How I was baking Easter Bread (Paska)

Hey guys! Here is my photo report on my first ever Easter Bread or as we call it in Ukraine - Paska.

The recipe is pretty simple and there are not too many ingredients: 2 pounds of flour (I haven't figured out which flour is better: self-rising or all-purpose, this time I used self-rising), stick and a half of butter, 6 yolks and 3 eggs, a cup of sugar (can be a bit more since the US sugar is less sweet than Ukrainian), one bag of yeast, one box of raisins (I mean the bigger one), cup and a half of milk.

Now, let's go step by step:

Sift the flour even if the package says it's already been sifted since in the process of sifting flour gets saturated with oxygen and it makes the dough fluffier.

With a mixer beat the yolks and eggs into a foam (I have no clue how people lived without mixers, hallelujah to technical progress!)

Take milk, slightly warm it up, just a bit, then add a teaspoon of sugar and a bag of yeast (yeast likes sugar and warm liquids)

Cut a stick and a half of butter like that

and melt it in a microwave like that (or in any other way you know)

Add eggs, yeast mix and butter to the flour

and start mixing all that together

after a couple of minutes, the dough will stop sticking to your hands. Keep kneading the dough for at least 15 minutes and form a ball out of it.

Let it sit in warmth for one hour, but don't put in on any heated surface, cover it with some clean kitchen cloth.

In an hour it will increase at least two times.

Let's have some veggies! Just kidding, I bout these big cans to use as baking cups since Paska should have a certain form. In Ukraine, I could buy special baking cups in a supermarket, here in the US I had to use my creativity )))

A proof that I did take all veggies out )))

I cut out bottoms of wax paper so that my Paska didn't stick in the process of baking.

So you cut off a piece of dough, make it flat and put as many raisins as you like. You can put other stuff like dried pineapples or cranberries or anything else you like. I prefer raisins, A LOT of raisins ))

 

Then you roll the dough like this and cut it in half in the middle

Put your roll into the can and flatten it at the bottom so that the dough takes 1/3 of the can

I had way more dough than just for 3 cans so I made some other things out of it. Next, you cover the forms again and let them sit for another hour.

Warm up the oven to 370F and put the Paska inside. Bake for 30 minutes. I can tell you that there is a big difference between baking yeast dough in an electric stove and a gas one. I prefer gas ovens, but I have an electric at this point. 

TADAAAAM!!! Not exactly what I expected, I wanted my Paska to grow higher, but as I've mentioned at the beginning, I picked self-rising flour and I'm not sure whether it's a good choice for yeast dough. But, there will be another year and another experiment with all-purpose flour. Maybe even sooner than next year )))

Bon appetite, and Jesus is Risen! He is risen indeed! Христос Воскрес! Воістину Воскрес!

Have a great weekend and behave!

Q & A about Ukraine

Hello everyone everywhere! Hope you have a wonderful Friday and get ready to have a relaxing weekend. Every time I write about Ukraine I wonder if I do a good job telling about my country. I know that all of us are busy with own problems and lives and very often we don't have time to think about things that have no direct influence on us. However, I do want to tell the world about my country and I do want to hope that someone might get interested and decide to see it with own eyes. 
That's why today's text I will write in the form of question-answer format and all the questions I will take from the Google search. So let's begin. 

• Is it safe to travel to Ukraine?

Yes, it is safe to travel to Ukraine. It is the biggest country in Europe and if you take a look at the map you can see that the military conflict takes place on a small territory far away from major big cities or the capital.

• Is Ukraine part of Russia?

No, Ukraine is not part of Russia. We used to be one of the Soviet Union republics and prior to that we were part of russian empire for some time, but since 1991 we are an independent state that tries get away from under russian influence. Unfortunately, it cost us not just a lot of effort but also loss of some of our territories. But we don't give up.

• Is there still fighting in Ukraine?

Yes, unfortunately. Every day our courageous soldiers do everything they can to protect the rest of our country and let all of us live a peaceful life and develop as a democracy.

• What does Ukraine speak?

We speak Ukrainian, a lot of us are bilingual or even trilingual depending on where from the country you come. We speak Ukrainian and Russian, or Ukrainian, Polish and Russian, or Ukrainian, Russian and Hungarian, or Ukrainian and Czech. There are a lot of different combinations since we have a lot of neighbors in the west and it really influences which languages people can speak. A lot of Ukrainians learn English at school but they can be very shy to try speaking with foreigners. 

• Is Ukraine a developed country?

