have that bus station specialty... Bus-Station-Lady.

 She is duty-bound to make sure that no slouches without tickets get on any bus.

and she will harass and heckle and pester and yell. She is fearless. She knows that you're a lunk and a sneak and less than the ground she stands on... and she'll tell you for free. It's her job. 

We always go get tickets so they don't waste their time yelling at us. In fact this one? I showed her my ticket and asked which platform the bus would be at and when it'd arrive. And she looked wounded, defeated and offended... and then she told me. 

;)

what you don't know can hurt you, after all

 get off the bus at the 'col-hosp' (short for Collective Farm) stop, head down the sandy trail along beside the old collective farm buildings and head out 'over the river and through the woods'. Well- I guess there are no actual woods but it's a bit up and down the swells and skirt the creek and past the cows or horses and through the field. It's the trip out to Svitlana's.

 I've heard about it for more than a year now and was really glad to finally get to go. In fact, we go every week! Fall has been warm and mild and (mostly) sunny so this has mostly been an easy hike. It's about a mile back to S' mom's house.

See T? See what she's doing? Splitting wood.
While she was splitting wood...

 ...the cat was resting up from a tough day in the great outdoors (all the white on her body is smudged with soot- because she likes to hang out in funny places...) and I was making 'млинці' ('mlyntsiy') or crepes- super yummy and filled with cottage cheese mixed with egg and sugar). They're heated up and served as dessert- often with a generous serving of sour cream over the top although I prefer them without.

Unfortunately, the whole thing ended with the above pix this time. :( (ps- dontcha just love that needle? We asked for a flexible iv port for me because I have a hard time with needles... but there was no such thing. So- it was 2+ hours with this beast. I turned my head the other direction and just drifted off to sleep... thankfully.)
So- what happened? The wood-burning stove that heated the 2 rooms we were sleeping in wasn't vented properly. Our rooms filled with carbon monoxide. We both had headaches before falling asleep...but didn't think a lot about it. At 2.30, I woke up with a headache so bad I thought I'd be ill... so 'tried to navigate' to some pain pills... and could barely stay on my feet. Collapsed back onto the bed in a cold sweat then shakes and swirling head. Thought I'd pass out and didn't want to be alone so whimpered (literally) and T heard me, thank goodness. She'd had a similar experience 2 weeks prior in the same room so when I told her what was up and that I couldn't walk, she came barreling in and opened my window...then could hardly get back out of the room. She managed to and convinced me to follow... took us outdoors where we just 'were' for awhile. S heard us and came to check on us and got very scared. Took us to her side of the house, put us to bed there. Checked on us in the am- Are you girls alive? ;) (We were but with splitting terrific headaches.) T **called a doctor acquaintance in town who told us to come to the hosp and he'd de-tox us. Of course, that meant walking the mile back out to the road (the walk was beautiful with a heavy frost melting (or dew) and lots of spider webs clinging to plants with the sun shining through them... but I got zero pix), waiting for the bus and then riding 1 1/2 hours back to town. I slept nearly the whole way. At the hosp, the dr ran around getting meds (he went off campus somewhere for some of them)- usually every patient has to procure everything (s)he needs for any procedure so we were very grateful this dr did our running for us- then took us upstairs to the outpatient section, got us a couple of nurses... and now we're to the last 2 pix up there. The only treatment they have for CO poisoning is pushing fluids/i.v.'s and making your kidneys really work. After 2 hours- we were racing each other to the bathroom... well- not really. I was finished first so got first dibs. One of the symptoms of CO poisoning is having to urinate frequently... along with a headache the night before, I'd had to run and run and run to the bathroom...if that EVER happens again, I'm going to be sleeping in the yard!
After all the i.v.'s and some resting, we collected our stuff from the dr's office. He sat us both down and gave us a good talking to. I think that was the first that I really began to take in what had happened... and what nearly happened. Later, as people began to find out and ask questions and shudder- it hit home some more. Yesterday am, after our time together- more questions. One of the young girls looked at us, all pale, and said You know that whole families die of this don't you? (Yes, we do.) Another told about some neighbors near her in-law's dacha- recently 4 adults died; only a baby survived- because it was in a separate room and the door to that room was shut tightly.
To say we're grateful, thankful, happy to be alive is the understatement of the year.
The doctor said we'd feel like sleeping a lot and should just do it- so we have. Really, we feel better. But still sort of tired- which I'm guessing is partly from the sheer shock of it all. And- today I've had the weird after-headache again- feels like a tight band around my head with some prickly spots on my scalp.
We go back to the village tomorrow and had initially planned on staying the night- you know, get back on the horse that threw you and all that... but there's company there so we'll just come back into town... and I don't think either of us is all that disappointed.

**while T called the dr, I was outside losing the rice and pumpkin cereal I'd had for breakfast... And- did you know that chickens will eat anything? Yep. Even that. They gathered at my feet and just had a feast. *shudder*

smile!

in a new (to me) city in a new (to me) apartment and room. Getting settled in. This is the chair- which is nothing at all to look at until you fix it up a bit. I love it! I love to sit in it and read. It's just my size! ;)

Encyclopedia of the various groups of 'plain people'

Haven't written anything about anything Amish in a long time... and not really fixing to now... but there is an interesting new book out... link to Amish America blog

Another day (or 2) in paradise

The creeps clowns that broke into the apartment back in August busted the lock and a zipper on a brand new (grrrrrr) suitcase of mine. They also cut the luggage strap that was around it... they could have simply popped the lock since I'd snapped it shut simply to keep the zipper pulls from moving...hadn't bothered to reset it from the factory default 000. And the strap could have easily been unwound. It made me madder that they destroyed perfectly good stuff when they could have just gotten into it with less effort than it took to wreck the stuff. But- I guess you don't have time to actually think about piddly stuff like that when you're busy taking (or at least looking for) what isn't yours to begin with and you're probably nervous that S' going to walk in the door at any minute. Whatever. Sigh. 

