Beginner Gardening: Has anyone ever ordered houseplants online? If so, where? , 4 by Gitagal

Gitagal wrote:
SVEIKS! (hello in Latvian)

Well, Paros----What would be your real name?? Age?

Sounds like you have traveled the World. I love "free souls"...I find it easy to talk
to people that are that way--mostly, they are not prejudiced or judgemental.
Does it count if I, at least in my mind, am a "free soul"?
Got more and more so in my old age. I am now 77+
....
I still work PT at the HD., I live alone (DH walked out 22 years ago for another woman). I garden. I like to do crafts, and I spend wayayy too much time on this darn computer.
But--look at all the people I meet? Even if it is a nebulous, virtual friendship. Love it!

You can start (at the link )on Livonia--and read you head off. Not just about Livonia,
but also the Baltic countries--Latvia, Estonia (Tere!=Hello), Lithuania (Labas!=Hello) as we were all sort of, intertwines back in the Middle Ages.

You should go visit these countries--it will blow your mind away. SOO beautiful--
with the centers of the capitals still surrounded with 4' thick stone walls with turret windows
to shoot from. Narrow cobblestone streets, etc.
This is only in the touristy center of the capitals--or "The Old City" as they are called.
The castles are awesome too--even if crumbling with time. Flowers and gardens everywhere...

When you "get into" reading all the stuff below--take a segue ad look into Latvia as well.

I just goggled "Livonia"--and found this on Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Livonia

Hmmm..I should bookmark it so I can read up a bit as well.


How far from the Topic of this Thread can i GET? MY APOLOGIES
WAIT! This is YOUR Thread--so it is OK....right?

I will post 5 pictures from my trip there in 2008. I have so many--hundreds!
I went there, with my sisters, to enjoy their HUGE Song Festival
which comes along every 5 years. Latvians from all over the World
converge in what can only be called a Cultural Orgy. And--young and old--
we all still speak the Latvian language.

SO--enjoy...will try to give you a sampling... Gita

1--Opening of the Festival parade....each person proudly wearing the dress
of their home region. Each has specific dress. It lasted 3 hours!

2--The Grand Opening Concert. Yes! That is PONE, conglomerate Choir,
in the hands of ONE director. All the individual Choirs, from wherever, have been
practicing the same songs for a long, long time--and then they all come together,
have a few rehearsals, and sing as one. This Choir had over 2000 participants.
They had a Closing Concert--just as big--but more casual--as the audience
often just sang along.

3--Embassy Row. So many of the buildings have now bee refurbished--it blows you away!
Many were let go--and decrepit. Now it shines with the glory of what once was.
Riga (Latvia's capital) has the largest # of Art Neuvo (sp) buildings in al of Europe.

4--That's ME--by one of the vertical massive flower plantins in a courtyard.

5--This picture makes me cry.....
I LOVE..LOVE old cemetaries! So different from the flat, unadorned ones here--where
people can walk all over grave sites. Not in our Countries--Grave sites are sacred
and very well maintained. Flowers are put at the graves, and the ground is raked clean.
These mossy graveshav no family members left to keep it up--not for decades, as many
of us fled our Countries to escape the imminent Soviet occupation in 1944.
People gathered what was essential to have, took their children and grandparents,
locked the door to their house and left forever--never to return. Tens of thousands
of people did this to seek a better life--leaving all their things behind. I was then 7.
Love the moss...time has adorned these graves. No flowers needed.