An Irish murder and Ukraine on the horizon
As an English person, I’d like to open up here with talking about the weather. Because it is HOT in Tamsweg and I am delighted. We’re hitting the point where people are beginning to mumble ‘too hot’, but for me there’s no such thing and I’m just marvelling in how I can leave the house without a coat this week.
So surprisingly it’s hot hot hot here. Unsurprisingly, I took my bike out all weekend and cycled the countryside. Since it was sunny I’d find a good spot and read – my book is being extra interesting so this week my subconscious has lived and breathed an Irish murder mystery. (In the Woods, by Dana French if you’re interested. Engaging, atmospheric, with fluid prose and a plot that has you reading page after page without realising you’ve sat and read for four hours straight).
It’s been quiet at work, Max and Anni have had meetings that have whisked them away from Tamsweg, and Verena and I have kept each other company in the office, covering everything from Leave No Trace ethics, to climate overheating to ice cream. Amongst other things I worked on website editing, trying to learn German vocabulary, and writing a post which I really wanted to title ‘let’s kick the government out of Romania’. Honestly. I started that day all chirpy and by the end wanted to chuck the entire government in their beautiful, wild rivers and watch them get carried out of Romania.
So my next post will include folklore of Lake Synevyr. Until then, I’ll link you back to Week 3, where I write of the legends of the Preber Lake.
So this week brought August, a month that generally is filled with good things. Long summer evenings and hot blue skies, and more time for reading. A new month is like a new book, and I look forward to where August’s plot will take me
And then towards the end of the week we started to prepare for Ukraine!
Oh yes. Next week the whole team travels to Ukraine, and I for one am mighty excited. This is part of WILDArts, where we are taking a group of artists into the wilderness – Synevyr National Park – and letting nature inspire and guide them. We’ll be in the Carpathian Mountains, with forests, lakes and waterfalls on our doorstep, all of it ours to explore and discover. Here there’s a waterfall called the ‘wild beast’, and Lake Synevyr, one the seven wonders of Ukraine and the largest lake in the country. We’ll visit both, along with the forests and peatbogs in the region. There is a legend associated with the Lake – it’s written on the internet but I’m not going to read the details beforehand, instead I’m hoping someone will tell it to me round a campfire.
