Back to Nature and... Crochet

Many days have passed by, and I am still under impression of my 1 month trip, it is still difficult for me get on track, blog again regularly, and so on. Last time I promised to share more pictures from my journey to parents. As you know I am crazy for dacha, gardening, nature, and all related stuff. So in one of our awesome trips to this lovely abode, I planned to take few snaps of my amigurumi - a white cat which I gifted to my parents last year and Cheburashka, who traveled with us all way long and back this time. 

My father was quite enthusiastic about my idea and helped to find places for photo shoot. Like this one, on the sunflower :)

Or on one of the pine trees. My dear papa! Miss you now so much here. But these pictures put a smile on my face every time I look at them.

 The photo shoot for my Russian cat was done by me, and I tried to find some typical Russian flora for her. Chamomile was one of such plants, and oh, I love their simple look!

I also chose another  flower symbolical for Russian culture - bluett. My Mum never fails to have them in her garden, and they were there last year too. My cat liked sniffing this cute blossoms, and the picture came out cute, didn't it?

She, being a totally Russian cat made of Indian acrylic yarn, never seen this truly Russian tree - birch. So I gave her opportunity to sit on it for a while and enjoy the summer day.

Rest of my exploration of parents dacha included finding of flowers and peculiar plants around. For a long time my parents were puzzled about the name of this bush, which they took from the garden of our relative sin the village. They simply named after a nice old lady, who was alive then and living in that house, Frida. After few years they finally showed the nuts the plant produced to their dacha neighbour, and she assured it was an almond. Though I still have doubts and promised my parents to ask you, my dear friends, what plant it is actually.

This was another curios discovery of mine - a lungwort flower, which as My mum said usually blossoms in spring, and suddenly did it again in August. I suppose it happened because of the wet weather conditions this Summer.

I couldn't not to take yet one more picture of Calendula- can't get enough of its radiant color!

The blanket flowers are called by my parents "Indian flower", because they saw so many of them when came to India, that there was no doubt how to call them.

As title says "and Crochet". Here is what I made in a span of 4 weeks *cough, cough*. Just like last year I decided to mark our visit and made summer doily, so that my parents can recollect all nice moments we shared together. What other pattern can be so fast and easy and beautiful at the same time? Granny square, yey! When packing for my trip home, I just threw 5 balls of yarn in my suit case, and to my surprise those were the colors of flowers growing at dacha. 

Just a little bit of sunshine makes colors more vivid and bright. Love the big leaves of Canna by the way.

Even this is not all I planned and wanted to tell you about. However I already have new things to show, and hope that I will not be behind of time too much. I started learning some new needle art, and went into exploring possibilities of crochet. Thanks everyone for leaving nice comments on my last post, I feel better now mentally and physically, your support matters a lot too! 

Have a wonderful weekend ahead, and keep on creating!

Missing My Hometown

Yes, I am back to India. Can't say this time I was eager to come here, and I can't explain why. This time visit to my parents was different, because my in-laws also went there :) They stayed with us for 2 weeks, and left, and me and my D continued our stay for two more weeks. I didn't want to leave.. I wanted to be there more to enjoy cool weather, have long chats over a cup of tea with my parents, go to dacha, eat MY food, be in MY environment... So right now I am missing my parents badly, and also, to add to this I fell ill just few days before our departure, and still having cough and cold. Oh well, but I am also back to blogging, to you, my friends! I somehow found two opportunities to post during my vacations, but that was all I could afford.

We had great time together in Kazakhstan: visited many places, had awesome weekends, and ate delicious food! Today I'd like to make some kind of presentation of my hometown, as I had never put any photos of it before. 

First I will take you to the new part of the city, which is located on the left bank of the Ishim river. Here comes the symbol of the capital of Kazakhstan, Astana, Bayterek. You go to the top by lift, and can view the whole city from the height of 97 meters. It was a new experience for my in-laws, and they liked it. 

 A view of the President house Ak-Orda, with blue dome, and behind it is The Palace of Peace and Reconciliation, called Pyramid.

 A view in the direction of the old town, which is on the right bank of the Ishim river..

Even I discovered many new things in the city this time. We had a great family at the Khan Shatyr Entertainment Center, which is a huge, 150 m high tent.  

There are many boutiques and shops inside it, as well as a big kids amusement park, and even an artificial beach on the top floor!

You can see how this new part of the city is planned - the objects are situated on the straight line, and symmetrically. 

Happened so that my parents living in such a beautiful city, don't have time to simply walk in it. So in last two weeks we went out with them for a stroll on the river bank and had a wonderful ferryboat ride. Summer brought loads of rains in the North Kazakhstan this year, so such clouds were hanging there every day, but I loved it!

The ferry took us closer to the President House, and the Pyramid, but unfortunately our camera's battery discharged by the time we reached there.

Being among the skyscrapers can make you feel tired, even if you admit how beautiful and impressive they are. My D also said that he likes the old city more, as it is cozy and lively. I agree, and offer you a photo of an old street in the evening.

 And especially I like the never changing view of the sunset, which you can see from our balcony. Cozy, and so MY...

Hope you could make an idea of my hometown. I have more photos to share with you, and more stories to tell. I also plan to start checking out your blogs soon, as I am far far away from what's going on in here. 

So have a nice day and take care, my dears!

Relaxing At Dacha - Nature in Different Looks

Going to my parents is a total relax for me in a sense of being close to nature. My dear Mum and Dad have wonderful place to be in any kind of days, hot or cloudy. This place is called dacha. And it means a world to me - a connection to flora and fauna, to what nature gives and for what I have to be thankful for. The place my parents own needs loads of care, anyway whatever they are able to accomplish in a year brings much of satisfaction and happiness, I just follow the flow. My and my D could enjoy these sweet raspberries straight away from the bush.

And these juicy berries called "irga'" in Russian, they color your tongue... you know what I am talking about :)

Oh yes, the flowers called after my name "Anyuta's eyes" got a wild card entry this year - self-sown.

A mayor flower with a bee collecting the pollen. Cannot invent a  more summery picture!

Always used to like a blossoming potato plant...

Thanks to my parents once again, but they created a perfect place living for lizards - a pile of stones in front of our dacha house. We saw many lizards during our last weekend stay at dacha and I always associate them with Goffman's tales (though he had green snakes actually).Amazing creatures used to be living close to humans.

This year we have even got some mushrooms, though not good for purpose of eating.

My Mum collected gifts of nature and embellished the house with them in the main room...

and in my and my D's room.

 In the night we had a candle lit dinner as the electricity still hasn't been provided at the area. I don't complain at all. My mum also liked this unplanned Gothic chic. Same flowers looked magical then... Okay, not everything what is candle lit is called Gothic, but forgive me my mood that night, especially after few  glasses of red wine.

Perhaps I will stop here with my last weekend impressions and let you to enjoy, decide, judge, adore, whatever I offered to your attention today. I am still with my parents and will have few more days to soak my native place's spirit for the next year ... I didn't abandon my crochet completely, so will share some small work too later on.

Blessings to all of you and sorry for not being able to check out your blogs! I will do this very soon :) Thanks for all lovely comments you left on my last post- I appreciate you are with me :) Good night, my dears!