While some are enthusiastically Googling how to properly dive seedlings and draw schemes of ideal greenhouses, others are longingly waiting for the start of the summer season. The prospect of spending weekends and holidays in the beds is not exciting, and the endless fuss around the seedlings provokes snide remarks that a bag of potatoes is not worth all this effort. In fact, outdoor leisure can be made interesting if you prepare in advance.
Fresh air, light cardio, pleasant company — and now you are no longer a hostage of six acres, but a participant in a free retreat tour. Take a bike with you to the cottage and go leisurely explore the surroundings. On the way, you can peek at interesting landscape solutions on neighbors' plots, pick wildflowers, swim in the lake, meet the sunset and gaze at the endless starry sky while lying in a haystack.
If there is a pond next to the cottage, it's a sin not to try to escape to it from the hated beds. Take gear, bait and mosquito repellent with you. If you are really interested in such a hobby, the day will fly by unnoticed, and you will return home with the proud gait of a food getter (at least for a cat). If fishing is just a cover to calmly sunbathe and swim, then the phrase "today does not bite" will help justify itself.
In the country, you can not only fry kebabs. Arrange a challenge for yourself and cook only on fire. For breakfast — fragrant shakshuka with fresh herbs. It is tastiest to eat it directly from the frying pan, dipping bread into the yolk. Rich ear — for lunch. If you cook soup from river fish, try adding a shot of vodka to the pot to soften the "swamp" smell. And for dinner, you can cook pilaf or potatoes with bacon on coals.
If you prepare everything you need before leaving, you can turn your imprisonment at the dacha into a sabbatical. Take a canvas, paints, brushes, a comfortable chair and choose a nature. If you like watercolor landscapes, look for a picturesque corner on the plot. Do you prefer subject painting? Try to draw a bright flower or a basket with fresh fruit.
For those who are not friends with the composition at all, paintings by numbers are also suitable. Painting a canvas in the fresh air under the buzzing of bees is akin to free art therapy.
If you are going to the dacha with older relatives, invite them to arrange an evening of family stories. Take out old albums from the mezzanine, brew delicious tea, and the photos themselves will set the tone of the conversation. Maybe you'll get your hands on your grandfather's army archive or a stack of pictures from your parents' wedding. Feel free to ask questions: ask with whom Grandma went to potatoes when she was a student, and why dad wore a funny curly hairstyle in the 80s. Thanks to such evenings, you will be able to learn a lot of interesting things about the history of your family.
This option is suitable for those whose relatives, passionate about the garden, do not criticize for idle idleness. The shade of trees, a cozy hammock, a good book: you can lie for hours, immersed in a fantasy world, interrupting only for lunch. If you were once very tired and still can't get enough sleep, this leisure option is a real salvation.
Many take out to the country the battered types of furniture . If you have a chest of drawers in your shed, which my grandfather bought on occasion during the Union, you can try yourself as a restorer. Watch a couple of video tutorials, think over the design, prepare the tools and start creating.
By the way, professional carpentry equipment will not be needed for easy alterations. Sandpaper, a screwdriver, paint, varnish, new accessories — and a boring old man will turn into a stylish handsome man.
The holiday season is a good time to prepare cute gifts for the year ahead and replenish your own stocks of jam. Five minutes of fragrant black currant, strawberry jam, apple jam with gooseberries — experiment with ingredients and come up with new flavors.
Try to diversify the blanks with unusual combinations. For example, cook a sample jam from green walnuts or tea rose petals. And to turn the process into real creativity, take beautiful jars, bright stickers and other decor with you to the dacha.
To do this, grab more canvas bags or paper bags from the city. Collect fragrant herbs: mint, lemon balm, lavender, raspberry or blackberry leaves. Chamomile and thyme often grow in the fields. In the forest you can find strawberry or lime blossom.
To dry the raw material, spread it out in a thin layer in a well-ventilated shady place and leave it for a couple of weeks. When the herbs are dry, proceed to blending. For tea, it is enough to mix the leaves with flowers and distribute the collection into bags. And if you add a couple of drops of your favorite essential oil to a bag of herbs, you will get a natural aromatic sachet.