MoldovAnn

Every blog I’ve glanced at lately seems to include a posting about how spring has arrived. I guess I should add one, too!

First, I forgot to add to my last post the podiobooks I’ve listened to lately. Scott told me about these when I was home, and I am thoroughly addicted already! I’ve listened to Brave Men Run, Matthew Wayne Selznick; The Curious Education of Epitome Quirkstandard, A.F. Harrold; and a collection of short stories called Voices: New Media Fiction, Mur Lafferty (editor). Also, I’m a subscriber to CookieCast, which is one of Scott’s fun little projects.

Spring made a brief, teaser appearance last week in Kiev. On Wednesday, March 29, it was in the 50’s here, beautiful, sunny, warm. Alessandra and I were visiting some youth centers in Ivankiv raiyon, about an hour north of Kiev, and you could tell the season was changing because we put our coats on to go inside the unheated buildings, and took them off when we went outside into the nice sunshine.

Thursday and Friday we were in Korosten raiyon visiting some sites, and both Alessandra and I had gotten so excited about the previous day’s warmth that we left at home our sweaters and wool socks. It snowed, of course. And not just a little bit – big wet flakes. At one point, driving to a remote village, it was like a “white-out” with the snow coming down so thick we couldn’t see more than a few feet ahead of the van.

The return of storks is a sign of spring and warm weather in Ukraine. This poor stork came back a tad too early, it seems.