Here's the blue moon!

In no way does this picture show just how gorgeous the moon is tonight. My camera just isn't up to the task, but I had to try. The moon looks like it is dancing in and out of the light clouds and is brighter than any I have seen before. Wow!

End of the year with a Blue Moon

Everyone knows blue moons are seldom seen. Tomorrow's blue moon is coming on the heels of one of the worst rainstorms I've seen here in Bulgaria. On Monday, we had hours of pouring rain and thunder and lightning, which is highly unusual for this time of year. These photos show some of the results. They are on the road to Rila and the landslide was huge, but fortunately placed, since it seems to have missed every house and there were no reported injuries.The road crews were hard at work to get the rubble off the road and to divert the new stream back into its original bed in time for the New Year's churchgoers to get to Rila.































The appearance of spring flowers in my garden in December is also pretty unusual. (Global warming, anyone?) The snowdrops are up and blooming and the daffodils and hyacinths are well up. I can't imagine what will be blooming by February!

Happy St. Nicholas Day!

Today is the feast of Saint Nicholas in Bulgaria and the two preceding days were Varvara and Saint Sava respectively. It's a big church holiday weekend and the official start of the Christmas season and the traditional time to expect the first snow and cold weather of the winter. Varvara is Saint Barbara's Day and it changed our plans for a stitch-n-bitch after work on Friday. None of us remembered until the last minute and it matters, at least here! Traditionally, there is no sewing, spinning, knitting, or any other activity done by women using sharp implements on that day to avoid bringing ill health to the children, especially chicken pox and measles. So we worked on heraldry instead.

The city had the tree-lighting festivities yesterday, including lots of fireworks, and the official opening of the skating rink and the Christmas Village. So now the center of the town smells like sausages, which is a good thing today, since Nikolovden involves eating fish and every store in town has been selling them. For my tastes, fish does not smell nearly as good as grilling sausage!

Christmas is coming!

The tree is up and the cats adore having a new place to sleep/hide. The only problem is that Cara wants it for herself and Sophie wants to be there too. It'll be interesting to watch that play out as gifts get stacked under the tree!

Happy Thanksgiving!

In a matter of a few hours my dining room went from this:














To this:

















to this:




















Cara was not impressed by any of the preparations nor the company, but she did deign to beg some turkey and let Cosmina and Sabina pet her. Needless to say, Sophie was not seen for the duration!
















For those who will ask, the menu was:
Relish tray and dip
Olives (black and green)
Turkey (two, they were small!)
Dressing
Mashed potatoes
Gravy
Sweet potato casserole
Green beans in sour cream sauce
Devilled eggs
Cranberry sauce
Jello with fruit
Rolls
Pumpkin pie
Apple pie
Mince Pie
Pecan pie

Nom!!

Actual Sewing

Here are the promised photos of the needle roll I made for my veil pins




























and the Advent Calendar I made for Constanza. Hope she still likes frogs!

Rila Monastery

I recently had the opportunity to take a first-time visitor to Bulgaria to the Rila Monastery, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It's so fun to watch as the car goes higher and higher into the mountains and the visitor anticipates what it will be like, and then, well, there you are and it's so much better than could be imagined.

This is the view from halfway up the mountain road.


This particular visit was on a crisp, clear day and it was chilly, but not unpleasantly so. The museum has just been renovated and is beautifully arranged and labelled. It's also warm and the displays are all climate controlled. (Unlike the old days when it was damp and cold!)My guest especially liked Hrelyu's Tower, which is the oldest part of the Monastery complex.

















And here are some classic photos of the monastery grounds.

Past time and things to come!

Yes, it has been ages since I've written anything. Alas, life happens. I had the flu and then loads of work to make up when I got back to the office. No whining, though! I feel much better and I'm getting some things accomplished at last. I've got to take pictures, but I've finished a couple of small embroidery projects and two more are coming along nicely. I'll try and post those tomorrow.

More importantly, Blagoevgrad is starting to shows signs of the season. Shops are setting up seasonal displays and Christmas trees and the city is stringing lights along the main streets. Something new is the ice rink that's being built on the central plaza between City Hall and the movie theater. That's going to really add to the Christmas spirit, especially when the Christmas Village goes up!

Not a sign of the season, but just a change, is the addition of a traffic circle to Blvd. Cyril & Methodius. People are pretty confused by that one! There's a second one just one block north of the first one (on the way to the hospital). Watching ambulances whiz around them is pretty scary, honestly!

Happy Halloween!

In the spirit of the season, I carved my Jack o'Lantern today and here he is,




along with some chrysanthemums in the garden,



and my super-duper frogwitch windsock. (It's from Cracker Barrel. Need I say more?)


The windsock baffles my poor neighbors even more than the carved pumpkin. Oh well, they should be used to my American eccentricities after all these years!

Nom!

