Home from a holiday in Switzerland

I wrote it all and lost it - hours of the record of such a lovely trip Now how to avoid that loss again - hit save every once in a while?

Monday filled up fast

Sun going down and I have finished at last.  Finished so many things and yet the list grows longer!  I have gathered the apples, the quince, and a few of the last of the season's tomatoes .  I picked up some of the walnuts and some of the four o'clock seeds.  I waded into the fig tree to seek out the day's pickings which filled three trays in the dehydrator!

A Short Stay

Saturday morning at the Hotel Europa in Eforie Nord.  We booked a week and then when we got here learned that the hotel is closing until Spring.  We are among the few who only got a short bit of what we had hoped to enjoy.  This happened a while back.  We will not go at that time again!  Besides, they have ruined a perfectly lovely place by permitting too many things to be built on the seashore.
Then the next visit there was spoiled by the thief who stole my small purse containing personal items and an extra car key.  The hotel did help with securing our car from the use of that key, but the police were NO HELP at all and neither was the one at the pharmacy we used where it was lifted from my larger bag.   This stain on the community will benefit only the thieves whose targets will diminish steadily in number spoiling a place that has been a pleasant place to go for a short vacation at the seashore.

Today's ToDo List

Yesterday I cleaned out what remains of one climbing rose - the antique one that can grow like a weed if one allows it.  This one had a metal lattice that I remember putting there when Ecatarina kept pulling them up or cutting them back because she did not think I should let them grow.  Well,finally these roses graced the fence providing such joy each spring.  Whether or not to passers by I cannot say, but there is a strange phenomenon here.  Cosmos, columbine, holly hocks and these antique roses are not valued by many who are fiercely determined to get rid of them.  I have to actually fight to keep our helpers from cutting them back while allowing other plants that actually could be considered weeds to flourish!  Mallow, dandelions, mint and a few other plants that are considered possible medicinal plants grow and flourish here.  Stinging nettle (urzica) grows here and flourishes when allowed a place unhampered by the determination of those whose help does not cover the real problems that I mention, only those Eugeniu speaks of plus a few of their ideas of what should be. Also yesterday the weather was so perfect that I cleaned out the small space for my asparagus that I bought last year in Bethesda.  It has survived the mistreatment of my multiple errors and those of the one who removed my sticks marking their place so that a tractor could drive over them to do a very bad job of plowing up the field that is the place I want to put more raised beds so that I can manage to take care of the plants without an unknowing and uncommunicative person riding roughshod over what I have done with the limited energy that drives my limited activity.  I hope that Eugeniu will agree and that Costica will be willing to do what is needed to make them and to fill them with the proper soil;  maybe a good ratio between what is in the garden now and the compost that comes from the forest.

So now that I have had a healthy breakfast of my biscuits with apple butter made from the apples from our trees, I am ready to get to work on the other climbing rose that needs a lot of attention even though it is mostly gone. and taking out a few day lilies that are crowding out another rose bush.  The exciting thing is that the tulips are almost ready to bloom. The daffodils have bloomed as have the hyacinths and narcissus.  The margaritas are coming up and the violets have been spreading like they could take over the garden just as the English ivy and honeysuckle are doing.

So today's list includes cutting back what I can - it will take quite a while as last year I did not even try to stop it from taking over places where it should not be; would not help the front garden to look better!

Whew!  What a job there is left to do.  I managed to cut back and pull up a lot of runners from that vine that is more like a cannibal than a desirable vine to cover a fence. However the antique roses have a headstart on the ones that will come up from the multiple runners that I cannot pull up today because the body said to halt before you drop from exhaustion.  The pleasant part of this activity was having an occasional short chat with passers-by and the discovery of grape hyacinths along the sidewalk amid the daffodils of the walkway.

Time for Catching Up

I have written much in other places about our life.  Today we drove to Baneasa Mall where we could buy Tacos!  What a nice lunch and though it is considered fast food I think it must be the healthiest we could eat since for me it is reminiscent of South Texas and the wonderful Mexican food we can get there, so often much better than this one place here but the competition is so far away that it does not matter.  At first the lines were so long that it was discouraging, but now Taco Bell is still busy and still serving tasty treats available mo where else within my reach.

We had a wonderful celebration on Wednesday for the 84th birthday of Eugeniu who invites his colleagues each year to enjoy a day in the village of Peris a bit north of Bucharest.  Within reasonable distance for the architects who live in the city, we are blessed with the presence of these friends of many years who come to say La Multi Ani|!  Oana Pop, Eugeniu's daughter, cooked food to dream about for this huge crowd.  She prepared an enormous pot of ciorba, sarmale (with the help of Gigi and Mita), pate and vinete (with the help of Catalin), a salad of varsa (coleslaw) and then there was the meat, seasoned pork chops and sausages (grilled), also mashed potatoes with dill,  and a chocolate cake (that she especially made before she came).  A feast unparalleled!  Oh yes, the deviled eggs, too!