Central Park, New York City
Central Park is an urban park in Manhattan, New York City. Central Park is the most visited urban park in the United States, with about 40 million visitors yearly, also it's one of the most filmed locations in the world.Central Park should be on every travelers, going to the NYC, bucket list, I first visited it in the Spring 2012, and was really amazed of an elegant urban/nature solutions in the middle of... New York. At the end of 2016 I had a chance to visit New York again - this time I was prepared with a tripod and camera.Central park in New York cityOriginally park was established in 1857 on 778 acres (315 ha) of city-owned land. …
First plants for Rock Garden
Last summer we not only concreted a lot and demolished walls, but planted some plants and trees in the surrounding territory. See: Planting an Apple Tree (Doch Melbi / Daughter Melbi / Дочь Мелбы)After we shaped a little bit our rock garden it was time to plant first plants.First plants at rock gardenFor the record - thyme and rosemary
Shaping Rock Garden
It was on the same day when guys and I demolished walls and poured in concrete for home foundation, while the better part of me, decided to shape a little bit rock garden we recently formed from stones used at cowshed's foundation, during pond excavation works. See: Building a Rock Garden and Pond Digging - Part 3 - The ResultThe idea was simple, we are looking to plant some flowers and plants into rock garden, we should make a good soil there, and also we should give some shape and trails inside, so we could enjoy our evening coffee's while sitting on the rocks and watching amazing sunsets, probably playing with cats. See: Red Sunset in our Rock Garden - Cool…
Independence Square in Kiev
Maidan Nezalezhnosti (literally:Independence Square) is the central square of Kiev, the capital city of Ukraine.One of the city's main squares, it is located on Khreshchatyk Street in the Shevchenko Raion. The square has been known under many different names, but often it is called simply Maidan ("square").I had a brief chance to visit and make one photography of Kiev's Maidan Square at the end of 2016, during unplanned short Kiev city tour after our flight to NYC was delayed for about 10 hours at Borispol instead of waiting at airport's transit area for our flight we opted to have some Kiev tour. At that included a trip to the heart of Kiev.So here I was, for the first time…
Rooms Hotel Kazbegi
Located at the base of Kazbek Mountain in Stepantsminda Village, 7 km from the 14th-century Gergeti Trinity Church, Hotel Kazbegi features a lobby bar with a library (I even got local Georgian Forbes magazine in English) and free Wi-Fi.We booked our stay at Rooms hotel Kazbegi in the middle of December 2016, and were accompanied by friends of us, who luckily had a ground transport and were able to take us there, as speaking of public transport, I have no idea is it actually possible to reach this place (probably by some marshrutka). Anyhow, seems Rooms Hotel is mostly visited by those who have a SUV car and who can afford to spend about USD 120-150 per night in a hotel. Although…
Let's Keep Demolishing Walls, Construct Foundation From Ceramsite Blocks And Pour In Some Concrete
Yeah, let's do that - another day on steroids from my home remodeling adventures during late Summer 2016 (August)Frankly speaking, by now, browsing through the images from last Summer works I'm getting a little bit dizzy - it looks way too dramatic.On the other hand, we already had experience and knowledge about demolishing walls, see: Remove a Wall to Finish Foundation Concreting, also constructing missing foundation from fibo blocks, not to speak about pouring concrete footing. Today I had two guys helping me out Uldis and Guntars. We did a lot today.Demolishing log wallJust look how enthusiastic this guy seems.Now the bad thing, at this part of house we were…
Hiking trails near Turtle lake, Tbilisi in Winter
I'm fond of hiking/trekking trails near Turtle lake in Tbilisi, I have done several routes, with my favorite being unaccessible anymore after the Tbilisi flooding in June 2015.See: Failed attempt to complete Tskneti - Turtle lake hiking routeNow, since it was about a year since our latest hiking activities in Georgia, on a lovely's Sunday morning (February 5, 2017) we decided to catch a taxi (see: How to Get around in Tbilisi by Taxify (Taxi Mobile Application) ) and head to the Turtle lake and let's see. I was into a photography mood, so I packed a new backpack I ordered recently from Amazon to store gear and of course a tripod. I decided to go with a HDR and panoramic…
