At first the van driving around the village with it's loudspeaker blaring: "Orichi, Orichi..." sounded vaguely familiar. It reminded me of the 'alte sachen' truck that comes around back home in Israel - a kind of 'rag and bone man' who collects old things to be resold such as old furniture, fridges, etc... But this was a much smaller vehicle and I was curious to know what it was they were selling or buying.
'Orichi' means walnuts in Bulgarian, and these were walnut traders. They come in to the village mostly to buy walnuts that people have collected by the sack. Some people have large walnut trees on their property, but many others take to the woods that surround the village and rummage among the leaves for fallen nuts. You can easily spot the people who out walnut hunting. They carry long sticks and bags and if you look closely most of them have black-stained hands which is what happens to you when you peel off the outer green husk that encloses the nut inside. These nuts are stored in a dry place for several months after which they are good for eating and keep well.
A neighbour told me a story of something that happened last year. One old gentleman had saved up several bags of walnuts hoping to sell them to give him a little extra income. The traders asked him how many bags he had and he told them - five. They agreed to buy them all and he went into his storeroom to bring them out one by one. As he disappeared inside to bring out the last bag the traders zoomed off taking the other four bags with them...Although the villagers laugh when they retell the story it seems rather sad to me, but fortunately our own experiences here over these past few months have only been good and and don't in any way reflect that kind of heartlessness - on the contrary we have only met true generosity and kindness.
The autumn here has been glorious. Although the temperatures have gone down a lot recently there is a stillness in the air that makes it bracing and refreshing, rather than the bitter cold that can really get you down when accompanied by wind. People are lighting up their wood fires and that leaves a smoky smell in the air that reminds me a lot of the autumns of my youth when most people in the UK still had coal fires rather than central heating. Indoors here it's toasty warm and it's great to see how multi-purpose the 'petchka' is - providing us with heat, a place to cook, warm our water and dry our clothes.
The last of the summer vegetables are being enjoyed fresh or are being bottled for the winter. People are covering their remaining tomatoes against the rain and cold so they don't spoil before ripening, and others to be on the safe side are picking them green for frying or making into preserves and chutneys. In our little garden we still have some peppers, leeks, parsley, tomatoes and courgettes. Although nowhere near enough to provide all our vegetable needs it has been great to have had a constant supply of food from the garden to supplement almost every meal.
Here is a short video - a compilation of various photos taken while out with Lielle recently (we go out a lot with her lately now that she has learnt to ride her bike!) - simple views of the village in glorious autumn technicolor with Baba singing in the background. Enjoy!
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