Father's Day is celebrated in Lithuania on the first Sunday of June. Here are some pictures from that day.
But first, I had to include this strange sign. It seems to suggest that coming up, traffic crashes into each other. That obviously was not the case though since no wreckages were seen, unless of course everyone knows to avoid this street. :)
On father's Day, just like for Mother's Day, it is customary to go the cementary to spruce things up and to light a candle. I went with Ricardas whose father has already passed away.
After going to the cementary, we went to the small garden community where his mother works a lot and where they own a small piece of land specifically for growing some vegetables. These communities are especially important since the majority of people live in apartments without access to land. In this picture, you can see some of the potatoes I planted.
Here are some onions and in the background is the garden house. It even has a small cellar where canned items are as well as anything used outside.
The well at the garden.... There is no running water so this is a necessity.
A flowering vine or bush. It might be honey suckle by the way it filled the air with it's fragrance.
This was not done on Father's day, though I think Richardas would have enjoyed it. Some friends invited me along to a paintball fight in the forest. Even with the massive amount of mosquitoes, it was a lot of fun. We played in the middle of the forest (not a course) with teams of 5 people. Our team was made of only inexperienced peoples and we were the only one with girls (3). We lost almost every time, but I still had a so much fun. It was a good thing they gave us the uniforms because we were all shot and had paint all over us. This picture was take before. Afterward, we were exhausted and hungry so we made a campfire to roast some beef and chicken.
OK. Back to Father's Day. This was the Father's day dinner: sauer kraut, lots of fish with vegetables, potatoes of course, and some cooked chicken.
Sorry, now away from Father's Day again. This is a small lake that I went to a few times in a nearby park. One time, I rode a bike there taking about 1 hour to get there. The clothes-changing stall is on the left.
In Spanish, this plant is called ruda. It is a strong smelling plant that we used in Guatemala for keeping bugs out of gardens and getting rid of parasites in chickens. I know we have it back home but I don't know its name. This was growing right outside the apartment.
These also were growing outside the apartment. These lupines also grow wild all over Lithuania.
Dancers with cow mascot
This is what awaited me when I came to the farm... bandukės, but they were not the normal bacon-filled rolls I am used to but were sweet and had either apples or a cheesy type filling.
Local hard honey
This is one of the greenhouses they have where they are starting all their seedlings or other plants. Here you can see onions and something else I cannot remember on the right.
Here's some more tomatoes.
Potatoes, a main staple here.
The wood stove that heated water pipes that ran throughout the greenhouse to keep the place warm at night. Loading the stove at night was another job I helped with.
Some farm equipment
Here you can see most of the farm. The farm with many of its structures was actually purchased a few years back by another company or cooperation of some sort. The farm house is on the right with the red roof.
The cross in front of the old house on the farm where my grandpa's sister lived. The house you see in the background is similar, but is actually the neighbor's house, not the sister's house.
It was pretty muddy
They had chickens and...
these creatures. I already made tacos with them, and it turned out great. Apparently people just die for the meat of these guys.
There's still reserves to last the rest of spring. On the top shelf, there are some jars that look like they have olives. They are actually some berries that grow on a bush on the farm that taste a lot like kiwis. They are in the jar as a juice concentrate.
This is the church where my grandpa grew up. In fact, this is where he was captured along with many others by the Germans on a Sunday while attending mass when the Germans were retreating from Russia.
There were no palms used during mass, just evergreen branchs and pussy willows.
One of the day's excitement included shooting the air rifle, something I had not done in quite some time. We had a competition among us 4 who would do the best. Well my first shot hit the bulls eye and the second was just next to it. I was just happy to know that I had hit the target.
The recent addition to the town, a metal sculpture of a fox that sits along the lake, which unfortunately is very polluted and is said to have a parasitic worm that is only found in 4 or so more lakes in the world.
The golden archer in town. Hopefully I will get this right. The town first came to be during a battle that was occurring in this area. The golden archer shot his arrow and where it landed is the current site of the town.
I am not really a cat person, but I think it is a loose belief that cats have healing powers. Strangely enough, the house cats I have met all like to rest on people, including me. Here it stopped directly over my heart.
