European Adventure!

Sorry I've been away for so long, real life called and I had no choice but to answer. So much has happened since I last wrote a journal entry.

~June 9th - June 10th: Flew to NYC, from NYC, boarded the Queen Mary II.

~June 11th - June 18th: Cruised across the Atlantic Ocean to Southampton, England and visited Stonehenge.  Hubby and I decided we would never take another Atlantic Crossing cruise again, particularly not with Cuinard, which was hardly impressive.

~June 19th - June 24th: Took the train down to Cornwall, stayed at a Bed and Breakfast, saw Paradise Park, home of The World Parrot Trust, the Cornish Birds of Prey sanctuary, Tintagel castle, and took a tour of the entire Cornish countryside.  I would highly recommend visiting Cornwall, if anyone was thinking of visiting England.  The countryside is not to be missed, and there is so much to do, you really should spend a week, if only to play on the beaches and eat Cornish Pasties or Sunday Roasts.

Took the train up to London, checked into The Kingsley Hotel, tried to relax.  The next day, we walked around exploring for a good ten miles or so.  Visited The British Museum, The Imperial War Museum, London Wetlands for an easier day of walking, then finally hit London Bridge and London Tower.  The Tube system (subway) is really incredible and highly efficient, though it's stuffy if someone closes the window.

June 25th - July 7th: Flew to Stockholm, Sweden.  Boarded the Crystal Serenity cruise ship, settled in, took an excursion, which totally escapes my memory at this time...Set sail on the Baltic Sea and began our journey.  Visited Tallinn, Estonia; St. Petersburg, Russia; Helsinki, Finland; Warnemunde, Germany; and Copenhagen, Denmark.  We saw any excursion that was military-related and avoided the grueling 5:30 am - 1 am excursions to Moscow and Berlin.

In Estonia, we visited an Estonian prison and got to see where they executed people.  We had three days in Russia, so first, we visited the Hermitage Museum and had a private performance at a Ballet school.  The next day, we visited an awesome Russian armory museum where they had dozens of tanks, anti-aircraft, artillary, and cannons on the courtyard.  The final day, ...crap, I totally forget, but we were fried at that point.  Oh, wait, maybe it was a palace tour, followed by a canal cruise.   In Finland, we visited the Sveaborg island fortress and shopped at the open air market, then had the most delicious reindeer meatballs, boiled potatoes, and lingon berries we've ever tasted.  Warnemunde was a nice trip, too.  We visited an old military base with a handful of old aircraft hangers, which housed an amazing collection of WWII and Cold War era vehicles, tanks, and aircraft.  They were all owned by hobbyists, which B and I thought was so cool...They even gave us a demonstration of a bridge-laying vehicle.  After that, we were given a tour of a Stasi prison (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stasi), which was turned into a museum and is used by the local university as a glorified storage unit, though it occassionally hosts prisoners awaiting the completion of trials at the courthouse.  By the time we got to Denmark, we were absolute toast, though we survived through an indoor tour of one palace and exteriour tours of two other palaces.

I can safely say that I don't want to return to Russia ever again... We weren't allowed to go outside of tours without visas, so we couldn't venture far or...we may never be allowed back...!  If your visa expires while you're in Russia, they won't let you go home.  Taking photos of the subway and certain things is still prohibited, so is buying antiques, including stamps pre-1991, and anything related to culture (art productions, antique paintings, sculptures, drawings, printed items, icons, furniture, coins, and other items representing significant artistic, historical, scientific, or any other cultural value). We also weren't allowed to bring in anything "containing information which can bring harm to state interest or citizen rights"...

You're also not supposed to go into Northern Russia, cuz there's a lot of violence and civil unrest still going on, and you could get blown up or shot dead. Imigration is so strict, and the workers are incredibly stoic and somber.  Not a one of them would even smile, or nod when I'd say, "Thank you, have a nice day!"

I loved Copenhagen the best.  The countryside was gorgeous, the traditional lunch we had was one of the best I'd ever tasted (while in Europe), the architecture and history were beautiful, and the people were all very nice.

Oddly enough, I didn't buy much of anything on our travels.  I bought postcards for family and friends, a couple guides of some of the museums, a little amber owl, an amber owl pendant for my house sitter/best friend, a wooden fox toy, a felted wool fox, a Danish horse, and a bird book.  I didn't want to haul a lot of stuff back with me, either, so that had a lot to do with it.  My husband insisted I overpack, and I packed several articles of clothing that I never wore due to the cruise ship's dress codes.  My luggage would've been half the size and weight if I'd had my druthers...

