There is a bright spot in the garden, with winter blooms of the Hellebores. I am lucky I can see it from the couch.

Sewing roundup, I did get a long sleeve blouse to fit me, I hope to use it as my go to pattern this year. I might even join shirt of the month  sew along on stitcher’s guild.  I made 2 coats, one winter coat and one light raincoat.

I knitted 7 pairs of socks, none for me.

I lost some weight, exercised some.

Played with my art supplies.

Hey, I’m happy.  Time to play with some of my latest new possessions. I got a gelli.

The view from the river, the city and a very large statue .

The monastery of the caves

The sphere of good and spiritual renaissance, was wonderful.  half a sphere really with birch eggs painted by school children, light to dark, light pastels to bright vibrant colours. I quite loved it.

The afternoon, we had free time and went back to main shopping area. THere was a big celebration and the streets blocked off and large areas for the dignitaries to watch the performers on the main stage.

It was interesting to see nowhere to cross the streets  but then realized that the staircases led down under the street, it was a bit like a warren down there and we weren’t always sure which tunnel to go down. But each tunnel was filled with shops and food stands.  I went into the large department store, very dark, wooden counters, etc., managed a couple of floors but I was getting tired and really had no interest in further shopping and was ready to head back to the boat.

WordPress has added a different way to add pictures. You can click on them to see a larger sideshow.

The next morning we had to catch the bus at 2:30 am to head back home.

After this we were given a plate of meat pilaf, and a small glass of vodka. Then on to the souviniers again.

The museum  was also great, and I especially enjoyed all the textiles and armour. It was wonderful to see all the handwork and original sources and inspiration, instead of depending  on drawings in books. It was hard to shoot the photos with all the glass and lights.

The largest lock on the river  was here, with a vertical rise of 126 feet.  It was quite incredible.

I hope to get some blogging done this week, update for the year  and so on.

After the hub-bub of the cities, a peaceful river was just what I needed. It is incredibly wide in some sections with just a narrow channel , (100 feet approx)  for the boats to travel. The mouth of the river is very grassy, a series of low islands and there are also several locks to travel up the river as well.  Fishermen were out with their rods and little boats all along the river, there were beaches. Small houses along the shore  and farms in the back ground.

We left Odessa and went over to the Crimean peninsula. Sevastopol and Yalta, I first learned that I had to pronounce Sevastopol differently. More SevesToepol than SeVastopole. We heard all about the Defence of Sevastopol and also the Charge of the Light Brigade.  We also went to Balaklava, yes, the knit wear came from there.Inside the tunnel, the opening of the tunnel is not visible from the Black Sea.

This is a less run down area because it is the French Rivera of the Ukraine, so more money and resorts(spas).

We went to the diorama of the Defense of Sevastopol and it was a tremendous piece of art 179 meters long,  with 4000 soldiers painted on it, it was like viewing the battle from a mountain top.

The charge of the Light brigade location  is now grape vines.  l is the site of a submarine repair cave from the cold war. It was quite incredible to see.

We visited a Khan’s palace  in Bakhchisaral, wonderful rooms, textiles  and lovely enclosed gardens.

Carpets covered the floor, and the seating benches around the room, cushions were covered with carpets as well.

In Yalta we visited the White palace, the summer home of the last Csar of Russia.

A wonderful building with incredible carpets on the floors for all the tourists to walk on day after day. They weren’t originals from the Csar’s time but still all those shoes. There were enclosed gardens and wonderful chandeliers.

This is the building where Roosevelt met with Churchill and Stalin to sign the treaty.

We drove out to see a building called the Swallow’s nest. We saw it from a distance.  But a stunning location.

There was always souvenirs at each stop, and sometimes food and we tried a confection. I was going to call it candy but really it wasn’t sweet.  Small groups of nuts encased in a gelatin substance and strung together on a string.  It tasted better than it sounds.

As a side note, last month in Halifax, in an old cemetery, we found a monument to a couple of fallen officers who fought at Sevestopol.  That was the last thing we expected to see.

Our boat.

Potemkin Steps.

Lots of history in this old city and everything is starting to blur. A lot of battles, memorial statues, interesting architecture.  So much to see. We went to the opera house, it has only been restored for a few years and is just beautiful.

That was a lovely evening, we saw La Boheme,  we sat in the fourth row, it was wonderful and then we got in the bus and went back to the boat. A late dinner was waiting for us.

We were disappointed with missing a day in Istanbul as our plane was delayed over 30 hours. What we saw there is a bit of a blur, as we arrived at 5am and we did managed 3 hours sleep before the tour. We bought a carpet, still to arrive, for the living room. We saw the Blue Mosque and the Haghia  Sofia and a 10 minute look into the bazaar, too tired to do more. We had a dinner, after a nap, at the roof top resturant at hotel over looking the Bosphorus.

Some photos of our short stay.

Overlooking the Bosphorus.

A glass of tea at the end of the day.

It was a real chore to find all the bits and notions. Navy stoppers for the cord, took 3 stores, the grommets  and snaps didn’t match but I figured that I had spent enough time looking and after all that the snaps were hidden inside the flap over the zipper.

It has been a long time since I have attempted anything this difficult, lots of pieces and construction order was different as well, ie the zipper was attached to the facing first and then the facing and interior hood was joined to the coat. The snaps went inside the flap, etc. The welt pockets and the other pockets with flaps were nearly the end of me. I was continually going back to the pattern instructions, which I had enlarged to see it better. I also went back and forth to the tracing sheet, to see what I had missed,  which was quite a bit.  I even did a muslin for general size and fit.

Is it perfect-no. Do I love it–YES.