We are a young country, just 28 years old and after the soviet union collapse we were left with empty pockets. Most money stayed in Moscow and never made it back. So from an economic standpoint, we are a developing economy. You might hear a lot of complaints from Ukrainians about their well being, at the same time it's quite an advantage if you plan to travel to Ukraine.

• Is Ukraine a democracy?

Definitely YES! Our latest elections demonstrated it to upteenth degree. We are a parliamentary-presidential republic. It means that our Verkhovna Rada (an analog of the US Senate) has more power than our president. The president is responsible for foreign policy and is a Commander in Chief.

• Is it safe to go to Chernobyl?

A lot of people in the world have heard about the technogenic catastrophe In Chernobyl in 1986. I plan on writing a longer story about what happened there. To cut the long story short one of the nuclear reactors exploded causing horrible radioactive pollution to a quite extensive area both in Ukraine and Bilorus. Nowadays, you can go to the 30-kilometer exclusion zone and see with your own eyes the nuclear station and the ghost town of Prypiat. Your trip will be planned and controlled so that there is no harm to your health. Such a trip is on my bucket list because I want to see with my own eyes what influenced and changed the lives of so many people from my generation and not only.

• Is Ukraine a NATO member?

 Unfortunately not, otherwise we wouldn't have the problems with russia we currently have. At the same time, our troops are going through different military drills together with NATO troops and on the state level, we have proclaimed that NATO is our goal.

• What grows Ukraine?

Ukraine has 30% of the world's black soils. It means that we are an agricultural country and can grow pretty much anything that can be planted according to 4 seasons that we have. We export more than 30 million tons of grain every year. So no matter where in the world you reside, there are pretty high chances that the bread you eat might contain grain grown in Ukraine. 

• Is Ukraine a member of the EU?

No, we are not. We signed a so-called association with the EU. From a practical point of view, the association is beneficial for Ukrainian exports. A lot of goods produced in Ukraine are of good quality and can compete with the ones on the European market. From 2016 Ukrainians don't need visas to travel around Europe if they don't exceed the 90-day limit. As for foreigners, most travelers don't need visas if they come to Ukraine if they plan to stay not longer than 90 days. If they do want to stay in Ukraine longer, they can just cross the border and come back right away and stay for another 90 days. Convenient, right?

If you would like to get answers to other questions, I would be very glad to answer them. 

Enjoy your weekend and behave!!!

Pysanka and Krashanka

Hello dear everyone! How is life? What's new? I want to tell you about EGGS! I promise not to be as boring as modern scientists that can't decide whether eggs are healthy or not healthy food. I want to tell you about the sacral meaning of eggs across the centuries and cultures. Have you ever thought why Easter and eggs are going so well together? And why a bunny looks kind of weird in this team? So, eggs. An egg is a symbol of life in many cultures. In ancient Egypt, an egg has a symbolic role in the myth of Creation and in Christianity, it symbolizes Jesus Christ's emergence from the tomb after his resurrection. So you would wonder where is the bunny? That's very right, no bunny, at all. Easter Bunny showed up and became popular in the 19th century and is more of a marketing thing rather than any kind symbolic creature. On the other hand, a lamb is an animal that is directly connected to Jesus and when as a child I saw a lamb on Polish easter cards somehow I knew what it stood for.
So back to eggs, it is believed that when the Roman Emperor didn't want to believe that Jesus Christ resurrected the boiled eggs on his breakfast table turned red. Since then red colored egg symbolizes Jesus Christ's blood and cracking the egg on Easter morning symbolizes his emergence from the tomb. With time egg cracking turned into Easter game and the winner is the person whose egg stays intact after hitting the egg of the opponent. As kids, we always were trying to find an egg with the potential of the unbreakable hero ))
In Eastern Orthodox tradition exist four different kinds of Easter eggs: krashanka, pysanka, driapanka and krapanka. Each name derives from the method of putting ornament on them: krashanka comes from the verb "krasyty" - to paint (to paint with one color), pysanka comes from the verb "pysaty" - to draw or write, driapanka comes from the verb "driapaty" - to scratch (the egg is covered with one color and then an ornament is scratched on its surface with a sharp pointed object) and krapanka comes from the verb "krapaty" - "to drip" (when the ornament is made by dripping colors on the egg surface).
The most popular and widespread in Ukraine are Krahsanka and Pysanka. In my family, my grandmothers would usually make krashanka since they are the quickest and easiest way of decorating eggs. You just need to take a lot of onion skins which house ladies start collecting before Easter, boil them in a pot and you will see that the water changes its color to very intensive dark red. Then you put there either raw eggs or boiled ones. And in a couple of minutes, you will have a bunch of reddish colored eggs. If you feel very creative you can tie to the egg small cool shaped leaves like parsley, for example, and then immerse it in the colored water. There is a bunch of natural colorants that can be used to make the Easter eggs be more fun, especially if you have kids or grandkids all this coloring can turn into a really fun activity.
Pysanka is way more elaborate looking Easter egg and more loaded with symbols and meanings. Ukrainian pysanka tradition dates back to Pre-Christian era when the most important deity was Dazhboh (the God of the Sun). It was impossible for a human to get anywhere close to the Sun but birds could fly in the skies and it looked like they could get closer to the Sun than the human. Hence, the ability to harvest eggs that laid birds that could get closer to the Sun provided the connection between the human and the most important deity of that period in human history. In addition, the appearance of life out of hard eggshell embodied it with the power of giving life. The egg was a part of many rites and celebrations all year round. So when Christianity system of beliefs was forming the egg with its great load of meanings was made part of it. Pysanka combines centuries of traditions and can be read as a book if you know what each symbol stands for. In order to make a pysanka you will need a pysak (a kind of stylus) and wax. The wax gets melted and then you dip the pysak into it and draw an ornament on the egg. When you are done the egg is put into the colored water and after it's dry you put next ornament and immerse it into next color. This way the ornaments and colors on pysanka can be very complex and various. Traditionally all this process takes place at night when children are already asleep and all housework is done. The eggs were decorated exclusively by women after they pronounced a traditional prayer. Nowadays, in order to preserve this ancient tradition, you can attend workshops conducted both by male and female craftspeople. The Hutsuls (an ethnic group that lives in the region of Ukrainian Carpathians) have a legend that says the life on the Earth will last as long as the tradition of making pysanka will be preserved.
The variety of ornaments and colors can be really impressive and also depends on the region of origin. The main colors used on pysanka are red, black, yellow, blue, white, green and brown. The ornaments are numerous and represent both Christian and Pre-Christian symbols.
There are more methods of decorating eggs for Easter celebration. The laziest one is to buy Easter stickers. Another one that looks pretty impressive is to make ornaments out of beads. Wax coating is put on an egg and then beads are embedded on it.

