Out and about again

Welcome back. I am horrified to see it is over a month since I last posted. Life has generally been very quiet here.i

School has seen lots of changes - mostly in management and planning, but it takes lots of time. A new age group also means more resources so again they take time. Still we are getting there.

Following the confirmation at church last January when the candidates wobbled about on cushions from Father Simon's sofa I decided to buy and make two kneelers to use for confirmations and weddings. I presented them to the church last Sunday. Before I handed them over I took these pictures together with the finished cushion cover I made before.

The top design

Writing on the edges 

My cushion

This weekend I had the chance to go out with a group from school to the Romanov Boyars' House museum in  the centre. This is the same family which gave rise to the last Tsarist dynasty. A boyar was a rich nobleman who was also involved in trade.

All that remains of a complex is the main house. The bottom two floors were built with brick and the top floor with wood. This is the same pattern all over Russia. Goods were kept safe in the solid bottom and the family lived in the wooden top.

Our guide and Masha, the secretary from School 2 who translated

Brick at the bottom and wood at the top

The Romanov's founded the monastery behind the house

This is the cellar used for food storage and cooking in the winter. In Summer food was cooked outside away from the main building

The family treasure stored in chests. In addition to coins, fine fabrics including silk from the east, guns from Holland and Great Britain, weapons and armour were all part of the family treasures.

The Master of the House's study. The walls are covered in leather imported from Holland. All the rooms are vaulted and small with tiny doorways, all to help keep the heat in. Each room had a tiles stove which acted like a radiator.

The main dining room was the most important room in the house. In the corner opposite the door is the icon corner. Only the master and his lady would have proper chairs, the rest of the family and guests sat on benches. Again only the master and  lady had individual plates to eat from, everyone else ate from shared plates and shared cups known as 'brothers'.

The ladies rooms. The house was divided into two parts for the men and women. Again only the master and his wife had a bedroom. The rest of the household slept on benches in their own quarters. Note the wooden walls as this room is at the top of the house. Here the children lived with the women - the boys moved to the men's quarters when they were about seven. In the chest at the front is a girl's dowry. As soon as she could embroider she would begin work, adding each completed item to her trunk.

The ladies' workroom. Despite being boyars and nobility, all the women were expected to be accomplished at sewing and weaving and a large part of the day was spent in the occupations. The boys had a formal education, learning to read in Greek and Latin as well as Russian.

It was a shame Peter couldn't come but he was supposed to be camping and then all the places were taken up. I will take him as it was so interesting.