Белые Колодези/Beliye Kolodezi

The little village that Vasiliy's dacha is in is called Beliye Kolodezi.  I love how the little towns all over Russia and Europe have the little signs.

The name Beliye Kolodezi means something like 'White Springs' or clean water.  There are many springs around the area and the water is very clean and very cold.  We walked past one of them on our way back home and it was all set up as a little swimming hole and water collection place.  There was another, a little further on down the road which is where Vasilily gets his drinking water from (it is just pass the end of his property and is quite close).

 Max was sent to the little grocery store one day to buy some sour cream.  Sophia went along and of course had to pose in the middle of the street.

 A traditional Russian village house.  Some are new, re-done to look old, some are old and some are very modern.  Many fit more than an average family.  In fact Vasiliy's dacha, before he did the renos and added over double the space, was lived in by 3 families!  Yikes, that would have been close quarters. 

 A view down the street.

 Vasiliy put in a pool her a couple of years ago and added some fountains.  Sophia was very happy to pose in front of them too!

 A better shot of the fountains and lights at night.  The rotate through the colors which looks awesome at night.  The sound of the water is also very peaceful.  The lights on the left side of the picture are 'butterfly' lights that are in a bush beside the pool.  They too flicker to look like fireflies...

 Another house with the gorgeous woodwork.  I love that many of the houses here are bright colors, not the boring, bland ones that are so common at home.

 Since many of these houses are build in the traditional way, with logs and peat and were heated by a fire in the large fireplace it is common for these houses to catch fire. While driving around you see so many burned out houses that have just been left as the owners probably don't have the money to rebuild.

 The church in the village is apparently a very old and popular one.  In fact, some bus tours from Kolomna come out here to see it.

 An older house undergoing renovations of the new kind.

The Oka River.  It is quite wide and large but was apparently way warmer than our pool which had just been refilled with the cold spring water.  Max said that the current here is very strong.  I guess you have to pick your entrance spot very carefully so that you can get out again!




My Dad was here once, 6 years ago on our very first trip to Russia, when the dacha was being built/re-built.  He asked that I take lots of pictures around the place, so I did, about 200 of them!!!  I have managed to narrow it down to 27 but thought I would spare those that didn't really want to see them all and embed the entire album instead of posting all the pictures individually (I did add comments to all of the pictures in the album so if you want to know more about a picture, please open and read).

Some highlights:  the door frame is worn from about 100 years of walking on it, the kitchen if full of hidden items (dish drying rack, dishwasher, washing machine and fridge), the crooked window was an original from the old house as was the stove and the log frame (over time, the house tilted and the window is now crooked. Vasiliy had it left that way), all of the new wood work was done by a local man who was 80+ years old.  The other great part is that all of the yard by the pool and beyond is full of edibles.  Currants of all colors, raspberries, strawberries, carrots, beets, lettuce, squash, zucchini, cucumber, tomato, dill, basil etc.  We always had a meal with freshly picked food and it was great. Enjoy!