holiday home: the flower and berry edition

 so many pictures, so long ago! (all of this happened between june 15 and july 6, i'll be damned if i remember exact days for anything). all i can do now is a condensed version of commentary on my romanian holiday.
look, it was pretty much the same thing as 2 years ago: me going home to my parents, then visiting grandparents/family etc, then friends, and being fed and shown around for 3 whole weeks. the same locations, almost exactly the same people. thank god everything can keep looking paradise-like/efortless(ly) to a tourist like me.
so, major realization about this holiday: it doesn't seem weird any more, to go back. it's not a momentous occasion, it's just me going back. from montreal, where i live. i do wish i could visit every year, and it may be doable, though plans for other trips seem to be...multiplying.
i'm just trying to not take my romanian home for granted.

Part 1  - arcalia, at my parents' cabin

roses, my mum's pride etc. this year she didn't let me go up the ladder (poor ladder?!), but i helped pluck and clean these bushes

my favourites among her roses

getting used to the habitat...camouflaged in a newly-"acquired" skirt (i.e. straight from my mum's closet)  and overall heatwave-friendly attire

i got the last of the strawberries!! this was in fact a factor in choosing dates for my trip: mid-june to beginning of july covers strawberries, cherry season and the emergence of raspberry. good job, carmen!
also these little fellows are 1000 times more flavourful than whatever you can buy in the marketplace - even in romania i'd say, nevermind canada.

i think here my mum was making me show off the veggies too, so they wouldn't feel discriminated. so we've got...tomato plants on one side, and peppers on the other. 

gooseberries! after years of my parents' attempts, a few of these bushes got successfully transplanted into our garden. i think i hadn't eaten gooseberries in at least 10 years. 10-15.

blackcurrants, gooseberries and wild strawberries

as i said before: the smaller the fruit, the more flavour it packs. these are pretty rare, and i was really overwhelmed to find them growing in a patch in our orchard. of course it would take hours to gather a significant amount...but also because i can barely stop eating them while picking. they melt on the tongue.

 here i'm well-hidden by the honeysuckle bush (very scented! especially in the evening!) and i had picked some elder flowers. and look at that clematis! it's got a loong way to go!

daisies are my favourite summer flowers. of course mum advised against walking in sandals in tall grass, on account of ticks! in the end it was fine, good photoshoot and no ticks, what else could one wish for?

intermission

(you see what i did here?:)

these are coffee flowers from the coffee plant my parents grow in the balcony of their apartment in town. i was very impressed - first time i see what the actual plant looks like. i feel i should have known :)

mulberries in my grandpa's yard, in budești

...and sour cherries in/from his back garden
p.s. the small book in my hand is a prayer book i got from grandpa!




OK, Part 2: in the village i grew up in (escu, for whoever doesn't know the drill)

red currant bush!!!when i was a kid, we didn't use to have red currants in our garden, which i considered a serious shortcoming. not that i loved the fruit so much, but i didn't like being outdone by my cousins and neighbours!:)
anyway, we used to steal a lot of it from our next door neighbour.
no idea where mum got this one, but i'm glad it caught.

on the other hand, we've always had good raspberry bushes. and i know they usually are doing great around my birthday, so i was sure i would get some. raspberry used to be my fruit of choice on my birthday cakes! so avant-garde green, eating seasonal fruit, yo!

afternoon nap time. 

the usual "after" picture, i.e. post-weeding the flowers, i.e. end of day 1 in the village. yep, that's how long it takes:)
(afternoon nap included)

the bushlets i always laugh at did not have a good year

...but the christmas tree (5 years old already?!) has grown past the fence, good boy!

gratuitous morning shot in the orchard behind the house. i was starting my usual walk in the fields (wearing pants and rubber boots at 30 degrees C, yes! tall grass!)

i'm pretty sure it was past Midsummer Day, so the sânziene (flowers) picking was just for fun

and so was making this wreath, and throwing it on the roof .
yes, it stayed on the roof, why do you ask?
if this thing was true i should've been married at least 4 times by now, what!