Full Moon Innuendo

By Yulia

Did anyone else have trouble sleeping last night? With the full moon and all...the crazies like to come out and roam the streets. The crazies in our heads also tend to get especially restless and bother us. We've noticed that during the full moon the dogs in our village are more vocal than usual: a whole range of agitated canine sounds echo in the area. There are deep baritone barks and pesky, high pitched squeals. I wonder: what are they getting at? Although, with all honesty -- they're always loud, always...

The light from the moon was shining through our bedroom window. With our eyes wide open, we stared at the moon. "What a peaceful and quiet night! And it's a full moon, too...strange" we uttered, in complete awe. Strange, indeed, it was, for we couldn't hear a single dog or barely any other noise out there under the moonlight. As soon as we found ourselves drifting into sleep, our dog Toma decides to go at it. Her persistent barking had Michael go outside and check it out. For Toma, barking at anything and everything is an essential part of a daily routine. She, undoubtedly, let's us know when  there's someone by our front gate. And if anyone dares to open the gate (which is rather difficult, because of the old locks) without our permission, Toma is ready to do more than just bark. This is exactly what had happened last Christmas. An impatient group of adolescent boys and girls were trying to enter our house to sing their carols. Before we had a chance to unlock the gate and let them in, one of the boys managed to open the driveway gate and let everyone in. At that point, Toma started jumping at the boy and nipping at his leg. Michael quickly came out and put her away. Oddly, the teenage boy wasn't bothered by any of it even a bit. Would Toma go as far as bite someone? We don't know. She never has. But, frankly, why would anyone try to force their way in with an angry dog on the other side of the fence to do some caroling. I do have to say, though, Toma is the most gentle and loving dog. She's never, ever aggressive towards us or any of our friends or family. And she gets along with the cats just splendidly, especially Levko. They play together, they take naps together, they chase one another. Best buddies there are!

 One of Toma's favorite hobbies is to nibble on Levko's neck. The poor thing has to walk around with his neck constantly gelled up from dog saliva. But Levko doesn't mind it, at times he even asks for it. Here's a short snippet of their playtime together. This is some footage that we managed to sneakily film through the window. It's only over a minute long. If you can, watch it with the highest quality a/v:

Going back to what was happening last night. After being gone for some time, Michael comes back inside to report on the scene. Apparently, a whole chain of events was taking place out there: Toma is barking at a white dog who is in the middle of the street barking at a hedgehog, another  man down the street is also yelling at the white dog who is barking at the hedgehog. Got it!? As I said -- during the full moon all the crazies come out. 

Although, we've been in crazy, philosophical moods lately, some things are getting done. Our mudroom is finito, well at least from the outside. We've laid some tiles on the floor, but the internal walls aren't done yet.  And, of course, as you can see, continuing with the new siding on the rest of the house.

The tiles inside the mudroom:

Oh, and the sad news is that one of our apple trees was broken in a storm last week. :(

Some trees are getting broken, while others are producing some marvelous fruit. These are cherry plums XXL. Normally, they're about 3 times smaller. These are not very popular in the States, but around here they grow everywhere.  Michael loves them, me not so much, but this variety that we planted last year tastes much like a plum. :)

Well, this is it for today. The sun is setting in the west.

 The sky is pink tonight. It will be a cold night.

Hello and good-night from Ukraine, everyone!