Tibbies weekend

Last weekend I went to the Netherlands. The purpose was to meet Sandra and Maria and see Igor. I arrived on Friday evening and bought some fruit salad in the shop on Schipol. Went to my apartment and was greeted by blooming lavender on my terrace. Had great time on a terrace with my fruit salad. Then decided to check if Ylona’s in her place. She emailed me that she will be in A’dam for few days before going on with her and Eleni’s busy summer schedule.
Eleni answered the bell but could not open the door. While we chatted over the interphone Ylona jogged in….I was very, very happy. She and Eleni had a flight to Greece at 2.30 am and we chatted for few hours. It was great to catch up with Ylona over few Campari’s. She showed her new place – which looks great. We shared miseries of unpacking and finding things. We discussed a possibility she visits me in Kiev. I hope that will be possible.
On Saturday morning I have note felt good but about two hour drive awaited me to meet Sandra and Maria and Igor who live in Nieuw A’dam. During my two hour drive I started to feel worse. I found Sandra and Maria and was greeted by their warmth and doggies excitement when seeing a new face. Sandra and Maria have 11 adult doggies – ten tibbies and one lassa. And of course six puppies. Doggies where in the kitchen and I tried to guess some names. I got all wrong but next to doggies excitement my stomach got excited too. Instead of being a normal guest and play with Igor I stretched on the sofa and slept there the entire Saturday except for the moments when I had to rush to the bathroom. I guess I was not a type of a guest Sandra and Maria expected. In the moments when I felt slightly better I tried to cuddle Igor and other puppies. Puppies are fantastic. There are two who are very dominant, two who are a bit weak but try to catch up. Igor is a not dominant. He is cuddly and sweet. I hope we will go well together. On Saturday afternoon in the moment when I felt better Sandra and Maria put puppies in a stroller and we did a village round. The village is very nice – with a lot of trees and a nice main canal. It was nice to walk with a stroller and watch people’s facial expression change from serious to soft and smiley once they realized there puppies in a stroller. On Sunday I felt better and I tried to make some photos. Unfortunately most of them have not turned right. In any case photos of puppies are on http://picasaweb.google.com/gordie26/MyDayAndJustLivingMyLife.
Sandra and Maria try to socialize puppies as much as they can. Thus they take them for a walk in stroller, drive them in a car, take them to the market, and doggies look so nice a relaxed. They showed me a fundle bag – a sling for a doggie. It’s a fantastic soft bag – comfortable for a doggie and a carrier. I checked a label to remember it when buying and I saw “Fundle.co.kr”. I was in a disbelief – I have not seen such a bag in Seoul! The one Korean product I would definitely buy would be this - and I had no clue about it! Never saw it at Dr. Kwon or “Pet Toy”. I checked “fundle” on the internet and it is a company from Daejeon. I immediately ordered a bag (was lucky it was on a sale!). The bag is really great for smaller doggies.
In short I spent a great, relaxing weekend. Being with Sandra and Maria's tibbies I realized how much I miss one and I am looking forward to getting Igor very much.
This weekend I am just relaxing. Reading books and sleeping. I do not have warm water – but about this – next time.

Alexandria Park

I was so impressed by Sophia’s park I spent most of my free time researching about Countess Potocki. As usual research turned out some surprising findings. In this case I found out there is another park close to Kyiv created by a woman. The place is Belaya Tserkov about 80 km from Kyiv. The guidebook said that Barron Branicki created a park for his wife. As years of the park creation were close to one in Uman a thought that Russian aristocracy was not immune to “keeping up with Jones’s” crossed my mind. But after doing my research the statement that husband built the park is wrong. Alexandra Branicki’s true passion was horticulture and during her 84 year long life she created two parks at the houses where she spent most of her time. But I tell her life story later.
I went to the park yesterday and prefer it to Sofiika in Uman. First it is more "low key" - no sculptures, grottos, lakes are smaller etc... Alexandra’s park has more depth as vistas are expansive and there is strong sense of vast space. Being surrounded by over 350 years old trees without many people around is an additional bonus. Photos of the park are on: http://picasaweb.google.nl/gordie26/AlexandriaPark
Now about the lady who created the park. Main source is again S.S. Montefiore.
As a niece of Prince Potemkin, Alexandra “Sashenka” Vasil'evna Engelhard (born in 1754) was presented at the court in St. Petersburg in 1772, when she was eighteen. She immediately became a favorite of the Empress Catherine and accompanied her on many of her travels. At 21 she was appointed as maid-of-honor to the Empress. Stories later circulated that Alexandra was Catherine's daughter by Potemkin. These were put about in the later years of her life by French writers without proof, but it is fairly well-documented that she was Potemkin's mistress as well as his niece which at that time was kind of tolerable within Russian aristocracy or at least in Potemkin’s case who slept with all his five nieces.
Alexandra’s portraits show a slim brunette, high cheekbones and blue eyes. She was an able business woman who made millions trading grain and timber. In 1779 Potemkin’s intense relationship with Sashenka ended, but they remained closest of friends and he died “in her arms”.
In 1781, Alexandra married Count François-Xavier Petrovich Branicki, of an old and powerful Polish family. Trained as a soldier and diplomat, Count Branicki held several posts before being sent to St. Petersburg. He became great friends with Stanislaus Poniatowski, who had been Catherine's lover. Branicki enjoyed the favor of Catherine and Potemkin and after supporting Russian suzerainty over the Sejm, or Polish parliament, he was awarded vast estates in Belaya-Tserkov after the province was ceded to Russia after the Partition of Poland in 1793.

