Windows to Russia

Up at 3:30 a.m., Boza and I walked and ate breakfast. Then I went to town after leaving Boza hiding under the bed and refusing to come out. He heard me grab the car keys and that means town, a place he prefers not to go, unless he has to…

I dreamed of going to the petrol station and filling the tank on the car, going to the grocery store and then off to the market. I was going to take pictures and do some shopping. Well, I got the car filled and went to the store. That worked perfect, then I tried to go to the market and found the issue for the day. Everyone and their brother in-law was there. I mean the cars were parked all the way into town and the market is about half a kilometer out of town. The fields were full around the market, with cars, there had to be two or three thousand people there. It looked like the term crazy was invented for such an event…

I tried to get near to the place and finally after a babushka gave me the death look of an evil eye. I decided that life is too short to deal with this. I found a tiny spot and turned around, I noticed that the bank I turned around at had 36 people standing in line using the ATM. I had time to count them for I was stuck for 5 minutes trying to get back on the road. Then I did what any sane man would do…

I went and got something to eat…

The actual town itself was empty and open. I could do what I wanted there. So I went to the meat pie shop and bought two pizzas and two sasiska v tyestye. They look like corn dogs in America, but no corn…

Then I ate the two dogs and kept the two small pizzas for later today. They had dog on them also, just sliced up into small pieces…

No! The other dog…

We do not eat dog in Russia, we may eat horse and pony, but no cats and dogs…

I then did some more food shopping since, it was so easy to get around and then went home…

Sorry, but no market images. I lied…

Therefore, two out of three items were accomplished and in Russia that means a perfect day. Plus I fed my belly and got pizza for when I am hungry again…

Now that is why I love Russia…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

What can you say?

The young soul of Russia!

Polina Gagarina – A Million Voices (from Russia)

63X zoom, standing at our fence line, resting on a post. I finally after hundreds of shots, got a clear picture of the bell. The sky is crystal clear and this is the only clear shot out of 10 I took today. I am so happy…

I have wanted to get a shot to allow me to see clearly what is cast on the surface of the bell….

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

In the woods is a chair…

I swept it off…

I check for dew…

I sat down…

Then I enjoyed life…

and simply stared without a care…
 
 
Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

I woke this morning at around 4:30 a.m. and grabbed a cup of coffee first thing. Boza was hungry as he kept staring at his empty food bowl, so I gave him 300 grams of food and he drank a bunch of water and we were ready to explore the village. Actually I wanted a second cup of coffee, but Boza decided to sit at the door and make groaning noises. That is how he tells me to get my butt in gear…

The village was quiet this morning, for many people showed up to plant their gardens and they partied half the night. That is normal when the part time villagers start showing up. Everyone runs around meeting everyone and that leads to a shot of vodka here and a shot of vodka there and a shot of vodka everywhere. Then the next day no one gets anything done due to hangovers and I have to be quiet until noon, so as not to wake the dead as they recover…

Boza and I walked for two hours, we checked on our strawberry patch, we checked on the monastery, we checked on the natural water source in the woods, we checked on the river and we checked on the fish in the lake. It is our job, you know? Then we water our garden, did the laundry and washed the dishes. Now I am writing a post and Boza is sleeping under the bed…

I am going to mow the yard, but that has to wait for as I said, “I do not want to wake the dead!” There must be 35 people in the village right now and I just saw the monk go up the hill to the monastery. That means the bell will ring soon and most likely a hundred people will walk up the hill and they will have some sort of service at the monastery. It will be interesting as the monastery grows, for it is twice as busy now as it was last year and our home is centered to all the action…

Tomorrow (Sunday) I am going to the big village and go to the market. I have to find myself some lightweight pants or long shorts or both. I also need to find a vacuum cleaner, a cheap one, as I killed the one I have, finally. Plus I will do my weekly shopping for supplies and who knows what else…

Okay, I will take some pictures of the market!

