Surprising Snow North of Karoo, a Christmas in July

Swartberg Pass near Karoo snow Christmas July South Africa

South Africans were gifted with surprising snow near Karoo recently, so I invite you to a Christmas in July with fresh images of snow, a Christmas tree from Bucharest and some magical doors for Thursday Doors.

20/07/202111/04/2023

Enchanting Solomonars, Romanian Cloud-Chaser Sorcerers #Im4Ro

Enchanting Solomonars, these Romanian cloud-chaser sorcerers, are also called eagles or hail-gatherers, by their skills; cloud-walkers by their powers; dragon-riders to the welkin and back, by their means of transport.

The Solomonars were revered, yet feared, called upon, yet shunned for their innate understanding of nature’s forces; for their instinctive ability to read the weather, even in its wildest exhibitions; for their solid grasping of what was there, yet not seen, felt, yet intangible, life-threatening towards everyone else, but themselves.

15/07/202129/04/2022

Dreamy Blues, Authentic 1885 Tulcea House by the Black Sea #Im4Ro

Window shutters painted in dreamy blues adorn an authentic house from 1885 Tulcea, a Romanian county spreading between Danube and the Black Sea.

Window shutters painted in dreamy blues adorn an authentic house from 1885 Tulcea, that dips its shores in both the Danube and the Black Sea. You can visit it now, on my blog, or at the Village Museum in Bucharest, Romania.

We have a Romanian saying, Omul sfinţeşte locul, in English it carries the same meaning as “a good farmer makes a good farm.”

21/06/202114/04/2025

A Midsummer’s Night, from Magic Sânzienele to Machiavelli’s Dream

It is said that during the midsummer’s night of 1527, a night when Romanians celebrate Sânzienele, the magic Gentle Fairies, Niccolò Machiavelli had his last dream, and a telling dream it was.

It must have been the summer’s giddy energy firing between the Sun and the Earth at exactly ninety degrees during the Summer Solstice that caused this coincidence…

08/06/202114/04/2025

Bigăr Waterfall, Romania, a Legend of Love and Collapse #Im4Ro

Bigăr Waterfall, the Princess of Banat Mountains in Romania, was born out of a legend about love and collapse.

Bigăr Waterfall, a Legend of Love

It was a time of joys and of tears, a time when tomorrow could bring death or peace – and for either one they would have been grateful – therefor only today mattered. Tomorrow was given to the gods, yesterday belonged to the dead, and only today was theirs.