A Soviet and post-Soviet phenomenon of a small summer house outside of the city with a garden to grow vegetables and fruits, hang out, have shashlik, and “enjoy” the summer weeding the seedbeds.
Visually, when we think of a dacha, most, on contrary to the grand dachas of Chekhov and Turgenev, imagine the standard-issue Soviet type: somewhere outside of the city, a small wooden house on few hundred square metres, a garden with some berries, a mangal in the yard, unreliable facilities i.e. constant blackouts of electricity and water, annoying neighbours who build massive fences and spoil the view, stray dogs, cats with endless supply of kittens that, by the by, have to be drowned (alas! such is life of a dacha cat), plus parents and grandparents enjoying free child labour used for gardening. For the American / British readers, the vibe is closer to an allotment with habitation or a lake house with a garden, in other words, allotment + lake house.
Into her eyes, the wind drove smoke and ash from a poorly kindled mangal and made the sky dissolve.
Into a gigantic cup with a heavy bottom poured the so-called world-famous “fragrant dacha ambrosia”, a sweetened chai drink made from mint, gooseberry and blackcurrant leaves. She wanted to remember this taste.
