Making Some Waves

I'm working on a satin stitch band now; it's made up of three different rows.  After this, it's back to backstitching.

Science Geeking In The Museum

Our final destination in Transnistria was the Kvint factory.  At the museum, I kind of geeked out with all the science-y stuff.

Nearing The Corner

I am also nearly to the top left medallion.  It's going to be much easier to stitch once it's done.

Old, Old Graves

 The tiny church at Bender is a modern jewel, reflecting that, in the end, this graveyard is a political statement.  The place is as new as the church; most of the graves were moved here at the end of the hot portion of the Transnistrian war.  They had been closer to the fortress itself.  Their markers were moved with them and other, newer, more legible markers put up too.

The statement of this graveyard is "We are Russian.  We paid for this place in blood."  It's also only a couple of miles from the Russian military installation.

Bucket Stripe

Outside of the backstitching, the bucket stripe is done.  Time to move on to some shells.

Bender War Cemetery

 Andreas finished another set of photos from last summer.  These are from Bender, where we took his parents while they were here in Moldova.  This was the first time I'd visited it in the summer, and it's a beautiful, bleak, sad place even then.  The cemetery is very close to downtown on a busy street and is surrounded by commercial buildings and apartment blocks.

The people buried here fought for or against Russian control of the area that is Moldova.  Most of them died during the reign of Catherine the Great in the various battles for Tighina Fortress.  The last one buried here died in 1992 during the hot period of the Transnistrian War.  Because of that war, there are still 20,000 Russian troops on Moldovan soil to "protect" the breakaway "country" of Transnistria.  It's a sad situation that is only made worse by the current crisis in Ukraine.

Two More Stripes

I have finished the cross stitch band and the one after.  Time to get more done!