The weatherman says there is the chance of snow tonight (on Halloween, no less!), so I did a walk-n-shop this morning so I can just stay in for the rest of the weekend. Got all the ingredients for beef stew, a crusty loaf of warm bread from the neighborhood bakery, loads of fruit and fall veggies, chestnuts to roast, and the best treat of all. Our local potato chip manufacturer (Chipi) has recently come out with "homestyle" chips and my favorite is now the seasoned salt variety. Imagine kettle chips seasoned with smoked sea salt, black pepper, and chubritsa. Nom!!!

The stew is on, a pumpkin is baking and my house smells great. I kind of hope it does snow!

This time last year

I had just returned home from London after attending my son's graduation from Imperial College and the Feast of St. Crispin with Thamesreach. There was no graduation this year (I have to wait a year or so for the next one) and no time for celebration, thanks to our Board Meeting, but at least I kept in touch with my inner Englishwoman by reading this.

Autumn changes

It's fall break and the students are all off having fun. Now that the Board of Trustees have all departed, I may get some fun time too and do some sewing!

I walked home from the last Board meeting today (yes, on Sunday) and just marvelled at the changes in town. It's cool and crisp and the leaves are all sorts of colors. The big intersection by the University has suddenly become a traffic circle and is much easier to cross now. I guess the EU funds must be coming in again! Daylight Saving Time ended in Europe last night, so I even got an extra hour of sleep. Good thing, because I really needed it.

Icons

These are definitely my focus for this semester. The class on iconography is going well and I feel as though I'm learning lots. Tonight there was also a lecture by a Byzantine historian from Oxford, Clemena Antonova, on "Space, Time, and Presence in the Icon: Seeing the World With the Eyes of God". It was also very interesting and played to a full house. Guess I'm not the only one interested in such arcane matters! Professor Antonova focussed on several icons, including Rublev's Trinity. It's nice to be able to attend lectures which are not work-related!

New College

No, I'm not changing jobs. Along with several friends, I'm working to start an SCA group here in B-grad. We'd like to have the College of Sveti Ivan Rilski as the Bulgarian branch!

We're up to three paid members and half a dozen others who are contemplating membership. I'm counting on my cohorts who have already signed up to help convince two more to join now so we have the five we need to apply to the Crown for recognition.

We got together on Saturday to discuss what we needed to do and to eat medieval food. The food was a hit, especially the frumenty, which was declared to be Bulgarian by almost everyone there. (Alex didn't know, since he's Columbian!) We had bread and cheese, roast chicken with cameline sauce, the frumenty, carrots in cream, pork rissoles, and apple tart. And lots of Bulgarian wine and beer! Nom! We had no way of knowing who was the victor in the Crown Tourney, which was going on while we met, but we toasted the royalty and heirs just the same.



We're hoping for several more folks on the next go-round, which will probably be this Saturday. Sewing seemed to be at the top of the list for the ladies, but Alex wanted to know more about illumination, since he's a painter. We also had some ideas for a device for the college. More on that later....

Books!

I'm taking a class in Byzantine Religious Art and Architecture in Southeast Europe at the the university this semester for fun and as part of my A&S 50 challenge. (It's helping me fulfill the persona challenge and it has been amazing so far.) I've also used it as a valid excuse to get more books on the topic, since they are requied reading! I now have the two volume set of the Theology of the Icon by Leonid Ouspensky and Byzantine Women and Their World by Ioli Kalavrezou. It's wonderful to take a class when it is solely for personal enjoyment!

No photos, but progress!

If you look back two posts, you'll see an almost finished quilt top. Since then, I have finished the borders and started assembling it. I decided it was just too big to machine quilt on my standard machine. Hand quilting didn't even bear thinking about with the lack of free time I have these days! So it's being tied. Over the past weekend, I managed to get it completely pinned together, including turning the back for binding, and to tie about a third of the top. When I just couldn't stand making knots anymore, I shifted over to the last embroidery on Edith's needlebook. That's done, so now I just have to do the final assembly. I may even get to it this week. Fingers crossed!

I'm anticipating Saturday, because we're having our next "Let's start the SCA in Bulgaria" meeting at my house. Thanks to my SIL (who found the most delish recipe), we'll be eating lovely rissoles while we talk/plan/scheme. Nom!!

Happy Holidays!

Happy Autumnal Equinox and Happy Bulgarian Independence Day to all and sundry. I had a lovely day off today, with lunch in the garden of the Tsar's Club, then a great walk around town in the awesome fall sunshine, and a coffee at the Plaza. I also got in a little gardening and cleaned up all my window boxes for the winter. And I even managed a bit of embroidery! Too bad it's back to work tomorrow!

Here's the view of tonight's waxing moon from my bedroom balcony. Sweet dreams!

Sewing and Embroidery - both!!

