Anna Akhmatova

Westward the sun is dropping,

And the roofs of towns are shining in its light. 

Already death is chalking the doors with crosses 

And calling the ravens and the ravens are in flight. 

From ''Why is our century worse than any other?' (1919)

In Praise of Popsicles

Ice-lollies have been saving us in the heat, both here and in Moscow.  I made the wondrous discovery that certain brands - Помпей, Кактус, Вам-Пири - contain space dust, that crackly stuff that bursts on your tongue that used to be around in the '70s.  Yay!

Twirl Follows Twirl

... as Nabokov said.  We took today at a leisurely pace, visiting St. Isaac's Cathedral (Nick climbed to the top to the viewing gallery) and the amazing Yusupov Palace.  In this palace, in the cellar, Prince Yusupov murdered Rasputin.  Today, the place is notable for the number of grand pianos it contains (we counted 8 or 9), the gorgeous Blue and Red Drawing Rooms, the Moorish dining-room, an exquisite private theatre, a copy of Serov's portrait of Princes Zinaida Yusupova (we saw the original in the Russian Museum) and a charming 4-man choir who sang a quick piece.  Nice lunch in a laid-back restaurant called The Idiot, and the end of the afternoon was spent souvenir-hunting.  Nice dinner at the Restaurant Piter, where we had fun translating the cocktail menu, drinking a лунный свет and playing heavy-duty, 6-letters-and-up Boggle.

Nick on the viewing-platform of St. Isaac's
(the yellow dot)

From a fresco of the Three Graces in the Yusopov Palace