Rovensko, 19. 6. 2019

A list of my duties so far:

• Weeding and seeding,
• picking up puppy poops from the yard every morning, if Nataša doesn’t do it prior me,
• scything the meadow with Jirka, my buddy,
• picking herbs,
• a trip to a chalet and goatsfold of Michal and Mislava for some goats‘ milk and whey,
• playing with pups,
• cuddling cats and adult dogs,
• going for a beer to the village square and getting some men to build us a fence for enclosing the puppies,
• organizing and cleaning out a former kitchen (Petra Jurčeková likes this!),
• stamping loudly when picking herbs so I don’t get bitten by a snake,
• contemplating relationships, psychosomatics, tao and ayurveda,
• second editing of two books and translating.

A list of my challenges so far:

• Not to smoke,
• not to drink alcohol,
• to drink a lot of water,
• to excercise joyfully every morning and make time and mood for it,
• to eat regularly,
• a rhythm in general, as usual,
• to know what I can say in front of the locals and when,
• a small village mentality,
• not to hug people, even though they had helped me a lot, because the only thing they want from it, is to squeeze my ass,
• not to slip and fall on the path leading down to the garden,
• not to get bitten by an aggressive dog on the street,
• to find required tools,
• not to step into a pup’s poop,
• painful blisters after an attack of a Heracleum mantegazzianum,
• to tell apart individual village women, they look very alike with the headscarfs, and in addition, most of them are named Mařka,
• to get tuned up for mental work when there is so much of the physical one around,
• desinsection of fleas in my flat, 700 kms away, because a new tennant is going to move in and the previous ones left them there after their cats, fortunately I have friends like Buchta in Brno, who save me.

A list of my joys so far:

• The views,
• horses pulling a dray with hay through the village square,
• new and new tourists, some of them handsome,
• fresh cow‘s milk, curd cheese and fresh cheese (káš) from one of Mařkas, fresh goat‘s milk from M&Ms,
• fresh sour dough bread with butter and káš,
• local accent,
• local dialect,
• the walks,
• cuddling with puppies, especially with Bublina,
• talks with Nataša,
• Jirka’s useful common (farmer’s) sense from Žižkov,
• sunsets (or not),
• the amusing duo Jirka and Michal,
• the heat, sultriness, swelter,
• the storms – especially those I listen to from my attic nest. They switch off the internet because of them in the village and we have to pull all the electronic devices out of the sockets otherwise they might get fried.