I have to say, Russians love their flowers. Sure, sure… every culture (that I’ve experienced) around the world appreciates the simple beauty of Spring flowers. They represent the essence of life in the plant kingdom and beyond.

All around Kiev they are planted, nurtured, and cared for in places that you wouldn’t (per se) expect them. There are plenty of places where where there’s nothing but concrete, rubbish, detritus, garbage, junk, trash… it looks as if nobody cares about the spot, and nothing is going to get cared for there — but then, then you see a beautiful patch of Lilies in the middle of nowhere. And right then, you look over, and see a shortened and old brooded grandmother on her hands and knees, watering and tilling the soil that supports these phenomenal expressions of natural beauty.

I can’t say that I’ve taken many pictures of those flowers in the middle of nowhere, but I have taken quite a few at and around our summer house.

Here’s a selection:

These are from our potatoes:

And the rest of the pics below are from the field. In just a small area were I busted out the camera, I saw several small and very beautiful flowers as part of the ground cover.  There are many more, but here are a few pics.

Ahhhhh — I wish you could smell them all too. Maybe someday