Category: LCJ Author Corner

When I look at these sweeping views from my window, I feel the world belongs to me. It really is my oyster. But I have to accept my human limitations. Say, after I headed a mastermind session, had a 30-minute interview, and chose a template for my educational project, I can’t do much more today. So, I’m going to spend the rest of the evening doing some house chores and preparing for tomorrow.

There are two railroads near where I live. One, with two Birulevo stations, runs between Paveletsky Railway Station and Domodedovo Airport;another, Pokrovskaya, runs between Serpukhov and Podolsk and Kurskaya Railway Station.

This Tuesday, as I was coming home from my weekly mastermind with other amazing girls, I decided to take a walk from the metro. I ended up walking along the bridge over Pokrovskaya station, and when I looked back at one point, this was the view I saw.

I love this gentle light of August evenings. In the last two days it was +50 in the sun and +31 in the shade. But in the evening when the temperature drops and people walk home, exhausted by the heat, the streets are filled with calm and silence. Life resumes under the sunset skies.

This is the view I had today from my window. You’ve seen my sunset cloudscapes before, now here’s something I occasionally see in broad daylight.

My previous week was all about copyrighting work, and I did quite a lot! This week I’ve got other tasks at hand, so to manage ’em all I take a lot of rest. Surprisingly, this works really well.

My friend who’s presently living in Slovenia admits that Europe is literally grilling in hot temperatures. I sincerely hope all European citizens survive the heat.

I really think that one of the outcomes of the present situation in the world will be our reassessment of the role God plays and the place He occupies in our lives. For those who dare to “risk” the effort and let Him in to their mind, heart, and soul, He will manifest His benign nature. This is really not the time to question or challenge Him. We, however, have to rise to His challenge, for He is the Answer. Love is the Answer, Love is the Power (John Lennon, Mind Games).

The storms usually come after an extended period of extreme heat. I’ve received an SMS from the agency alerting me of the possibility of another storm later today. So far I can state that the wind is blowing strongly, although the sun is raging. It’s +32 in the shade, whereas my home thermometer reads +48-50. If the storm and rain do begin later, they will last until midnight.

So I’m having a siesta on days like this. I may or may not have a nap but it feels good to be able to relax. This is a chance to think, to pray, to focus on yourself. This is what summer is for, after all.

The photo was taken a little over a month ago, on June 2nd, but today’s sky was exactly the same after the storm had subsided. I managed to go shopping at about the time the storm was beginning. A strong wind started blowing, and I narrowly escaped the moment when the torrential rain poured down with all its might, and the thunderbolt and lighting were very, very frightening indeed. I waited for some time in the shop, but the storm was showing no sign of calming down, so I decided to run home amidst the lighting and thunderbolts.

It was quite an experience! As I was running past the block of flats on the way to mine, I kept thinking of the old days. Then, when no brollies were yet invented, people must have been running for their lives, if they had to, in the storm like this! I vividly imagined the lighting tearing the sky in parts and illuminating the scenery below. If anyone hadn’t been religious until then, they would most certainly have come to believe in God.

Of course, there could be casualties in storms like this, as it happened today when a man was killed in Moscow city centre. In my own yard a few trees were mutilated by the storm. Some claim it was a hurricane; it certainly wasn’t as bad as the one we had in 1997 or 1999 when it even damaged a part of the Kremlin wall. But today’s storm was a spectacular, if frightening, occasion.

The photo was taken a week ago when it was overcast. Today is sizzling hot, so this gentle reminder of a summer breeze is precisely what I need.

I’m doing my first proper excursion this Tuesday in the district I treasure and love. I came there in September 1997 as a History student, and I keep coming here as a poet, a writer, a researcher, and a Muscovite. I “served” as a Moscow expert for a student TV report back in May, and at the end of June I’m about to repeat it.

After a short siesta today I’m going to carry on with my tasks for the day. One of them is to take the books back to the library. I’m revisiting some topics I read in at the university.

Oh, and I also had my first public lecture last week. It was on the subject of the Crusades, and, being read at 10:30 on Sunday, attracted a lot of people.

One of the central Moscow rivers, the Yauza, flows near the Library for Foreign Literature. I went there today to study for my upcoming paper on Wales in painting in late 18th – early 19th cc. And on my way back I couldn’t help capturing these ephemeral clouds that reminded me of the fog in the Welsh mountains drawn by J. M. W. Turner.