So with this post, I want to wish everyone a Happy Easter and Tasty Easter Bread as we say in Ukraine. Unlike everyone on the 21st of April Ukrainians will abide the Palm or Willow Sunday and our Easter will take place a week later. All this mess is again because of "old" and "new" calendar. Hopefully, at some point, we will be able to celebrate Easter and Christmas with the rest of the world.

With all of this said and done I wish you a great weekend and as always - behave!

Here are a couple of photos of incredible Pysanka and Krashanka. All of them are taken from the Internet except the one showing my silver coin Easter Pysanka.

My precious ))) (imagine me saying it with the Gollum's voice from the Lord of the Rings)

This coin is a copy of Vegreville pysanka monument located in Canadian town Vegreville. If you want to learn more here is a Wikipedia link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegreville_egg

Photos taken from the Internet.

Do Ukrainians celebrate Easter?

Hey Guys! How are you? Did you miss me??? I'm sure you did, you just didn't know how to tell me about it ))) So here I am! Spring is a great time of the year. If you live somewhere with 4 seasons you do know what I'm talking about: nature wakes up, birds are chirping, the grass is getting green, tree buds are turning into beautiful flowers and all the worries and depressions go away. Well, maybe not all of them but at least some weather relates ones at least )) Spring is also the time of one of the most loved and celebrated holidays of Easter. Even if you don't know much about its religious background I am more than sure you still do like it. From my own experience, I know that it is celebrated differently in the US and Ukraine. So here's how Ukrainians celebrate Easter.
To begin with, I want to remind you what spring is a very important season for everyone who's involved in different agricultural activities. I've written about it before and if you missed it here's a link to my story about Ukrainian spring activities:

