scrapbook of my world

the first cucumber

2010-07-09T05:38:00.000+03:00

Remember the first cucumber flower? here is the first cucumber:

a quiet day

2010-06-30T23:15:00.002+03:00

I woke up early this morning with big plans to fulfil :)

Well, I can check only the first thing on my "to do list", that is pruning the vine (finishing the pruning actually, because the endless rain didn't let me finish what I'd started a long, long time ago :D )

But (there is always a but) I did many other things that were not on my list: weeding the flower beds, grating some apples to put in the freezer for the apple-pies I'm going to make this coming winter (apples from my garden which you can see in one of the pictures below in a large basket), sipping coffee while taking long breaks to admire my terrace and my flowers in their newly painted pots,making a delicious sour soup with fresh vegetables from my garden (I made even the noodles, so it's really homemade), making a bit of apricot jam and writing this post.

You'll see in one of the pictures a cat sleeping among the flower pots ( it seems that he likes my work :D).Theoretically, the cat is mine because it belonged to the people from whom I bought the house. Now, imagine how happy I was to be landed with a cat when I have two hamsters!!! Don't get me wrong, I love cats. Before moving to a flat I lived in a house where, in time, I had many cats. But in a flat it is difficult to keep a cat, so, I decided to buy hamsters, and now every time I miss having a cat around I think of the well-being of my beloved rodents. Their very well-being worried me when I saw that there are about five cats that visit my yard daily. I got them a cage ( the hamsters, not the cats) which I thought very safe before witnessing the attack of a cat, so, for every time we leave the safety of the flat and venture in the land of cats, I came up with this:

Now everybody expects to see some birds and are all very surprised that to see no wings.

I almost forgot what I was initially talking about - the cat- here it is:

Here is the rest of the terrace:

And here are two of the flowers that have recently bloomed:

Oh, and I almost forgot of my new cacti collection:

operation "pots"

2010-06-29T08:06:00.004+03:00

Remember I gave some old flower pots a "facial lift"? Well, a friend of mine saw what I did and gave me some tile paint. It is absolutely great!!! My flowerpots got not only a facial lift but a whole make over :)

This is how they looked before:

First, I applied a coat of tile paint on all the pots. I got two hues of brown and I used the lighter hue on the pots, and the darker one on the "saucers" that go under the pots. Here is the story in images:

Then I used the old acrylic paint for the last touch. But as there were so many pots I left some for later :) I promise to post some more pictures to show off!!!

Now, the before and after pics:

PS And here they are now:

I've shown off my pots makeover here

Thank you Cindy!!!

here

Thank you Claudia!!!

and here

Thank you Donna!!!

present

2010-06-20T08:11:00.001+03:00

Yesterday, my friend Dora visited my countryside nest and she made my day. She brought me something that I really love!!!!!!!!! This is the present. I LOVE IT!!! Thank you Dora!!! :)

morning in the garden

2010-06-17T19:48:00.000+03:00

I had a great morning working in the garden and I am very pleased because I did almost everything I wanted to do. I weeded two flower beds and a part of the plot where the tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumbers and zucchinis are. The nice surprise of this morning was the first cucumber flower. Here it is:

Last week I remembered that I had heard somewhere that people who grew watermelons used a plastic bottle for each plant, as shown in the picture below, to make sure the plant had enough water. I tried it on the cucumbers and the zucchinis and the formers thanked me with two flowers :)

This method works for me. For my plants, too, apparently. I just check the bottle now and then to see if I need to add some water. I don't have to worry anymore that the water is too cold for the warm ground. I'm thinking of trying it on the pepper plants, too, because they love water, too.

Here are a few flowers that have been saved from the wicked weeds (I was their hero:D):

And here is a potted flower that gave me this beauty:

too much free time

2010-06-15T22:23:00.010+03:00

I've been waiting for the summer holiday the whole year, making plans and postponing things for when I have more time. Now that it's finally here, I can't decide what to do firstand I end up doing almost nothing, far less than howl much I do when I have my work, too, anyway. It's so frustrating!!! I keep telling myself that I haven't found my pace yet. Hopefully I'll find it before the holiday is over :D
Almost nothing doesn't mean nothing at all so here is what I did this weekend:

The vine needid pruning badly!!! We've had too much rain here lately, so I'm behind with my garden. There's too much work to be done so I needed to decide what the most important thing to do was, and it was the pruning of the vine. I haven't finished as you can see in the second picture but I have very little left. My vegetable garden doesn't look too bad even though it meeds digging.

The flower beds are in a really bad shape that's why I'm not going to post pictures before they can be seen.
I just hope I'll do everything I've planned :)
Keep your fingers crossed for me!!!

Wait ! I almost forgot about my lilies. It was so nice to see them in bloom when I entered the yard, and the fragrance...heavenly!

holiday at last!!!

2010-06-11T15:53:00.003+03:00

The break is what I love about work :D
And here it is now, I'm in holiday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

the first tomatoes

2010-06-08T18:43:00.004+03:00

It has rained a lot, too much and for too long. It was a tough job weeding my little garden, but I did it, and here is how it looks now:

The biggest surprise were some tiny tomatoes:

Can you see them?

the sticker found its host

2010-06-04T15:45:00.001+03:00

rainbow

2010-05-30T19:08:00.003+03:00

I've just seen my first rainbow at my countryside nest:

eurovision

2010-05-30T18:41:00.004+03:00

Good job Romanian team!!!
We came in the third place; I'm so proud!!! This was our song:

Germany won the competition. I love their song:

I also like these:

It was a good show; I enjoyed it :)

leapsa foto 2

2010-05-26T19:56:00.002+03:00

My pic made it here!!!
:)
It's the one with the drop of water on a leaf. ( just in case you missed it in an earlier post :D )

lately

2010-05-26T19:37:00.008+03:00

I haven't done much lately. The weather didn't let me do what I had planned to, and so there's not much new around here.

