Tomorrow I am heading to Helsinki through Riga and then Estonia. The original plan was also passing through St. Petersburg. But I am accompanied by a variety of Nationalities, and so it maybe difficult to cross the border through Nara. We cut the trip short of this beautiful city this time.

I still took a few evenings and the weekend to put further finishing touches to дача (Dacha). This was quite a project in the end, much bigger than I imagined. Even this is a Lithuanian “assembly kit”, it is not “IKEA for houses”, especially when you face an absurd regulatory environment like in Germany. But now it’s nearly done and I took also some time for gardening, and put in a few bushes and trees. One choice was a lilac called “The Beauty of Moscow”. I found this matches the дача atmosphere, and I remember this lilac vividly from my grandfather’s garden, which was inspired by his Easter Prussian home. It can cope well with arid stretches. The soil is a little complex on this land, because it is mixed up by the excavation used to make the foundation and the trenches for utilities. So, now there are sandy patches just beside wet spots, and the lilac goes on the sandy ones. If all goes well, it should grow up to half a meter per year. So in a few years time, I imagine a sizable trees with a sea of flowers and butterflies.