https://kwetlorienua.blogspot.com/2019/03/what-do-ukrainians-do-in-spring.html

So everything starts on the Palm Sunday or as we call it in Ukraine, Willow Sunday. You see, we don't have palms like in Jerusalem so palm leaves were changed for willow branches since willow is one of the first trees to get bright green buds. On this day Ukrainians make small bouquets out of willow branches and take them to churches to be blessed with the holy water. After the Sunday service, people slightly whip each other with the bunch of branches saying: It's not me whipping, it's the willow is whipping you, Easter is in a week! There is a whole bunch of different traditions connected to this day, and some people believe that if you have a sore throat and you eat a bud from a willow branch blessed on Willow Sunday you will get rid of the sickness almost instantaneously. That's why people keep those bouquets for the whole year will next Willow Sunday. They also believe to have a protective power against anything evil. Monday is the first day of all the fun! Starting Monday all the cleaning and preparations in full swing set off: cleaning in the house, outside the house, cooking and sometimes even some bigger things like painting inside and outside (fences, benches and what's not). One of my grandmothers was very big into Easter preparations. Every spring she would clean all the windows, whitewash inside the house and even paint the wooden floors. 
On Thursday all the "dirty" work was supposed to be finished since it is called the Pure Thursday (Maundy Thursday, commemorates the foot washing and Last Supper of Jesus Christ with the Apostles). In old times people that ran homesteads had to clean every corner of their property paying a lot of attention to barns and stables since even their cattle was supposed to have clean premises for the Easter. 
Easter Friday or as we call it Passion Friday is the day when Jesus Christ was actually crucified and to honor him this day no loud music, laughter or any kind of entertainment is allowed. Of course, it's not a must and in big cities, you will not notice any difference between regular Friday and Easter Friday but in smaller towns and villages this peculiarity is usually more noticeable. Another big thing about Easter Friday is that this is the day of baking Paska. It is a traditional Easter bread if you have ever had Panettone that's the closest you can get to Ukrainian Paska. Since it's a yeast-based bread the process of making it is quite challenging and not all ladies of the house have mastered this art. Apart from being not that easy to make there is also a great variety of traditions and rules of behavior when making Paska. Nowadays you can buy Paska in all big supermarket chains since they usually have own bakeries or you can order it from small confectionaries. In my family, Paska is usually baked by my grandfather and my mom in case my grandfather's Paska hasn't turned out well and there is no power in this world to persuade my grandpa to buy one, even if you used to negotiate with terrorists you still won't be able to make him buy a Paska. 
For me, Easter Saturday always associated with planting potatoes. My grandfather and I would do it every Easter Saturday together. I don't know if we broke any church rules by doing it but it was our own tradition. In the afternoon we would usually put together an Easter basket and go to church to bless it. According to more strict Easter rules you are supposed to go to the Easter Vigil that starts at midnight and at the end of this service your Easter basket will be blessed by a priest with the Holy Water. With years the church has developed more liberal rules for people who don't go to all church events and created an alternative option that is very popular with many families. We always go to bless our basket on Saturday afternoon. 
When I was a kid my parents took me to the Easter Vigil once. I will never forget that experience. It was special because of several reasons. As you know religion was forbidden in the Soviet Union but closer to the end of the soviet union existence many restrictions were ignored by people. One of them was connected to religion and churches. That night all the churches in my native Volodymyr were open and priests were serving the Vigil. I was sitting on my father's shoulders so that I could see the priest dressed in a festive gown and I was breathing in warm night air mixed with incenses. I was too little to understand that it was the smell of freedom in the air. There was a big crowd of people, all of them were happy and joyful, we met a lot of our acquaintances and some relatives. The best part was that we didn't go to one particular church but we made a real tour to a couple of them and everywhere we went there was this great spirit of joy. 
What do we put into the Easter Basket? Well, in my family we put an Easter bread in the center, some specially prepared eggs that we call pysanka or krashanka (I plan to write about them a separate story), homemade sausage and salt. In other families, the variety of items can be different, but the Easter bread and eggs are a "must". When people come back from church this food can't be touched till morning unless you went to the night service and came back home early morning, because all family is supposed to get around the table and start their breakfast with the blessed food. Since all the time before Easter is a very strict lent, the breakfast is the first meal when the meat is back on the table. Before starting the meal the eldest person in the family says a short prayer asking God for health and an opportunity to meet the next Easter in the same circle of people. The blessed egg is the first item from the basket to be eaten due to its sacral meaning as a symbol of life and a role it had according to the Bible. The next meal of the day is usually a time when relatives and family friends pay each other a visit. 
In Ukraine Easter is celebrated three days. The most fun day is Monday, it's called Wet Monday because it's an official tradition to pour, splash, sprinkle water on girls and young women (you can try it with grandmas too but I don't think they will be very happy about it). Real water battles take place on this day because in order to avoid gender discrimination girls strike back! One year my best friend and his cousin decided to "surprise" me with an unexpected visit to my home. They did the worst thing that could come to their heads - instead of water they used (for some unknown reason) perfume!!!! I couldn't get rid of that smell for the next couple of days. 
During all Easter holiday period and till the Holy Trinity Ukrainians don't greet each other differently than "Christ is risen!" and the answer would be "Indeed, he is risen!"

