Dear Friends and Family

Just a quick note....I'm thinking of you, wondering how your first day of summer is.  It definitely feels like summer -  90 degree temps here (although humidity was over 80%).  Fruits and veggies are ahead of last years schedule - mulberries and cherries have come and gone, I loved picking mulberries for breakfast every time I found a tree - they come in 3 colors - black, white and pink (the sweetest).  Now we're into apricots and plums. We also have lots of cucumbers, onions, garlic and zucchini.  It won't be much longer before the tomatoes begin to ripen.  :>)

 

Here's a little treat from one of my morning walks this week...

 

 

Wish you were here, to share the experience - the sounds, smells, cleaning little round clumps off of one's shoes, etc.... It's the simple things in life that give us great pleasure, right?

I hope the first day of summer/winter is a good one for you!

Festival of Roses

June 3rd, I traveled to Kazanluk with the Women's Club for the annual Rose Festival. I have added some photos in Spring 2012 of more beauty in Bulgaria.  Everything is richly green from a month of frequent and sometimes excessive rain.  Sunday was like a summer day - sunny and hot.  We left the village at 7:00am and returned 12 hours later.  I was tired and had a headache all day, but I couldn't complain because a couple of the women I was traveling with had worked long hours the day before at the company that freezes fresh fruit as it ripens.  Then they go home and do the home chores - like cooking, laundry and cooking.  They have been having very short nights for sleeping because it's the "high" season for strawberries. So they were on this excursion with about 3-5 hours of sleep, then they had to go to work after we returned to the village. Wow!

Some of my highlights from this day-long excursion:

• seeing some beautiful country traveling through the Balkan Mountains to the Valley of the Roses
• Traveling wtih Bulgarians who know so much history and geography and who have a sense of humor
• Seeing beautiful roses
• Visiting with other Peace Corps volunteers for a little while
• Picking up some yogurt made from Buffalo milk - really.

Check out the photos for more details.

Something Borrowed.......

Follow this link to a blog talking about what it's like to be an ex-pat in another country...she says it well and I feel both sides.  It's exciting to have the adventure of traveling somewhere new and different with an intention to share what I know.  At the same time all that I have known and is familiar is far away from here, now.

What Happens When You Live Abroad