Maslenitsa Week....

Maslenitsa (Ма́сленицa) week began as a pagan ritual and has since been absorbed into the Eastern Orthodox religion.   Maslenitsa signals the exit of winter and heralds the coming of spring. As a part of pre-Lenten celebrations, it is also a pre-emptive strike to the upcoming fast. Because meat and dairy are traditionally forbidden, Maslenitsa is the time for feasting (especially on pancakes). The name of the festival has its roots in the Russian word for butter, “maslo.”
Blini are Russian pancakes, and they are essential to the celebration of Maslenitsa. Bilini symbolize the sun being warm, round, and golden they are an appropriate warning to the lingering cold weather. Blini are given to friends and family all through the week and are topped with caviar, mushrooms, jam, sour cream, and of course, lots of butter.

So Last Sunday, we went to Sasha's place and had pancakes. Saha's mum Olga, has been visiting & served us up a treat of freshly cooked pancakes, with honey, condensed milk (Сгущенное молоко) , jam and a big bowl of Salad and chicken patties.... Yum! The second home cooked meal I have had in Kharkiv and it was a treat as much as the first. I took the vegemite and some bread so the guys could try it. Mishka had some & Sasha sort of had some on toast, but with the bread not being the right texture, its just not the same. Still, it wont go to waste... I'll eat it.
Nice to have your mum here feeding you, ironing your clothers and generally looking after you Sasha??

Paola, Felipe,Dima,Sasha, Sasha's mum Olga and Mishka. Thanks Olga for a fantastic meal and a fun afternoon.

The boys played video games & Paola & I watched. It  was a lovely afternoon, but both Michal & I are very tired at the moment, so we left around 4.30, I had a bath and watched a movie & was in bed by 8.30!!

Did I say in my last blog that I thought Winter was coming to an end? I think not!!! Last Sunday, it bucketed down with snow!! So much so that cars were unable to get in and out of my courtyard. The VOLGA couldnt come in to the courtyard, I had to wade through the snow, with Dima's help of course, to get out to it.
Everything looked really pretty covered in snow, but Ugh.... so much of the stuff came down!

Pictures of my courtyard

I expect a few people had sickies that day as the roads were a mess, (the VOLGA slid to work most of the way & the driver lost the back end of the thing big time around the enterance to work), and as a result, no trams were operating & few cars were on the road. I have heard a few people say that this is the worst winter they have had in Kharkiv for many years...... just my luck! But I beleive if I can survive this, I  can get survive any place that PM sends me to...... I still prefer extreme heat to freezing cold though....

Now that we are actually getting some + temperatures again, (today is +1... heatwave!), the problem  is that everything starts to melt and with the volume of snow we have had this winter there is a lot of ice underneath the snow...... I know first hand how dangerous that can be, but even the locals seem to be struggling with the contitions. I have just shuffled back from my local corner store, (very slowly), where I saw two people slip over. The other danger is falling ice. Yep.... There are a lot of icicles overhanging roofs, attached to trees etc.  When they fall... watch your head!! Coming back from Sasha's place last weekend, Mishka & I saw a huge chunk of ice that had fallen from a pipe. I hope nobody was underneath that sucker when it came down!

Thats ICE hanging from a tree !
















Thats it for this week folks. Hope all is well at home. I see you have great temperatures in Melbourne again +27 and sunny...... I'm very jealous....

xm