Children are flowers

When I was thinking of the place to go to rest, I thought about my baby-nieces. Someone ones said that the kids are the flowers in the garden of life. They require love, care, attention, and the right conditions in order to grow. They need to get strong and make their roots deep and firm. I love spending time with them. When you play with children, they make you forget about reality and take you to the world of imagination. With them you don’t have to be boring mature adult, you can be whoever you want to. I have two beautiful nieces. Their names are Emily and Daniella and the third one is on the way!

This is my baby Daniella. She is 1,5 years old. She just started to walk and is a lot of fun to be with. Her hair is curly and it is adorable. We love playing pica-boo game. This time we were playing with dolls. 

You can tell she is going to be a good mommy. lol. 

This is Emily. She is the oldest and is the smartest baby ever. She already knows how to count. She talks using full sentences. She is a very active kid, and I love this about her. When I asked her how old is she she showed me this:

After the day spent with kids, you feel exhausted but it is a nice feeling. I found it calming.

Children is a blessing from God. They are so happy and make you appreciate every day. One of the my friends just lost a baby, and my sister thought how lucky she is to have healthy beautiful kids. She is a perfect mom and wife, and I hope to become one the future too.

Agricultural Field Trip

On September 16 our class went on the second field trip. The theme was Agriculture, and I was clueless were would they take us. We visited Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization, or simply ECHO. It is an experimental, 21-acre garden devoted to researching farming techniques usable in (as they say) "developing" countries. It was the most creative working farm I had ever experienced. Sines it is a Christian organization, they made me so proud of our Christian volunteers and their developing to what they do. I never knew such organizations existed. From the short clip that we watched at the beginning of our tour I remember the phrase: if you give man a fish - you will feed him for a day, teach him how to fish - and you will feed him for life. This organization travels all around the world and teaches poor people how to plant gardens in the places where gardening seems impossible.They have six different settings of the Global Farm, such as rain forest, mountain, urban and much more.

 

Here are the bamboo trees. It is very reusable resource. People make flooring, housing and even clothing out of it. 

I found this was an interesting fact: Neem leaves can be soaked in water and used as insect repellent. People also chew on its branches in order to have healthy teeth, and it can heal the skin.

Duck/Tilapia System is pretty amazing also. They feed ducks, and then tilapia eats duck’s waste. I have never seen a house for ducks above the lake.  

That same day, my husband (who is from north) asked me if we have banana trees in Florida. Here is the answer. By the way, banana trees are not real trees: it is grass. It’s great source of potassium and also animals can eat its leaves.

ECHO introduced us with system of rice intensification. They encourage single seedlings with less flooding which results in higher yields. Some nations depend on rice. And it is very interesting discovery which can save people from starvation.

I really like this picture. It simply shows how beautiful and innocent our nature is!

This is a primitive level. People who plant on the mountains use such levels in order to plant in the straight line. Out professor is demonstrating how they use it.

There are very weird chickens that I have never seen before. They do not have feathers on their neck so that they can withstand heat.

This is one of the typical Haitian schools for the student in the developing countries. When I was sitting there, it made me think of how lucky we are to be able to study in normal conditions.

These are Bio gas Digesters. They remove methane gas from manure, providing an alternative energy source for cooking.

And this is the most fascinating part of the tour for me. There is actually such thing as urban gardening. They can grow plants of the tops of the roof. And you can use any kind of garbage for it. It made me want I own little garden.

This is green onion that grows in garbage, using old tire. This is amazing!!!
I enjoyed this field trip. I learned  a lot of useful information there. Go ECHO!

Another day of rest

This weekend my husband took me to the beach, saying that I work too much and I need some rest. This time we decided to go to my favorite beach called Siesta Key in Sarasota. I love that beach because the sand is snow white. It never gets hot. It took us a long time to get there, but it was totally worth it. I think I read somewhere in the newspaper, that this beach is one of the 10 most beautiful beaches in the world. For our honeymoon, my husband and I went to Caribbean cruise ship, but Siesta Key is so much better. The day was nice and sunny. Water was perfect to swim in. We spent most of the time in the water. The best part of going to the beach is walking along the beach holding hands and talk about nothing. 

Since we are talking so much about children, I started noticing kids everywhere, how they play.

They are so cute. I can watch them play forever. It is so calming.  

