ukraine: 84 posts

Once again the news from Kakhova and the Kherson region are terrible. Russia bombarded the Kakhovka dam and water from the Dnieper River flooded the region for miles on end. I have good friends who had to flee from the Russian occupation last year and now their remaining family members and friends are escaping because of the flooding. As of now, more than 80 villages and towns have been submerged. Miles of fields full of produce are under water. Animals have been drowning, unable to escape the sudden inundation. It’s a major social and environmental disaster and the consequences are far-reaching. In the areas occupied by Russia, people have to rely on their own efforts to evacuate their families. Elsewhere, the situation already difficult because of the fighting is becoming increasingly grim.

How to help:

Zeilen van Vrijheid

A Dutch group of volunteers that provides help to Ukraine. They are currently holding a fundraiser to help the victims of the Kakhovka dam explosion.

To donate: visit their website and make a donation with a comment “Kherson.” Or donate to their Paypal account [email protected] and include a comment “Kherson.” Armenian artist and photographer Lilya Corneli will send you one of her beautiful floral prints, if you contact her with a proof of donation via her Instagram @lilyacorneli. Her work is stunning and this is a special treat.

Artist and writer Darya Zorka has a really good list of organizations accepting donations, and I wanted to highlight the following groups that work in the Kherson region:

KHERSON: “Dziva” is a volunteer organization that provides help to people in Kherson and villages in the Kherson region. 

They bring food, water, medicine, clothes and other aid to people in need. 

To donate: PayPal: [email protected] (Валерий Зарубин/ Valeriy Zarubin)

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Another Ukrainian summer I will miss. I planted a few flowers and herbs that my grandmother always hand in her garden, such as marigolds, tagettes, hollyhocks and lemon verbena. One of the herbs I planted was thyme. It was too abundant in the fields around our house in Bereh to keep it in the garden, but for me its lemony, spicy scent epitomizes Ukrainian summer.

The variety found in our region is Thymus serpyllum, creeping thyme or serpolet in French. It’s called чабрец  in Ukrainian and it has an intense green fragrance reminiscent of melissa and rose geranium. This is because one of the major components of its essential oil is geraniol, also present in geranium, rose, lemongrass and citrus. Valentina added thyme to tisanes and roasted meat, but more often she would tie it into small bundles and leave them around the house to perfume the space.

Do you have a garden? What do you plant in it?

Scent Diary is a place to write your observations about the scents around you. Whether you write down 1 recollection or 10 matters less than simply reminding yourself to smell. You can add as many comments as you wish. You can comment today or over the course of the week; this thread will always be open. Of course, do share what perfume you’re wearing or what particularly good scented products you’ve discovered.

While looking through my articles, I found this article that I wrote a few years ago but that still remains popular and often-read: A to Z Tips for Enjoyable, Affordable and Rewarding Perfume Hobby. If you have any tips to add, I’d love to hear them.

Photography by Bois de Jasmin

My book The Rooster House was published yesterday by Virago Press. It’s being released during a trying time for my country. Even though its story begins in 2014, my book explains the context in which the Russian invasion takes place. It does so by focusing on ordinary people and their voices. While the book recounts Ukrainian history through a personal story, it celebrates four generations of remarkable women who held our family together through the most trying circumstances. As The Rooster House reveals, Ukrainian history is full of tragic events, but it is also a testament to the resilience and strength of Ukrainians. My great-grandmother Asya and my grandmother Valentina possessed incredible emotional resources, which made them able to protect their family and take care of their land.

As I wrote my memoir, I sought to capture my grandmothers’ lessons in seeking beauty and deriving support from creative pursuits like embroidery or gardening. For this reason, Ukrainian culture and art form the leitmotif of The Rooster House, and I take the reader on a journey with me through descriptions of Ukrainian scents, foods, nature, and arts. My memoir is an invitation to stroll through our cherry orchard in Bereh and become more intimately familiar with the elements that make up the colorful and diverse Ukrainian identity.

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It was a few days before Easter when I arrived in Ukraine in 2014 to stay with my grandmother, Valentina. Taking advantage of being together for the first time in years for this holiday, we prepared a large feast, colored eggs with onion peels and baked paska, a brioche-like Easter bread.  I became obsessed with photographing every part of our preparations, making my grandmother laugh. She didn’t understand what was interesting about recording everything. I didn’t understand it myself at the time, but I felt that I had to capture as many of my impressions as possible. Ukraine was going through a painful period as Russia had annexed Crimea and was also supporting various separatist movements in the eastern part of the country. We lived with the sounds of gunfire from the military training grounds nearby and with bitter news from the front.

Yet, as we celebrated Easter with its powerful message of renewal and rebirth, we felt hopeful. We planted vegetables and flowers in the garden. We whitewashed our cherry trees. We waited for the blossoms to burst.

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Our Ukraine fundraiser is now closed. Thought Group Chile and I are grateful for your generous contributions that allowed us to raise almost $5000. Cristián Wittig, the director of the group, will explain how these funds will be used to rebuild devastated Ukrainian cities.

“Thank you very much indeed for your generous and valuable donation and contribution to our cause. With your contribution we were able to continue developing the final part of our architectural proposals for the Memorial of the Civilian Victims of the Massacre in Irpin and Bucha, the New Public Library of Irpin, which, as you know, were awarded and selected to be built as soon as possible. Likewise, your help also allowed us to develop our proposal for the New House of Culture in Ivanivka, Chernihiv, which was officially presented to its authorities, being received with much gratitude, emotion and impression for the seriousness and quality of the proposal developed, and we obtained their approval and commitment to be built, as soon as possible, since it collects and reflects much of the essence of that local community, its requirements and desires for modernity and the future.

In parallel, as you may know, we are moving forward with the other conceptual architecture proposals commissioned by the City of Irpin (3 additional projects) and the City of Chernihiv (4 additional projects). As you can see, your contributions and those that will come in the future are absolutely essential in order to continue this extraordinary work of architecture for the reconstruction of Ukraine. We will remain in active contact to inform you of our progress.”

Now onto the winners of the contest.

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