Man and nature in Polesian harmony, Kalby 2010/Калбы 2010 год

First photo: Beehive from hollowed-out section of tree trunk (kaloda), traditional wooden fence, stork’s nest on thatched roof

Second photo: Beehive, traditional wooden fence, 19th century chapel of St. George

In the heart of Pinsk Region, Kalby 2010/У сэрцы Піншчыны, Калбы 2010 год

“The sacred Stolin land grants a warm welcome with its bread”, 2010/Столін 2010 год

Khatsinava 2009/Хацінава 2009 год

Celebrating Orthodox St. George’s Day (May 6), Bjarezhtsy 2007/Сьвяткаваньне Юр’я, Бярэжцы 2007 год

To mark Orthodox St. George’s Day (May 6)/З нагодай Юр’я

St. George’s chapel, Kalby 2010/Капліца Сьв. Юр’я, Калбы 2010 год

Azarodniki 2008/Азароднікі 2008 год

Al’homjel’ 2007/Альгомель 2007 год

To commemorate the Constitution of May 3, 1791.  З нагоды Дня Канстытуцыі 3-га траўня.

Tadeusz Kosciuszko (Tadevush Kas’tsjushka in Belarusan), a scion of a noble Belarusan family, was born near the town of Kosava in today’s Bjeras’tsje (Brest) Region.

Kosciuszko/Kas’tsjushka statue, Lafayette Park, Washington, DC/Помнік Тадэвушу Касьцюшку, Вашінгтон

The marshes of the Pripet (Prypjats’) River in Polesia in southern Belarus contain beautiful oak groves, although many fewer than before the ecologically disastrous Soviet draining of much of the marshland, the so-called “amelioration”, in the 1960′s and 1970′s.  In “ameliorated” areas one sometimes sees isolated surviving oaks, stalwart figures like the one in today’s photo, a beloved point of reference on the road west of Turau.  In his metaphorical story “The Tree of Eternity” (“Дрэва вечнасьці“), the great Belarusan author Uladzimer Karatkjevich described his search through Polesia for a mighty oak which had survived the depredations of time and policy.

Oak tree in spring flood, Varonina 2010/Дуб у разводзьдзе, Вароніна 2010 год