Stuff on the Balcony

Our flat in Rivne has a balcony on the east side. It's great to have a balcony with your apartment because then you have a place to hang out your clothes, and a place to store food when it's cold out; it's kind of like a mini back porch (the size of a bath tub) if you have enough imagination.

Our balcony has great potential to be all these things, but unfortunately it has become the catch all for the owner and perhaps previous tenants of this 2 room plus kitchen domicile.
I've made lots of trips to the trash already, but when the junk isn't really yours it's harder to dump it, a person just doesn't feel so free somehow.
We have lots of wardrobes in our place, this is great too, except that the owner and perhaps previous tenants have left junk in the wardrobes too: a child's winter coat, a leather jacket, a fur coat, a busted radio, a locked briefcase, and so on ad infinitum. I asked the landlord about the coats, “just put it on the balcony” is his pat reply when ever I ask him about any of this junk. There is a plastic 60 liter drum with a screw on lid (for making pickles) also out on the balcony; that's where I put the moth eaten fur coat. And screwed the lid on tight. That has somewhat decreased the moth population in our place.

There was a washing machine out there too. We have reinstated it and are using it for our laundry. It's actually just a laundry agitator; it whirls the laundry around until it's all in knots, then we undo all the kinks and do a manual rinse in buckets in the bathtub, then we spin it out in our spin dryer, a gift from Holland (they had 6 to give away at the convention place there; Karen brought it in for us. Thank you thank you thank you!!!!)
There is also a windshield from a car out there. Oh, you don't see it? Well, look here...

I'm not sure if it's a Saab windshield or not, likely not...

A walk in the park in Ternopil

Ternopil means "thorny field". That was certainly the case 10 years ago when I was there and lost my colleague who suddenly passed away one night. At the time we had been working in Ternopil and teaching English at the teachers college.
My next co-worker, DeAnn and I stayed on in Ternopil for a few more months before moving on to Lviv, where I taught at Ivan Franco University. I wasn't at all unhappy to leave Ternopil because of the sadness we had experienced during those months.
Several years passed and there was never a reason to return to Ternopil until we met Teresa, an English student on the train one day. We began meeting up with her a few times a month to sit on a bench in the park in Ternopil and read together in English. Usually the weather was nice, but sometimes it was cold; we would still read and chat on a bench in the park. If it rained or snowed Teresa knew of a cafe where we could sit and read together.
So we have happy memories from Ternopil now; here is a picture I took a few days ago as Pat and I walked through the same park where I walked with Avis and DeAnn.
These are giant bubbles and you can get inside and walk around on the surface of the pond. We didn't try it, but while Avis and I were there we did walk across the frozen surface of the lake one day!

Ange's lamp

refining our technique with bath salts. Karen was helping me then Vasil and Sergie showed up. We had fun!
I think it was Joyce who reinforced the idea that I need to put something into the bottle. Also most of the websites say that there needs to be ballast in the bottle so that it doesn't tip over.

Dumpster diving in search of light.

Recycling is an in thing to do these days, even in the western world where I hail from. It's been a way of life in Eastern Europe for a long time. Ever since the early 90's when my colleague Joan and I arrived in Lviv we saw that. From our kitchen we had a good view of the trash can and Joan would give me the reports on what was going on out there. We got sort of partial to one she called "The Old Man"; we would even put out special stuff for him. The Old Man had class; he always had an entourage of dogs with him; they weren't Corgis, and they weren't on leashes either, but they followed him everywhere. Seems he always shared some of the good stuff with his dogs and they became his loyal followers.
There are lots of different divisions of trash picking; The Old Man was pretty much into subsistence trash picking, but a person can specialize in paper, fabric, glass, plastic, and I don't know what else.

Some are very professional in their approach, I've seen them use gloves and a mask. Others may use a stick to poke around in the trash bin and fish out their spoils. You can always hear the bottle collectors coming because of the musical clinking sound of bags of empty beer bottles. They may have a plastic sack full in each hand. With a practiced eye they walk past trash cans to scan the contents as they go by. Any bottle which is visible is fished out and added to the menagerie of vodka, wine, beer and who knows what other kinds of bottles.
Well...my latest project has been getting our apartment in Rivne livable. One thing we need there is lamps. I don't want to buy lamps, that's too boring, why not be resourceful and make lamps? There is a collection of informative sites on the web with very helpful ideas and instructions on how to use what's on hand to make your own stuff instead of buying everything you want.
So today I made my first glass bottle lamp.
I was out walking to the hardware supply store to get wiring and switches for my project when I saw some really good bottles. Some of them were just on the ground at my feet, there were several good ones in trash cans, but I resisted snatching any of them. As I gathered more bottles I noticed I was clinking musically as I went along scanning all around looking for prizes. By the time I got to the store I had a bunch of bottles in my bag. It looked kind of grungy too because the bag had holes in it and someone had written "Anita's prep things" on it, so that was kind of embarrassing as a person could well understand. I went to lock up my treasures in one of the store lockers, but this place is so up town and classy that you have to check all your bags at the wardrobe when you enter. Well, I've dealt with these kinds of wardrobe ladies before, they can be very snooty because of their high profile job. I weighed up the situation and decided not to check my bags, but to simply stash my goods outside the store by the trash can.
One thing you need for this project is a diamond tipped drill bit. I researched drilling holes in glass a good bit before I started this project; I put the bottles in a tub of water with water covering the surface I was going to work on. I managed to do 3 bottles without any accidents.
The next step is to get the light socket wired up.
And here is the finished product.
looks crooked in real life too...
I had a blast as I was making this, but collecting the bottles was almost like crossing a fine line into another cast. I walked for a half an hour to get home rather than clinking onto a bus and avoiding everyones' politely averted eyes (we don't stare at trash pickers). So for my next project (making drinking glasses by cutting the tops off of bottles) I know where to go. I'm buying 6 beautiful, empty wine and champaign bottles from the trash pickers! But for that I need one of these I wonder if Ange will bring me one?
I'm giving this lamp away to my friend, because her dad gave me some tips on drilling into bottles. You know who you are! You can pick it up at Artseulova. :)
One more thing: does anyone have any ideas for a lampshade? How to make one from scratch like?