Evening Stroll

Posted by Irina.
www.irinapictures.blogspot.com

The Lady with the Dog

Posted by Irina.
www.irinapictures.blogspot.com

Vorontsov's Ponds

Posted by Irina.
www.irinapictures.blogspot.com

Tulips

 Small garden near Petrovsky boulevard.

Posted by Irina.
www.irinapictures.blogspot.com

Reflection

I am more into trees and flowers and historical sites kind of Moscow, but sometimes the urban city views win my attention completely. 

Posted by Irina.

Empty Streets

Summer in the city presents the unexpected surprise of streets empty from traffic and people. Unbelievable.

Posted by Irina.

Girls Dancing

I took my friend to the sightseeing deck at Leninsky prospect to enjoy the view of the city from new point. Sure new point it was as several girls were practicing dancing in this remarkable decoration. Attention and focus moved quickly to new direction.

Google map.

Posted by Irina.

Cucumber House

Most of these summer days I stay in Moscow neighborhood, at my parents "dacha". So there are no skyscrapers, no people, no churches, no autos, no noise, no pollution.  Moreover, there is not much to talk about or to show in the blog. So I prepared for you this Cucumber saga.
Parents were brought up and developed in Soviet era, when private property was almost forbidden. Little piece of land (600sqm actually) and little wooden "Finnish" house (here is example), which people received at work as the bonus to Communism builders for dedicated work, was the long-expected dream came true.
Now the Communism builder could plant and grow fruits and vegetables for himself (selling was prohibited), so the land was divided in patches or greenhouses were built to save tomatoes and cucumbers from unpredictable weather.
Here we arrive to the exact cucumber house we see above. It is in full motion and is the integral part of urban landscape in every household in the neighborhood.

I show you the exterior, interior, produce and result.

And the receipt of salted cucumbers (they go great with vodka in the winter time) from my mother:

Put cucumbers in 1litre glass jar, add cold water, 2 tablespoons of sea salt (no salt with iodine!!, Mother's special note), dill's umbrellas, garlic, currant's and cherry's leaves. Keep jar open 3 days in room temperature.
Then pour out the pickle to the pot and bring it to boil, then pour over the cucumbers and keep them for 5 min. Repeat this "hot pickle wash" twice.
And at the end close the jar tightly with thoroughly boiled tin cup.
Keep in fridge's coolness till winter and enjoy!

Few questions because of my long absence.
What happened to City Daily Photo site, maybe you have some info?
Why Tomas is in Montana?
Aren't this blog new co-workers are gorgeous, do you agree with me?

Posted by Irina.

English Yard

We are still in Moscow, do not worry. But the facade of this building resembles the architecture of English countryside, isn't it?

The St.Andrew's Anglican Church was constructed in 1883 and is one of 3 Anglican churches in Russia .
During the October Revolution 1917 the tower was the machine gun post for Bolsheviks.
In 1920 it was confiscated.
During Soviet rule it served as hostel and later to house diplomats from Finland and Estonia.
Since 1964 it was the recording studio for state music recording company "Melodia (Melody)".
Services returned in 1991 and during the visit of Queen Elizabeth II in 1994 the Russian government agreed to return the church to religious use.
Well. But they did not blew it away as many other churches here, you know..

And song. Maybe recorded right here, who knows.

From Wiki.
Google map.

Posted by Irina

Moscow sunset

Summer, Goodbye..

Goodbye, dear summer, you are almost over.

Photo made in Arkhangelskoe, 10km from Moscow.

Posted by Irina.

Summer Mood

 Andrei Rublev is watching the girls who are blowing bubbles in the park near Andronikov monastery.

Andrei Rublev was famous Russian icon painter and served in Andronikov's monastery where he died and was buried. The monument dates from 1985.

If you are interested in Russian history and Russian mentality, I highly recommend you to watch "Andrei Rublev" by Andrei Tarkovsky, I consider it one of the strongest films about Russians (besides other topics raised in this film).


Google map.

Posted by Irina.

