Helping Our Planet Together with Kids

In Europe, it’s quite an ordinary things to use different garbage bins for different kinds of garbage. In Russia, such a thing was organized only in the cities where the WIFA World Cup was held and only for the period of the Championship.

Why cannot it be done everywhere on a permanent basis is still a mystery for me… The happier I was to learn about a social and ecological campaign “Kind Caps” held by the “Eco Truck” Company. The goal of the project is to involve children and adults in the joint solution of environmental and social tasks in order to show that each of us can take care of the other and help somebody without any special material means, and that the usual “trash” may a valuable and necessary resource. At this time, the money received from the collected caps will go to the aid of a little boy. Such a project exists in every Russian city.

Any of my walks about the city or in the woods brought back about 20 caps. Then how much plastic remains in nature given that bottles are not as easy to collect as the caps?! Maybe then it is better not to throw them? I understand that this problem is not so topical for Europe and the US but it is still topical in Russia.

With the active participation of the children, we have already collected quite many caps for the campaign. What I have noticed is that the children seeing me collecting the caps have started thinking over the whole issue on a deeper level: first of all, they have become more conscious of the idea of taking garbage to bins and not throwing it at any place one likes. And of course, it influenced them that there are kids like them who have severe problems with health and who really need help from other people.

An Autumn Trip to Lenin’s Places

As Stanislavsky said, “while you are young, you should take a toothbrush and go where your eyes want to go”. So, last week we went to Uliyanovsk, Russia.

Everything is “saturated” with Lenin in the center of Ulyanovsk. It is quite clear: the city gained true fame due to the fact that V. I. Lenin was born here. All the most significant sights, one way or another, refer to this famous revolutionary. By the way, Simbirsk where there was born Vladimir Ulyanov (Lenin), was renamed Ulyanovsk in 1924.

Just My Bike and Me

There are periods in life when nothing goes as has been planned. Meetings cancel, results are not gained, replies are delayed… And at this time the bridge to frustration is quite short…

Today in the morning something in me did not want to give in and persistently continued looking for positive things in what life suggested. And I did what I had been longing for… Took my bike and went to the river… Wouldn’t be possible if not for the unexpected changes in my daily timetable.

The view is absolutely awesome. A deeply blue colour of the water has obviously soaked the indigo tinge of the sky. A loud intensity of the small curly waves of the Volga chains your attention. The sand is being combed by the piercing wind and it is really dazzling because of the too bright sun. And there is nobody. Not a soul… And you just sit down on the so-far-not-very-warm sand and feel completely peaceful – just yourself in the nature.

First Snow. April

19 April 2017

Seems winter has decided to strat again.

The Greatness of the Nation

One person said today, “I just cannot live without birds of prey!” This man, Alexander, is the initiator and motivator of the shelter for wild birds. I had not known before that such a shelter exists in Togliatti (though it has been even shown on the central TV channel). But, judging by the number of cells and pets in them, such a shelter for birds is really required – a refuge from people, from their cars, guns, hands, especially for those who cannot fly any more.

After all, man is higher than birds and animals not because he can torment them but because he is able to pity them. The man sympathizes with birds and animals because he feels that in them there lives the same thing as the one which lives in him.

I cannot say that

Striving for Nature

“The man made a huge mistake when he imagined that he could separate himself from nature and that he might not reckon with its laws“. (V. Vernadsky, Russian and Soviet scientist, thinker and public figure)

We are created according to the laws of nature, and therefore it is foolish not to follow them. Not knowing the basic rules and laws of nature, mankind will not be able to subdue the elements, to manage them and to become excellent in relation to other creatures on earth.

Another Russian publicist and writer said, “Great things are done with great [financial] means. Only nature makes everything for free“. (A.I.Gertsen)

All the ideas mentioned above are especially intelligible when winter comes to its end. There appears a strong desire to become closer to nature for it to clear and balance you.

Thus, it was not an odd deed of ours (mine and my daughter’s) when we tried to overcome the mud and puddles of early spring striving to turn out in the forest. A little bit soaked feet and dirty hands were really worth it! And in such weather when the sun is shining and everything is melting it is even more pleasant to be in the forest realizing that you can hear birds’ singing and not people’s voices as not many of the latter are ready to start for the forest along the muddiest road ever.

From one side of Russia to another through Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Mongolia

In summer 2016 a friend of mine covered 23 500 km on him motobike literally speaking from the Western border of Russia to the Eater one. But that was not the whole thing.  The intermediate points on his way were some Asian countries: Kazakhstan with its dusty steppes and the drying Aral Seas, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan with its Pamir Highway, Kyrgyzstan, and Mongolia. When one is alone on the road among nature he starts seeing the world just “now and here” and this gives him a renewed understanding…

He has recently started to describe his moto tour. The story is in Russian so far but the photos he publishes can also say much.

The beginning – Russia: http://vladimirkostrov.livejournal.com/827.html

Kazakhstan: http://vladimirkostrov.livejournal.com/1283.html and http://vladimirkostrov.livejournal.com/1719.html

Uzbekistan: http://vladimirkostrov.livejournal.com/2196.html

To be continued… 🙂

A Sunday in May

Heat. Some neighbor has said that it is thirty degrees above zero. It seems Central Russia is the hottest area in Europe now. It is so bewitching to lie on the bedding made of mowed grey-haired dandelions and to look into the blue cloudless sky. High above there are swifts flying and seagulls soaring. What are seagulls doing in such heights? It seems they are just enjoying. Enjoying as they do not need to flap their wings but they can only float on the air streams. Verily, Richard Bach chose the right image for Jonathan seeking the truth.

In the wooden house it is not so hot but the warm air is already crawling here, too. Should I go to weed?.. The sun is burning my hands and warming up my head. “Warmth is great, it is pleasant for the body but still… can it be a bit cooler?”

As it is said, pure desire… (and, I suppose, not only mine). At about six in the evening wind arises. It is heard to bow the trees behind the window. “Something will happen!” When you go to have at look at the nature, you can see a rich dark-blue cloud rising from above the close horizon of the nearest village. The wind is bending birches so strongly that their leaves are turning inside out and because of it the chevelure of the birch-trees turn from light emerald into pale green. And around you there are great numbers of little dandelion parachutes whirling in circles.

The cloud has almost approached us. “Fine, I will not have to water the plants today!”

In five minutes the cloud was driven to the right. The wind calmed down. The sun begins to warm up the Earth and everything on it again. I am taking the watering-can (a small one and that is why I have to go to the beds many times) with a thought: “If one does not water radishes much, they will not become sweet”… I have finished – everything is watered!

And at that moment it starts lightening seriously and properly: a lightning on the right, a lightening on the left, two lightening in front. Wow! It was thundering for five minutes without a break. The clouds gathered from all the directions. Except for the wind and thunder, there are no sounds – the nature stands still. There is a clear feeling that something will happen now not only outside but inside as well.

The downpour looked like a wall. The wind brought coolness – the soul was rejoicing!

***

Though it rejoiced only until the water started pouring from behind the roof into the house. It was not in the main room, just in the backyard but from all the chinks unknown to us till this moment. The decision is taken immediately: we are staying in the village house for the night to patch the roof early in the morning.

It was the right decision… At five in the morning, when you are going with your feet bare along the glade towards the rising sun, the blades covered with dew are caressing your feet, like small brushes, so tenderly.

photos by the author