It's been a miserable week in terms of the amount of work at my office, but I was determined that this weekend was going to be all crafts and no work. And I succeeded. Woo hoo!

I've been carrying a little embroidery project around since July. It's a kit I picked up in Virginia at the Newmarket Battlefield Museum shop while on vacation with my mother (Hi Mom!) and it's a simple bookmark with four quilt patterns in cross stitch. Finished that up during the week and it looks pretty good after travelling many miles in purse, suitcase, and carry-on bag.



The big weekend project was getting some serious work done on a quilt that I started many, many years back. It's been so long that I don't actually know where some of the components came from anymore. It's a 1940's style embroidered piece featuring blocks with the state birds and flowers of the US. I either got the blocks from a yard sale (which I think may be the case) or from a family member, but I honestly don't remember. At any rate, the blocks are embroidered in a naive style and I spent much time trimming floss ends and squaring them off. They are now assembled into a bedspread top with dividing sashing in coordinating fabric, lacking only the borders (which are cut out and I'll put them on tonight) and eventually batting and tying, rather than quilting. It's just too big a piece to contemplate handquilting at this point in my life and my machine is too small to machine quilt something this bulky.



This photo doesn't give a real sense of the size. That's a queen size bed and you can only see six rows of blocks. There are nine in total, plus the borders. It will cover the pillows and still hang to the floor at the foot of the bed when it's finished. I hope the day of completion will be Tuesday, since it's a national holiday and I have the day free. Fingers crossed!

Still no sewing

If I don't get a minute to myself fairly soon, I may have to change the name of this blog! It took me weeks to finish the posts about a short trip around Bulgaria because I was so busy with work. I have another excuse for this weekend, even though the first week of classes is over and things should be a little calmer. Two of my favoite alumni were married yesterday and I travelled to Pazardjik for the ceremonies and the reception. (No, that is not a typo. There are two ceremonies here - one civil and one religious.)

The bride was beautiful and the groom handsome, they were surrounded by friends and family and the weather was delightful. There couldn't be a better start to their new life together!

First the civil ceremony in the Ritual Hall:


Then the religious ceremony at St. George's Church:



Then the reception!





All the best to the newlyweds!

Balchik, Aladzha, Shumen, Preslav, and home. Phew!

After Varna, we headed even further north up the coast to Balchik. We saw the University botanic gardens and Queen Marie's Summer Palace. Marie was Queen Victoria's granddaughter and the Queen of Romania, not Bulgaria. At certain points in history, this section of Bulgaria (know as the Dobruzhda) has been part of Romania.


This seems to be the classic place for people to pose. Every time I've been here, I've gotten at least one shot of somone in front of this urn!



This is the part of the complex where Marie actually stayed. She allegedly built the minaret to honor a Turkish lover.



After the hordes of Romanian tourists (all grumbling about the state of the Palace grounds (which I thought looked pretty good!)



and about the fact that some of the buildings were being used as guest houses (which was their original purpose, after all.), the quiet at Aladzha was pretty nice.



I declined to climb the tower up the cliff again (Been there, done that - several times), so I sat and drank nice cold mineral water in the shade while my friend slogged to the top to see the frescos. Glad I didn't bother, because since I was last here, the frescoes have basically vanished due to weathering. At least I have my memories and photos from earlier trips!

Back on the road to Shumen next. We saw the pametnik, the fortess, the university (Hi Genny!)





and spent the night in a nice little hotel with an excellent restaurant.




In the morning we headed out bright and early for Veliki Preslav, because it would be a long drive back to Blagoevgrad after seeing one last museum. After a long drive through town to the Archaeological Reserve and several bouts of asking directions, ("Excuse me officer - do you know the way to the museum?")we found the place and the museum complex was great! I'm only sorry it was too hot and time was too short to spend an entire day hiking the site. We were the only visitors in a place that was set up for large groups, so it was echoingly empty, but lovely.




The Preslav Treasure more than lived up to its reputation and the curator was eager to open the safe room (Really - two massive doors, four keys and two combination locks!) and show us the display. Couldn't take photos, of course.

After that, it was just the long drive home via the Sofia highway and the E79!

On to Varna!

On the way north from Nessebur, we passed this lovely, but abandoned church. The architecture is very similar to the medieval ones further south, so we speculated that it might be of a similar age.



The beach at Varna was excellent and the fact that the center of the city along Blvd. Kniaz Boris is being pedestrianized was a bonus.



We did a lovely walking circuit of the city, including the ethnographic museum,



the roman baths,






the cathedral,



and the archaeological museum. Once again, we found that the museum had been updated and was lovely to visit. My friend was eager to see the Preslav Treasure, which was advertised as on display at this museum along with the Varna Gold. Imagine her dismay when it wasn't there. She asked where it was and the reply "oh, we sent it back to Preslav last week" made her look at me and ask "We are going to Preslav on the way home, right?" Of course, we did. That will be the next post.