Backgrounding

I've been filling out the background this time.  It's coming along, and I feel like I'm making progress.  It could be that I'm stitching the last parts of rows, so I can tick them off the "to do" part.

A Little More

I put the first stitches in on the last side of the square!  The thread was leftover from the third side, so.... definite progress!

On The Nistru

 Photos of the Nistru (Dniester) River at Lalova at the end of June.  It's a very placid, slow moving river.

Bird At The Table

We had a bird at the table at Hanul lui Hanganu.  The bird was trying to protect its chick from us and managed to do that - while landing on the rocks and the table and the thatched roof.

Another Window

The uppermost window of the last row on this house has been started.  Yay!  That means I must be making progress.  Sometimes it's hard to see on this.

Some Sparklies

Got some sparkle going on this. It's somewhat harder to work on than usual because of the black fabric, but I'm getting it done.

Back To The Countryside

 A bunch of the embassy community took a trip to Hanul lui Hanganau, which we had stayed at in April.  We went back and had a wonderful lunch before getting to look at some sunflower and lavender fields.  The food was typical Moldovan and delicious.  Top is zeama, a chicken noodle soup. Next is a veggie salad.  Placinte in the northern style was next.  It's more fluffy and less greasy-feeling than the southern version.  Both, though, are spiced with dill.

Pork tocana with mamaligia was the main dish.  I just had the mamaligia, which is very similar to polenta.  They serve it with scrambled eggs, the local cheese, sour cream, and an oil and garlic mixture.  Everyone else said the pork was excellent.  There was also sarmele and dolma.  They're the same thing, except the rice and spices are wrapped in cabbage leaves for sarmele and grape leaves for dolma.  I prefer the cabbage leaves.

Last, and for dessert, were the clatite, basically crepes.  These ones were filled with sour cherries and topped with dollops of sour cream. They were soooo good!