I had an interesting morning: I woke up very early, probably around half past five or so, but kept myself in bed. I had very vivid dreams, and when I heard voices outside the room – which is very unusual, as I am usually one of the first to wake up – I realised it was almost 7AM, the time we had agreed upon the day before to start the works on the following days.

The change of pace was really enjoyable. With no caffeine, and nurtured with just some water and electrolytes, I joined the farm squad at the lavender fields: we were to take the weeds out, and generally prepare the plants for the harvesting very soon. It was a very enjoyable process. There are many different kinds of plants sharing the same space as the lavender; the most interesting one was a vine-like, that would wrap around a lavender and which needed a cut near the root, followed by some disentanglement.

During the work, we had some interesting talks about farming and ecology – I'm particularly keen on following up on something Nataša shared, regarding food and farming policies in Italy – and I also listened to some records: the Vedun Ensemble has a particularly striking album on Slavic and Ancient Slovene Sound Yarn; Daniel Caesar's latest is finally growing on me, and I also had the chance to visit James Ferrarro's Extinction Renaissance , which is both goofy and very good.

We had most of the afternoon for ourselves, before coming back to the field to finish the work on the lavender plants. It was nice to study some Slovene, and do some other small errands: I went to the nearest café, as I needed a wi-fi connection to upload music to my phone (this is really not a satisfactory practice, but it's what I got for now). Later at night, I made dinner; it was a failed attempt at doing something curryish, and although it was still tasty and nutritious, I was a little frustrated. As I cook everyday, I like to have some variety – and some taste variety as well. So I suppose I need to start working on some proper recipes.

Meal Expense