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

This is what the internet told me…

Friday May 22, 2015

Afterfeast of the Ascension. Tone five.
Fast. Fish Allowed

Prophet Isaiah (8th c. B.C.).
Martyr Christopher of Lycia, and with him Martyrs Callinica and Aquilina (249).
Translation of the relics of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker from Myra to Bari, in 1087.
Venerable Joseph of Optina (1911).
New Hieromartyr Demetrius priest (1938).
New Hieromartyr Basil priest (1939).
Repose of the Venerable Shio of Mgvime (6th c.) (Georgia).
Translation of the relics (1775) of Child-martyr Gabriel of Slutsk (1690).
Martyr Epimachus of Pelusium, who suffered at Alexandria (250).
Martyr Gordion at Rome (362).
Venerable Nicholas, who lived in Vuneni, of Larissa in Thessaly (1400).
Zaraysk Icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker (1225).

The Scripture Readings:

John 10:1-9 Matins Gospel
Acts 19:1-8
John 14:1-11
Hebrews 13:17-21 St. Nicholas
Luke 6:17-23 St. Nicholas

There was a young man taking pictures for the church and he explained to me that pictures are fine, just not from the front of the procession. They want to respect the people in the walk to the monastery. I knew that from last time and thus stayed in the front row seat that I have in my yard. The one thing different this time than last year was, they had to take a different and longer route to the monastery and that tells me something about the future. They are blocking the middle road that we now use all the time to drive through the village…

It is hot today, so they have a ambulance to care for the people who get sick as they walk. They walked from across the river at the first foot bridge, which is about 2 kilometers, then had to climb our hill to get to the monastery. I watched and the ambulance, bus and several cars, kept busy trying to help all the people walking in the sun…

They all rode home on the bus though…

Just thought you would be interested in seeing life in the monastery, when I am able, I take an image record of it…

Have a nice day…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

Today I am taking it easy. I will not cut any trees down, mow any grass, move any logs, build any fences, and or dig any holes. I will go to town later and buy groceries, but I am going to read a book and recover from being stupid. That is my middle name (stupid) and while I am getting back in shape again, I pushed it too hard yesterday and ended up falling asleep in my dirty clothes, forgot to take my evening pills and this happened after taking a pain-killer and nitro for my heart, which kept me from hearing four phone calls from Sveta. So I am sure she is upset with me now… Ouch…

There are times that I despise getting old and there are more times than that, when I get really grouchy over having six heart attacks and having to act like I am old, when I want to be thirty years old again. It works if I do not look in the mirror and ignore my past, well until I exert too much in a given day, then even, not looking in the mirror and seeing this old guy, does not help…

The pain-killer I took is a good one, but it causes me to not function well, so I take it at night very rarely and then I usually do not remember much from that point on. It is called “Nice” and it does one thing good, very good, kills pain. This morning at 3:30 a.m. I woke up and could actually get out of bed without screaming. It also made my finger that I broke feel good and that did not interfere with my sleep either…

It is a butt kicking pain-killer and I only use it when I am in very bad shape, as I was last night…

* * * * * * * * * *

The window dressing above is plain and simple, they also belongs to the old general store that is located in the village. A store that is no longer in use, but the building is still there…

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I may not even go into town today either. That is how bad I feel and I have plenty of food for Boza and I. We could go for weeks without going to town… 🙂

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

I was walking with Boza and it was 4:30 a.m. at the time I stopped to listen. The sun had peaked above the edge of the earth at around 4 a.m. and we had been walking in chorus with what seemed like millions of birds, all singing for attention from what ever audience that they could gather to listen, why even the Ravens cawed in unison as if to add a spark of difference to the musical ensemble…

A noise presented itself above the rest and it was a sound not unlike an angry bumblebee and as I looked around to see what I did to upset a bumblebee, I realized that the sound drifted from afar. Then it sank in what I was listening to and I started to look upon the horizon and climbed higher up the hills, to allow me to find, that familiar giant bumblebee, the crop duster…

We climbed to near the bell tower, the highest spot around and then I spotted the buzzing noise. It was a white, single engine and single stubby winged plane and then I saw enough of it to recognize that it was an old World War Two fighter craft. A fighter plane that had been converted into a crop duster and that explained why I could hear it so well, that is about 600 or 700 horsepower at tap and the pilot was enjoying life immensely. He would barrel roll at the end of the field, then flip the plane and make another pass…

I knew exactly what fields he was spraying, for Boza and I stop at them when we go to town. I like to let Boza run in open flat lands with very little grass at times…

