A Cloudy Day

Up early enough to get the daily routine well in hand and that includes what we call our "nursing home chores" - all the while thanking the powers that be that we can take care of what must be done leaving much time for doing enjoyable things.  This morning I looked out the kitchen window to see that the blooms on the salcam (acacia) are fading and that the rose bush is full of pink blooms.  It is the kind of bush that I have seen in paintings of times past that I had considered to be the fancy of the artist, but I am astonished at the accuracy of those works whose evenly space blooms appear each year on this plant.  Well, not so evenly since I trimmed it back rather severely last year! (Well, what a treat to have figured out how to get this picture from the iPhone onto this blog!)

I look out the bedroom window and see that the jasmine are ready to burst into bloom and there is one red rose rising above the weeds and the day lilies that are crowding out most everything.  The treat is that as the spring weather unfolds so do the the flowering plants and the fruit trees whose blossoms survived the late spring snow.  There will be no apricots this year but the apple trees were full of blossoms as are the gutui (quince) and the pear trees.  The cherries are beginning to turn red, but the visine (sour cherries) were much affected by the weather this year.  The wisteria produced lovely blooms just in time for the birthday celebration.  Other blooms lasted until this week and now there is much to do in the garden.  The chard is out of control and the asparagus has grown as tall as me!

Just before Christmas

December 17, 2018

Almost 2019!!!  Here I am now at the age of 84 waiting for warmer weather???  Well, I know better than that since I have been here for a while.  But thinking about things has caused me to consider that life here is good and that the opportunities we have to live a good life are the best Christmas gift ever.  I have never given up my belief in "Santa Claus" because each year brings an unexpected gift representing that mysterious giver I learned about in childhood.

Yesterday represents such a gift.  Dori Balcheva invited some of us from a former Bible study group to her home for a time together that was delightful  I know, I talked too much.  It is my style that I cannot seem to shake.  Perhaps due to the fact that I do not talk to people in real life all that often.  It is a miracle to me that people from distant parts of the world can come together and celebrate life knowing that we are indeed all the same.  We can recognize the shared values and allow the other their differences without dividing into hatefulness that destroys rather than appreciating the glorious differences that can teach us things we might never have considered to be possible.

Wednesday Between the Two Easters

Yesterday the sun was shining and it was warm enough for me to attack the list of things to do for the garden.  The weeding done by the neighbor's boys lets me know that they could use some instruction in how to do that, but at least the strawberries got transplanted in the strawberry pyramid and the raised bed got additional soil and a little bit of sand added to it so that I can actually plant seeds in it as soon as I decide which ones to put there.  I am thinking of so many possibilities that it is hard to decide.  The list of things to plant is long!

I saved seeds from last year's zinnias and from basil and leek and larkspur and thyme.  Sage is growing from past plantings in two places and its leaves have made a nice gentle tea to drink according to the dentist directions after the implants that are presently healing, hopefully very well.  The geraniums that survived the winter have been trimmed of their attempts to reach the sun and the cuttings plunged into soil in other pots now gracing the window sills on the patio.  Yesterday I watered them with the rooting medium I made from willow branches according to directions learned from the internet!  Here's hoping they live and grow!

That willow tree is a miracle in itself.  We never planted it.  It grew mysteriously and I an enjoying my view of the graceful branches as the wind blows today.

I planted some lettuce seeds and put the planter behind a fence to keep the dogs from digging them out before they have a chance to show the delicate green for our summer salad.  It was hard to find a place for other seeds I planted.  Beside the house, where the cats gather waiting for a treat, may get enough sunlight to give them a chance.  Last year it was not so good, but I have high hopes.  I planted seeds of tomatoes, artichokes and strawberries in pots so that they can be transplanted.

I have grown artichokes from seeds in the past and those plants were huge and quite strong, but nothing eatable came from them.  These seeds are a different variety and the picture of them looks right.  If we can get eatable artichokes from them, it will seem like a miracle to me.  More important is the bonus - they are delicious to eat and provide a healthy boost to keep blood sugar in place.  Artichokes are not frequently found here except in jars of hearts.

Other things done today - mostly housekeeping chores in the patio room where I worked as I listened to Malcolm Gladwell's new book and to the dreadful news of the spread of this virus.  I was tired and surprisingly cold when I finally stopped and left that room that now must be kept cool as it has become a storage room for part of our food supply in case of further lockdown or in case of a food shortage predicted by some.  Anyway, we have potatoes, corn meal for mamaliga, bottled water, carrots, dog and cat food, red peppers, sunflower oil, rice, cabbage and apples!

We are using our third huge box of apples.  I have made apple sauce and dried apples and Eugeniu has made apple pie several times and he has baked them for almost daily treats.  I am using  apple juice to enhance my morning swig of kefir. (That is meant to coat my stomach before espresso!)

A bonus is the repaired water well that we had dug years ago that now waters the newly planted carrots and potatoes where the grapevines used to be!  More to be planted there as the days go by.