Urgh, it's almost 3:45 am now, which is 9:45 am in Denmark.  I've also come down with a cold, thanks to all the germy people and lack of humidity of the airplane.  I have so much to get done around the house and garden, and I hate not being able to do any work right now.  Hopefully I'll be able to smell/taste again, because I seriously hate not being able to enjoy my own cooking!!  Arrrr.... Hope everyone's doing well!

Kai: I can feed myself!

Kai enjoys red palm oil and coconut oil straight from the spoon.  I give him a small portion off of a tiny condiment spoon each night after supper. 

Tonight, I decided I would let him hold the spoon and eat the oil from it at his leisure.  He spent several minutes licking every last bit of oil from the spoon, then played with the spoon itself for several more minutes.  He had a wonderful time and eventually dropped the spoon into my hand so he could clean his beak off.

I wonder if he would eat other things using a spoon?  :)  It was quite precious!

Kitty Cattails, Ultra Cute Puppyface, Creepy Gnomes, and Birds Unlimited

 One more quick post before I go to bed... (I wound up staying up chatting with my sister, H, in texts, hee...

Mitzy discovers the cattail!

Does it taste good??

Bleagh.....guess not.

Ultra Cute Puppyfaceness!!  Sacha wanted to play with the cattail, too!

Peaches finds gnomes creepy... B and I adore them!

Ultra cute gnome from Target alongside our gorgeous birdbath from The Bird House of Rochester!

Creepy enough for you?  We scored these at Goodwill!! 2.99$ each!

Travelocity Gnome from B's mommy!

Gnome woods!  We got these from Joann's, Wegman's, and B's mom.  This is our wood chopping area, also.  The Pileated Woodpecker also hunts through the old wood here for bugs!

So....I made a trip out to my favourite place to visit: Birds Unlimited...B groaned, because I had my camera draped around my neck as I got into the car.  That's never a sign of a short trip...

I caught this cute picture of a Rosy Bourke's Parakeet with a bit of millet stuck to his beak!

Baby Blue and Gold Macaw playing on his back, which is so cute!!

This adorable little Canary Winged Parakeet is as sweet as could be!!

The Golden Conures were very displeased with my camera clicking, so I made myself scarce...

A peppy little Green Cheek Conure!

Hero is such an adorable little guy!!!  He bobs his head when you wiggle your finger at him!

An adorable blue Quaker and a Cinnamon Green Cheek Conure saying "Hi!" to the camera!

An ornery Rainbow Lory, who was very displeased with my photography session...

Meanwhile, at my feeder!!!  I had my first hummingbird visit!

Not long after that, a female Oriole visited my oranges!!!

I was absolutely floored when I saw a male Oriole on the feeder next!!!  AHHH!!!

 Must.....get.....more.....oranges....

 Z......z.....z.......

Garden Time!

So...all of my perennials from last year survived!  They were pretty scrawny for a while...then NY weather brought in the rain, and everything leapt right up again!  The exception is my various artemesias...urgh.  I think I may need to fertilize them a bit.

 

Wildflowers carpet a good part of our wooded turnabout, which B is more than happy not to mow.  We both love the touch of wilderness that it lends the wooded side of our driveway! 

I've discovered that the yellow flowers that are everywhere are an invasive species from Europe called Chelidonium majus forma, Greater Celandine.  The sap is bright yellow and will stain your hands if you're not wearing gloves...It breaks so easily, but it pulls up with relative ease.

Dead Nettle is also everywhere, but it's so cute!  B and I thought it was some sort of mint, but it has no minty smell, though it IS in the mint family!

 

Our front steps are now adorned with beautiful tree stump-like pots, which I planted with Pansies, wild Violets, Lemon Verbena, and Creeping Jenny. 

I love the scent of Lemon Verbena...it smells like moist towelettes you use to wipe your fingers after eating BBQ or shellfish!

 B and I picked out two gorgeous hanging baskets this year for the beginning of our walkway from the south driveway.  Purple and pink Fuchsia and adorable Chenille Cattails are enchanting!  The cattails look and feel like caterpillars!!  They're so soft....There was a little boy at Grossman's who was staring at them forever.  I finally told him it was okay to pet them, and showed him that he could touch them if he liked.  He finally did and we giggled and pet the cattails for several minutes, then he trotted off bubbling joyously to his mother about how soft and fun they were to pet. 

As you can see, my Red Columbine and Dark Blue Tower Columbine are bursting with life!  Hopefully my Artemesia will catch up and spill over the rocks again like they did so splendidly last year.  I forget what the pink plant is mixed in with the Columbine... 

We've had random tulips pop up all over the place, thanks to the squirrels, no doubt.  We even had daffodils pop up in the wooded area compost pile!

