dacha idylls {currently reading}

I read this book because I am in love with our bungalow in the Catskills. I read it to see what a anthropologists have to say about living in such a community, the benefits and draw backs. I read it to extend my summer into winter. And in these respects it did not disappoint.

Dacha Idylls by Melissa L. Caldwell is an anthropological study of country house communities that have been popular in Russia for over a century. It studies the quality of life in these summer communities and how the inhabitants utilize them as a supplement to their normal urban lives.

In a lot of ways it resembled the ways we use our summer community. As a respite from the concrete and smog, as a place to work on things and not be idle, as a place of summer friendships and communing with nature. Especially in these dark, cold months, I miss it immensely.

There are really no words to describe the horrible incident in Connecticut. No words of consolation for the families. No way to make this okay. It is unimaginable and yet it happened.