When we were at the beach, some kids were playing with the kite. It reminded me of my childhood.



Children love to build sand castles. I thinks it develops their imagination.

We also were able to enjoy seeing little airplane and the small boats. My husband was able to catch them in the photo. It must be really pretty watching our nature from the above. 

We so so many seagulls. There were about a thousand of them. I think it is a very pretty bird. In Russian the are called "chaika".

Beach is the perfect place to rest, spend time with people you love, and connect to the nature. You never know what kind of animals you can meet. We saw this pretty bird. It is very graceful.

Florida's nature is very unique and beautiful. We need to take some time and appreciate it. I am very amazed how wonderful God created this world.

On the way back home we stoped in Venice to see a car show. There were many old and unique cars. It was a nice day.

Trip to the Beach

After an exhausting week and a lot of hard work, my family decided to go to relax and to the beach on the Labor Day. The weather was just perfect: not too hot and partly sunny. I was able get some sun and to soak my body in the ocean. The water is not worm any more. And the promised hurricane Earl did not visit us that day. I love spending time with family. It is brings peace and takes stress away. We took with us my husband’s little brothers. It is nice for brothers to have some bonding time, especially because there such a great age difference between them. 

This is my lovely husband and I at the beach. We went to our favorite beach called Casperson.  

This is Benjamen Hatsitski, He is a very smart boy. At age of 9 he already has a great sense of humor.

And this is Ivan Hatitski. The youngest in my husband's family. He is the cutest little boy. He loves to draw and dreams to become a soldier. 

Boys brought a fishing gear with them. We caught two little fishies and then we decided set them free. 

  We had a lot of fun building castles from the send. 

Then we went for a walk, and met this cute little crab. We had to chase him to take this picture.

And also we saw these birds. But I am not sure what's their name is.

I enjoyed spending time with my family in the nature under the sun. I think we should cherish those moments and go out more often with the people you love.

Freshwater Systems Field Trip

Last Thursday our class went on the very first field trip. Although I came home late, exhausted and bitten by mosquitoes, it was the most memorable event of this month. We went to Corkscrew Sanctuary.  I’ve never heard of this place before. We learned about watershed, drainage basin, surface water flow, hydro-period, aquifer, run-off, and so on. For the first time in my life I saw a real living machine. Our professor walked us though pine uplands, ecotones, wet prairies, and cypress swamp. After this trip I was able to recognize many trees and plants. That day I learned that bald cypress, the swamp and the wood storks make this sanctuary special. Also Corkscrew Swamp is a part of a freshwater swamp system that covers 315 square miles of southwest Florida. The system is fed solely by rain that falls though the watershed.

Our FGCU naturalist told us about beautiful birds called Wood Stork. Back in the day, women liked to use their fathers in the hats. But today they are protected in this Sanctuary. 

Even though we were not lucky to meet them, our Floridian nature has a great variety of animals and birds.

  On our way we encountered a huge alligator. I didn't get a good picture of it, but this is the best one:

The first tree we saw was Slash Pine tree. Our professor mentioned that it is green at the top to protect it from the fire. People would live next to pine trees because land is dry there. 

On the next picture you can see a Cabbage Palm tree. On this trip I learned that this is our state tree.

Next, there is a Wax Myrtle tree. It smells like spices. Our professor told us that people used to make candles out of it. 

I was glad I went with pr.Coventry's group, she thought us many interesting things and facts.

There are tons if Cypress trees. There are plants that grow on them, but feed from the air. They are called Airplants

. There is a fungus that grows on the Cypress called Liken. It is everywhere. It shows that the air is fresh.

 To me the most fascinating tree was a Pond Apple. There are real apples that grow on them!!!

Alligator flags is the plant that indicates where alligator gather. It shows then that it is deep enough for them.

Next picture shows Cypress Knee, they say it is needed for the gas exchange.

Nursery Log is pretty amazing too. Even though the tree is dead. It provides a home for thousands of plants. 

  I enjoyed walking that board walk, breathing the fresh air, and connecting with the nature. I did not know that there are so many interesting places in our area. It was just magnificent to sit there, in the woods, for 5 minutes, just thinking and listening that’s nature telling us though the winds, plants, insects. If it wouldn’t for this class, I would never knew, that such place existed and that it could be so interesting learning about our water system.