My Village

This title is so lame that it reminded me of the silly essays we used to do in primary school. The village is not mine - I don't own it (I wish!), nor am I a native from here. In fact, we've only moved here in the beginning of April, so it's quite new to me, but I do like it because it is very very close to town, but with the benfits of the country-side, so I do enjoy calling it ”mine”. Since I have to go out with the children, I get to walk in my village. It is not something extraordinary, some tourist atraction, but it is nice and tidy and pretty, with open spaces and green spaces, with flowers and animals, with a park and a lake. Now and then I like taking some pictures and here's a first batch: Fountain with sculptures at the back of the town hall

Probably a farmer's mailbox - inventive, right?

And speaking about farmers, here are some gorgeous animals

...and the cows under a typical summer sky

Oh, but wasn't this supposed to be a blog about plants? Yeah, here are some wild ones :-)

and the beautiful flower of a tulip tree in the park

and I want to leave you with a rose I fell in love with during one of my walks in the park. I don't know its name, but I love its color and its fragrance. I plan to take some cuttings and try rooting them later on

Summer Champagne

One of the things I really like about Luxembourg is that people here don't need a special occasion to enjoy a glass of champagne or the local version – crémant. They have it during a theatre play or in a public place watching a football match or simply at their regular dinner while waiting for their food to be served or while on a terrace during a sunny afternoon...and I could go on and on about this. I gladly adopted their habit and enjoyed some bubbly now and then, but for the last 10 months I haven't and nor will I for the next 5 months due to baby-related reasons. It's true that while my homeland has been taken over by hot-hot weather, summer hasn't arrived yet in my adoptive land, still, there are some warm sunny days or at least intervals that make us feel like summer. I had to have something to cool my days in a bubbly way – so I make elderberry champagne or socată as we call it in Romania. My grandmother used to make it, so I grew up with it as a child. And it looks so pretty in its jar, while waiting for fermentation to start! Doesn't it?

Until it's fully fermented (probably tomorrow or in a couple of days), I am enjoying a small cup of coffee with a lot of milk. Being a new mom is not easy :-)

Later edit: the first glass

Bouquet of the day

My new David Austin roses have started to bloom lately, but because of the lack of time, I missed taking a photo of the first bloom from Munstead Wood. It looked absolutely wonderful in its dark shade of crimson, but the smell was quite disappointing. Today, I cut two blooms of the other 2 that started opening - Lady Emma Hamilton and Gentle Hermione. Gentle Hermione, although very pretty, has virtually no fragrance, not the first bloom anyway. It does smell a bit like the children's glue I had as a child, but it's not exactly an impressive fragrance. Lady Emma though, has the most exquisite smell. Its shape is great, its color and so is its fruity/spicy smell that I cannot get enough of (sniffing it right now). Here is a bouquet I made of these two roses (orange - Lady Emma and light pink - Hermione) and added a bloom of Leonardo da Vinci (darker pink) and some sweet peas.