Full moon

Couldn’t sleep last night because of it.

This is a photo I took last night, from my window.

The video is made by my friend and me from similar photos, some time ago.

Sunset

I’m tired and uninspired these days. Time from morning to evening seems to pass in an instant, without me accomplishing much. The middle of summer can do this to me sometimes, making me feel like I live at the edges of myself. Having to do some tedious stuff for a job related exam doesn’t help either, but I’ll finish soon with that and I hope to feel more creative afterwards. I’ve started a while ago a new embroidery, stitching a saturated orange paper to canvas. It will be a sunset with far away mountains, a scenery that I long to see.

Button

This button is a flea market find from a while ago. It’s sterling with mother of pearl, enamel and a tiny sapphire or paste stone. I have seen very similar ones online dated around 1910. I like very much its eye like shape and I wear it now as a charm on my bracelet.

The mountains

I collect vintage postcards from the Romanian seaside, but over the years I have picked up a few from the mountains, too. The postcards are from the fifties. The glittery skiing card was mine as a kid, but I think it was older back then, I think it’s from the seventies.

Linking up with Vintage Bliss Tuesdays.

Parma violets

From time to time, people leave plants for us in the urban garden my friend created next to our building. Some are plants meant to be planted outside, in the garden, but also plants that couldn’t survive outside are left to find a shelter in our home :). It’s always such a great surprise to pass by the garden and find there a plant, or even pots and small gardening supplies that people donate. I have written here.about a huge cactus and some smaller cacti someone left for us in the garden. Yesterday, there were three pots in the garden, two of them with pink Parma violets and another with a different leafy plant. All of them not suited to be outside in the hot weather, and of course not in the winter. So, we have now three new plants inside. I have wanted Parma violets for some time now, so I took the bigger pot to my room, where the rescued cacti 🙂 live, too.

Kindergarten

This was my mother’s kindergarten case in the mid-fifties. She has just found it for me, I’ll probably use it to keep my current embroidery threads and scissors.

Hydrangea

The most beautiful tiny hydrangea is blooming in our urban garden.

Barometer and thermometer

They are an appropriate topic for these hot days, even if neither of them is working.

The brass barometer is from the sixties and it was bought by my grandfather. I was fascinated by it as a child, even if it was already broken then.

The thermometer is older, it was a gift to my grandparents from someone who visited Leningrad in the mid-fifties. Although this was brought back from Leningrad, it represent the Kremlin tower, I think. I love it, with its almost completely faded real photo, a ghostly souvenir from a past that I try to imagine.

Linking up with Vintage Bliss Tuesdays.

Barley and lentils

We wanted to make a quick meal of rice with lentils, but we realized we are out of rice and we were too lazy to go buy some. So, we used barley instead and it came out really delicious. And quite filling and nutritional, too.

So, we boiled the lentils and the barley beans with salt and curry for around one hour (till they are soft, but still chewy). In another pot, we cooked 5 diced onions in some oil, with oregano, curry, turmeric, salt, pepper, red pepper powder and a Turkish spice mix called Ottoman (it tastes of pepper, salty and a bit sweet). When the onions were almost cooked we put in one diced tomato. When this mixture started to thicken (when the liquid evaporated) we put in also the barley beans and lentils. And it was a great, spicy, easy to make meal!

Phone numbers

I’m not sure what to use these vintage phone number notebooks for. I kept the small one a long time in my bag, thinking I’ll use it for something (maybe randomly write down ideas that match each letter) but I never did. The big avocado green one is new in its box, with a leaflet with other office accessories from the same line. It’s from the seventies, I think. I used to be fascinated with these kind of notebooks, you just dial in a letter and the book magically opens at that page, but back then there were lots of phone numbers to write down. For now, I keep hoping I’ll find a use for these and how they pop open at a certain letter it’s still fun :).

Linking up with Vintage Bliss Tuesdays party.