written long ago - "Here we go again. This has been a mild winter in comparison with those that came before. I have had a quiet day and in listening to audio books have learned how much I have missed by leaving Texas to live in Bucharest."

Interruptions, again! And now I know how much have I gained from being here!

Now Rini is older! Oops - now continued!

 Now I can say that we are well acquainted, Rini and Eugeniu and I.   Eugeniu cooks rice and other good things for Rini to eat. He buys fish and bones and gives her special food. The trip to the Vet was a relief and again a worry. We will have puppies here soon. That is why she is more particular now. Picky about what she eats, but still getting enough to nourish as she needs.

The snow is melting and I have found another story from the past to add. (Written in 2010) (Written today!)  Which one was it?  I no doubt stopped or something silly - distracted with so many things to do.  But look...

Museum Day in Bucharest

by

Nancy Clayton Rice

Copyright © 1997

I saw a little sculpture museum on the tram the other day.  I know the city well enough by now that I could find it again so we drove there after church on Sunday.  The caretaker was walking up just at that very moment.  He let us in for a delightful tour of this newly restored gem of a building.  The entry way is a delightful surprise with its rich marble and ornate design.  The newly polished oak parquet floors were shining and the sculptures were tightly packed but pleasantly arranged in several rooms with elaborate ceilings.  The smell of new paint was a sign that the interior had just been refinished.  This museum is open again after a year and a half or restoration. One room was completely white including the ornate carvings in the ceiling.  It reminded me of a church I had visited once in Disentis in Switzerland.  It was by particular design that these walls were white.  Cornel Medrea broke with tradition in this we were told.  In addition to his works,  there were two fine sculptures by his wife who had also been his student.   One of those, a bust of the sculptor himself, seemed to catch him in mid-speech, full of life.  The roughly textured busts rendered by Cornel Medrea captured the strength and force of personality, some of which were much larger than life.  I enjoyed examining the allegorical drawings and compositions of the monuments and the models for individual segments of larger works as well as seeing larger, smoother sculptures of people in more symbolic and stylistic forms.   We were glad to see this museum after all this time.

Next we went to the Central Military Museum on Stephan Furtuna.  I had thought that this would be like a drill for me as I did not want to see the ugly olive green of military objects of destruction.  What a surprise!  This complex of buildings has displays of objects from the earliest of times.  The medieval castles and fortresses were given the most delightful of displays with maps to show the ruling and warring parties and schematics and models of the fortifications.  I even recognized a favorite of mine, a small fortification at Risnov just outside of Brasov in southern Transylvania.  When we took our friend Liz to Bran Castle some time ago, we hopped off the bus in a drizzling misty rain.  With just one hour before the last bus would leave for Brasov, we climbed nearly straight up the zigzagging path to explore this small castle.  Within the walls, we found a delightful grassy green terrain undulating between the buildings, some of which had museum displays of former times.  Other buildings were being used, perhaps as in days of old, for chickens, geese, lambs and goats.  It was a scene that gives me a clue as to why some philosophers so praise the pastoral life.  I felt a sense of the security, of freedom to bask in the sun breaking through for just a moment before the rain drizzled in again.  We looked out over the walls to the village below and the plains beyond where weekend farmers were out tending to the crops.  I was pleasantly surprised to recognize it in miniature which speaks well of the faithful rendition of artistically well documented displays in this collection. 

Since there are so many displays and the history of warfare is so complex, we decided that we could not do it justice by trying to examine it all in one afternoon.  We left the main building to see the grounds filled with tanks and planes and trucks and jeeps.  We joked about the armor of the tank being useful in today's heavy traffic.   We could see how miserably uncomfortable it must have been inside those tanks for the very young soldiers who drove them.  The next building was open!  We saw the model of the Monument for the soldiers who died in World War I that we had visited at Marasesti on our way to Tecuci last October.  It is a tomb for the 6000 Romanians who died in the  Battle of Marasesti holding the line against the advancing Germans in World War I.  This battle preserved the last unoccupied region of Romania. 

Up a flight of stairs there was a most amazing collection of armor and swords and spears of every kind.   The other buildings were closed.  They have displays of the horse drawn carriages and the early airplanes.  We saw three statues.  Two were famous pilots, Traian Vuia and Aurel Vlaicu, who were early aviation innovators.  The other was Henry Coanda, who lived in the United States,  where he discovered the principles of turbo reaction.   He returned to Romania, "only to die."

This museum is so full of things.  I cannot describe enough of it.  It is an expansive view over time of how human beings destroy and torture one another as well as how they protect themselves from one another.  In those times it seemed that always the foe was the enemy without ‑ that other coming to take.  Now the ground has shifted.  It is imperceptible.  There are still major forces to contend with, international disputes and struggles against unjust governments, but it seems to me that the major battle line being drawn now is against individual terrorists.  Anonymous, erratic behavior presents a new kind of anxiety producing threat.   I think again of the exuberance of walking along inside the wall of the castle at Risnov in Transylvania and of how important it is to have a place where healthy families can grow.  Wouldn't it be nice not to need all these implements of war?  Not to have to fight amongst one another for a place to be on this earth?

The Cornel Medrea Museum no longer exists in that place.  We were fortunate to have seen it.  The lovely place we visited on that misty day has changed drastically.  Paved over and full of little shops, the charm has vanished except for the outer walls that can be seen from below and though parking space is available from the other side and though the gradual slope makes the walk up somewhat easier, it is not so magical for me and we have visited twice again. 

I found the pictures that show Risnov as it once was.

Every day is so full of things to do that I cannot imagine how I could do it all. For instance this morning, after espresso and our delicious gluten free biscuits, I have taken the sliced tomatoes out of the dehydrator and put them in olive oil, sliced more figs and three bananas to fill the dehydrator trays I emptied and sorted the laundry to finish this week's washing. Other chores, yes, one is putting the compost bin out to take to start next year's compost for the garden. Eugeniu has talked with Vicka who has spread compost all over the garden so that it can soak into the soil for next year's crop of tomatoes, corn, peppers,squash and the perennial garlic that is so amazing. The snow will come and cover it and when that melts the soil will be turned again and made ready for planting next year's garden.

The rainy day last week was a blessing indeed, but the surprize was getting to see the amazing place the flocks of birds chose to rest.  With every movement I made, they flew away only to return momentarily resting in almost measured evenly spaced places along the electricity wires above our heads.  Those are not leaves on that apple tree.