Thank goodness we have the energy to do many of these things and that we have some help to do the ones that are too much for us!

They call it the Catholic Easter here...

Not even Palm Sunday!

We have no branches on our front gate today.  In the past, before this lockdown, a mystery person adorned the gate with the branches of willow trees to announce the Sunday before the Orthodox Easter that will be next Sunday.  For this time when services cannot be held with overflowing congregations, we have so many opportunities to celebrate this day online!  It is amazing.  Live streaming is one possibility that could be continued for future times especially for those of us who cannot leave the house for one reason or another.  It is always good to have reminders of things that are so important to being a part of a healthy loving community such as has emerged during this crisis.  We see glimpses from so many parts of the world!  That to me is meaning of Grace.

Well, another kind of Grace happened here yesterday.  The field that was plowed two days before now has been planted with carrots and potatoes.  Corn, beans and melons to come.  A military decree has restricted the export of such crops as wheat, oats, corn and others which makes us cautious about what will be available in the days to come.  Our vegetables will be shared with those who helped plant them!

One Asparagus spear today.  I am waiting for more.  The big delight is that the seeds planted last year have survived the winter.  The saved seeds grew into willowy plants that I mistook for dill.  Eugeniu said not dill.  Then I realized the similarity between the mature plants and the willowy new growth.  Tiny spears of asparagus have emerged recently letting me know that they will soon be ready to transplant into the spot that will become their home.

Spring 2020 - April 10

Despite the strict lockdown because we are of an age, we are blessed with the beauty of the days this Spring of 2020.  Well prepared for staying in, we count our blessings while we continue to do what can be done to make our lives a bit better.

Yes, we have chickens and we should probably get more of them even though we have a lot of eggs - eggs to spare in fact.  Yesterday we gave ten to Alison who came with a car full of treats.  Packages for Mita and Gigi contained chocolate, coffee and a bottle of fine wine!  They have been recipients of the generosity of the Church of the Resurrection, the Anglican Church in Bucharest.  Mita lives next door and Gigi a bit farther away.  When she still had her cow, she would bring us milk each week and from it I made chefir and Eugeniu loved drinking the fresh milk after I had pasteurized it by bringing it to a proper temperature.  Lately we have been fortunate to have her here to clean the house.  Now, it is not possible.  We are all over the age that one is allowed out of one's house except between 11 am and 1 pm when we could go to a nearby place to shop for groceries or go to a pharmacy for needed medicine.

This morning I have been thrilled with what is happening in our garden in this warm spring weather.  Work is calling and it is warm enough to be out and do what needs to be done.  A week ago our neighbor's sons came to help.  They cleaned out a lot of weeds and overgrowth that was begging for attention.  They planted spinach and zucchini and transplanted some daisies.  I have the hoses in place for watering since the rain is not exactly on the time schedule that the seeds are needing!  I hope that the deep watering of the asparagus is not too late.  Other weeds need to be pulled before they are almost impossible to remove safely without endangering the lovely flowers near them.

There are treats before my eyes as I look out the window - The unfolding delights of spring for this Texas girl amaze me still.  The daffodils faded as the tulips emerged and the hyacinths were strong, sturdy and beautiful amidst them all.  Now the grape hyacinths remain in full glory.  They have been undisturbed which reminds me not to mess with them.  Plentifully bordering the sidewalk beside the house, they provide a steady source of blooms to cheer the interior of the house even when the day turns too dark to see them lining the path beside the house.  The antique roses on the fence now have room to grow beneath the pear tree full of white blossoms that will become tiny pears. Perhaps one of the very varieties that this village was named after.  The tulip tree has pale pink blossoms beside the bright yellow of the forsythia glistening over a growing ground cover of tiny violets mixed between iris and tulips waiting to bloom.  A peony sprouts purple there, too.  The Easter lily will likely bloom in June while across the sidewalk the vinca spreads new green along with purple blossoms beneath the walnut tree.  The front fence once bare, now, despite all my pruning, is burdened with too much honeysuckle shading where I had hoped to provide some zinnias full sun.  On that fence between the house and the fig tree there is new growth on the  wisteria vine much pruned back.  I hope it can take over the honeysuckle or at least share the fence to provide a mixture of the white and purple blossoms.   We also have two wild sweet cherry trees and two planted from the nursery.  All are  in full bloom as are the apple trees and my young almond tree.


The apricot blossoms may have been frozen in a recent few days of very cold weather with its mixture of rain and snow and overnight just at or below freeing.  The hazelnut tree though is fine as is the plum tree nearby.  Two more apricot trees died this year and I fear that the two remaining ones are doomed.

The parsley and sage grow through all the mild weather of this year's winter and the lavender survived as well.  The hydrangeas are showing bits of green, too.  Oregano and chives seem not to need much attention and neither does the leustan which is the Romanian version of celery (for the taste it gives, which is amazing).  I have seeds for other herbs including those from last years basil which may be commandeered for seasoning as we do not really  need more seed of basil to plant.