Next Sunday after Easter, we have a so-called Antipascha or St. Thomas day, the day when we go to cemeteries and commemorate our deceased family members and relatives. We bring Easter bread and eggs to share with them and leave lit candles. 

So that's my story for today! Hope you had a great Palm Sunday. Ukrainians will abide Palm or as you know now Willow Sunday next week because of the calendar shift that I've described in my Christmas story (https://kwetlorienua.blogspot.com/2019/01/how-ukrainians-celebrate-christmas.html).

Have a great Sunday and behave yourself!

As always here are some photos of Easter bread and Easter basket that my best friend was so kind to lend for my story (and she makes the best Easter bread I have ever had in my life!!!)

Traditional Easter basket

Easter Bread

An embroidered serviette saying "Christ is risen" embroidered by my friend's mom

It's rocket science, babe!

Hello to the World! The planet Earth is speaking )) I've always admired airplanes and space crafts, therefore, the recent launches inspired me to write about all this awesomeness that is going in the world of engines and launching pads.
When I was little my grandparents (my father's parents) used to make dumplings with meat. Funny, right? I started with rockets and now I'm writing about dumplings )) So, here is why: as a little girl I used to call dumplings with meat "cosmonauts" (I still don't know why the whole world calls space travelers "astronauts" and in soviet union we called them "cosmonauts", I guess it had something to do with the soviet ideology opposing that capitalism, as always). Back to my fantasies from childhood: imagine meat dumplings that you buy from Chinese places, then imagine that before they are cooked you take one of its tips and connect it with the other tip, in result you will get something round shaped. That's exactly what I called the "cosmonauts" and when my grandparents would ask me what I wanted to have for lunch or dinner I would say "cosmonauts". The first time they had heard it from me they were completely puzzled and had no idea what I was talking about. They even had to call my parents and ask them what they were supposed to cook! Now when I look back I still try to understand why on earth was I calling those dumplings (which are called by russians "pelmeni") as "cosmonauts". I can see the resemblance with the UFO saucer but back then as a little kid I knew nothing about the UFO or aliens, nor there was the slightest chance that I heard about it from the TV since the soviet television never had TV shows mentioning such things. So my cosmonaut dumplings remain a complete mystery even to myself. But what I am definitely sure of is my fascination with the astronomy and how things work in our universe. I cannot say that I pay attention to everything that's going on in the aerospace industry or that I have extended knowledge of astronomy, however, I believe that out of all achievements of humanity the exploration of the space is the most impressive and definitely speaks about us in a favorable way. 

Unfortunately, I was not lucky to have a good teacher of astronomy at school. The lady that taught us managed to make this subject extremely boring. The only time that I had fun during her lessons was the presentation of my report about radiolocation systems. It was fun because I wrote this report together with my father who used to serve in soviet army at a radar station in Kazakhstan at the end of 1970s. So he knew the matter from inside out and helped me to wrap my head around all the endless technical details.  Only once at school, I learned something related to the space exploration that I remembered for the rest of my life. It was the name of Kostiantyn Tsiolkovskyi. I bet you haven't heard his name and if to look him up in the Wikipedia I just want to sit and cry because he is represented there as a russian and soviet scientist. I can agree with the last statement, he did live in the times of soviet union and even was rewarded some kind of scholarship from the government, but he never in his lifetime considered himself to be russian. He was a very proud Ukrainian descending from a very old Ukrainian family that went with its roots to the times of famous Ukrainian Cossacks. The significance of his figure to modern science can't be overstated: together with the French Robert Esnault-Pelterie, the German-Romanian Hermann Oberth and the American Robert H. Goddard he is considered to be one of the founding fathers of modern rocket building and astronautics. As early as in 1896 he started working on his fundamental book "The exploration of the outer space with the help of a jet engine". So that you could embrace the scale of his work the first jet engine patent was registered only in 1930 and the first launch didn't take place till 1941. In addition to all the greatness of Tsialkovskyi genius, you have to remember that back in his time there were not aeronautic schools or centers where you could study at least some basics of this field. So everything he wrote in his book came from his great mind and imagination. He was really living proof of what Einstein would say decades later: "Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution." Of course, Tsialkovskyi's works were not solely based on his imagination, they were the result of profound intelligence and ability to think way further than the boundaries set by the times he lived in. Just like the genius Leonardo da Vinci or Nicolaus Copernicus. Unfortunately, the name of Kostiantyn Tsialkovskyi was not very often mentioned in the school textbooks as you would assume it should, and his name I've heard from my physics teacher who tried to promote Ukrainian scientists to us, young citizens of independent Ukraine. I went to school in the times that were on the edge between our soviet past and our Ukrainian future. All the textbooks were re-published versions from soviet times when everything and everyone was "collective"  property of the "great" soviet state. Individuality and personal achievements were not to be mentioned or praised. 

