I walked from festival ground to town yesterday, 11 km or so through remote lithuanian villages.. found very many berries which lifted my mood enormously.. black currants, red currants, strawberries, raspberries and one more I don't know the name.. i think main summer activity ought to be preparing food for winter.. most people here are letting the fruit drop and rot on the ground, and move back to the city and the supermarkets for winter.
I am beginning to value self-care so very highly.. doing my best to eliminate useless distractions and maximize my thought and physical energy to address and overcome the challenges of this life.. since early age I felt I could help make earth back to balanced way of life.. tried to work through big multinational institutions.. was aspiring to the united national.. but Columbia was huge déception.. French for disappointment.. they have so huge resources, directed by incompetents.. still investing in 20th century technology and making like the natural world is a pesky nuisance to be eradicated.. they will change, but too slow for me, and so stubborn and unpleasant in their technocratic dogma. Even so I love that place and the experience I needed for my life..mostly I learnt really anyone can help put earth back to balanced, sustainable way of life.. stop polluting and provide for ourselves locally is a good start.. it may take my whole lifetime just to achieve that much, but this is the most important work for me! I can't be truly happy when there is subconscious reminder of environment destruction somewhere else in the world.. these manufactured goods.. so I am most interested in complete self-sufficient way of life, with long term stability. At local and regional level, eg trading lithuanian linen for Scandinavian metalwork. i don't want to be famous or public.. just to do it, quietly and calmly, and share the info with anyone who's interested.. these emails and updates are opt-out at any time..!
I made berry wine by soaking berries in water with some barley grains to make a bit more of a meal. It became fizzy and sweet in a few days, very uplifting flavour, and seems to fill my stomach and leave me satisfied very quickly. I preferring high microbes live food right now.. increase energy of food without processing or additives.. best fresh, of course, but with the skills to make tasty fermentation, summer abundance can stretch long into winter.. I can imagine happy times bundled in a warm earthen home weaving the summers linen and nettles harvest, shelling pine nuts, baking bread with summers grains, and eating pickles, compotes and preserves until the first greens come out in the spring, followed by cucumbers and tomatoes from the greenhouse. Playing the kankles (lap-harp) and the occasional bonfire with neighbours to have a party, bit of song and dance. This is the root of culture in this area, so so beautiful, humble, simple and wonderful.
Much culture removed by soviets, who cleared villages to make communal farms and small cities.. in zarasai town I got talking with a man, Thomas, who was in the centre square with his seven year old son. I asked where to get nice food and he took me for a meal, overlooking sunset lake forest, he paid and we had fun talking.. he likes speaking English when he can. He had been drinking, a bit smelly and very talkative, such kind heart and big love for his little son, who ran around repeating snippets of our English conversation. He ask me, can I drive us all to the lake for a swim? He's not going to drive so drunk.. so he slips me a 20 euro and I drive us to the lake to swim and watch sunset. Stop on the way for groceries, and he offers to buy anything I want for the future.. he was taking care of me as a shoestring traveller.. just some cucumbers.. they are local and the best. He gets more beer and cigarettes and we talk and relax by the lake. Very loving man, worked laying tiles in new jersey for long time before returning to his country, made some on real estate and now trades properties.. lots of free time, fixing up his mothers summer apartment for a few weeks.. he took me back there, offered I could sleep in his car, bit his mama insists that I stay on the couch. She sits us down for dinner (11.30pm) and pours shots of home made liqueur. Boiled eggs with cauliflower and spring onion, Thomas eats plate of cold meats. His mama speaks little English, keeps saying "my son" and pointing to the shelves and cupboards ThomAS has been renovating. She may be very drunk. Pats my shoulder in very loving way and says through Thomas translating that so sorry for the clutter and for not having more of a dinner.. asks that I tell my friends and family in Australia that I met good people in Lithuania.. yes, I did.. the warmest hospitality from this family that I ever had in any country of the world. She mentions the Russians several times.. Thomas says I don't understand.. it was a big, like a huge thing.. something very very bad.. his eyes are intense for a moment without the usual bright brilliant smile. He says the people lived very tough under the soviets.. here but even more bad in Russia itself.. friend izzy from the festival grew up under Stalin.. called him a very big terrorist. Still Thomas says he likes their places, its small but warm.. third story studio in old apt block with central heating and big communal kitchen garden.. the three generations of them curl up on a king single size bed, and they're joking with each other about something.. I fall asleep to the sound of 46 year old Thomas and his 71 year old mama giggling joyfully, until 7 year old robertas tells them to quiet down.. thomas bought me a lithianian sim card.. so my telefono numeris is +37063621711. I have reception everywhere but battery only some places. I receive missed calls and texts if I'm not there.. I called him from the new number, he said there you go, you're lithuanian now. I left in the morning and his mama is waving from the window, blowing kisses and saying I must come back. Very nice people, really.. we swap details in case they ever in Australia..
Soviet farms abandoned now, become municipal junkyard for bricks, timber etc. And farmers use as a barn to keep hay dry. Very strange to encounter this so different but so same same way of technological mechanical development.. off the land and into the apartments and suburbs, just like everywhere. And we are taking it back the other way, now! Taking back our home planet! Reinventing ways of staying, warm, dry, comfortable, well-fed, well-loved, happy and joyful in an ecologically clean and friendly way. Like the feeling of walking through an arcade of lindens in full summer bloom, so sweet scent and the whole tree buzzing with the happy sound of bees! This feeling so wonderful.. or the comfort to have a real good nights rest, not to be disturbed by anything, no sounds or requirements, just full relax on a little corner of earth that is a real home land.. place to belong and let love grow..
Enjoy some photos now. I aim to stay in forest for some days so I'll be in touch in a week or so!
House is in zarasai, it has apples, blackcurrant, red currants, veggie, cherry and raspberry..