Summer.... almost

In the sultry heat, it's hard to remember how blasted cold it was around here just a few months ago. But it is definitely summer now... except for the school-part for the next week and a half. Then it will be full-blown summertime. Here are a few of the changes that have come with the change of season....

The water in the hot water tank only takes a half-hour to heat up. In the winter, it took at least three hours. That's what happens when the bathroom is the same temperature as outside.

The cows (and water buffalo) don't come home when they used to. In fact, if Tea wants to milk them at night, we have to go looking for them and bring them home. But I like strolling around the village with Tea in search of the wayward bovine.

There are finally fresh vegetables to eat!

With the change in diet, I have lost about half of the weight that I had gained over the starch-and-oil-laden winter. I feel much more like myself again.

The sky is light until after 9 p.m. Tea and I often stop whatever work we are doing around 8:30, amazed that it is so late and wondering why we are so hungry..... lunch having been at least six hours before.

I often do the dishes in the outdoor sink. It is funny to wash dishes surrounded by pigs, chicks, hens, roosters, a baby water buffalo, cats, turkeys, and the dog all nosing around for scraps of food. Today I had to shoo a hen out of my clean dishes.

Evening thunderstorms are common. After a humid day, the clouds roll in off the Black Sea, and when they hit the mountains of Svaneti, a storm erupts over the region. I love it!

I often sit outside and read with Kitten sleeping on my lap. "Our Grandmother" sometimes wanders by, chuckles, and calls Kitten "sheni shvili" (your kid).

Most of my students have brightened up their wardrobe.... not so much black.

At least once a week students bring me flowers -- this started back in the spring, but now I am receiving bouquet after bouquet of gorgeous roses from their flower gardens.

So many more people are out in the evenings, and they all greet me as I run. Today I was stopped four times by various groups to chat for a minute or give me flowers. (I'm back to running with flowers like when I first arrived,)

The village is full of beautiful flowers and trees and vegetable gardens. It doesn't look like the same place I moved to over six months ago.

So much of what has changed about the village has to do with growth. I have been thinking about growth for the last few days, and I will put my thoughts together for a post about growth. But not tonight. Tonight I am going to read for longer than I should with school first thing in the morning.... my library book is due and I need to finish it!