first days of the fall
i took the morning bus at 6.40 a.m, from the bus station...which is so far away from where i live that, the moment i was settled on my bus seat, i could consider my day done/mission accomplished.
what followed was 1 1/4 hour of slow going on pretty bad roads, and then i got abandoned on top of the hill....my grandparents' village is the tiny thing down in the valley.
and here's a documentation of my way home:
this is 8.30 a.m and everything is empty. there must be about 30 very old people living in the village, plus some folks from my parents' generation who have decided to more or less return/move in and renovate their family homes. but at this point in time you could swear the place is abandoned.
this is the central crossroads, i kid you not! the grren/gray house used to be the general store - it's been closed for at least 20 years now. also: one of the two crosses was paid for by my grandparents.
i made a friend! this dog followed me from a point on and i had to convince him very eloquently that it wouldn't be a good idea to go home with me.
home! pictures of funny veggies, with the mug thrown in for size comparison. this eggplant was a whole family meal (fried with egg and flour). the cherry tomatoes (and yellow pear-shaped ones) are part of the big revelations of this weekend.
my aunt has new kittens!
also, my aunt always has some pastry stuff in the making. no, she did not know i was visiting!
yep, nothing to do but sit down with the family at the breakfast table.
also, among the new additions to my aunt's household: small chicken. still at the stage where they're nice and fluffy, but she had to catch me one cause i'm always afraid the mother hen would peck me.
meanwhile, at our place, my mum started airing out all the bed covers in the house - these are the ones that have never been used, just kept in the closets - 'my dowry', for reals! i don't even think i had seen all of them before. FYI, there's ten of them in this bunch, then 4 more that we actually use for the beds, then the blankets, then the pillowcases and some small carpets. everything woven, everything wool etc. am i bragging? no idea. i wish there was a way to actually USE them, you know.
this is all that's left from a neighbour's house. and they built their grave next to it (these people are not dead, they just moved into another house in the village whose previous owner died.)
the field is full of dry thorny little plants that took over the grass and bigger thorns that took over the previously ploughed lands. it's pretty desolate, but it does have beauty. i'm also showing off the dress, which is actually from among my grandma's clothes, i.e. way too large for me.
hands down, one of the most depressing sights i've ever seen.
not pictured here:
- us carrying all the bits of the big fallen tree from the back garden into the barn - messy! apparently i walked around for a couple of hours with bark on my face
- me picking 8 buckets of pears from our tree as a contribution to my aunt's alcohol production
- me picking a bucketful of cherry tomatoes from my aunt's garden, for my personal use. they're so fun to eat
- me commisioning my aunt to knit me a woollen sweater, with the wool off a former knit skirt she had in her closet
see, all these fall things.
what followed was 1 1/4 hour of slow going on pretty bad roads, and then i got abandoned on top of the hill....my grandparents' village is the tiny thing down in the valley.
and here's a documentation of my way home:
this is 8.30 a.m and everything is empty. there must be about 30 very old people living in the village, plus some folks from my parents' generation who have decided to more or less return/move in and renovate their family homes. but at this point in time you could swear the place is abandoned.
this is the central crossroads, i kid you not! the grren/gray house used to be the general store - it's been closed for at least 20 years now. also: one of the two crosses was paid for by my grandparents.
i made a friend! this dog followed me from a point on and i had to convince him very eloquently that it wouldn't be a good idea to go home with me.
home! pictures of funny veggies, with the mug thrown in for size comparison. this eggplant was a whole family meal (fried with egg and flour). the cherry tomatoes (and yellow pear-shaped ones) are part of the big revelations of this weekend.
my aunt has new kittens!
also, my aunt always has some pastry stuff in the making. no, she did not know i was visiting!
yep, nothing to do but sit down with the family at the breakfast table.
also, among the new additions to my aunt's household: small chicken. still at the stage where they're nice and fluffy, but she had to catch me one cause i'm always afraid the mother hen would peck me.
meanwhile, at our place, my mum started airing out all the bed covers in the house - these are the ones that have never been used, just kept in the closets - 'my dowry', for reals! i don't even think i had seen all of them before. FYI, there's ten of them in this bunch, then 4 more that we actually use for the beds, then the blankets, then the pillowcases and some small carpets. everything woven, everything wool etc. am i bragging? no idea. i wish there was a way to actually USE them, you know.
these are pics i took on an evening walk on the hill behind our house. starting from our little fruit tree garden at the back, then on the path toward the cemetery.
this is all that's left from a neighbour's house. and they built their grave next to it (these people are not dead, they just moved into another house in the village whose previous owner died.)
the field is full of dry thorny little plants that took over the grass and bigger thorns that took over the previously ploughed lands. it's pretty desolate, but it does have beauty. i'm also showing off the dress, which is actually from among my grandma's clothes, i.e. way too large for me.
hands down, one of the most depressing sights i've ever seen.
not pictured here:
- us carrying all the bits of the big fallen tree from the back garden into the barn - messy! apparently i walked around for a couple of hours with bark on my face
- me picking 8 buckets of pears from our tree as a contribution to my aunt's alcohol production
- me picking a bucketful of cherry tomatoes from my aunt's garden, for my personal use. they're so fun to eat
- me commisioning my aunt to knit me a woollen sweater, with the wool off a former knit skirt she had in her closet
see, all these fall things.
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