When Alexandra married Branicki he was 49. The accounts state he was “good natured, self-made and ambitious ruffian” who made his career as King Stanislas-Auguystus hard man. He new Casanova and dueled with him in Warsaw for insulting Casanova mistress – an Italian actress called La Binetti. Both were wounded – Branicki seriously but became friends.
While her spendthrift husband did his best to lose their fortune, Sashenka increased it prodigiously. During her entire life she was close to Potemkin and Catharine the Great – though she lived mostly at her Polish and Belorussian estates. She was widely respected. Contemporaries emphasized her good morals – which is something remarkable for these days, especially when she was married to an older Lothario with whom she had a large family.
After Potemkin’s death “Sashenka” retired to her estates and became so rich she could not count it. She lived majestically and royally. She was a woman of contrasts – her love for rich and splendid is exemplified by her collection of art and precious objects. However these were housed in rooms paneled in plain wood. (no need to waste money) She was much loved for giving villages to peasants and endowing them with their own agricultural banks to finance their farming. She was appointed as the “grand mistress of the Russian court” and even 20 years after Catharine’s death she held her special status at the Court.
While she knew Countess Sophia Potocki and they might be friendly they are very different and this is reflected in their parks. Alexandra all her life knew world of privilege while Sophia was shrewd survivor using her beauty and intelligence as main resources. I think that’s the reason why Sophia’s park is full of “props”. Sophia joyfully celebrated her life achievements in creation of her “Odyssey” and Ithaca. She was proud of her life and was not shy to show off.
Alexandra did not have a need to show off. All her life she was conscious of her privileged status and money and she created a park for her comfort only.

Sophia's Fairyland

My sister and her husband came to visit. The first weekend we visited Odessa. The highway from Kyiv to Odessa is fantastic: gentle rolling hills draped in gold of wheat fields offset by blue sky. Some green sunflower fields (sunflower still have not open) distract gold-blue monotony.
We had Ukrainian GPS to help us getting around. In the city GPS is a trusted friend. But in wide open it got us lost among ocean of wheat fields. Later in the office I learned that GPS is not complete – it will have the smallest street in any of the big five Ukrainian cities but regional roads remain "work in progress". I do not complain about being lost in the sea of gold….
To make up for Odessa let down we went to Belgorod Dniestrovsky which has a famous Turkish fortress. But more than a fortress Ana and Kristijan enjoyed swimming in the Black Sea on a wonderful white sand beach of Zatoka.

