Friday, 04 May

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=200 BGCOLOR="#003333" TEXT="#F7F7FF" background="044d4c00dduajq.gif"> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="95" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 46 WIDTH="91"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="46" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="91" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <div> <A HREF="id137.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Thursday, 03 May"><U><IMG SRC="0450b0b0.gif" border=0 width="11" height="11" ALT="previous" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A>   <A HREF="id139.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Saturday, 05 May"><U><IMG SRC="0460b0b0.gif" border=0 width="11" height="11" ALT="next" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A>       <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="11" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" WIDTH="11">   <A HREF="id133.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="May"><U><IMG SRC="0480b0b0.gif" border=0 width="11" height="11" ALT="up" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> <div> <IMG SRC="1e7af790.jpg" border=0 width="175" height="121" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Nicole and the two Herdsmen. Osnian on her right.</div> </td> <td valign="top" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#003333" FACE="Arial" ><B>The Gastropod's Trail</B></FONT>     |     <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Gastropods Trail"><U>home</U></A></div> <div> Friday, 04 May</div> <div> A day at the lake</div> <bR> <div> It is so peaceful here at the lake that we just had to stay for another day. The frogs were still croaking in the pond and a couple of boys were already fishing nearby. </div> <bR> <div> When the herd of goats came back this morning, the herdsman was too curious to just pass us by. He timidly approached the Gastropod and presented himself; Osnian, age 51, father of 5 grown up children! (that took the first half hour of our conversation) </div> <bR> <div> Between nine o'clock in the morning and nightfall, Osnian tried very hard to give Nicole a short course in Bulgarian. He was writing Bulgarian words into her notebook, then the two gesticulated and 'argued' until they both agreed on the proper translation and Nicole wrote down the English equivalent. He also brought and introduced all his friends from miles around and still managed to keep his goats within sight while I was finally getting caught up with this journal.</div> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>