Another great Ukrainian headed the soviet Space Race exploration and was appropriated by soviet union completely. His name is more often mentioned and is definitely more recognizable all over the world - Serhiy Koroliov (or Sergei Korolev as you will find it spelled in the Wikipedia). He was the guy that made sure Yuriy Gagarin would get to the Earth's orbit and would safely make it back. Of course, Gagarin's success outshined the figure of Koroliov who kind of remained in shadow. You would assume that his genius mind served him as a protective shield from all the craziness of the soviet union times and he definitely had a relaxed and prosperous lifestyle. Well, it wasn't so. The promising and extremely successful young scientist was arrested during the wave of political repressions initiated by Stalin and his gang. Koroliov was sent to Kolyma (a region located in the Russian Far East, bounded by the East Siberian Sea and the Arctic Ocean) to work at the gold mines together with other aircraft engineers. Due to people that knew his talent and skills he stayed there for two years only and was returned back to Moscow where together with other fellow-engineers he started to work in an engineering bureau-prison till he was released in 1944. They worked in the bureau for an enormous amount of hours every week and were more slaves than anything else. But they were lucky to be alive. Stalin's repressions took the lives of tens of millions of people from all possible social layers. My great grandmother's brother was shot dead for the fact my great great grandfather was a miller and had in his property a patch of land and a house on it. Due to amazing work capacity and almost fanatic obsession with engineering tasks Koroliov succeeded not just in airplane building but also sending the first satellite to the Earth's orbit, I bet you do remember Sputnik. Then there was the launch of the second satellite and eventually the launch of the first manned rocket. 

The rest of the story you know: soviet union and the USA were literally going neck to neck in space exploration race until the USA landed on the Moon. That was definite and undoubtful victory and though I was born in the soviet union I am happy that the US was able to do it first and didn't leave any chances to the USSR. It was a victory of a free and passionate nation that worked together driven by an idea and vision. Both Tsyalkovskyi and Koroliov were driven by the same powers, I am more than sure and if in some parallel universe they were free and independent citizens their results would be even more staggering. But history has a weird sense of humor and a human being is able to survive in unthinkable conditions. I will be always proud of those Ukrainians that dedicated their lives to what they believed would change and shape this world. And their contribution definitely had this impact. 

So nowadays, every time I hear that this or that space exploration project has used or is using Ukrainian designed engines or cooperates with Ukrainian engineers just like the Firefly Aerospace I feel extremely proud. I know that even more projects are ahead and my fellow-citizens will have many chances to prove that we are an intelligent and skillful nation that remembers and tries to multiply the achievements of Tsyalkovskyi and Koroliov. 

Last year I had an incredible opportunity to visit Cape Canaveral. I can't explain to you what I felt when I walked in the Rocket Garden or when I walked into Appolo Saturn V Center and saw the rocket engines hanging above my head. I can use the whole Thesaurus and write every single synonym to words like "great", "breathtaking", and "unbelievable" but it won't be enough. There are only two people on this whole planet that I really envy, one of them is already unfortunately dead, his name is Neil Armstrong, the other one has brilliant future and amazing opportunities and his name is Elon Musk. 

To round it up I have one tiny request to those who did read up to here: Never ever take for the granted achievement of your nation. Whether it's something small (in your opinion) like to open your fridge and grab a cold bottle of water or something great like sitting across the bay and watching a rocket soaring into the skies, all these things are the result of somebody's hard work and a ton of sacrifices. 

Have a wonderful day and don't forget to look into the skies whether it's day or night and behave!

Sincerely yours!

How can I not add some photos from the trip to Cape Canaveral??? ))) All the photos were taken by me. All rights reserved.

What do Ukrainians do in spring?