For me the highlight of the trip was Sofievsky Park in the city of Uman. Uman is half-way between Odessa and Kyiv. A guidebook mentions a lovely park build by a Polish Count for his wife. While this was intriguing enough for me to visit it, I was totally unprepared for a fairyland I found in the park.
Uman is city of Khrushchev-Brezhnev building style mix: gloomy, gray and decayed. GPS could not help us there but nice, friendly young people got us to the park. The park has an uninspiring Soviet name “'Sofievsky' Uman State Dendrological Park”. But in fact the park is an ultimate romantic neo-classical monument belonging to the times of absolute grandeur. What make the park so special are not its size (150 hectares) or trees and flowers, spectacular cascades of natural lakes and waterfalls, antique sculptures and fountains etc. What makes it special is the park's purpose: it is designed as a memorial to one woman’s beauty and given to her as a birthday present!
The lucky woman is Sophia, the “Beautiful Greek” - one outstanding adventures of 18th century. Her life story is amazing. As she was Poteminkn’s mistress there is a reference to her in S.S. Montefiore Potemkin biography:
Sophia Glyavone was born in 1760 in a poor family of Anatolian Greek¬Roumeliyts in the town of Bursa, Turkey. She also had the Turkish name Dudu (in Turkish parakeet). Over years the family took up its residence in Constantinople, in the Fener residential area. Her father went bankrupt and died. Dudu’s mother traded vegetables and one day she sold her daughter (at the age 12) to the Polish Ambassador in Turkey Karol Boskamp¬Lyasopolskiy who procured girls to King Stanislas-Augustus. Dudu’s equally fine sister was sold to a senior Ottoman Pasha. (That’s important for later.)
From then on, every time Sophia was bought, another man fell in love with her and outbid the first. On her way with the ambassadorial baggage, Sophia was spotted by Major de Witte, son of the Governor of the Polish fortress Kamenets-Podolsk, who bought her for 1000 ducats and married her in 1775 age 15. Major Witte sent her off to Paris to learn manners – and French.
La Belle Phanariot or Beautiful Greek bewitched Paris. She is described having blond curls, a noble Grecian face and violet eyes. In Versailles she had a reception with the Queen Maria Antoinette and the King Louis XVI. Soon she conquered almost the whole royal Europe. She was received at the court of the Prussian king Friedrich II, who went down in history as “The Great”. Allegedly the Austrian emperor Joseph II was in love with her too. Joseph II patronized not only Sophia, but also Mozart.
Back in Poland when Potemkin’s War began, Mme Witte husband, now governor of Kamenets was the linchpin of the Prince Potemkin’s espionage network in southern Poland. Major Witte smuggled spies into Khotin (Turkey) hidden with the butter. But most likely it was Major’s wife – Sophia who provided the information as her sister was married to the Pasha of Khotin. Sophia first became the mistress of the besigiging general Nykolai Saltykov. But then she was introduced to Potemkin in Ochakov. Potemkin appointed the complaisant husband to be the governor of Kherson. Allegedly she was not only Potemkin’s mistress but also his secret agent among the Poles and Turks. As a public acknowledgment of her service to Russia, the Empress gave Sophia a pair of diamond earrings. After Potemkin died in Jassy, Mme Witte hooked up with the Polish magnate Earl Felix Pototskiy one of richest dukes in the Russian Empire. Mme Witte dumped her husband and two children and moved with Earl to St. Petersburg. Sometime later when Earl’s wife died they got married in 1798.
In St. Petersburg Pototsky was a member of Catherine the Great inner circle. In short Sophia rose from a teenage courtesan in Constantinople to one of richest countesses in Poland. For forty years she astonished and scandalized Europe with her “beauty, vice and crimes”.
Sophia, with close connection to royal courts saw many royal gardens and had a dream of creating her own paradisiacal corner.
Sophia's dream was ancient Greece and she chose “Odyssey” by Homer as the source of inspiration for creating her "dream garden".
Her task oriented husband started to build the park in Uman in 1792. In five years, thanks to the efforts of thousands of serfs (her husband owned 130,000 serfs), a fantastically beautiful and unique park was laid out on the uninhabited bank of the river. Every day for five years about 800 serfs worked on fantastic grottoes, waterfalls, lakes, antique statues and picturesque cliffs - all in effort to create a romantic gift of love. The park has its own Isle of Lesbos, a terrace of the Muses, red poppy Elysian Fields, a Cretan labyrinth, and an underground stream called Styx. A lot of trees were brought from exotic countries. They say when the park is viewed from a plane a foliage makes a name “Sophia”. The unfinished park was presented to Sophia on her birthday in May 1802.
Shortly after presenting her with the park the Count uncovered an affair between his son from his first marriage and Sophia. Brokenhearted, husband grew seriously ill and died in 1805. Four years after her husband died Sophia threw out the son and built up a fortune for herself. She died in 1822.
There is a novel about Sophia’s life by Eva Stachniak. The novel appears under two titles “Garden of Venus” or “Dancing with Kings”.
The fact that a freak earthquake pushed Sophia's graveyard out of the Uman churchyard has the locals convinced that she was a witch. In any case she was an amazing survivor.
For photos of a park see http://picasaweb.google.nl/gordie26/Sofiika