Snow White and the seven shovels

A little house, all covered in snow.The beauty was stranded! The prince was not home!

To climb up the ivy was useless - where to run free? Because the whole country was just a white sea!
But all of the sudden, the beauty screamed: victory! A small shovel seemed more precious than all jewelry!

 

She rapidly uncovered the house - going through snow like through cheese a little mouse! Upon the prince's return there was nothing more to say, because a new shovel was indeed the best gift for this Valentine's Day!
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I'm not much of a poet, but you see, I had to write this ode for the day :))!
My world.

what does the winter sound like?

beautiful Romania

so simple, so at home

My World.

white lace, black velvet

Votivkirche, Vienna.

Grinch and the Christkindlmarkt

 Yesterday I took the Grinch to the Christmas Market in front of the Viennese City-hall. I tried to offer the Grinch some Punsch or Glühwein, some Langos or some sweets. No way! Slightly annoyed, the Grinch complained about the high prices, but also about the fact that some of the huts are offering the same products like last year. The wind was also on the list, as well as the cold.

 It was only the snow that saved the day from the Grinch, and the Grinch from himself. With a sigh he admitted that the Advent is a beautiful season.

Advent, Advent

Bright lights, delightful smells, nice music, children, laughter. We also had snow, but a warm storm melted it away in just few hours. 

 Most wanted? Punsch and Glühwein, of course! Second place come the Maroni - roasted chestnuts.

The shopping rush? The stress (madness?) before Christmas? Not with us, thank you.

Camera Critters and some snow

 When I took these first two pictures it was already cold enough as to be terribly surprised when this mosquito landed on my left boot. Took a pictures of it just so the people will believe me that I saw a mosquito at this time (and temperature)!

 Yesterday it snowed like in a fairytale and we were already happy for the prospects of visiting the local Advent market in snow & all. Well, till evening a warm storm came and melted almost all of this beautiful snow. The wind blew the whole night - making weird noises and all. Now I see we are going to have a sunny Sunday. So much for a white winter!

Happy Camera Critters day ;)!
ps: and since the discussion on the CC site was about Christmas carols, here is a Romanian classic. Enjoy!
Stefan Hrusca - Colinde de Craciun - Deschide usa, crestine
 
 Asculta  mai multe  audio   diverse

frozen garden

Today's flowers meme here.

calla... y sigue mirando al mar (be silent... and keep watching the sea)

- Mamá, tengo frío...

- Calla y sigue mirando al mar, mi heladito del alma.
- ¡Qué mamá!...

(the text belongs to Jose Ramon - muchas gracias!)

white Black Sea

So, I am back again. I still have tons of things to learn and do for my exams, but these photos from the Black See are worth showing!

more ice, more dogs

Actually just one more dog (in a hurry), but more to come the following days. It was too cute and too funny to see them :).

a clear blue sky

A clear sky watch contribution, from the Romanian mountains, the Cheile Dambovicioarei (Dambovicioara Gorges) region.
Happy Friday!

reality check

A Bucharest series, with pictures from the weekend. True Bucharest neighbourhood (cartier), in real winter. I am somehow pleased with all this snow, because this is the winter as we know/love it. Last year it was so dry and warm, a pest!

Have a great week!

winter in Romania

Before going back to my Austria posts, because there are some things that I'd like to share with you, let me just post freshly baked - or shall I say frozen?- photos from my Romanian window 5 minutes ago. Of course it snowed, and of course the roads are almost impossible to drive on. No winter services, although huge money are paid to these winter services companies... And the mayor still stays in office!...

happy holidays!

My friends, in case I didn't reach your blogs to wish you happy holidays, I take the opportunity to do this now.

Best wishes to all of you, regardless what your celebration is: Christmas, Hanukkah, Bajram or whatever else...

I said I will conclude 2007's posting on Sunday, but I am tired, I have a thousand things to do, and I'm preparing my trip to Austria too.

So, thank you all for visiting and thank you all for your wonderful photos. Looking forward for more in 2008!

Stay focused!

A big hug,

Lara

PS: I am celebrating Christmas in its true meaning. But since Santa Claus has been for so long a part of our lives, let's allow him to be present too...

some more Punsch

some more Punsch photos. Annie said to the previous post that she'd like to buy it just for the pleasure of the moment. I think - as you see in one of these pictures - lots of people think like this :). And oh, my, are they right! it gets so cold in the evening, that you visit the stands jumping up and down to get your feet warm. so Punsch can only come as additional help. dangerous thou: me, at least, I get slightly dizzy and in a spending frenzy... you'll see soon what I spent my money on at this Kristkindlmarkt.
happy weekend everyone!

Punsch anyone?

Next to Mariahilf church on Mariahilferstraße there is always a nice gathering of Punsch sellers, as well as other goodies. For this winter, the first cup of Punsch was here. Himbeerpunsch mit Früchten. Delicious!

winter

The tea I mentioned yesterday is recommended for its high content in vitamin C. Which vitamin C is higly recommended in winter. Winter as shown below... Pictures taken on the way to Sinaia and in Sinaia, at Cota 1400.

Ooookaaaay... So that actually looks like a lot of snow...

Some people got stuck in the snow, so the jandarms had to come and dig them out. I took this from the car - sorry for the dirty windshield... offroad driving, you know :)...

As a conclusion, as fellow blogger Zsolt mentioned on his blog, we are sooooo amazed at this snow this year, due to the fact that last winter we had so little. The first real snow for Christmas was ... in January (for my Serbian Christmas), as you can see here.

ski-lift

we didn't have much snow this winter, so the ski-lifts were somehow useless. spring is coming now anyways, let's just hope these things will have a proper use next winter.