Na Dache, Part II

And yes, three parts sausage to one part coffee is the ideal breakfast ratio.

Suzdal

Part of dacha fun is dacha day trips to bejewelled medieval Russian cities. This is the third time I've been to Suzdal, which never disappoints.

Na Dache

- downtown Ryakhovo
- WWII memorial to local pilot
- the owner of this one asked me to refrain from photographing her "old" house.
- the ruined church.
- nearby house.
- our deck at sunset. Quinn and Katya mid-snuggle.

Dachas, as we know, are Russian country homes. I had the pleasure of escaping fumes, noise, and bad moods of the megapolis with good friends Quinn and Katya, and some new ones, for Victory Day. A few points stand out: - when the woods are uniformly birch, darkness doesn't settle quite so quickly. - when the geography is modest, when there are no rivers or lakes, your attention focuses inward, towards yourself or the company you're keeping. Part of the intensity of the escape comes from being compelled to focus on the "things that matter," i.e. conversation, food, relationships. A ski weekend would have afforded an entirely different form of relaxation. - Russian wooden homes possess an ingenuity and beauty that does not need to be tweaked. - whoever thought up the onion dome deserves a toast in his/her honor, speaking of indigenous architecture. It's a fundamentally interesting form to spend time staring at, and can be tweaked into long green onions or bulbous vidalias. - just more proof that I love the banya.

Travels to Lemkoland, Part Three

It's been too, too long, my large numbers of loyal readers!

Finally carved out some free time to get back to the blog. So let's get a few more photos out of that there trip to the motherland!

[From above:
road-side memorial just north of Ozenna, Poland

one of many "typical, stark, yet moving" wooden churches, either Orthodox or Byzantine Catholic, in Lemko-land. This one is about 10km from Ozenna

Alexa at the Lemko cultural museum. Yeah, that's right, I said it. And it's really, really extensive, too.

Maria and Michal's barn, back in Ubrez, Slovakia

Inside the Byzantine Catholic church courtesy of Maria and Michal's tour. This would've been Mary Lazar's "home" church. ]