For a start, there is a blog called Cat in the Bag that I love for its witty observations and funny captions to the photos. Then, here is a very detailed instruction on how to find a missing pet. The ...
In our family archive we have several newspapers that date back to the pre-Revolution times. One of them has just marked its 90th anniversary, and if you flick through the pages of the embedded docume...
Adoration of the Magi, 3rd c. A.D., Vatican, Rome And we’re starting with the carved scene of the Adoration of the Magi (top). It can be found in Rome, in Vatican, so those of you who are Italia...
I wrote the essay below in the early 2006 when I worked as a researcher for one British company. While I’m thinking of the different ways to “add value” to the text, I wanted to shar...
An application of the dog-rubbing luck charm A couple of years ago I read in someone’s Russian LiveJournal about the custom among the Muscovites: to touch, rub and sometimes even kiss a sculptur...
A high profile meeting by the ice-cream stall Moscow8, originally uploaded by loscuadernosdejulia. … it happened by the ice cream stall in the Alexander Garden in Moscow, between the Kremlin Wal...
65 years ago, in 1945, the Second World War had ended. In Russia and former Soviet republics 9th of May is the national holiday which is always marked by a pompous and majestic parade. As I was growin...
Sir Edward Burne-Jones, The Star of Bethlehem, 1890 (Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, UK) Image credit: Wikimedia. In 1886, William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones were commissioned a tapestry for Exe...
Update (30 December 2009): On December 25, 2009, it was announced that a team of Italian scientists were planning to exhume the remains of Leonardo da Vinci from his grave in Amboise in France. They w...
Putting My Feet Up in Via Fossa, Manchester One of my childhood memories about books is connected both to knitting and to Scotland. In one book there was this illustration: a man in kilt and long sock...