Herceg-Novi
19th August 2020, Wednesday
It was a night of a very good sleep, deep and restful. I haven't slept that well for a very long time. Must be due to the acupuncture treatment, I felt very tired and sleepy yesterday, retired to bed rather early and had a proper sleep with long but not absurd, not scary dreams. Woke up at 4:15 am, did a dry brush massage for the neck that feels very stiff in the mornings, took a cold shower and feeling very calm started with exercising. Relevé, battement tendu, stretching the calves, yoga breathing exercises standing and sitting, and spine alignment, 45 min in total. Off to the café at 5:40 am, on our way I told V where wild blackberry grows so in a day or two we'll get there to pick some berries. There's an abandoned house and a secret staircase between its abandoned overgrown old garden and the next building. I often use this passage to get from Srbina to Orjen Batallion st. but the bushes are too high for me to pick those lovely blackberries. It's a shady place so they are not dried up by the sun, really good.
читать дальшеThe morning is rather chilly for August, + 19C outside while the water is + 26 C. I took a fish thermometer (that is, a fish shaped thermometer) to measure the sea temperature. Started in the kitchen at 6:05 am, made a lot of things, fed three cats that were so kind to visit us this morning, welcomed B- who came a bit before 7 am and chatted about yesterday's thunderstorm with her. We were lucky enough, and Zhaba beach that is next to us is all right whilst a couple of beach bars in Zelenika found their tables and chairs floating in the water after the storm was over. No one killed though, nothing ruined.
I found a weird creature on the beach. It looked like a big brown sea slug, as I presumed it was a slug or something similar. It was a jelly like thing, a bit transparent, but actually much thicker than a jelly. I thought it was dead and suggested to take a look at it to V. He is as interested in everything as I am, so we went back to it and I slightly touched it with a fish shaped thermometer and this time it wasn't dead, it moved! So V took it and threw it back to the water.
I wonder was it a right thing to do? Did we do it good? Anyway, it was a very weird creature, but not an ugly one at all.
A very nice swimming session this morning, I swam on my back and spent a lot more time in the water than usual. This is a new habit that I've established this year: no matter what, you go and swim before the day starts. Body has adjusted to it, I feel it in my arms and in my chest, in my lungs capability, and it is a perfect way of exercising with a spine issue, and I am the one who should be very careful about the spine. I only miss on the days of menstruation and on those windy days when the waves are so wild that it might kill you. I am inclined to swim every morning all year round though in winter it might be much shorter, but certainly much more refreshing.
After I got home, I fed Yuki who was so hungry that tried to eat my finger, breakfasted at 9:15 am, then V got home, we took a short break with a feet massage and yoga nidra (or call it a cat nap) and while he was sleeping I painted a bit. Though it did not bring me neither calm, nor satisfaction, and I thought I shouldn't do it, it seemed just a waste of time. Probably painting or sketching following a tutorial may be a more wise thing to do. V went back to the café at 10:15 am as he was needed there, while I stayed to take care of some plants and to do some housework. Picked about two dozens of sweet cherry tomatoes for lunch and an armful of a green salad, made food for our lunch and dinner later tonight, had a what's app call from my parents in Russia: they are doing good, but are intended not to travel abroad at all this year which I believe is a smart thing to do.
Oh yes, about Russia. My today's reading were some extracts from Astolphe de Custin's book "La Russie en 1839". As I am trying to recreate for myself what had Anne Lister experienced during her traversing Russia to reach Persia in exactly the same year that de Austin took his travel. He thought it to be a state of heightened violence and found autocracy unacceptably, inexplicably oppressive. "This empire", he said in one of his most celebrated aphorisms, "immense as it is, is no more than a prison, of which the emperor keeps the key". This is pretty much how I felt and feel, this is pretty much how most of the people who are capable to think and feel might be feeling.
The other book of today (these days) is Lucy Worsley's "Jane Austen at home". It's just amazing to follow her in a narrative about Jane's childhood at her home in Stiventon, also a lot f information about the era is provided. I like Lucy Worsley's manner of dealing with historical characters and the thoroughness of recreation of life and living conditions of past years, so basically I like everything she does. I think I might order some of her books to have at home but for now the Kindle edition will do as well.