Singing out the Youth Years

The group of old people joins together every Saturday to sing the songs of theWW2 years' songs under the accompaniment of the accordion.
 I saw and heard them in Temiriazev's park today.

Google map.

Posted by Irina.

Summer in the City

The sunset above the fence of Andronikov monastery.

Google map.

Andronikov monastery (Wiki in English).

Posted by Irina

Summer Backyards

Around the corner from ex-Arkhipova street (now Bolshoy Spasoglinishevsky pereulok). These two guys have a lot of interesting stories, I am sure.

Google map.
Posted by Irina.

Reflections on Chisty Prudy (Clean Ponds)

Photo made on Chistoprudny boulevard (boulevard on Clean ponds). Actually it is one pond.
The name goes to 18 century, when in 1703 it was added to the estate of prince Alexander Menshikov and was cleaned up. Before that time, in 17th century, it was "Foul pond" as nearby butchers' shops were dumping waste into it.

Wooden walls of nice Italian restaurant

These days the pond gets water from the city plumbing system, as the little river Rachka is long gone. The average depth is 1,2m (4'). In winter the pond turns into skating-rink.

Google map.

Posted by Irina.

People Dancing

Today strong wind brought us these beautiful clouds. The photos are made at the right time (about 7pm) from the river cruise ship.
The second photo is the dancing which is located at the river edge and is great pleasure to look at. So if you are in Moscow and want to dance in open air - welcome to Gorky park.

Salsa dancing near Moskva-river on Youtube:


Google map.
Moskva-river cruise (in Russian).

PS. About my previous post (The copy of Brandenburg gates in Moscow). Many of you asked about relations between our countries. Germany, since 1972, is the number 1 trade partner of Russia, as almost 14% of Russian foreign trade is German share.
And my personal experience. For many years I worked with German companies and have a number of German friends. Nothing special. Usual people. Set me examples how to be disciplined, how to be workaholic, how to keep the agreements, how to be honest and openhearted. Simone, if you read this, the last part of this "speech" is specially about you.

PPS. Today I received the letter from Abraham Lincoln (everybody knows him). He took care of Ashira's photo (few days ago) and slightly improved it with Photoshop ("I used Photoshop to make the darker parts of the people lighter so you could see what the camera recorded but was not able to process.").  So I wanted to show you the result here, as Ashira is really busy young lady.

People, you are amazing, thank you so much.

Posted by Irina.

Oxygen!

The sky is cleared, it is blue and so beautiful. The only good point of the passed disaster is that I could compare the life with oxygen and without it, very sobering experience I must say, helps to see the main :-)))
I just wonder where these clouds are now.

I did this photo of the entrance to Red Square at the sunset, my and my camera's most favorite time of the day. You have seen this place million times, I am sure. But it was such a pleasure to look at people walking and enjoying fresh air and summer and making tours to the Red Square.

Thank you again for all the concern and support and warmth we received here, in Moscow blog.

Posted by Irina

At the end of the day

Church of martyr Nikita.

Ordinary story of Orthodox church in Moscow: It was constructed in 1517, then old church was reconstructed in 1751 and kept its appearance till our days. It was closed in 1933. Communists used it as a ware house. The building was returned to Orthodox church in 1994 and the masses started in 1997.

I was caught by the intensive color of the building. It is painted in rose, which looks rather aggressive in day light, but gives fantastic color tone at the end of the sunny day. I was lucky to make photos at about 12pm and 8 pm. Beauty.

Google map

Posted by Irina

Summer in the city

Summer has come to Moscow - and it is HOT! The fountains in Aleksandrovsky Sad provide a wonderful respite from the heat. As you can see, many people come here to cool off and dangle their feet in the water. The step that the lady in the center of the picture is standing on is like a small waterfall - it feels great on your feet!
I was standing on another step just like it when taking this picture :)
Of course, if just dangling your feet doesn't cool you off enough, you could always do this....

...and yes, I was very tempted to do the same thing! :-D

posted by Ashira