The crop duster brought back memories of a childhood, memories that had all but died in my mind. For sometimes we allow ourselves to drift from what should be and become attached to what is to be. When we should never allow that to happen…

Then it hit me, I was in heaven and I checked myself to see if I was still alive. After I yelled at myself for pinching my arm so hard it hurt, I then thought about why I felt that way…

* * * * * * * * * *

Field so huge that you could die eating all the wild strawberries that will be available…

The blooms are just starting and the total field is over a hundred meters deep and two hundred meters wide. This is the most incredible wild strawberry field I have seen. You can be sure that Boza and I will be keeping an eye on this field and getting some wild strawberries to eat…

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Daily window dressing…

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Oh and why is it heaven?

Because it (Russia) and Boza and I are free!

Free to chose, free to live, free to walk, free to create, free to become, free to be free. No nanny state trying to save you from yourself…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

Many thoughts this morning after a two hour walk with Boza. It has taken a few days, but I have built my stamina back up and now we walk four times a day for an hour or more. Now after an invigorating walk, I am having a cup or two of delicious coffee and I thought that I would jot down my thoughts this morning…

I have to move the internet antenna, for yesterday I started to take apart the back lean to and realized that the antenna is attached to the lean to and that just will not do. So I cut a long pole and will move the antenna today. Time to dig a hole for the pole… (Just did this job a few minutes ago. Decided to get it done…)

I have to mix gas and oil for the chainsaw and brush cutter. Today and or tomorrow, I will mow the lawn and trim more root sap suckers out of the way…

It is time to finish off the old plum tree. I got it cut down all the way and cut up. I have even used the trunk pieces for making bench seat areas, but now I see that I have to devise a way to kill the stump completely…

I need to build another bench seat out front and then we will have enough seating to rest at various times of the day, in the shade. For according to the weather forecast, it will be in the upper twenties centigrade for the next few weeks and that means it will be mosquito time and hot to boot. Today will be 10 degrees and tomorrow 27 degrees. Now that is a change…

It has rained so much that the garden has been kept soaked and we now have beets and onions growing great, but carrots have not come up yet. I keep looking and I need to weed tomorrow. The soil is too wet and I will sink too far in it. So tomorrow is my day to weed. I know from experience that carrots take forever to germinate and therefore, I will be patient. I only planted red beets, onions and carrots this year. I am experimenting and plan on getting a rototiller to really do a garden correct. If I can find a small one, gas powered or even electric, I will till the soil to the bigger garden size this fall and be ready for maintenance tilling in spring. I need to find a source for cow manure, to till it in for the winter…

And after I moved the antenna, I adjusted it just a few minutes ago (I think you see that I write some and do something else and then write some more. Not always, but today is that type of day,) I have five bars of five bars for signal. That means I now have internet as good or even better than I have in the city…

I have a reader who has asked about windows on the village homes. I have been taking some pictures of the windows as I walk around with Boza. The image above is the first I will post. I will most likely just add the image into a post I am doing, such as this article and will quit when I am out of windows to take pictures of…

That is all today, for I have much to do and need to get going. My broken finger slows me down and I have to be careful with it. So time to go and Boza and I hope you have a good day…

For we sure will… 🙂

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

The orange dot on the images above is our village home. I put the dot in the front yard…

It is called “заря свободы” or “dawn of freedom” and I call it Sunrise to Freedom…

That is a name that should make you think and wonder about the truth behind life in Russia. The locals call it “kommuna” and as it sounds, a community farm village and that name holds over from the Soviet times. I discovered that in 1963  that this place was a huge cattle farm and maybe it was a dairy farm for all I know…

The image was sent to me by anonymous e-mail and I can tell it is of our valley near our village. It is near a horseshoe bend in the river, river is called para, and there is remains of cattle corrals and such all over the area. The village in the background is a large village that I can walk to, to buy food if necessary. If anyone knows who owns this image, I would like to have more if possible. Photos of this area would be much appreciated and I would gladly give credit to any and all…

Here have a Yandex link to make it easy for you to find the place – https://maps.yandex.ru/

I am going to work in the yard today, so have a nice day…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…