Nick and Natasha's wedding

I got to know Nick when we getting the garden ready for the Jubilee last year. He was between jobs so had time on his hands and he enjoyed getting them dirty. He provided the umph and I the 'expertise'. We made a good team. He really wanted to get some sweet peas to grow in the garden!!

Earlier this year he handed me an invitation to his wedding in June. We were delighted to accept. Despite the massive chest infection at Easter I did manage to get a dress and Peter a new suit. Then he asked me to be part of 'Team Pimms' following the success of the Pimms after the Jubilee service last year.

So on June 8th I donned the said frock, put my heels in a bag with a bag of orange slices and headed to church.

I had to alter the dress but I was pleased with how it looked in the end.

 

 

The kneelers in place. It was good to see them being used.

 

The service was from the 1928 service book, all in English except for two of the readings. One was taken from the Orthodox bible (I think) and one was from ours but read in Russian by one of our congregation who reads and speaks Russian. Nicolette and a friend of Nick's from England sang two duets. The Orders of Service were bi-lingual, though the Russians seemed very confused by Jerusalem!! There were a good few Brits there to sing it out.

 

 Surrounded by friends

 

A large glass of Pimms

 

The bridal party. Natasha' s mother in evening dress, Nick's family traditional English style

Car park entertainment.

 

It is a tradition in Moscow for wedding couples to have their photograph taken at several famous and tourist spots. Nick and Natasha disappeared and we were provided with entertainment. After about three quarters of an hour we boarded busses to be taken to the Gum banqueting suite for the reception. Each bus had entertainers on board and we were very lucky as one of Nick's Moscow friends is a fine tenor and sang the songs the musicians were playing. As we were stuck in a traffic jam for sometime it was all rather pleasant.

 

Table arrangement

 The guests assembling

 

 It is Russian tradition at the beginning of all sorts of journeys to offer a brioche bread with salt. We had it on our trip to Tver. Here the bride's mother had made the bread and she offered it to the couple. Whoever broke off the biggest piece would lead the household.

 

The reception was very interesting. The meal consisted of five courses; a cold appetiser, a warm appetiser, salad, main course and wedding cake. The speeches came between each course. Though Nick speaks Russian he said most of his speech in English. Natasha's brother in law gave her away but her mother gave the speech which Nicolette translated for us.

 

Nick has had an interesting life and friends from all over the place were invited. There were people from St Andrew's on our table, but we also sat with a former college friend and a lady from the Frankfurt ski club from his days working in Germany. We were an eclectic lot and it made for an interesting evening.

 

After the appetisers and salad the entertainment began with 'the first dance'. Poor Nick he looked so worried, but it went off well. Then the bride's shoe was taken and Nick had to win it back. Natasha's sister and brother in law were the adjudicators. First he had to draw a picture of Natasha on her wedding day. The picture did not pass muster, so a group of friends were 'kidnapped' and taken outside. They came in dressed in traditional costume and had to entertain us. This is where Nick's friend ( I think his name was Ian but I can't remember) came into his own. While the girls swayed decorously in the background he sang with the musicians. 

 

Following the performance Nick's friends won Natasha's shoe back!

The wedding cake - not a traditional fruit cake but soft.

Cutting the cake.

 

After enjoying the cake we headed home. We were well in time for the metro but I was worried about the last tram and I had the  MIC picnic the next day so didn't want to be too late. I'm told the partying went on into the early hours, but Nick made it to the 11 o'clock service the next day.

 

It was an entertaining evening and quite a mix. One to be remembered!!

 

That was the highlight of the summer. A month later we were heading home.

 

Kyiv - Historical buildings

It is now September and I can finally get up to date with this blog. Sadly my computer died several weeks before the end of term taking my photos with it. I had access to the internet on the ipad but could not easily write this.

I have been back in Moscow for a three weeks, coming back a week early so I could get ready for school as the year 3s are staying at our school due to building work at School 2. I am enjoying the challenge of teaching Year 3 but it is a whole new curriculum so it is taking some getting used to. I am working with a lovely Scottish girl called Fiona. It's all new to her too, but we're making a go of it.

And so back to Kyiv in May. Peter and I had the opportunity to visit a museum of old Ukrainian houses from different regions. David and Aliona also took us to a reproduction Cossack village. Both similar and yet different and equally interesting. The museum of houses was interesting but so spread out. We walked miles. The Cossack village was far more compact and had several guides who spoke pretty good English so it was very interesting.

These first few are from houses built in the sixties to eighties. Though the fabrics are Ukrainian much of it reminds me of the UK in the fifties. We have found this so often, the Soviet Union and afterwards the Russian Federation are just years behind us and are catching up fast.

