My favorite things

My last post was about things that scared me-they are everywhere! Lest I come across as a big scarcedy cat here are some things that I love.

I love the house with a walled garden, it is kind of like having a little city all to myself. The courtyard is full of flowers and trees, and it has a big table with an umbrella where we often eat outside. I can run around in my jammies, or sunbathe French Riviera style, and nobody sees me.

Lots of trees and flowers, flowers, everywhere! Inside, outside and all around the town. Everyone loves flowers. Every time we go to the market we buy more flowers. They bloom in window boxes, in planters, in gardens, and public spaces. This is a bloomin' paradise and zillions of birdies orchestrate a soundtrack to the day. 

Conserving just about everything. We keep a bin for refuse that the chickens like, such as vegetable greens and leftover pasta. We don't have a garbage disposal so dregs of organic matter go into the back garden to enrich the soil. Walls two feet thick save a lot of energy. Last week I mended tea towels, and darned garments. No reason to get rid of them if it just takes a stitch (or nine). Big electrical sockets that accommodate plugs wth ridges, a person can get a good grip to pull them out of the socket. Um, saves on replacing appliances because of ruined electrical cords? I dunno, I just like the plugs and had to fit them in. I also like that the toilets let me regulate the water. This is the glam life.

Little shops all over the place mean that what I need is just around the corner. There is a teeny general store just two blocks away. It is about the size of a bedroom and has a little bit of most everything we need. We go there for fresh vegetables and cheery conversation. The feed store is in my husband's classmate's garage just three blocks away. The massage therapist is four houses down. We can walk or bike to get anything we need. 

Food is a big topic. Family constantly ask what I want for the next meal. It's a little stressful because unless I'm hungry I don't think about food. Plus, I hardly know anything about the cuisine. They do have my number on the potatoes. Today at lunch we had the piled potato dish with hard boiled eggs and sausage. I admit to having two large helpings. Every morning I make a pot of espresso and drink a double shot latte with honey.  Now that I know how to not burn the house down I'm getting pretty good at making coffee. I've graduated to grinding the beans and filling the jar with fresh grounds to use over the next few days. Every Wednesday and Saturday I go get fresh langos (fry bread made of potato flour) at the piac (market). Langos is hot out of the fryer and perfect served plain. Sometimes I have it with a thin schemer of garlic. Today I had it with garlic and sour cream. When I get brave I'll top it off with grated cheese. That's a lot of fat so I have to be ready for it. 

Bicycle sidewalks keep bikes off the roads and keep them safe. Not the roads, the bikes, jeez! Oh... you are right, that does make the roads safe too. Whaddyaknow. Plus, drivers are also cyclists so they are careful and courteous of bicyclists. This week I actually saw a bike helmet. It was on bicyclist riding a fancy bike, dressed in full mufti with sleek shorts, clip-in shoes, and bike jersey. He really stood out among the little old ladies in house dresses carrying wicker baskets.  

To that point, traffic is manageable and I learned to walk down the middle of the street. I walk to church with a neighbor who is about a million years old. She takes my arm and we amble several blocks. At one point the sidewalk is under construction so she said we should walk in the street. She's holding my arm but I'm the terrified one! Cars come zooming toward us and they move over for us without any fuss. No honking or gesticulating or funny looks. Wow, so cool and so bizarre! She doesn't even bother to get immediately back on the sidewalk when she can, she stays in the street like it isn't a thing. My head is about to burst from trying to be as nonchalant as she is!

I explore the neighborhood when I jog and bike and I found a couple of networks of dirt roads right around the corner. They go through fields and houses and gardens and intertwine with asphalt and concrete and cobblestone. Cobblestone is called "cat stone," what a cool name! It's rough for biking and running but so picturesque. When I'm on my bike I sound off, "ahhhhhhhhhh," as I bounce over the stones, making that fun ululating sound you get when your body is going boing, boing, boing!

I can't get lost. The Danube is to the west and a canal to the south so if I'm "exploring" and I come to large running water then I know where I am and can reorient myself. All the cities have signs indicating when where the town starts and where it ends. So far I've used those boundaries to keep my bearings. Yesterday I crossed the Danube and found a big park with a network of bike trails. If I read the map right (see photo below, we are at the right end of the red segment at the bottom) then maybe there is a bike route around the whole country. How much fun would that be, to bike the circumference. Food for thought. To go along with the piled potatoes. 

This whole town is clean. We have plenty of little trash cans around town and folks use them. In our home we wash our hands before and after just about every activity. Almost everything is divided into a clean and a dirty version of the same thing. In the kitchen wee have towels for dishes, different towels for hands, and paper towels for drying fruit or veggies after we wash them. That is, after we wash our hands. We have more types of cleaning products and cloths than I ever imagined. We use one set of slippers for the house, different slippers for the garden, shoes for the street, and muck boots for the henhouse and back garden. Floors so clean you can eat off of them is a real thing. I can't count the number of times per day I'm admonished that something is "piszkos," dirty, and I need to change what I am doing. Use a clean spoon for cleaning coffee grounds from the espresso maker, even thgh the grounds are going into the trash. Do not sit on the ground or cement in the courtyard. Only a chair will do. And wash off that garden chair before sitting on it. Preferably place a clean cushion on it too. My friend Amber's famous sit-upons would be a hit here! 

It's fun running around discovering all these cool things!