Tasty Ukrainian Cuisine on Khreshchatyk street in Kiev
Wow, my first (yet, only one) Kiev restaurant review and I can't remember name of this place.Shame on me. On the other hand it was not planned to make any Kiev restaurant reviews this time, as we were having just a layover flight in Kiev before departing to NYC. See: About Tbilisi - Kiev - New York Flight by Ukrainian AirlinesUnfortunately our flight was delayed for 10 hours and instead of waiting at Borispol's airport transit area we opted to have some Kiev tour. At that included a trip to the heart of Kiev (at least I think so)As Wikipedia have helped me to learn more now, we were wondering somewhere around Khreshchatyk (central street) in Kiev. And it was just that…
Cafe at Hotel Mate in Khulo
I just love those small roadside cafeterias and cafe at Hotel Mate in Khulo (region of Adjara in Georgia) is just another great discovery. Hotel Mate is located in the center of Khulo in front of the hospital up the hill from central road. Address: 1 Davit Aghmashenebeli st, KhuloHotel cafe in KhuloThe food served at this cafe is just delicious, let's say made with countryside love.Traditional Georgian meal - OstriOstri is a hot, spicy beef stew that is very popular in Georgia, both as a home prepared meal and as a dish in restaurants.
A Perfect Harmony
It was on a still and tranquil evening after a hard work day on home remodeling - for the record, today was one of the toughest days in my constructors career as we faced some really though obstacles to overcome.More about that, learn in this article: Fall Through The Ceiling, Dig a Trench Around Foundations, Stone Wall ConcretingIn the evening, during sunset, I took camera and decided to document overall progress both of house and surrounding territory. I made just some random shots, not thinking much of scene or composition, when suddenly realized objects been captured to the SD card for some reason forms harmony - they duplicates and reflects. An idea for Piece of Life article born…
Kyiv-Passazhyrskiy Railway station
Kyiv-Passazhyrsky, also called just as Vokzalna, is a railway station in the capital of Ukraine, Kiyv (Kiev)The Kiev Metro station Vokzalna is adjoining the complex, constituting the station's main intersection with city transport. The Kiev tram terminal Starovokzal'na (the terminal for Kiev's High-Speed Tram line) is also adjacent via a passageway.I had a chance to spend here some 5 minutes, during our latest flight Tbilisi - Kiev - New York city, as our flight was delayed for about 10 hours at Kiev - Borispol airport we decided to use these hours by exploring Kiev, instead of waiting at airport's transit area.Out of the…
Postcards from Khulo
It was in middle of November 18, we booked a train ticket to Batumi, leaving Tbilisi. Prior to that we booked a really lavish hotel with bath tube next to king size bed for a really cheap money, see Hotel Sputnik in Batumi. After spending lazy first days in Batumi, see: 16 things to do in Batumi I decided to get to the place I had heard so much before, to the Khulo.
Khulo is a townlet in Adjara, an autonomous republic in southwest Georgia, 88 km east of the regional capital Batumi, in the upper valley of Adjaris-tsqali. The town and adjoining 78 villages form the mountainous Khulo District.
We hired a taxi driver in Batumi and agreed for a…
Blog Traffic and Income Report 2016 - 635,048 Users / $18,586.41
It is just that time of the year when I'm looking back on previous 2016 year in my blogger's career.
In today's article I will reveal some data behind the blog scenes - both traffic and income for the whole year of 2016.
This blog now is more than three years old, and for the last three years it has gone a long way, I have developed my writer skills from so so to average, there is still a long way to make them good and polish to perfect. The good news - I have enjoyed blogging process a lot, it have helped me to make new connections, make new friendships and grow me as a personality.
