Rare version of Shchedryk in English but preserving the literal meaning of the lyrics.

Don’t Marinade:

There are two small tropical greenhouses near Lviv. They offer tours. The couple that runs them are a whirlwind of excitement and botanical experimentation. They’re a real inspiration. They sell seedlings, and we bought a tiny lemon tree for our home.

They’re growing:

Banana trees
Kiwi trees (vines?)
Lemons
Limes
Coffee trees
and much more

They have some special bred variety of bananna tree growing OUTSIDE their greenhouse, which has already survived -25 C temperatures.

– Do you speak English?
– No, I спік паску.

(“speak” sounds like the past tense of baked in Ukrainian – “спік” )

Tomorrow is Orthodox (and Greek Catholic) Easter. Everywhere in Lviv there are families, old people, and young couples walking around with Easter baskets.

It seems most of Lviv’s many churches are working around the clock, blessing everybody’s Easter baskets.

https://gornceramics.com/about-us/

Last month, we had a perfect Sunday afternoon of sledding in Stryiskyi Park, with the afternoon sun slanting through the trees and live jazz music too.

Stryiskyi Park (Kilinski Park) is one of the oldest and most beautiful Parks in Lviv, a monument of landscape art of national importance. Located in Sofiyivka, Halytskyi district. It was considered the most beautiful park in interwar Poland.

Ukrainians actually have a distinguished history in sumo. One of the two or great greatest sumo wrestlers of modern times was half Ukrainian.

This past October my company went on a retreat to the Carpathians for some hiking and sight seeing. Among the sites was a church inside an elbow of a river with only a suspension foot bridge as a means of access. There’s a cable system for delivering coffins to the church’s graveyard.

Last night, we drove to Kyiv with the kids, ate at one of our favorite restaurants, located in the chic central mall, Tsum. Then walked up to the Christmas tree by Saint Sofia’s, and on the way home, stopped at another mall which has a huge play area with carnival rides and a trampoline room.

It was a pretty good New Year’s Eve.

Christmas is a confusing time in Ukraine.

Most of the country follows the “old calendar” and celebrates Christmas Eve on January 6th. The Catholics and many under the way of Western traditions celebrate December 25th. And the hang over of the godless Soviet Union is to celebrate the tree and exchange gifts on New Years.

Today is a relatively new holiday in Ukraine – “День захисника України ”

It is also the religious holiday Pokrova .

I went hiking in the Carpathians with some friends and family this weekend. The whole mountain above the treeline was covered in wild blueberries.

Ukrainian grandmaster Vasyli Ivanchuk wins in spectacular fashion, using my favorite opening, the King’s Gambit.

And another spectacular finish!!!