Anyway- S looked at the strap last week and said- Why don't you just get the shoe repair guy to sew it back together?  So I did. Made a little stop at this kid's (no kidding- if he's 18, I'll eat my proverbial hat) shoe fixin' stand. Waited 5 min while he sewed on a really cool and interesting heavy duty sewing machine. 

And let my phone (and its camera) look around the inside... he's neat as a pin... unlike the eccentric shoe repair guy up in Kyiv...

Need a new heel? He's got your kind...And he did a good job on the strap, too! ;)

So- now I'm 'here' instead of 'there'... And 'here' is where we find this charmer! Irina (Ira- pronounced "EE-rah") 2 (or 3?) years old and a pistol if there ever was one.  We spent a bit of time with her...

and her big sis "Daryna" (she's not lacking in character, either, let me tell you! The whole family eggs her on and winds her up and she can really tell a story!) Her big sis Christina and Dad and Mom were there, too... but pix of them were not a success...so we'll just leave them off!

and then came home and did some more quince tonight... only this didn't turn pink and isn't quite as tasty as the stuff we did earlier. But it's still yummy! And smells delicious. Honestly- I walked into the grocery today needing granola ingredients... these were right inside the door... the first thing you saw and the first thing you smelled. And that whole part of the store did smell sweet and fruity and quince-y. There was no way on earth to just leave them there! ;)

 And then... got a major snack attack. This is left from my birthday... and was burning a hole in my consciousness... Someone donated Reese's PB cups to a (good?) cause; someone else sent Snickers Crunchers. Oh Groan. I eventually found my pumpkin seeds and consoled myself with them... although I'm not sure they're exactly low cal or low fat. Ah well. These little packages of chocolate goodness will come in handy some other time... I'm glad they survived the night! :) 

trains

A lot of things you forget pretty quickly. Or at least I do. Two years away from a place and I'd forgotten just how much train time there is in that area. Well- not forgotten completely but forgotten what it feels like. To be on trains. AllTheTime. On a day train, you can get stuff done. A lot of stuff. And I have. I've written letters and emails and done blog posts and read books and studied and sorted through notes and papers and pictures. You name it. If it's portable it's probably been done. But- being in limbo sort of stifles that. At the beginning of August, I packed up and shipped most of my 'stuff' to a central Ukr city and then went on down South for a few months. Meantime, stuff happened- like it is wont to do- and plans changed. At the end of the 'South Stint' I was briefly reunited with my stuff. Which was a big thing. The apartment it was in had been broken into in mid August. My stuff along with that of several other people was thoroughly sifted through and scattered around and disrespected. Some dear soul had been there after that and tried to put stuff away as best they could. But when I got there- I found some of it on the shelves, some of it in my cases. A lot of it wasn't how I'd left it and it took awhile to sort through it realize that nothing had been taken (which was no surprise- aside from this laptop, I have nothing of real monetary value...and the laptop was with me at the time... whew). So- just as I got all my stuff spread out and sifted and sorted, I also got word that within days my stuff and I would be moving West to be with T for a bit. Being the calm person that I am, I quietly packed it all up and shipped it off again. (permission granted to laugh... I might have fluttered a bit... heh)

What's this have to do with trains??? Just a minute.

Oh yeah- so for the 2 weekends I was in the train area I was fantastically unmotivated to dig into my stuff at all to find much to do. Oh- I had some stuff along that was on the surface and easy to get to. But not much. And so the train time got L-O-N-G. 

So Monday, when we parked just across the aisle from these 4, it didn't take much to distract me. Mr Light Blue Sweater had a little Bluetooth headset on his right ear. He loved talking on the phone. Loudly. He must have been some sort of wheeler dealer buyer seller. He had several conversations about stuff he was looking for for other people. Including a mattress for 2 very small lightweight people. He didn't really know if the mattress Caller On The Other End had was really what they were looking for. Then there was a phone call about magazine subscriptions. His voice went on and on and on. And when he wasn't talking on the phone, he was talking. Period. To anyone and everyone. He was verbose. Wordy. Diffuse. Prolix. Long-winded. He had it all and knew it all. And was happy to share.I just love his wife's pointed disinterest in this pic.

To be fair- these guys seemed in the mood to chat and did their share sometimes.

And then- and then. Mrs Wife in the Pink Sweater came to life. Turns out... they're a good match. She can talk too. She Can Really Talk Too. 

see her hands? Blurs? Yep... they talk, too. And, once again, to be fair- they really weren't obnoxious. They just talked. A Lot. Like the whole 2 1/2 hours. No Breaks. At All. 

A mom and baby got on right behind us and settled just beyond our seats. I caught Baby's eye- he was running around looking at all of us. But no go making up to the little squirt.  Suddenly, he careened by me clutching a toy car. Bypassed me altogether and ran right up to the only other child within shouting distance. A boy of about 8. Showed him his car and offered it to him. They hit if off right away.

It was really neat to see how the older boy immediately responded to Baby. 

Baby was happy and content the whole time largely because of his new buddy.

And tell me- How does a toddler know that this 'also-bigger-than-him' person is going to get right down on the floor and play with him? How did he hone right in on the one person in the whole wagon who was most likely to give him all of his time? Ok- sure- he's short, too...shorter than the rest of us. But really- he obviously wasn't too small to recognize another kid. And the kids? The big one was Russian speaking; Baby babbled...but his momma spoke Ukrainian. Kids are really something else. 

And so- the train trip passed and we got home and I didn't finish packing but just crashed... And was glad. :)