Our Year in Pictures
We spent the last day of 2014 by going on a long walk. The weather was gorgeous. It was cold, but very sunny.
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Our cats, Levko and Laska, also enjoyed being outside |
And there is Toma. She always enjoys a good walk. We've been seeing a lot of grey partridges (similar to quails) out in the fields during our walks and Toma likes to play a huntress with them.
We spent the evening eating tasty foods and watching our favorite shows.
Our 2014 was full of renovations:
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| Our kitchen (before) |
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| Our kitchen (after) Although, it's not completely finished yet, it's starting to feel like a real kitchen |
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We added another pichka (wood burning stove) to our house. It made a big difference to have it in our living room. It keeps our house warm and cozy. And the cats love laying around it, pretending they are on the beach. Ah, yes - we also got a new roof installed on our house.You can read about it here Gardening:
So many choices!
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Fava beans in bloom. Michael's favorite bean!  |
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| These tiny green pods are freshly harvested young black chickpeas. They taste amazing and we'll definitely be growing them again. |
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Our first tomatoes of the season. We had about 15 different varieties! We are looking forward to trying out new kinds next season.     |
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| Beets were planted in early March. The spring arrived early in 2014. Preparing foods: |
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In the fall we did a lot of juicing. We used our garden-grown carrots, beets, apples and different greens such as parsley, kale and collard greens. A liter of freshly made juice became our breakfast staple for some time.   We found a person in Kharkiv who grows an amazing variety of organic sweet potatoes. Naturally, we had to order some. We're happy to report that his sweet potatoes were some of the tastiest we've had. We'll be buying some from him in the spring to grow in our own garden. 
3 patty pans + 1 gill's golden pippin squashes stuffed with quinoa and herbs (vegan/oil-free).
Spending time with our families and friends:
Michael' and his parents meeting their relatives in Lopatyn.
A reunion in Berezhany.
Michael and Rick discussing the artwork. Thank you, Rick, for always making a great companion!
And our most favorite things:
Oh, Spring! You make me swoon...
Going on walks ...
... with Toma
Spending time together
Having access to fresh, clean drinking water is very important. We are grateful to have a spring in our village. It is our only drinking and cooking water.
Living on our land makes us HAPPY!
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May we all be the creators of a happy new year!
Бажаю всім нам бути творцями щасливого нового року!
Yulia
Well, dang, clearly this my favorite of all my favorite MyPichka blog posts. Great array of interesting and colorful images. Keep up the great work in bloggerland ))).
ReplyDeleteThank you for being such a good friend, Rick! We're so happy that you moved to Lviv!
DeleteWhat a wonderful review of your year in photos : ) Thank you for sharing! And your redone kitchen in freakin' FABULOUS!!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the compliment! And the kitchen isn't even done yet in that photo!
DeleteYes, the more recent post featuring the kitchen is really cool. I tried to leave a comment but accidentally erased it and was too lazy to retype it all :p It was something along the lines of "When can we expect your first book (The Great Ukrainian Remodeling Adventure)?"
DeleteWhat kind of dough did you use for your Vegan Pizza? Can you share with us how you made the Pizza?
ReplyDeleteHi! The dough was very simple -- whole wheat flour and water. In the States they sell sprouted grain tortillas (Ezekiel brand is one) which would work perfectly for the pizza. All you need to do is make some dough pliable enough to be able to roll out small tortillas. Next, you want to bake them in the oven (on some silicone non-stick mats or parchment paper) until they're almost done. Pull them out of the oven and spread some tomato sauce on top, you can also add things like onions, garlic, mushrooms. In 5-10 min they are ready to come out and be topped with whatever you like: fresh tomatoes, herbs, avocado, greens, onions, garlic, bell peppers, mushrooms, corn, etc.
DeleteI hope you try it! Enjoy!