Stalin's Snow

Lovely Central Fountain

I had a lovely three-hour walk today and discovered a completely new neighborhood.  I love taking walks where I end up going someplace that turns out to be an adventure.  I was deep in some strange neighborhood when I stumbled across a very large park with a magnificent fountain.  I went into the park to explore and found all this wonderful old homes and buildings surrounding the park and a huge statue of a very stern looking man, who I’m guessing might be Lenin. The park is called Skver Devich’ego Polya, which translates as Square Maiden Field.  I had to do a lot of map work to find this when I got home, but it was worth it just for the language experience.  It has a wonderful history as you can see from the article. The park lawns were filled with Stalin’s Snow, the white fluffy seeds from both cottonwood and trembling aspen.  They blame Stalin for planting all these trees to replace all the trees that were cut for firewood during WWII.  These are fast growing but no one anticipated all the ‘snow’ they would produce in the spring.

Stern Lenin

I was thinking today that I probably know more about the walking tours of inner Moscow that any non-native speaker. I figure in the eleven months that I’ve been walking around here I’ve most likely logged about seven hundred miles, assuming I walked at least three miles per day, which on most days has just been a warm up.  I’m quite sure I’ll miss this part of my experience when we move back to Charles Town.  From CC:  I feel like I’m just warming up in terms of getting to know Moscow.  If I could stay here for several more months without working at AAS I’d be in heaven!

One of the best things about walking today was that there was no traffic, it being yet another Russian holiday.  Most of the Russians were at their dachas so it was just me and the Stans walking around Moscow.  I made a quick pit stop in a very large four-story mall, which was almost deserted at noon. (I know where all of the very clean and free toilets are in Moscow, surely a marketable commodity.)  On part of the walk I crossed the Moscow River four times, just for the fun of going over bridges that were not clogged with traffic and pollution.  You do get the very best views of Moscow from the middle of bridges.

Time to go and check out the fridge. We have been very good about getting rid of things and I’ve only a few more meals to prepare since we have been getting lots of invitations to dinner this week. Last night was just the leftover chicken served with corn. I found one can of corn and drained it and then melted butter and garlic in a pan and threw in the corn.  I added some salt, pepper and herbs de Provence and cooked it until the niblets started to turn brown.  We had that with the remains of the French bread and an exquisite Petit Chablis. I’ve always said that nothing dresses up a dull meal more than an exciting wine!

Best wishes to all, Cindy and Wm.

PS. They jail poets, don’t they?