Hello everyone everywhere! How are you doing? Is spring in the air already where you live or it's still windy-snowy landscape outside? I was looking around the other day and a thought nested in my head: we all know that there are four seasons in the year, but do we know what people do during these seasons in other countries? Of course, some of you will right away say: Sure, I do know - Japanese stare at Sakura in spring, or Australians surf all the year round and have winter when all normal people have summer, or Chinese work at their rice fields all the time. Personally for me, it was very surprising to learn that Floridians pick strawberries in March and if you plant anything outside later than February it will most likely burn down in May or will get eaten by bugs and not give any harvest. The only plant that managed to survive in my small kitchen garden through all the summer was basil. After this experiment, I came to the conclusion that things I would do during spring in Ukraine are not very applicable somewhere like Florida, for example. But then the question still remains: will someone from Sweden or Canada or Puerto Rico do the things similar to what we do in Ukraine? And I mean not just gardening, but I mean things on a bigger scale. That is why I decided to write about the variety of things Ukrainians do during spring and believe me - we do A LOT!!!
So first and foremost somewhere from the middle of February, everybody starts to moan in social networks that winter is too long and they start a countdown to spring (just nine months prior to that everyone was moaning when would summer heat kick in, then half a year back everyone was suffering from summer heat and dreaming about the pleasant warmth that fall brings). Human nature is a complex of contradictions and in order to learn patience and endurance, our civilization was "planted" on a planet with four seasons ))) The first week of spring in Ukraine passes by in arguments "to celebrate or not celebrate the 8th of March, International Women's Day". What for to have an argument like that you might wonder? Or maybe you might even think "Wow, there is such day on the calendar?" Well, we have a complicated relationship with this day. At the beginning of the 20th century, this day was suggested to become the symbol of women's fight for their rights and then it was used by first soviet political leaders as a day to celebrate womanhood. Years later it evolved into a bit creepy celebration that was imposed on men in former soviet republics like blackmail from the side of women: Better you give me a good present for the 8th of March or I will make your existence unbearable. My childhood memories about this holiday are mostly connected with my dad coming home with tulips and having festive dinner with our neighbors next door that are our family friends. At school, we were greeting our female teachers and my classmates-boys were giving girls some awkward presents. I liked to have a somewhat provocative lesson with my students the day before the 8th of March where they would have some psychological tests on "Men vs Women types of behavior" just to have a good laugh afterward when the results would show that in some situations there is not much difference between us. The best thing about the 8th of March is that it's a day off and if it falls on Friday then you are lucky to have a long weekend.
After the flower and perfume apocalypse on the 8th of March is over, those who survived it start thinking about Easter! Sometimes there is not too much time between those two dates but the amount of things that have to be squeezed in is incredible. Of course, if you live in an apartment you don't need to worry much: you will just have to scrub clean all the corners of it but in comparison to a small homestead house, believe me, it's nothing. In case you or your family or your parents/grandparents live in a house, get ready for the fun! It is pretty traditional to clean all your house after winter pretty thoroughly: all the windows, all the curtains, all the rugs, and carpets have to be washed and cleaned, all the winter clothing and  shoes have to be put away (unless it's still cold outside), the most diligent house owners very often will also refresh paint on window panes, paint the walls and floors, and do a lot of cleaning outside the house in the yard: the fences will be painted and the pavements cleaned, the flower beds deweeded. On top of all the house upkeeping work, this period of spring is very intensive on gardening work. A lot of Ukrainian families that reside in their own houses live off the land next to their home. When the soil gets warm enough a lot of seeds go into it. My grandparents on both sides did a ton of gardening before Easter. I remember long wooden boxes with young plants of tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumbers and cabbage sitting in the veranda of my grandfather's house. As soon as it got warm enough outside all that green treasure was moved to the garden beds and was planted in our kitchen garden in addition to carrots, onions, parsley, dill, beets, peas, lettuce, garlic and potatoes that would go right into the soil. My grandfather and I had a tradition of planting potatoes together. He says that it grows extremely well after my hands )) That's why it is believed that I am the greenest thumb in my family. As you might know, planting all that variety is just the first stage lasting all spring and snowballing a lot of other gardening activities that will last till fall when the harvest will be collected. Very often a lot of those described above things involve some kind of bonus or as I call it "fresh air sham" especially if parents living in a rural area want to lure their urban kids to come and help with gardening. The sham usually involves promises of barbeque and sitting around a fire pit after all the tasks are fulfilled. If this type of bait does not work, the kids are promised a fair share of the harvest in fall and other food supplies during winter time.
So the biggest celebrations throughout the whole spring period are the 8th of March, Easter (with changeable date) and the 1st and 2nd of May, the Labor day - leftovers from the soviet union times. The Labor day is greatly enjoyed because very often it provides an option of small vacation if connected to weekend days. And that's another time when parents try to lure their urban kids to help with different field works.
If the astronauts from the ISS took a careful look on Ukraine during the spring period from the Earth orbit, I am more than sure they would see something like we, regular land walking people, see when looking on an ant hillock: a bunch of very busy looking creatures darting back and forth around their homes and in their gardens.
What are you doing during springtime in your country? How much time do you spend outside and do you enjoy it?

