Winter Activities in Voditsa

Although we were not in the village for most of the winter it was fascinating to observe the preparations for this slow-down season when the weather very clearly dictates what can and can't be done.

The year-round sameness that we have grown accustomed to in our ordinary, other lives has alienated us from our connection to mother earth: we have become used to working in temperature-controlled conditions; to the constant availability of most food-stuffs quite unrelated to their natural seasonality; to always rushing around (and ironically feeling we have not achieved enough) instead of taking our cue from nature's patterns of light and dark, warmth and cold, to slow down...

The Bulgarian winter, for those who live in rural areas, dictates a rest from the intensive labor on the land; a diet of warm and comforting soups and stews; a time to spend indoors with friends and neighbors; a time to enjoy creativity. Amongst the many traditional crafts practised in the village during the winter months is the weaving of corn mats from the outer husks of the maize picked at the end of the summer. We were lucky enough to be invited to one of the villager's homes to see a demonstration of how this is done.

Where have we been ??*#@!!

People have been asking where we disappeared to these last few (six) months since our last post! Our 'living the alternatives' project took on a different character when we left Bulgaria in mid November to spend the winter months with family in UK. Our experiences there were more personal in nature and seemed at the time to be less relevant to the theme of this blog. In retrospect, we learnt a lot during our stay there and experienced many things worth sharing, so the plan is to do a little back-tracking and blitz-blogging to update and fill in some of the gaps over the coming weeks.

Other elements of our original plan changed a little too along the way, bringing us unexpectedly back to Israel recently for a family wedding. This has forced us to face prematurely some of the dilemmas and challenges that we knew would be waiting for us at the end of our year-long experience (making a living, education, where to live, how to combine all our goals and ideals with real life, etc). All this stuff, the good with the not so good, has been taken on board and is, as I write this, being processed.

The essence of this whole year so far has been about finding balance in our lives. We are learning that things happen and plans change. Sometimes unexpected changes are for the good and the new direction needs to be embraced; being flexible and knowing how to 'go with the flow' can be admirable traits. However, some changes can be confusing, distracting us from our original goals and a critical eye is needed to evaluate the new situation. Finding that balance between knowing that everything happens for a reason, and directing and taking responsibility for our own destiny has been a big central theme for me these last few months.

Anyhow, it's back to Bulgaria next week for the last few months of our year-long project and hopefully there'll be plenty to write home about! We kick-off with a 4-day permaculture gardening course with the Permaship folk of Shipka then it's back to the village of Voditsa to get our own garden looking ship-shape. We're looking forward to resuming regular arts & crafts sessions in our home with the local children; revamping the summer kitchen; mud-plastering walls; creating story-telling spaces and dens .... our resources of time, money and volunteer helpers will shape what actually ends up happening and it's all very exciting. If anyone reading this feels a connection to the spirit of our project and is interested in coming along for a few days or a week or two to help out - be sure to get in touch.

"Orichi...Orichi."..Sounds, Smells and Sights of Autumn

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!

Alternative Building Techniques - Our Succa!

We had great fun making our succa (the temporary dwelling we eat in during the Jewish Sukkot holiday).

Our neighbours helped out by providing us with corn stalks which we used for part of the walls and the roof. You can check out a video clip of how we made and decorated it on Lielle's Blog: www.liellesblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/succot.html

Helping with the corn - continued: Video Clip

A Chance to Lend a Helping Hand

Our neighbours here in the village are so helpful and generous - it felt really good over the last few days to be able to help them in return. There are many jobs to be done at the end of the summer, getting the harvest in before the wetter, colder weather begins. Here you can see how we helped a little with the corn. It's wonderful to see how the whole plant is used: the cobs themselves are to be ground into chicken feed and some of the stalks and leaves get chopped up for cattle fodder.

Here everybody helps everybody, and while that is so refreshing for us, here it is just the norm - it's just what you do. I'm not really sure whose corn it was we were picking but one person got the stalks for his cows, another got the cobs for their chickens. A woman down the road was getting the husks to weave into mats, and our neighbour drove back to the field with a trailer especially to bring us back some stalks for building our succa. Everybody around was helping, old and young, singing, laughing and joking all the while. Although there was plenty of hard work to be done it was done with fun and a sense of community spirit.

I remember my Dad telling me of holidays he spent as a child, hop-picking in Kent. For his parents it was a working holiday but he remembers the time very fondly - and now I think I can really appreciate why.

Here's a short video (more to come later).

Home-made Grape Juice

Dani recently decided to make his own grape juice from the vines growing in our garden. It's absolutely delicious and we shall be using it for kiddush over the holidays and Shabbat. On Lielle's blog you can check out a video we made of the whole process .... and also some out-takes of something we didn't expect to happen....

Check them out here:

www.liellesblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/making-grape-juice.html

www.liellesblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/out-takes.html