 Both my species of Astilbe (above and below) are back and faring well!  I had to pull them up and relocate them so I could plant my herb garden this year, but they went easily without a fuss and settled right in again.

 All three of my Coppertina Ninebarks -- Thalia, Aglaia, and Euphosyne -- are doing great!  Their colours vary so drastically, I'm not sure why -- maybe it's the amount of sunlight they get?  I finally planted the one below beside Kenna (my Crimson Queene Japanese maple) beside front of the north-facing garage door.

 My Full Moon Japanese Maple, Sachi, is also back!!  I was so happy to see that she wasn't dead after I failed to put her into shade last year (and she burned), that I cried.  I watered her plentifully and moved her into a shady spot near the kitchen birdfeeder area and I'm going to plant her this week in front of the house!  Sachi is absolutely glorious....

 

 Guess what massive plant this is (above)!  If you guessed, "Catnip", you're right!!!  No, I kid you not, that's my Catnip!!  The leaves are 3-4 inches long, longer than my middle finger!  I've pinched the buds to help it bush out and expand this year so we'll have lots of happy cats.  It's really strong, too, all of the cats reared away from the buds as I crushed them and took off running with their lips peeled back from their teeth!  They came back to roll around eventually, then much mischief ensued!

My three little dwarf Golden Princess Spirea are doing great, too!  I was so happy to see that they were back after the winter!  I call them my Yoshi Bushes.  Yoshi, the green dinosaur from Mario, that is.  Mikari, my Magnolia tree, is doing fantastic, as well!  The blasted rain took out all my beautiful blossoms, but not before I was able to give Peaches one for her birthday in a bouquet I made for her!

My Peonies have yet to bloom, but they're almost there!

What I've designated as my Wildflower Zone is currently filled with Rocket, Dandelions, Johnny Jump Ups, wild Violets, and who knows what else!  This is going to be my work in progress...We were going to smash the barbeque up, but we kept it, because it's kind of like a throne on the other side...

We just got back from Grossman's today and brought home an entire trunkload of beautiful, wonderful plants!!  I had snuck off to Agway earlier this week and brought home my own carload of greenage, too...

 The coppery black Vertigo grass (above) is going to be gorgeous against the house by the birdfeeder!  Escargot Begonias (below) will be going into Gnome Woods.  The spiraling pattern of their leaves is absolutely enchanting!!

Blue and Black Salvia will look stunning.....uhm, where ever I wind up putting them...I have no idea where some of these plants will go, but I'll figure something out!  They may go into my Wildflower Zone!

Celosia was a pick for B, because he always remarks on how cute they look, so I finally caved in and brought a flat of mixed colours home with us.

Forget-Me-Nots!!!!  These are really cute, because occasionally, there are weird little lavender guys in with the blues!  These are definitely going into my Wildflower Zone!

The Magic Carpet Spirea is new to my garden from Agway, and it will likely be going into my Wildflower Zone, too!  I plan on planting it across from the Coppertina on the north-facing garage door side so it gets enough sun.

I laughed when I saw this marked as "Lil Kim Lilac" (above), then came home and looked it up, only to find it's called "MISS Kim Lilac".  Maybe I should call the nursery and let them know...The scent is incredible!!  It's a dwarf species, so it will only grow 4-6 feet tall.  I can also keep it trimmed shorter, if need be, I imagine.  Our lilac bushes around the property are blooming right now, also, and the scent is heavenly.

Miss Kim Lilac (background), Sand Cherry, and Magic Carpet Spirea awaiting planting!  The Sand Cherry is cool!  It'll grow to be 7-10 feet tall, so it's very manageable.  I plan on planting her opposite of Kenna beside the bay window.  Aside from having beautiful purple-red foliage, it will also produce black berries to feed the birds!

Shoshoni Doublefile Viburnum, who I've named Aiyana, is going to go just beneath the cover of the maple trees along the wooded area between our house and F & M's house.  It'll be covered in berries for the birds to eat after it's done flowering!  I can't wait to get it established, it'll be wonderful to have more foodsources for the birds!!

Spitfire Coleus is another incredible addition to my garden this year!  I'm not sure where I'll put it yet, but B thinks it looks like it's dead.... T_T  I'm starting to think I want a Fall Garden year round... B said he thinks we should have bright spring flowers for spring and summer, because everything will go red in fall.  Sigh.

Well, that's it for my garden until I hit up more garden shops -- and only after I get all of these guys planted!!  I'm pretty sure I'm gardening outside, because I'm trying to avoid cleaning the inside of my house.  Argh.... Alright, it's midnight, time for bed!