I just want to share some pics I took this weekend at my countryside nest:

and a poppy again:

And here are some of my potted flowers:

I'll get my holiday in about two weeks' time, and then, as I always say at this time of the year, I'll do everything I've planned to, but I couldn't because of my busy schedule. (and in autumn, when school starts again I realise that I still haven't done everything....)

chopin

2010-05-26T14:06:00.001+03:00

Ce idee grozava!!!

yippee!!!

2010-05-21T15:38:00.003+03:00

I got my Green Umbrella Campaign car stickers today!!!

It says: "I do not litter!"

leapsa foto

2010-05-19T09:51:00.002+03:00

aici

I sent these:

autumn's here

2010-05-17T21:45:00.003+03:00

We had horrible weather this weekend, and it's not over yet :( It was rainy, windy, cold....horrible.

I had to stay indoors, longing for the sun. And since I didn't feel like working, I had the tv on and did this:

parinti responsabili

2010-05-14T10:22:00.003+03:00

Am citit ceva minunat si in acelasi timp trist aici

i'm back

2010-05-12T09:23:00.005+03:00

My computer has been out of order for a few days and then I had some hectic days, but now I'm back blogging.

I haven't done much in my countryside nest, not as much as would have wanted to anyway. I'm waiting for the weather to be on my side so that the workers whom I have hired to finish their job, that is, to level my garden, or better, my orchard to be :)

Until then, this is what welcomes me in the garden:

guess what this is

2010-05-04T15:16:00.002+03:00

final destination for the pots

2010-05-04T14:26:00.007+03:00

This weekend I have planted flowers in some of the newly painted pots.

Other pots are still waiting for tenants.

I've done a little gardening, too, but there's still a lot to do.

new pots

2010-04-30T10:31:00.005+03:00

Look what I did in my coffee break. (I took a looong coffee break this morning and I enjoyed every bit of it)

having fun with colours

2010-04-29T14:17:00.004+03:00

I have been planning to draw and paint for a long time.

Today, it was painting.

I bought some brushes and some acrylic colours and I used them on some old pots.

Here are the first two. Hopefully I'll get better at this :)

the first flowerpots

2010-04-26T22:03:00.002+03:00

It's not finished yet, but I can brag about it nevertheless, can't I?

heaven on earth

2010-04-25T12:09:00.005+03:00

This must be it!
It's a beautiful day, sunny and warm and quiet. I'm sitting on my terrace, sipping coffee, listening to music and writing this post 'cause I need to share this.
I also want to share what I did yesterday.

Only the flowerpots are missing now, not for long I hope!
Oh, I almost forgot! I had a visitor yesterday evening. Here it is:

de pe bloguri adunate

2010-04-24T10:45:00.002+03:00

o fi dilema, o fi trilema.... o fi boclema

terrace furniture

2010-04-24T08:41:00.006+03:00

I can't wait to get to my countryside nest today!!!
I have bought some bamboo terrace furniture on sales this week and I can hardly wait to enjoy myself on the terrace.
It was on sale because it stayed in the sun and in the rain in shop's showroom, so now I need to use some sand paper on it and then varnish it. I can't wait to start work. I probably won't be able to finish it before my summer holiday starts, but I'll post pictures as soon as the job is done.
This is how they look now:

beauty

2010-04-21T08:53:00.005+03:00

When it comes to people, they can look better in pictures than in reality. When it comes to flowers...well it doesn't always apply.

great idea!!!

2010-04-16T10:23:00.001+03:00

here

spring again

2010-04-14T20:46:00.002+03:00

Whith all the rain and all the gray around us, this is more like what this spring sounds like:

is this spring?

2010-04-14T11:25:00.000+03:00

Spring has undoubtedly come. Why isn't it here then?

working again

2010-04-13T19:03:00.000+03:00

I started work again yesterday. I love my work, teaching I mean, but I can hardly wait to get back in the countryside in the weekend. There's a diffrent kind of work awaiting me.

changes

2010-04-10T07:40:00.002+03:00

This week many things have been done in my countryside nest. In my backyard for instance...I'd better show than explain :) I can hardly recognize my backyard in the second picture.

It's been a great holiday, I've enjoyed every bit of it. I got some rest first, read a bit then worked a lot, took some great pictures and listened to some great music. What more can I ask for?

Here are some of the pictures I mentioned. I'm planning to upload some more on Flickr when I have a spare moment. Enjoy!

after the holidays

2010-04-08T07:05:00.000+03:00

I hope everybody had a nice Easter time!!!

Except for the weather, everything was great. I had time to relax, read, listen to music, I even had time to play a bit with "paint". I think I might get good at this with a little practice :)

spring

2010-04-02T07:52:00.000+03:00

This is the first morning I really feel spring is here. I woke up with spring in my soul and this song in my ears:

bees at work

2010-03-31T14:09:00.000+03:00

I was working in the garden the other day and I saw these bees drinking the sap from the freshly pruned vine. I think I took quite a nice photo.

isn't it a great voice?

2010-03-30T14:53:00.000+03:00

a morning in the countryside

2010-03-25T14:26:00.001+02:00

When I entered the yard, a sweet fragrance surrounded me. The hyacinths were in bloom.
The birds were chirping and the sun was tickling my nose.

I can’t wait to go back in the weekend. I just hope the weather will stay warm and sunny because I still have a lot to do in the garden. But I am very pleased beacause I finally finished pruning the vine and I sowed some vegetables.

And this is the result of my work in autumn.

a nice day

2010-03-24T23:06:00.001+02:00

Sometimes the sun's smile is enough to make my day. And what a sunny day it was today!!!