In October 2008 I wrote a post, featuring a poem Scent of Irises by D. H. Lawrence and a painting by Vincent van Gogh, called Irises. Who would have thought (not me!) that 2.5 years later not one but ...
Even before I came to live in England I was told that in winter the entire country would lose its nerve. “We’re too soft, we Brits“, someone told me. “We cannot live under the ...
Recently a Russian query has led to my blog: “и повторится все как встарь аптека улица”. So here is my English translation of a well-known poem by Alexander Blok, Night, a Streetlight, a S...
Moscow State University Lomonosov Moscow State University This week I had two lengthy walks around Moscow, one starting in the vicinity of the so-called Three Railway Stations Square and going to the ...
The Palm Sunday, or the Entrance of Our Lord into Jerusalem, is one of the movable feasts in the Christian calendar, celebrated one week before Easter...
Many years ago when I was still in school I had the chance of a lifetime: I visited the Star City, the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre located in the northeast of Moscow where they teach and train f...
I quite like the adverb “religiously”: it illustrates the practice that is not unknown to me. I used to religiously go to the library, to town, I watched films religiously, like, The Adven...
As far as I can see from my window, the snow has almost gone, not least because of the thick fog that came down on the town this night. To mark the occasion, here is a winter photo my dad shared with ...
Church of Cosma and Damian Embassy of Belarus Maroseika, 12 The church of the Unmercenary Healers of Cosma and Damian stands on the corner of Maroseika St and Starosadsky Lane (Side-Street). Both stre...
To continue with the story of Moscow shopwindows: most of these come from Sretenka and Tverskaya Streets. What you will undoubtedly spot are antique shoes in the window of a footwear shop not far from...