italian easter with latvian-hawaiian touch…

The title may sound strange, but I can explain! I celebrated this year’s Easter holidays in Italy, but to make the things more interesting we added a beautiful latvian tradition of egg coloring. As for Hawaii , lately I miss so much warm sun and smiles, soft ocean breezes and coconut trees! So if I can not go to the islands right now, I will bring the islands to me! The easiest way was to make a Lei from the spring flowers! This was my first attempt in wili technique, and I am quite happy with it. I didn’t have gathered enough flowers to make it longer, so it fits only around that small bowl.

As for the eggs – we use only natural dyes, such as onion skins or willow bark, and for the pattern small flowers or plants. Usually you prepare the eggs some days before the actual Easter celebration, so you can use them as gifts or as exchange tokens, play many games or just eat them!  They are very hard boiled though, so I prefer to use them as an adornment.

The last picture is typical treat for festivities in my boyfriends family - il girarrosto. There was also the lamb of course, but this came as extra!

special ice crystal clusters on the beach

I want to share these strange ice formations I found the other day walking on the beach in Latvia. I have come back home for holidays, and during my first walk to the seaside I’ve got a lovely surprise!

I have no idea how this phenomena is called and what are the conditions that make it happen, but as you see in the pictures – there were these grass like ice crystals all over the place. They were disposed vertically and shifted with the slightliest gust of wind while making weird noises. Unfortunatelly the day after the weather changed and they melted down. So enjoy the pictures!

our weekend out

Some pics of interst – The abbey of Valombrosa (The Valley of Shadows, what a name, but actually it is so overpowered by trees, that you hardly find an open spot!

Then on Sunday we went to the Caves of Monsummano, near Montecatini, which is  the nearest climbing place to Florence. It is perfect in winter cause you are protected from winds, and if the weather is sunny, you can climb in a T-shirt even in February. These were the last pics of the day, so sorry for the light!

arno river from the dam

A pic taken from our short walk in the city center. There is a dam right across the river, and you can walk there. Sory for the lack of sharpness, but my phones camere is what it is...

snowflakes and organic hand cream

The weather here in Florence changed so rapidly. There was not one drop of rain all winter long, and now for two days we get snow! Of course, I love it! What I don’t love is the continuos blocks of traffic and cancelled trains. It’s like the end of the world here if they see a single snowflake. And I remember all the time that in Latvia it is just  normal to have some 30 cm of snow. Kids are excused from going to school only till the age of 16 and only if the cold goes below -25 degrees Celsium. Here I feel that the man has gone “soft”, inadapted to weather changes, or in general to any kind of changes. I once heard that in Sweden they say : “There is no such thing as a bad weather, there is just inadequate clothing” and I go with this quote.

In the pic is what I see outside my kitchen window – the snow doesn’t stay on the ground, it is still too warm I think. But it is such a peaceful feeling to watch the snow fall. It’s like a dance. The snowflakes go up and dow and in all directions carried by the tiniest blow of wind. That is so cool!

Then I wanted to talk about a video I found by chance on youtube. As you might have guessed, I am changing my lifestyle and my body care to more organic and natural products and activities. And I started with a toothpaste, and this morning I found a video on how to make a hand or face cream at home. And that is so easy! And the plants this person used are the same that are so much praised by my grandmother.

You’ll need:

• some calendula flowers
• some plantain leaves
• you can add any other herb that you like or you use usually in your herbal teas
• bees wax
• cold pressed extra virgin olive oil

So, you can put half a cup of olive oil in a ceramic bowl, and add hand chopped plants and flowers to it and let them infuse for some time. I guess aproximately 2 weeks could be enough. When you see that the oil is getting more greenish and absorbes the color of the herbs you can use it. Every now and then you have to stir the infuse, better by your hands or a wooden spoon. Please don’t use any metal spoons or knifes. As for the herbs it is better if you pick them when it’s full moon, as it is said that they reach their maximum healing potential at that time.

