Russian River Cruise - Day 7 - May 18

The weather on this day was a bit cool but sunny, with some clouds. We arrived in Goritsy at 11:00 A.M and immediately met the buses on the pier to go to the small provincial town of Kirillov. We visited the prominent Monastery of St. Cyrill on the White Lake. It is a huge spreading number of buildings There was a helicopter flying about and when asked why we were told that the people in the area had joined hands to make a ring around this Monastery to promote the addition of the place into a heritage building to be restored and saved. There are monks living and working here. We were treated to a vocal by 3 people in part of the Church while there. More on this next post.
We also visited the local House of Culture and Children's Summer Club where kids learn and develop their skills in Russian Arts and Crafts. In this educational establishment were treated to recital of poems by four young boys who created these short poems as an exercise in their studies. We also saw a demonstration of lace making. Beautiful work. By the time I was able to get to the place to purchase some lace, it was pretty well all gone.

A couple of days ago we took a deli lunch to Saxe Point where I was able to get a few photos of the tall ships, as well as more of the plants in the Park. More on this when I have finished my Russian river cruise, Baltic Countries coach tour, and 3 days in Amsterdam, series of photos.

I have managed to get out and water and weed a bit. I have the boxwood hedges trimmed. We had two very hot days and I was out watering to save the strawberries, primarily, and to give the Saskatoon berry trees water. Maybe we will get enough berries for a pie. Keepin' my fingers crossed and watering when I get the time. There are weeds everywhere, of course, after 2 months of no attention. The vegetable seeds I planted did not come up, so I guess I will dump all my old seed and start with new stuff next year. Its too late to do tomatoes, so the veggie patch will be fallow this year, again. I am adding the lawn clippings and mulched weeds on top to try to add some tilth to this soil. Probably adding weed seeds. Oh well, with all that mulch, they should pull out easily.

We have had the laundry room and storage closet repaired (from when our plumbing sprang a leak) and painted. We have Hourigans coming in sometime to add this lino that looks like tiles to the laundry room, entry way and closet. All of this should be covered by our insurance, except Lidia's extra painting in the laundry room for which she charged me for the paint and $192 for just that one room. I have no idea what things should cost.
We have a painter coming in a couple of weeks to start the paint on the rest of the rooms, except the kitchen and the adjoining room where I have my computer, plants, etc. I am going to have new cabinets, lighting, flooring and paint of course. All of this is keeping us quite busy.

I started the rum pot yesterday with a couple of cups of strawberries, half a cup of sugar and brandy to cover the berries. It tastes pretty good already! I think the secret is to get enough sugar in the mix. Last year's tasted far to alcoholic and not enough fruit.