tumbleweedsandthyme

From one country to another A hello (Nik and Pasha)

Each summer season Stoney's hires/hosts Russian students who travel to America to work the summer. This year we are blessed with three young men, Nik, Pasha, and Alex.

I'm writing this post so their families in Russia might enjoy to see their sons who have been with us for some time now. Yes, we are enjoying having them here in America and we hope they are enjoying being here too. I took a few pictures today but Alec was not working today so I have only a few pictures of Nik and Pasha to post tonight.  However, I will take more pictures through this week and put them on here for you see of all 3 boys (Alex included).  

This is Nick and Pasha. Nik is the handsome one, Pasha is the handsome one..well shoot they are both good looking young men...so I'll identify Nik as the one with the dark hair and great smile, and Pasha is the one with the blonde hair and all that sunburn, Ouch!

  

Nik speaks excellent English and is inquistive asking lots of questions and learning all the time about our cultural differences and he also teaches us much about his country through conversations we have while working close in the same area at times.  Pasha was very quiet when he first arrived but it didn't take long for us to get him talking and now we are able to understand one another and we talk all the time.

I especially like it when I get to work in the morning and Pasha says, GOOD MORNING! and he always says it with a smile on face, a smile like this big one.

And then I see Nik and he says, "Good morning Carolina." I love his accent when he calls me Carolina, though my  name is Carolyn, (Carol- Lynn) so I never correct him andI think Nik thinks my name is Carolina. It makes me smile every time he says Carolina in his Russian accent.

Through the day Nik and Pasha and Alex too (not pictured yet) work very hard, picking vegetables from the fields, unloading trucks that come in, washing vegetables 

 or like today Shelling Lima beans by hand.

I'll take some pictures of them in the sunflower fields tomorow, cutting sunflowers and whenever I have the camera in hand throughout this week others as well for their families to enjoy back in Russia.

Oh and just so you know they aren;t always working.....

They also take time to re-energize with some food. Todays lunch was rotisserie chicken and rice.

To Pasha and Nic's parents. I hope you enjoyed seeing these pictures of your two fine sons while they spend time in America. We sure enjoy having them with us and getting to know them as the summer goes quickly by. I hope once they return to home they might email sometimes to us and always remember their summer at Stoney's, as we at Stoney's will always remember them.

I'll take some more and hopefully better pictures throughout this week of all three boys and post them here so stop by later this week to see these great faces again.

(If you double click on these pictures they will enlarge to full size)

Carolyn

On the wings of a butterfly

 

The butterfly counts not months but moments,

and has time enough.  ~Rabindranath Tagore

 

I come here today to thank each of you who reached towards us with kindness in the past weeks sending me good thoughts and keeping my Arnie in prayer. I am happy to tell you that as I write this he is home with me, resting, after a 2nd long stay in the hopsital. We are grateful for the best part of the medical community that saved his life, and we survived, with great patience. through the worst of it as well, that put his life in jeopardy.  My mnd still spins in disbelief when I recall how ineffiecently run are the systems of Sentara Va. Beach Hospital  I am ashamed of what I saw there as incompetant health care at times, least they be ashamed themselves to recognize their own poor standards. Those days will remain as penned pages in my personal journal, for now.  Although I feel it my duty to others to address certain issues with hospital administration for no other reason but awareness of said issues...hoowever my focus today must be on Arnies care, my work and my family..but the time will come, it must.  

It was here between these rows of zinnias that at times I would walk, always  barefooted, or sometimes down on bended knees in prayer, seeking solace. It was here for brief moments that I felt safe.  My love of the  earth keeps me grounded and I suppose I felt if I kept my feet firmly planted that I coud ground my Arnie as well and keep him with me.

He is still with me, though his life remains fragile. We take not one day for granted and are fully aware how precious time truly is. We learned that now his other leg is suffering blood flow loss and that may have to be addressed soon. s well as a fistula having occurred as a result of a heart catherization through his arm..two things we were not expecting at his last dr appt...

He is on a wound vac at home and also dealing with his first in 8 years a pressure sore that began with his hospital stay. But all in all ......WE ARE BLEsSED! I am blessed that his attitude is good (most of the time <wink> )..he has his frustrating moments, which I fully understand...but he could be miserable, angry all the time, and instead he tries hard to make the best of his situation, as do I.

The people I work for stood beside me through this entire time and I could not ask for kinder more giving and understanding folks to have graced my life. I have returned to work, and although I find it difficult to manage all I have to do I am doing it as best I can and giving it all I have to give, Arnie, work and home (though home suffers greatly now).

Members of a online writing group also were there for me and to them I am very grateful.  And my dear friend Maureen spent time with through those trying days also. My children all put their dad first through this and spent time at the hospital visiting, one making long distant trips home and the other coming after a long day at work to see his dad each and every night. I know how much Arnie appreciated seeing their faces and how hard it was to kiss the little one goodbye each time she left to go back home always with a promise to be back in a few days to see him again...a promise she kept.

And so we go on.....one day a time, one smile at a time and always with hope and love in our hearts.

Since returning to work the fence on Carolyns Coop got a paint job...............

And today the window boxes got stained a wonderful green color and the benches under the windows got painted the same green but solid without the wood grain showing thorugh....love them but no pics to show ya.

I'm looking forward to and thinking ahead to the fall season now...

though I am picking zinnia bouquets and loving doing so each day...this morning i was in the field very early as I had a large order to pick...the peace that is there is remarkable...it is my field of glory, really, and I admit I don't like sharing it with anyone else! I spent the morning picking and singing and Hobo the farm cat wandered through the field with me meowing, wanting me to feed him..I did after carrying in an armload of pretties.

Lynn, my boss brought these babies into the world by using an incubator.....are they adorable or what?

They are only 3 days old at the time of taking this picture. I hope to tame one to be as sweet as Henny was in her short life.

They are a reminder to me that life truly is precious, and how much you must nurture the little things in it that matter to you most.

I leave you now with an apology that it has taken me so long to come here to do a post.and I leave you with this suggestion also..If you have a loved one in the hospital at any time, never leave them alone for long! They really are dangerous places to be without someone by the side of the patient to stay ontop of the mishaps, errors and pure stupidity that happens frequently. Beware! and ask questions and never take for granted they know what they are doing...for the most part they are guessing! Be sure to have a say in your life ...its the only one you have...tend it carefully.

Love to all who stop by here to check in on us.

Thank you for continued good thoughts and prayers for my dear Arnie.

Always,

     Carolyn

Credit is given to one of my customers whose signature is on the first picture. This person has no idea how much that picture taken in our very own zinnia field meant to me that day. Lynn framed it for me and brought it to me at the hospital.