News is that Ukraine will force businesses to have bank and credit card terminals and will limit cash withdrawals to 500 UAH per day or 15,000 per month (less than $2000). Too much taxation lost in undeclared income. This will not affect small businesses like the markets nor most Ukrainians as $500 to $1000 per month is very good money and in small towns $300 is pretty good. Pensioners fare even less well.
It will impact people who pay cash for a $1000 leather coat or a $400 dress jacket which I have had to do because the shops didn't have terminals. The dealership where we went for regular oil changes and maintenance for our car didn't even have a terminal, nor did the travel agent from whom we always buy our Turkish vacation packages. In other words, it will affect upper middle class. Whether it will affect the very rich or not is another story. Laying out $95,000 cash for a car or for jewelry may still be possible; I will never know, that is for sure..
We can now book and pay for bus tickets, train tickets, airline tickets on-line; pay utility bills on-line and a number of other conveniences that make life a little easier for people who have computers.
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| Tania, Dasha (1 mo) and Masha |
My second youngest daughter will arrive here for a 10 day visit on Saturday night. I will meet her in Kyiv. She is currently in Venice all this week at a very high level international conference of Victorian Literature academics and she presents on Thursday. She is a little bit nervous to say the least and had serious writer's block with her paper, which is now complete. We have nothing planned as all she wants to do is sit and sog, play with the kittens, walk the dogs with me, and visit Lina, Dasha and Masha.
With the rain we had a week or so ago, Tanya's flowers are doing quite well. The best thing about them is that I get to admire them but am pretty much kept out of the garden. My Mother loved flowers and her Mother too. My Grandfather used to haul water in barrels on a stoneboat in the 30s so Grandma's flowers would prosper even if the rest of the garden went dry. We teased my Mother that she just let the flowers go to seed and cultivated the volunteers to make rows.
Last fall Tanya had some metal work trellises built for climbing roses and clematis and some other flowering tree whose name I don't know. They should have been a meter taller than they are as the plants have already reached the top of a couple of them.
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| Climbing roses topped out on their trellis |
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| Side garden looking east |
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| Front garden |
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| Front garden roses, climbing and regular |
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| Side garden looking west |
As always, I am SO impressed and envious of Tanya's gardens. Wow!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Violet
DeleteBeautiful! It'll be another month before my roses even think about blooming. I'm chuckling a little at myself because I expected to see "exotic" plants in her garden - the Ukraine seems so far away. Instead, I see the same flowers as in my garden here... only we can't grow tea roses in our alpine climate; just the hardy Rugosa types. Some of the newer cultivars from the Morden, MB research station are quite nice. I don't suppose you can get them over there, but I guess you don't need them, either. :-)
ReplyDeletePretty much same climate. Month earlier in spring and longer in fall, warmer winter. Some +30C on summer. Most flowers Tanya grows are similar to what I have seen in Canada. Origins, I don't know. We have some that won't grow on the prairies as they won't over winter.
DeleteThe garden looks beautiful. There was an article in Canada's Globe and Mail recently where a hotel in Kyiv was listed among a top ten in travel. Can't locate the article but recall it was something like a Four Seasons or such. Any idea which hotel that would be? Say hello to that second youngest daughter.
ReplyDeleteNo idea about the hotel. If you come to Kyiv, we will rent an apartment for you. Better and cheaper by far.
DeletePresentation will be delivered today in Venice. Two days until she arrives. Can hardly wait. Will certainly say hello.
Good rains this week (and some heat soon we hope) will really make things grow. I need to trim the grass once it dries up a bit