The houses have a distinctive style of their own but are similar to the houses we saw in Kostrama three years ago. We did learn that with these wooden houses the fire places and chimneys were laid first, often by the women of the village as it is the heart of the home. Then the rest of the house was built around it.

There are three churches on the site and are still used for services several times during the year.

 We saw these amazing candles. It took us little while to work out what they were. Then we saw one in a special holder which made it clear.

 

 

Just as we were leaving we were invited to go into the school. The timetable was very regimented with a lot of religious instruction. The lady guide was very interesting and made herself understood with very limited English. I just wish I could remember what she said.

 

The Cossack village was just one style and it was there that we learnt about the ladies making the fire.

This is a family tree. Boys are shown as leaves, girls as flowers.

Peter's beer. An interesting glass.

Cossack church

Draining tree

Vessels for pouring drinks

 

My lunch a pottage

 

The guide

The head man's house

 

 Peter and David being strong on the giant swing.

 

 Place setting for lunch

 

 Place your foot here for good luck before entering the building

 

Horses are very important to the Cossacks and so we saw some being trained.

 

It was a lovely few days away and set us up for the summer. It all seems a long time ago now but it was just what we needed after I was ill at Easter.

 

There is one more post to do and I'll get it done in the next few days if I can. Till then.

 

Kyiv - Kyivo Pechers'ka Lavra, Memorial to the famines and Museum of the Great Patriotic War

Orthodox Easter Monday saw us heading towards the Lavra, an massive monastic site on the top of a hill. On the way we came across these soldiers practising for Victory Day later in the week.

After that we discovered the National Museum to the Memorial in Commemoration of Famines Victims in Ukriane. There were three big famines in Ukraine, one each in the twenties, thirties and forties. Ukraine was the bread basket of the Soviet Union. Following poor harvests and unrealistic quotas set by the Soviet leadership led to millions starving. Stalin wanted to eliminate the Slavic people. Millions of people died, particularly during the famine of 1932-1933. It was known as Holodomors. 

The Candle of Memory Memoral with the museum underneath

Memorial inside the museum

An Angel of Sorrow, one of a pair

This sculpture is called 'Sad memory of childhood'

In her hands she is holding 5 ears of corn as a symbol 'Law of five ears'.

The Millstones of Destiny

It was an incredible place to go and so sad. As I said the Ukrainians were brutally treated.

At last we reached the Lavra. It is here that Christianity was brought from Byzantium by two monks St Antony and St Feodosiy who chose to live in one of the caves in the hillside. As time went by others joined them and the complex grew. After a time the caves were used as catacombes for burying the dead. Like Sergiev Passad north of Moscow it is a seminary for training priests for the Orthodox Church as well as being a monastic site. Though I believe its activities were restricted in the Soviet times it didn't actually close.

I can't find all the buildings on the Internet and I gave David his book back, but here are the pictures I took while we were there. We did go into one set of caves, but it was hot and claustaphobic in them and particularly busy as it was Easter Monday and a public holiday.

The Lavra from the park. As in St Petersburg where no building in the centre can be higher than the Hermitage, so no building in Kyiv can be taller than the Lavra bell tower.

Trinity Gateway

Wall painting

Bell tower

Dormiton Cathedral, rebuilt in 2005 after the original was destroyed in during WW2.

These wall pictures painted on leather and were on sale in the cafe. This is an Easter design.

The beginning of the Easter Monday procession of monks

Outside the cathedral doors

Across the site. It is a big place.

Saints Antony and Feodosiy founders of the site

View of the upper site from the bottom of the hill leading to the caves.

Down to the churches above the caves

Onion dome anyone - assume they are for graves.

 

From the Lavra site this amazing statue can be seen standing above the Museum of the Great Patriotic War. Lavra was very busy and steep so we took ourselves off to Victory Park.

As with the one in Moscow it is dedicated to the victory of the allies during the Second World War. At the centre was an amazing museum telling the story of the war from the Ukrainian point of view. The war for all the European countries was awful, and St Petersburg truely horrific, but Ukraine suffered more than most as the tide of war rolled over the countryside with many millions being killed. I forgot to buy an photography ticket so couldn't take any photos but it was very well done. Each room had clear explanation of the theme of the room and, where appropriate, particular things to look for such as a Florence Nightingale medal awarded by the Red Cross to a particularly brave nurse. It told the same story as the one in Moscow but from a very particular point of view.

Outside was is the statue of the woman who is made from titanium and stands 62m high and holds aloft a 12 ton sword.

These reliefs are in the tunnel which is just to the right in the first picture.

The Motherland statue close up

Underneath her is a room dedicated to the Defenders of the Motherland with all the names engraved on the walls. The one in Moscow was very dark as it was in the centre of the museum. This one was very light. 

It was an interesting day and such contrasts. All very informative and moving in their different ways.

One more post to go.