So, when you think the infuse is ready, take an enamel coated cattle ( no alluminium!!!!) and filter your infuse in it. You should heat the oil, but not too much. It will permit to conserve it better for longer  period of time. And here you can choose – either you can use it as a body oil, and it will absorb in your skin more easily or at this point you can add some 2 -3 table spoons of bees wax to make it more dense. Bees wax will create that thin protective layer on your skin and the cream will take longer to completely absorb in. But it might come handy if you need to protect your face if you do a lot of hiking in highier mountains, skiing or sailing, or you are just looking for some night cream. I have very dry skin on my hands, so right now I use a hand cream made of calendula and bees wax and I find it really good.

When the bees wax has melted, you can put the liquid in a jar, better if it is of dark glass and wait till it is not very hot anymore. And now if you want, you can add some drops of your favourite essential oil to give it a really great perfume.

Well, that’s it. I will add a link to this great channel on you tube where I found the information on the right sidebar. I cann’t make the cream right now, cause I don’t have any fresh herbs, although it is not a problem – you can use also dried herbs, but I prefer them fresh and full of earth energies. So I will update a review in spring.

funny dragon stamp

I just wanted to share a funny stamp. I recieved new years greetings from home, and this was a very nice image. Then I could share my great, no – gigantic joy of first snow! It is snowing here in Florence! Finally! Maybe it will be possible to do some skiing in weekend. I hope that I will wake up and the streets will be covered in white, and all the sounds will be wiped out. That would be a perfect morning to start my fantasy novel. Well – a novel is a big word, I will keep it just for myself, and I will just write about my imaginary and dream world. I have a plot and some of the main characters and I keep thinking about it as a sequence of pictures. I hope I will be able to do some illustrations, cause thouse I could show here. As for the story, sorry, you’ll never see it! I don’t know if that is just a thing of mine or it is frequent tendency – I am unable to fall asleep unless I don’t “adventure” myself in some kind of a story. Usually I travel to some other world or become an additional character in one of my favourite books. I don’t get far, and the story never gets past first 10 minutes. So I feel that I need to put it on a paper and maybe I will be finally able to close at least the first chapter.

land is shaking

That was one big emotion. My first earthquake. Hopefully the last too. Today I was in my university classrooms doing my thesis work, and around 15.50 we felt the building started to shake. The lamps were swinging and the floorboards made some strange cracking noises. It was scary. I have never experienced anything alike. We felt it more cause we were at the time on the top floor of the building. And fortunatelly it didn’t last long, there were two quakes in a row. The quake was classified as a 5.4 at its epicenter, and we had one already two days ago. Lucky we were not really close.

The thesis is proceeding well. I discovered that working with a friend, who is also close to graduating, actually helps to maintain the concentration. We chat a bit, we complain about slow progress and hard life (and of course men ahaha), we have some kinder bueno breaks… When it is hard to go on and be creative, it is a good motivation to be monitored a little. Tomorrow it’s saturday, and we have already made arrangements to study again, at least till afternoon. I will be doing some handicraft, meaning – a scale model. I can’t wait, I find it relaxing to cut and glue the cardboard pieces together. It will be just a study model, I have to understand better the terrain elevations and connections to the civic center.

Then, I have a little art project on my mind. I haven’t decided yet if I will paint it traditionally or it will be a digital painting. So far I have made only a sketch, and the motif is approved, not the colour swatches though.  Hope to be able to start it this weekend. Wish you all a great weekend!

mousy thoughts

Have you ever tried to destroy a mouse? Not the real mouse, but the one you use for your PC! The scroll wheel refused to cooperate anymore, so I decided to look what’s inside. My attempts were worthless. The only damage I was able to cause was the one you can see in the picture! So I made a mouse to look more mousy! I tried to open it with a screwdriver, with a hammer and by jumping on it. Nothing! It is as undestroyable as a Nalgene bottle!

Then today I made a trip to a post office to retrieve a package. And what a journey – it took me 4 hours to go there and back again ( wow, it seems that Tolkien just creeps in all of my posts…) I could complain all over again about the never functioning italian order: in Florence there is just one post office where you can retrieve registered mail, and of course it is situated in the far off suburb of Florence. I had to take 2 buses to get there and the whole morning off. But at least I cought a glimpse of Santa Maria Novella facade lit by morning sunshine. That was beautiful. And the package was a total surprise from my parents! They know that I miss home, and they sent me some newspapers and magazines, so to say : as a toilet literature!

