Don’t worry, the Crimean Saga will pick back up in August, but for now it’s time for our monthly art lesson. This year we got a full-on, classic July here in Middle Russia: all month long and for another week to come the temperatures have been breaking 30C (it’s toasty 34C today – nearly 100F),…
I’m back! It was 18 days of travel, 4,560 photos and 24 hand-written chapters for this blog (with two more pending in my head). It was exciting, gorgeous, challenging, different, eye-opening, beautiful, tiring, inspiring, heart-breaking, cold, wet, relaxing, testing, comfortable and frustrating — all in all, a trip of a lifetime. I am not the…
So bright, so warm, so fragrant. Wildflower meadows, bright nights, fresh strawberries. June in Russia is absolutely glorious. Russian Spring — May Russian Spring – April Russian Spring – March Russian Winter – 2 Russian Winter – 1 Russian Autumn – 1 Russian Landscape throughout the Year (because I finally lugged my lappy to the…
May in Russia is about Labor Day and Victory Day, about eating outside and smelling the roses (well, ok, lilacs and tulips mostly). It’s about long days, first thunderstorms and getting the taste of Summer up ahead. Russian Spring – April Russian Spring – March Russian Winter – 2 Russian Winter – 1 Russian Autumn –…
From the white of the remaining snow to the green of new foliage, from yellow buds mat’-i-macheha, to red Easter eggs, April is when Russian landscape starts to get its color variety back. More Russian Seasons & Nature in Russian Art: Russian Spring – March Russian Winter – 2 Russian Winter – 1 Russian Autumn –…
It might not look very warm and very green, but this is indeed springtime in middle Russia. The days are longer, the snow is melting, and sunlight and birds have returned. More Russian Seasons & Nature in Russian Art: Russian Winter – 2 Russian Winter – 1 Russian Autumn – 1
These were the exclamations that kept coming out of my mouth — to myself, out loud — as I walked from room to shining room of the Winter Palace, former residence of Russian emperors and now home to one of the greatest art museums ever. The Hermitage, according to multiple sources, is actually the largest…
March is going to be the Saint Petersburg Month here at Home & Away. While I am sorting through some 600 photographs from my 5-day trip, here’s something by the way of an introduction: Saint Petersburg as depicted by Russian artists in the 19th and 20th centuries. f
January, February, March… Month names are some of the easiest words to recognize across European languages. Take February for example: that would be Febrero in Spanish, Februar in German, Février in French, Φεβρουάριος in Greek and Февраль (pronounced as Fevral’) in Russian. The script might be different, but the sound is still familiar. For the…
As a tribute to Moscow’s coldest day of the season — this far, -25C by day, -30C by night — here’s the next installment of the Russians’ artistic tributes to glorious Winter.
Home & Away 