Advertisement
Published: March 12th 2007
Tiny blue flowers
He told me the flowers wouldn't show up. I think they did and that this is quite lovely!On Sunday we found spring had really arrived. I'll start at the end and end at the beginning of the day. Bill and I got on the #18 tram and rode to the old botanical garden that I was longing to see. Last spring on a lovely evening Emerys and Sarah walked through this garden with us. That was much later in the spring and I knew the rhodendron and azaleas couldn't be in full bloom this early but I hoped for some violets, snow flowers, etc. The first thing to greet us as we walked up to the front gate was the sight of a lovely lavendar azalea in full bloom. We found all the lavendar azaleas were the first things out this spring as they usually are at home in Annapolis, MD. There were many changes since his sister Dorothy and I were in the garden in September. Gone were the giant pumpkins and the tobacco flowers (though one of the tobacco plants for this season has already been set out). Many small flowers covered the hills with tiny blue and yellow and pink faces. None of the pictures is so spectacular as the flowers really were with the
First butterfly of spring
Bill saw this lovely butterfly earlier in the week and it made us think spring was right here & we were right. human eye. But you can get a glimpse of what will come here in a week or two as more and more flowers bloom. The day was warm and lovely and the birds were full of song. We found many young couples and many older friends or couples sitting on the benches talking or kissing. The young and the old seem to really enjoy spring. Not too many people seemed to be in their 30's and 40's mostly the 20's and 50+ crowd seemed to be nostalgic for the delights of spring and flowers and secluded pathways and benches.
We had come downtown with three friends to show them a few sights. Jonathan a friend of three years since our first weeks in Prague had come to the librarian's conference which filled the end of the week at IBTS. He had been absent in the summer from the 50th anniversary of the ABTPL group from the UK. So many of those librarians had been quite worried when he didn't turn up. He is an interesting fellow-solidly traditional and even a little stubborn (and proud of it) in his old fashioned British manner. It makes him quite adorable to others
and I think he is entirely unaware of it. He remarked that something must be wrong with him he found Denise and Vanessa seemed to like him quite a lot! He seems to like or pretend to like to be a curmudgeon but he is just too dear to pull it off. He brought along with him two friends Alan and Jane who we quickly came to enjoy very much. He had to told us about Jane during our first visit together. She is an EXPERT on book preservation. She gave a wonderful workshop on care of really really old books of the sort which end up in treasure rooms in so many Prague libraries. We had to agree with all Jonathan had told us about her. He said she was dreadfully bright, very good with all things bookish and had a lovely personality. Alan is Jane's pastor and long time friend. He has a wonderful sense of humor. It seems the three of them do a lot of laughing when they are together. We were so glad to get to know them and to be able to show them a little about some things they had never seen before.
Yes, he's here too!
I know you think he never goes on trips with me. Today I got the camera to prove I can snap flowers too and also to let you see the handsome guy with whom I visited the gardens. Jonathan knows his way around Prague but it was Jane and Alan's first trip. We took them to a nice sandwich shop and then to get a crepe on the street. Only Jonathan refused to eat on the street. It wasn't the British thing to do to walk along with a hot fruit filled, chocolate covered crepe sort of dripping as you enjoyed it! Then we visited the lovely Palace we told you about in a very recent blog. After we saw them safely to the Charles Bridge, they walked to a museum and we went to the gardens. We met on the bus returning to IBTS around 6:40 in the evening. They thought we were quite expert since they were seated on the bus and saw us running to catch it JUST in time for it to pull off. We explained we had missed two subway trains by about 5 seconds each since they pulled out just as we ran to the stop. So it was pure luck that we were able to dash up the stairs and run fast enough to make the bus. We OFTEN do that I must say.
Sunday was a lovely day all
Primrose bed
Someone had already been planting beds of new flowers. day. Our worship service was very good with Keith preaching and Lina in charge of the worship order. I was delighted that she included in our songs two of the best of the new hymns from the hymnal I had bought and mailed here for the community. Now I will need to buy more and send them so the community can enjoy more of that wonderful Mennonite/Brethren music from the supplement to the Worship Book. It always makes you feel good to find something you thought would delight someone and add to worship does just that.
Prague in the springtime is so lovely. Who would ever have expected it to arrive well over a month before the previous two years. Global warming is making this area have short winters and mild winters. I am not sure it is good for the environment in fact I am positive it is not but we are enjoying the rewards of the trouble to come by basking in the early days of spring.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.09s; Tpl: 0.02s; cc: 10; qc: 23; dbt: 0.0565s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 2;
; mem: 1.1mb
GaPeach61
non-member comment
Mystery flower
Your mystery flower is an "Advent Rose" and it naturally blooms during Lent. That is the common name for it . I have 4 of those in my garden. So glad to be receiving your blog again. Wish it was possible for us to come there and you show us the lovely gardens and eating places. I would surely eat the crepes and anything else you suggest. Blessings to you both. Carolyn