Day 46 of the 47th orbit

I woke up early, around 7 a.m. Surprisingly, even though I had not slept especially well—it was a bit hard and cramped, and I was afraid to move at night so I would not wake the girls—I still felt rested. I had strange dreams during the night, especially one vivid and realistic Orwellian 1984-type dream in which I ended up in some sort of digital camp from which you could return to the normal world only by bus. I woke up often, but still felt more rested than I ever do in Moscow.

I cooked oatmeal with milk and raspberry jam and fed the early risers in camp. The weather cleared up, and it was lovely sitting by the fire in the sunshine—neither hot nor cold. Masha cooked buckwheat with carrots and beef for everyone, Igor made bacon omelets for breakfast, and we brewed delicious coffee. The kids ran wild through the forest, while Leah walked around with Kirill (Zhenya’s son, two years older than Leah), exploring the woods around the clearing and picking mushrooms. Amazingly, the two of them found the biggest and most beautiful porcini mushroom. There were a lot of mushrooms and mushroom pickers in the woods in general. Mostly chanterelles.

We started packing up to go home around 1 p.m. and left around 3. We drove back along Novoryazanskoye Highway, which we reached via the concrete ring road. There was less traffic than on Yegoryevskoye Highway. We stopped at McDonald’s, then went to see an acquaintance who brought me some documents and a package from Mishulya—a huge bag of Venice Blend from my favorite Groundwork on Venice, which Mishulya had bought there in May. Very nice. We got home, unpacked, and I called Misha. We had a great chat.

In the evening we looked through photos and came back out of our digital detox.