Yes, it is rose week.  Every town has them blooming on the round about and along almost every street.  Most yards have rose gardens too.  These two are growing in our front yard.  Often the colors are all the same: rows of yellows, row of oranges, white, pink or a combination.  One really attractive combination we saw yesterday was on our way to Deva.  The round about with Red and white roses in full bloom.  Where was my camera as we zipped by?

Remember our pink front yard?  That has disappeared and now the most dominant color would be orange.   With one lovely white rose bush in the middle.

Grandma Howlett would have had a name for these.  I'll just call them a lilly.

 Going back to last Monday, on our trip home from Oradea we stopped off at Alba Iulia.  The town square was named after Alba Carolina (not this statue however).  The square was built in the middle of a maze of walls designed to keep the intruder out.

 The flower design on this poster describing the place can be seen all over Romania as a unique remembrance of this place.

 Here is Rand walking down the middle of this wall area.  the walls were high and sometimes quite thick.  Several walled areas had been cleared out to house a very cool pizzeria, a lovely spot on a very hot day. 

 There were a lot of gates to this complex.  This is the main one

 Which crosses over the mote which now is just a lot of lawn to mow.

 Same gate from inside.

 We missed the changing of the guard at noon but found this fellow along the main path where the guards march.

 Unique to this area were several statues.

 Main orthodox church within the maze Carolina

 View from orthodox porch of the catholic church also inside the maze

 Found it was fun taking pictures of steeples - framing them with arches of another church.  Everything was so clean and well kept.  

 Outside the maze waiting for the Sisters to find us.  Elder Brown is resting in the car so I'm stuck with taking selfies.  The orthodox steeple visible in the background.

Sister missionaries are always having fun.  Once we get in the car they usually fall asleep.

Back in Sibiu it was cold till the weekend but the missionaries finally got their wish to have games night outdoors.  In honor of Sora Djabanhani (that I know call DJ) they played soccer.  She loves and played soccer for her college back home. 

 The missionaries found or were found by some younger fellows who love soccer.  They made it fun for everyone.  Elder Jardine was more than twice the size of some of them.

 We had all skill levels and a good time was had by all.

 We're still working out the kinks in our Deva sacrament meeting.  This time we took the Soras instead of the Elders.  We wish we had a bigger car and could take everyone.  Without Elder Hellewell there to conduct it was a little strange to put it mildly.  President Brown was not just presiding but conducting which was hard in another language.  The Gentleman, second from right, Bro. Andronic  the Elders found last time we were there.  He lives about 30 minutes from Deva.  Nice to get more to add to the group.    

 Our first trip down this road last Feb. we saw this nest and took a picture.  Here we have the mother stork inhabiting the nest.  We think she may have flown up from Uganda but who knows.  They don't live here in the cold.

 One day we'll stop and see what kind of trees are growing under this net.  It goes for acres.  Earlier in the year the netting was tied back.  Does it keep out birds or just shade the trees from the sun?  Maybe it's some other reason we don't know about.

Even gas stations have roses.

 And next to the pink rose I took a "Posea" of a red bush while Elder Brown pumped gas.

 Ene, over church facilities made a visit from Bucharest and called to thank us for keeping the church yard so nice.  It takes Rand quite some time to mow all the lawns.  He has to be quick to get it in between the rain.  I just tend the flowers in the front and dig dandelions.  Right now we have no dandelions.

 Wow, this plant came out of the shadows today.

 This little guy was a bulb I planted a couple months ago.  Should have kept the packaging because I can't remember it's name.  I was afraid being on the North of the building it wouldn't have enough light to do anything.

Hope you are planting flowers in your life and making a difference in the world. Some plantings are with others by helping them be all they can be as they grow and bloom.  Some plantings are just with yourself as you grow and blossom in whatever you are doing.  We see some progress with the people we are helping to blossom and some heart ache as they take a step or two backward.  The goal is to never give us, right?