Moscow House of Music

Two weeks ago I went to Cassandra Wilson's concert in Moscow Music House. I hope you will like the view of the organ in the lights of the show. Looks really grand.

Posted by Irina.

Tournament

The idea of today's post was suggested by Ineke, Rotterdam Daily Photo (great photoblog about Netherlands!). Her son is a member of water-polo junior team, arrived to Moscow for few days to participate in the water polo tournament. The tournament was dedicated to the 80-th anniversary of the "Torpedo" pool.

Ineke wrote to me and asked to take a photograph of the boys. This opportunity is a great proof of how the Internet, and especially the City Daily Photo community give us new friends and make far countries closer.

And few facts about this place in Moscow:
This gray monster was built in 1920, 3 years after the revolution. In Soviet times it belonged to the ZIL plant, trucks maker and was built for employees of the plant. The outside and inside of the building is a typical example of Soviet architecture. I recommend to visit it for those who want to feel the spirit of the USSR.



Google map.


Posted by Irina

Underwater Celebration

I think that when the Gods made a decision which weather to provide in Moscow in winter, they were in not so good mood. And they decided : either warm or sunny. So now in January we have sunny days - when I quickly-quickly! run to the location, make a shot, run back to the warmth of my car, cafe, whatever:-))) or warm days with long walks looking for interesting shots, getting them and realising I would have to return to the place  in the summer and add color to this great location :-(
Well, who told me that life would be easy? - Nobody did :-))
This photo is the shot of Gorky park from the backside. Gorky park (named in Soviet times by Maxim Gorky, Soviet writer) is famous between mamas papas and their children by very many park amusements (not sure about the translation here, but you see the one on the other side of the river, we call it American mountains :-)) , river boat station, several beautiful pond, many cafes and walking places.
I think my luck was to shot this yellow balloon in the middle of the river. How did it get there? It is clear to me: they celebrated New year underwater and got careless, leaving the proof.

City playground

Were you missing playgrounds in this blog? Well, there is one for you!
Quiet place nested among multistored appartment buildings. It's nearly empty because late afternoons are not very popular for going out.

On a dull day amusement park in Sokolniki looks a bit lonely...

On a week day Sokolniki park in rather empty, and little trains look lonely in waiting for children to ride them.

Gondola

This is my contribution to Skywatch Friday. I took the photo in Sokolniki park, by the observation wheel - I just liked the way an empty gondola looked against the cloudy sky. Another photo on my extension site.

Have a nice week-end!

Chess club

Chess used to be extremely popular in USSR so there were numerous chess clubs all around the country. It is necessary to mention such clubs based in city parks: people of all ages, but mostly elgerly men, gathered in parks and spent time playing chess, sometimes from morning till night, sometimes notwithstanding disagreeble weather. Since clubs were popular, parks were furnished with tables and benches, wooden as a rule, so that players could spend their time comefortably.

Nowadays, number of chess clubs is significantly smaller but still on a fine summer day you can see a group of people crowding around chess boards in some or other city park. I kind of spied on them when I walked by so here is the photo for you (and another one on my extension site).

It's been snowing all night long, and I took that photo as I left home for work this morning. The playground was empty and the snow was untouched yet.

Drying cloths

Drying cloths in the 'open space' between appartment buildings is rather rare nowadays but you can still see it in some old blocks of the city. Anyway, it's always funny to see someone's garments hung by a playground.

With winter back in the city and temperature below -10C, no kids are playing outside.
It's a sunny day, though.

Frozen Ship

This ship is not a playground but a kind of flower-bed. I took the photo in the neighbourhood. I believe it should be beautiful in the summer-time.

Winter games

Not only I used yesterday's nice weather for outdoor pleasures. Many kids took their sledges and went to taboggan to the same park. As you can see, they even involved their parents in this entertainment!

I wish you nice and warm Christmas Eve!

I sincerely apologise for not visiting your blogs for a long while. I would really love to but have absolutely no time lately. Before then, let me introduce another very wintery photo and wish you a nice week-end!

It was -10C yesterday morning, it was +1C today. And how we are supposed to deal with such up and down?

Anyway, here is one more of winter pictures. I'm afraid you'll get bored with them long before the end of February, but they will do so far.

It'd been snowing the whole night through. It was still snowing in the morning. City services don't work properly so cars and public transport are stuck in snowed streets. This literally beautiful weather often turns hell for drivers.

Frozen

Swings

I took this photo this morning: it was early hour, grey and chilly, and the playground was empty. I loved a cover of colourful leaves, and those swings looked like a phantom of long passed summer.

Winter is here!

Well, I'm afraid the winter has come. Today we had heavy snowing all day long. It's cold and nasty outside - what a good reason to stay home and watch your favourite movies! By the way, what films do you like the most? I should like to see a BBC version of 'Pride and Prejudice', even though it's extremely long one.

This blog is half a year old

Yesterday this blog selebrated its being 6 months old. Sometimes I look through my early posts and can't believe that was the city as I present today!
This photograph was taken in one of old blocks, it shows the yard framed by multistored apartment buildings. As you can see, the playground was empty at the moment but there are elderly ladies sitting on the bench: they met to have some talk and gossips, and to walk a dog in the mean time.