I think that I will add a more serious page to this blog, and in particular I would like to explore my origins, baltic people origins and belief system. I would like to reconnect to my past. So why not to do it here. I am so frustrated of people continuous questions about my language. And they all (all italians) think that it is of slavic origin. No, no, no and no. The common trait is that Baltic and Slavic languages they both belong to the indoeuropean family as do all other european languages, they share some common traits, but they are not the same! I don’t understand, that only because we were once part of the Soviet Union, we have to automatically pass as throughout russians. Maybe I am wrong to measure others by my way of thinking, but if I don’t know something, I at least try to learn instead of building my knowledge on assumptions.  And today there are so many fun and easy ways to get the information. The web is your friend people! It won’t bite you, at least if you stay on the safe tracks.

orange monday

Yep, this monday is definately orange. My boyfriend has brought me a box full of oranges! The real sicilian oranges! I am so happy! There is no fruit better than a ripe orange when you can split the slices apart with the slightest touch! And I am capable of eating even 6 of them in a day! well not anymore… I am trying to do an ayurvedic detox cycle, and I must not exagerate with food quantities. I am not doing it 100% seriously, cause unfortunately I have arranged two nights out this week, and that will violate the disciplin. But at least I am trying slowly to convince my body, and mostly – my hunger- to some new sets of rules. A glass of warm water in the morning is ok, and I even can skip the breakfast and manage a light lunch. The problem is dinnertime! I eat too late, and then I have to stay awake till 2 a.m. to digest the food! But what can I do? I don’t feel hunger at 6 p.m. (that would be the time you’re supposed to dine). And I absolutely can not fall asleep when my stomach is growling with hunger! There is no way out of this situation!

The second orange fact is my pumpkin! It is a decorative pumpkin, one of those that has to dry out, but I wait and I wait, and I am very much afraid that it has developed independent forms of life inside of it. It is not drying out, but it gets fluffy – soft. And I have no Idea what to do with it. It would be a pity to throw it out after 4 months waiting.  maybe one day it will walk out on its own alien legs…. Creepy…

The cool thing is that I did some labeling today! Yeah, you can see that I am a bit of a Tolkien geek… I have a bad handwriting and so I got some technologies involved to make these labels. Last week I went to a stationery to buy some adhesive paper, and the salesman was so good, that instead of one sheet he sold me a whole package of 100 sheets, so I can now produce labels on industrial level. I had to throw out two already, cause it’s not easy to print on the right side of the paper. The outcome is quite satisfying. I love them. I have labeled my herb jars and tee tins, crayon boxes and even my cat. Oh that was a lie, I wish I had a cat, because then I would have labeled it too!

Still an hour left till midnight, so I will get back to my work!

the iiiick factor

Today I met an old friend! To be more precise, an old creation of mine – Peter the Spider! He is not the ick factor, but the fact that after two years he is still in the same exact place where I left it : that’s  Ick!

I had this particular course at the university, and we were working in a team. So as you know the teamwork forsees a lot of fun moments, and we had just one of those while making a cardboard scale model.  Right next to our classroom, there was the only clean bathroom of the establishment (that already says much about italian university cleanness level) wich nobody knew of. But because we kept the door open, the students soon discovered this particular room and we had a continuous flow of people passing by. So we decided to close the passage by putting a  spiderweb made of scotch across the door! And it functioned, we caught some of the trespassers. The web got upgraded with an inhabitant –  a spider named Peter or Pietro. When we finished that workshop, we left the Spider behind on one of the bookshelves. We didn’t thought that he would live long, cause supposedly the cleaning lady should come by eventually….

Today I stopped by that classroom to eat my lunch, and there he was – sitting on the shelf smiling at me! Oh Peter, what a survivor! And now I will say IIICK out laud, that place has not been cleaned since 2 years! IIIIIIIICK!!!!!