If you have been following my blog for a while, you have already probably noticed that I…
Fall Through The Ceiling, Dig a Trench Around Foundations, Stone Wall Concreting
Think I have written about all topics mentioned in title already?You are right, I indeed have, see: Digging a trench around existing foundation, Stone Wall Concreting. But that's just for the other part of house, now we are mowing to other side and repeating most of the works we did on opposite side - we will remove old log walls and replace them with aac blocks, but before that there is still some need to perform preparation works.So what about falling through the ceiling? Yes, indeed, this was one of the scariest days in my life as for the second, while removing some boards from loft, I accidently put my foot, where I knew I shouldn't, at one part of house, there were just…
Georgia in Winter (Photos from Tbilisi)
There is a good reason to visit Georgian skiing resorts in Gudauri, Bakuriani or Mestia if you are up to a winter holidays in Georgia.
See: Gudauri - Georgian Winter Capital for skiing, snowboarding, paragliding and heli-skiing
On the other hand, here at Piece of Life series, we love to feature and document photo stories happening around us. A simple thing like a snow in Tbilisi (which is rare, actually) or Total Lunar Eclipse makes us to leave our cozy apartment and go out and document.
A year ago (January 24, 2016) we featured our first story on snow in Tbilisi See: Tbilisi - Fairyland in Winter
A year later, on Saturday's morning, January 28, 2017 snow…
Kiev Boryspil International Airport
Boryspil International Airport is an international airport in Boryspil, 29 km east of Kiev, the capital of Ukraine.It is the country's largest airport, serving 65% of its passenger air traffic, including all its intercontinental flights and a majority of international flights. It is one of two passenger airports that serve Kiev along with the smaller Zhulyany Airport.Kiev's Borispol airport marks my first entrance to the Ukrainian land (at the end of December 2016) during connecting flight Tbilisi - Kiev - New York by Ukrainian airlines.Unfortunately our connecting flight to New York was delayed for 10 hours and I had plenty of…
Makhuntseti Arched Bridge
The Makhuntseti Arched Bridge is located in the village with same name, in the Keda municipality (region of Adjara in Georgia) on Batumi - Khulo road.The bridge is pretty large and holds together on the natural rock stones and lime. The bridge is located above Acharistskali river.Makhuntseti Arched BridgeThe horizontal length of the bridge among piers is 19.5 meters. The walkway length is 28.7 meters and the width in the middle is 2.5 meters. The height of the arch from water level is 5.6 meters. The piers of the bridge have no holes.Makhuntseti Arched BridgeThere is a small info board located next to the bridge, with detailed information both in Georgian and…
Waiting For The Water Level To Rise In The Pond
In the mid Summer 2016, we did a major task - dug a pond, after pond excavation works we were left with a large hole in the middle of our rural property.There are no incoming streams actually which could fill pond faster and we are left with just rain and snow waters.Luckily, there were a lot rain this Summer and our small pond started to fill with water.PondLovely evening mood and cat on the inspection walk.Pond seems rather really small from picture above, which is not true in fact,it just has been recently excavated and waiting for water to fill in. It took less than two months and even grass have grown back. See: Pond Digging - Part 3 - The Result PondView towards house…
Makhuntseti Waterfall
I was more than sure that the name of this waterfall in Keda municipality (region of Adjara) is Queen Tamar Waterfall, and was surprised latter to learn official name is Makhuntseti Waterfall.No matter of the name, it is just second waterfall I have discovered in Georgia (the other been located behind Tbilisi sulphur baths in Abanotubani district). Waterfalls and water are great for photography. It was in the morning, we left hotel Sputnik in Batumi (in last evening I arranged a taxi driver to take us on the ride to Khulo from Batumi) and this waterfall was our first stop.It was pretty early still, no tourists on site. The morning was still covered in mist and it was a little bit…
The Last Row of Aerated Concrete Blocks Masonry
Now, it was pretty easy to build first six rows of wall from aerated concrete blocks, see Constructing Wall From AAC blocks + Finishing Foundation Concreting Works for Bathroom, Another Day, Another Wall and Lintel Installation & First Coffee Break.For today's task it was to add last row of aerated concrete blocks, prior to that a Wall and supporting beamsBefore adding the last row of aerated concrete blocks I made final strengthening of the upper beams.Pile of aerated concrete blocksIn total for this part of house (bathroom) I have spent about 1/4 from the total stocks.Final rowAt one stage I had to use chain saw to saw up a hole to fit aac block in. Also at…