As s my favorite actor Robin Williams used to say: Spring is nature's way of saying: Let's party!
And behave!

Sincerely yours.

A pink blooming chestnut tree

Apricot blossom

Wild violets in my grandfather's garden

Spring green river slopes

Dew drops on dill

Spring chickens at my grandfather's home

All photos were taken by me. All right reserved. 

Ukrainian Weather and Nature

Hello to everyone everywhere! I've never thought that one day I will be writing a geography-lesson-like post about weather and nature. But, living for a couple of years in a subtropical climate and talking to people that haven't traveled much to other parts of the country I've come to a conclusion that maybe it's not such a bad idea to write about something boring. And who knows, maybe my "boring" will be "interesting" for somebody. So, after having to answer such weird questions like: Don't you have alligators in Ukraine? Or, How does it feel to have enough snow to build a snowman? here I am, writing about weather and nature!
Ukraine has a temperate continental climate. What the heck is that??? Ha ha ha. I didn't know myself until I moved to a thin strip of land in between two big bodies of water. Yes, yes, I did study it at school but in child's head "a temperate continental climate" makes not that much sense. Now I am old and smart and I can easily explain to you what it stands for: Ukraine is located pretty far away into the mainland from our biggest weather influencer in the region - the Arctic Ocean and all other cold waters like the Baltic Sea or the North Sea. So the cold air from above those cold water still does reach us but doesn't define our weather 100%. We do have cold and snowy winters but with occasional snow breaks. Our winter usually starts at the end of November and lasts till the beginning of March. We can have some snow earlier into November, or it can occasionally snow in April, but a major amount of snow we receive in December, January, and February. Our summers are warm and nice, June can be rainy and chilly which is a bit disappointing since our May can be warm and sunny. July and August usually are definitely warm in a summer way. The recent tendency is to have a lot of very high-temperature days in August, I mean more than 100F. However, we don't have very high humidity and very often after a hot summer day comes a very comfortable warm night with some breeze. Springs and falls are pretty enjoyable with some amount of chilly and gloomy days. However, if we didn't have some grey days, would we really cherish the sunny ones? Since our climate is a moderate one, don't expect to see some very exotic plants in Ukraine. But then again, it all depends on what you call "exotic". As for me, for instance, it was always pretty unusual to see magnolias and yuccas blooming next to the entrance to my University every spring. For some reason, I thought that those plants don't like countries with "chilly" winters like Ukraine. The most exotic plants are growing in Crimea. They have some kind of palms unlike any other southern region of Ukraine.
The nature of Ukraine is awesome! We are not as big as the USA, for example, but you can still find a great variety of landscapes: rivers, lakes, ponds, forests, a desert, mountains, hills of different sizes, shapes and structure, canyons, quarries (I know they are not natural formations, but when they get filled with crystal clear water it looks marvelous), sand beaches, pebble beaches, rocks, rapids, caves and estuaries. The Carpathian mountains are a very cool place to visit any season. And if you are really into nature, I would definitely recommend you to hike there, whether it's winter or summer. My personal must-see list for the nearest future consists of such places:
- Stokhid river, a unique place in the north of Ukraine, a river that is considered to be a Ukrainian Amazon (I mean the river, not the company run by a bold guy) because it has so many arms that you can travel along on a canoe or kayak.
- The mountain Pip Ivan, the third tallest peak of the Ukrainian Carpathians. There are ruins of a meteorological and astronomical observatory called the White Elephant on top of it, and the views that open from its height are extraordinary.
- Buky canyon, an incredibly cool looking place with steep rocks forming a path for a river. It's not the Grand Canyon, of course, but as I've mentioned before the territory of Ukraine is much smaller than that of the USA (16 times smaller), so our natural wonders are like a smaller version of world-famous landmarks though they are still extremely beautiful and exciting.

So whether you are a city-person or a nature-person, or, maybe, a mix of both, you will be able to find something that will soothe your eye and give rest to your mind when you visit Ukraine or stay there for an extended period of time. As we say in Ukraine: the weather can be one's mother or one's stepmother, it all depends on your mindset!

Try to enjoy your every day and behave no matter where you are on this globe.

Sincerely yours!

All the photos except one are taken by me. All right reserved.

Zakarpattia, a region behind the Carpathian mountains bordering with Hungary and Slovakia

Zakarpattia, June

The Carpathian Mountains, winter 2019. This photo was taken by my friend and teacher Yaroslav Hrynyshyn

Winter in fall, unexpected snow in October.

Sunset near the river Desna

Golden fall, Kyiv

Fall

Yellow leaves in the snow.