Grape Arbors

Today, Dušan (Petra's dad), Petra, and I went to their former weekend cottage to work on the grape arbors. We mostly had to just move the stems off the ground and up onto the wires so that they'd grow up. It was quite excellent, and the beginnings of grapes are already there, and the plants are so nice. It's amazing how the grapes wrap little arms around almost anything -- so you pull them off the ground where they've attached to some errant wheat stalk or something like that. It's their former weekend home, because gypsies from the next village over broke in and began having parties and stealing the iron pipes and stove from there, and they really can't use it any more, but they still make wine from the grapes there. The gypsies do this to everyone's buildings, not just theirs. After lunch, I took a nap and then helped sweep up the floor in preparation for mopping and also picked some cherries. It's really hot here right now, but the real problem is the drought.

Tomorrow afternoon, we go to Svidník, where we'll visit with my family there and stay there over night. At 9am, we have an appointment at the museum, where I'll do an interview with the director and Petra will translate. It's kind of exciting, and it will be great to see the relatives. When Petra called today, I heard Hanča, who is the grandmother, from the other side of the phone, because she was kind of yelling, and sounded so excited, which has made me excited also.

The food Petra's mom and grandmother make is excellent. The big meal is lunch, so we had soup with these breadcrumb dumplings, carrots, potatoes, and calarabi. Then, we had a stuffed pork tenderloin, and after that, salad with lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, cherries, and calarabi. The dressing I don't think is vinegar, but maybe sugar water or something like that, I'm not sure.

For breakfast and in the evening, we have bread with soft cheese or butter and then savory meats on top. On the side, some lettuce or tomatoes, with tea and sparkling water. This morning, I also had hot dogs with mustard.

Yesterday, they made this thing that's like nut roll dough, but with chocolate pudding inside, and then it's all twisted together -- so good! When I asked what the occasion was for making three of these huge things, it's because Baba wanted to! Today when I picked cherries, it was so she'd have enough fresh cherries for a kolač, some kind of dessert thing. Usually it's like a torte sort of thing with the cherries in it, wonderful.