I am, for some reason, feeling not at all like going out onto the streets today, even though it's a rather nice Sunday, and even though I also don't really feel like doing much of anything at home. It's a dilemma.
So instead, I shall catch up on a few things I've been meaning to post.
- I find it odd the way you can take the same path over and over and then suddenly, on your fifty fifth time along that path, see something you've never noticed. That's happened a couple times recently as I ride the bus. On one route, I noticed a giant "snow depository," obviously not currently in use. I noticed that the intersection where the metro station Universitet is located is also Jawaharlal Nehru Square. And not too far down the street from that intersection, at Indira Gandhi Square, there's a statue of THE Gandhi.
- Bus stops here are often places where people put up notices. There were interesting differences between Moscow and Iaroslavl. Here, they're mostly for apartments. In Iaroslavl, they were mostly for trips.
- Also, one day as I waited for a bus an older women came up and started ripping down all the notices for apartments. I've always assumed that those were notices put up by individuals, but the next day another woman came by and started pasting up a whole bunch of notices that look like they're from individuals, but obviously aren't.
- There's a small pack of dogs (I think three) who live around this abandoned building near my apartment. They're remarkably happy seeming for stray dogs. They actually play with each other, and although they occasionally bark, they seem only to bark at men, never at me. I think their happiness may have to do with the fact that there aren't too many other strays in my relatively large neighborhood, and I've seen people dropping food out their windows to the dogs, so they must do OK, as stray dogs go. And yet they still make me sad.
- Mushrooms can grow out of tree stumps. I knew that, I guess, but I didn't realize they could grow HUGE out of tree stumps way up above the ground. Like, taller than me above the ground. See?
- I'm remarkably pleased with how I've packed for this trip. I only made one bad clothing choice ( a shirt, too, so nothing major), and I haven't had to buy much of anything. Even my planned knitting has gone well. The socks were perfect to work on for a train ride, as I suspected (though, admittedly, I had a hard time with them on the return trip, as for some reason the car I was in was really shaky, so I gave up and turned to sudoko [I was seated backwards, so reading was right out]). And the lace shawl? Well, after I frogged the first few inches because I decided I needed smaller needles, it's gone well. I'm on tier nine (of supposedly 23 but I'm hoping for 19 with the amount of yarn I have), and it's... well, really, it kind of looks a right hot mess at the moment, as lace tends to do before being blocked. But I did finally manage to photograph it in such a way that the pattern is at least vaguely visible.
Lace looks horrid until its blocked but you can see the pattern nicely.
I love all your pictures!
Posted by: Carrie K | July 09, 2009 at 02:50 PM