frog pond, shoshliks, and Smoglucks

Denis wanted to take us to a beautiful pond with lots of frogs and have a cook out. We were going to cook shoshlik on his portable grill. He picked us up, drove to his apartment to see where he lived, bought the meat for the shoshlik, and then drive to the park with the frogs. We had a great time with Denis Smogluck and his wife Jenna, and son Andre.

Setting up the grill.

Beautiful!

Picking up a frog to show Andre.

Andre has decided to touch the frog.

Preparing the shoshliks.

cooking....

and eating...delicious!

Denis, Andre, Jenna, Me

More Riga

Our last trip to Riga!

Delicious Hot Chocolate
It is just as thick as a melted chocolate bar and very DELICIOUS!

It was so good...but we shared because it was so rich!

Playing chess with the old men.

Jim got creamed - and loved every minute of it!

Another great memory!

Beautiful architecture

Spring Flowers - we don't see very many!

Easter at the Cathedrals

Easter weekend everyone takes their food to their churches so the Priest can bless it.

Everyone is in line to go into the church grounds.

The people have put their baskets of food out on the tables so the Priest can bless it.


A basket of food.

We stopped by the Big Cathedral on our way home from church. Security was very tight because...

A Priest on their way into the cathedral.

More Priests

Another Priest

Ofice Diner at Lochhead's Home

Beautiful and very delicious dinner at Lochhead's

KLynn, Jenna, Denis, Andre, Olga, Vladimir, Nikita, Bob, can't see Oleg the driver and his wife, Alexander, and me


during dinner Denis held Andre

during dinner Vladimir held Nikita

Alexander, the Oligarch

cute moms and their babies

it must be spring...

It must be spring! When (and if) the sun comes out we can feel a little warmth on faces - the only skin that is exposed to the weather. In addition to seeing buds on the trees - yes, the ground is still covered with snow but there are small buds on the trees - the work crews will start the annual spring painting of fences and buildings. No preparations are done before the painting! The paint is just brushed on over cement, dirt, and whatever else is on the fence. The workers are not worried about dripping paint (because it is all over) and there is never a "fresh paint" sign. We have been lucky so far on not getting any paint on us. However, don't get me wrong...I LOVE SPRING AND I WILL TAKE IT ANYWAY IT COMES!!!! YES, IT HAS BEEN A LONG WINTER!!!

snow 2011

When it is time for spring, the workers start to get rid of the snow. Notice the big chunks of ice in the middle of the road waiting for a truck to come and take it away.

A closer look at the ice ready to be taken away. If the driver comes and needs to get out, he will probably drive over the side walk to an open spot. We don't know if the people are sharing the roads with the cars or if the cars are sharing the sidewalks with the people. Notice the 6-8 inch think ice on the path where the men are walking.

This car has been parked in this spot for a while.

This car has been parked for a while too!

Womens Day at the Vetrans home

They invited us back because they had so much fun with our branch in January. This time we celebrated Womens Day. It is like Valentines Day and Mothers Day all together. Our branch sang a few songs and then Ksusha, a young 6 year old girl, gave a poem, and then the three men in our group, President Makarov, Alexander, and Jim, handed out a rose and a chocolate bar to the women.
Some of the women didn't come to the big "entertainment" room so we walked down the hall to their room to give them their flowers and candy.

One of the women, in her cute little room, holding her flower from Alexander.

Another lady getting her flower and candy.

Cathedral Bells

Natalia, our neighbor, met the Chief Bell Ringer for the Moscow Kremlin Bells and also for the Christ Our Savior Cathedral, Igor Konovalov. He invited her and a few friends on a tour and to watch them ring the bells on Sunday morning. We LOVED it!

There are bells outside on all four corners of the Cathedral. This is looking from one bell tower to another.

In this bell tower there are 14 bells. The clapper is attached to a wire and the bell ringer will push on the wire to ring the smaller bells. He uses a foot pedal to ring the larger bells. Igor Konovalov is the man in the brown coat, Natalia is in the blue scarf, Jim is behind her, Katya is next and her friend is behind the bells.

Ivan, Natalia' son, and Jim. Katya on the side.

I am standing underneath a bell and touching the one metric ton clapper. Notice my Babushka scarf! Katya and her friend are behind me.

Looking down from one of the bell towers I could see this wooden church on the grounds of the Cathedral.

sokolniki park and ice

We thought it would be fun to visit Sokolniki Park. At the park we saw rides for children, cross country skiing, skating, an ice museum, food, AND couples dancing on the ice! Ice sculptures like this are all the way down the plaza on the way to the park. Those are real gerber daisies inside the ice.

We heard music playing and saw all of these people dancing on the ice. YES, our group all danced on the ice and had a great time!

Before going into the ice museum, they had us put on these blue coats...to keep us warm?...we already were dressed for the freezing outside temperature!

Lynn & Paulette Patterson, Me, Linda, Budd, Jim, Leon Budd

Flying horse

Knight

handy man?

Castle Gate

ice bed - ice floor

mirror and dressing table with a bottle of perfume some books

fireplace - the only one I have seen in Russia and it isn't warm!

getting ready to ski

skaters

ПОНЧИК (donut)

We stopped for a fresh donut that had been deep fried and covered in powdered sugar...delicious!