Autumn in the Market

By this time of the year, a special kind of madness gets all of us: the winter preparations, the preserves. Maybe it's the hard winters we sometimes have, maybe the long years when food was so hard to find and a jar of pickles was pure gold, maybe tradition. Maybe we even enjoy it. But people behave like famine would start next week. The markets are full with everything that can make you get to work or get fat: bell-peppers, long peppers, tomatoes, cabbage, cauliflower, eggplant, cucumbers, horse radish, corn cobs, beans, zucchinis, apples, pears, grapes, melons, peaches....everything. And the fat king of the market: the pumpkin! Autumn's faithful companion. Then you buy jars and other recipients for the pickles or jam, lids and the rest. Then you roll up your sleeves.
And only the yellow leaves have time to rest on the bench, in the mild sun. And the autumn.

Leaves

Either it was already here and I hadn't realised or it was the storm yesterday. But I noticed this leaves carpet when coming back from school. Hundreds and hundreds of leaves quietly resting on the grass, waiting for the wind to take them away before the gardeners do it. I'm sure they would like to be caressed by a gentle breeze of air. But it's another warm day today. No use wishing for the twirling second today.

Footsteps

Definitely, the autumn is somewhere near- here are her footsteps in the grass.

Eco-towns

Little by little, although very slowly people are feeling the necessity of taking care of The Only Planet where we can Live. Lots of small initiatives to help the Earth. Some of them from shopping centres, like the case of the renewable bags Carrefour is proposing. So much plastic is destroying marine habits and killing fish and plants. A good idea that can only be successful if it is followed by other supermarkets. Anyway, a small pebble to raise consciousness.
andin a bigger scale, meetings and congress where to study the situation of our environment. There is a huge congress at the moment exploring our forest life. Many activities to encourage citizens to live in harmony with nature, to respect trees. It seems an irony after all the fires in summer. May we understand the deep meaning of the congress message.

Valladolid

The biggest park in town: El Campo Grande.

Nowadays a shopping street, it used to host the richest families in the 19th century. Big trade marks have invaded today the houses. But, it's alive.

The Main Square is one of the very few that is cut in streets. There is no continuation like in Medieval squares. this one is more the Rennaissance style.

Typical architecture in 17th century squares: reasonable lines of exact windows. And the Town Hall


Another town in our region, Valladolid, the administrative capital of the region. An industrial town that sprang when a Renault factory was built in the 60s.
The centre is a street net with houses from the 19th century. It's the Place where my Parents Live.

Equinox

Another summer is ending today. A long way to go until the next one...
Autumn is still not very openly present: only its light and smell are here, and the cool mornings. It's only playing with us, throwing chestnuts and acorns at us, making us unsuspicious until it's strong enough to take over our lives. Still, it's not long before the colours will start changing and we'll look for a warm shelter for our dreams.
Here are the first and the last verses from a beautiful poem about autumn, belonging to a great contemporary woman writer, Ana Blandiana. Unfortunately, I found no translation and mine are usually terrible. I'm sorry for that.

Let me keep my green trees, fall
here, have my eyes instead;
in the yellow wind at dusk
trees were crying on their knees.
Let me keep the daytime, fall,
don't pour smoke into the sun,
turn me into nightfall-
I already am.

PS Remember the photo by any chance?

Numbeeeeers!

That's silly, but I enjoy making these. They are take-away numbers for Rome, with Bucharest photos on a side (My Town in Numbers!) and the project's address and name on the other. They are nicer and cheaper than visit cards-I made some of those too. These are mainly for kids visiting the exhibition, and I'll have garlands of them to adorn the stand too. If I still were in my old school, my kids would have gladly made them, not me. But I'm not there any more. Which gives me an idea- I'll make one for each of them and pay them a visit-with a box of chocolates, too!

Fly high!

The balloon was in my park this afternoon. It was just for advertisement, but I'd like to turn it into a wish: may you all win all the contests you enroll into, conquer all the obstacles, fly as high as your dreams, plans and imagination can take you. "Ilusión", right? I like the word. The balloon is ready to go, the flame is lit. Fly!

Crisis Prices

These two week-ends we are having an annual event called "Bucharest Days". It's supposed to be more important this year, because our town is celebrating 550 years since its name was first mentioned in an official document. The programme for the event is theoretically very rich, but the enthusiasm is not matching. Maybe it's the too often mentioned crisis that we are worried about, but there was almost no media coverage, and the general feeling was the one you can see on the organ grindler's face. It's so clear!
He's one of the many costumed characters meant to revive the "Little Paris" atmosphere. The parrots were supposed to pick a little piece of paper revealing your future, for a small fee. The text on his instrument is the real gem: "Love:5 lei, future: 5 lei, destiny: 5 lei". The crisis prices our life has.
The photo is from metropotam.ro.

Ruined Citadels

Unlike the citadel in Rasnov you saw, turned into a tourist attraction, many 14th-16th century citadels in Transylvania are abandoned, turned into ruins and only visited by people who are not necessarily looking for entertainment. Here are two of them: Rupea (only the first photo) and Saschiz. This second village also has a very big and allegedly beautiful church, but it's not visited right now for renovation reasons.
We climbed the breath-taking slope to the citadel but we chilled immediately as we entered this enclosed and silent place. No noise made it there from the valley and we could only hear the amazingly loud sound the wings of the birds passing by were making. We took a short look into the abandoned well, once probably the heart of the fortress, explored the towers, Sorin climbed the battlements and then we went back before sunset. The legend says that an old virgin accepted to be built inside the walls, as a sacrifice aiming to make them last in time, and if you greet her after sunshine, you get an answer. We did not try...We had had enough thrills for the day.

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Not-So Medieval

Festivals are not always conveniently founded. There are elements in the Medieval Market that do not match the times: chocolate, insturments, some clothes, some food. The general atmosphere becomes a fake. It's not a good recreation, just a way to attract tourists and make people buy.
It was not a good start for the one this year because of the intention of some conservative group.
Besides this crisis has also made the market less colourful and visited.
Perhaps the idea is been exploited too much and it needs regeneration.

Biertan

The fortified German Protestant church in Biertan is one of the four such churches in the central Transylvania that were declared UNESCO monuments.

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Medieval Market 2009

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Dance in the park

This is a scene from a senior citizens nigh in the park. Each week-end night this summer there were shows or music in this small performance area, and this night was for them. Maybe it looks a bit ridiculous, but it was touching to see them dance (this was just the beginning, the most daring couples! You should have seen them later!) and enjoy themselves like that, considering they don't have an easy life here. I did not expect seeing anyone that age doing anything else than complaining. But they did, and I don't know if I would have had the courage to dance in front of all that people. The band was not bad, there was a singer too, and the music must have been just right for them: The Beatles, "Strangers in the Night" and such things. Good for them!