Petro from a birdfly

A couple of Petrozavodsk panoramas taken from a high building not far from my workplace (guess which one building I work in. It must be on the second picture).





Both pictures are clickable. You can see most of Petro sightseeings and notable buildings on bigger resolution only.

Yep, that's me!

City photo competition powered by "National Geographic". I have not participated still I think I have no enough talent to exhibit my pics.



Thanks Little Hippo! ;)

Pics for monkeys

Some years ago a friend of mine who was a doctoral student in the Institute for information transmission problems talked to his supervisor and he said a nice idea. “A real scientist must be able to explain everything with words or at least with formulas. Pictures are for monkeys”.
Nowadays while writing to the blog I see that was true. The easiest way is not towrite anything but just to post a couple of pics and this will be met. Especially when you are worried that your words could be looked like monkey.


So, well. A couple of pics from Moscow. The lsat Moscow trip was not really fruitful on photos (the weather was not good for taking pictures and even fro just walking around)/ Nevertheless something is available.






These views are exotic for somebody. But at the same time this ‘somebody’ see Eiffel Tower, Mount Corcovado or Manhattan skyscrapers. The things I can not see and push my camera’s button. The life is so unfair. ;)

Tulips in Moscow

One of my favourite spring flowers. Moscow is not Holland but tulips are typical feature of May month here.

A view from the window

This is what I see from the window right now. The snow has melted and there are brand new grass and leaves at the trees. It is quite cold now though so I have to wear a winter jacket. Ironically, we say “it is not May month” in Russia during such a cold weather.



The construction across the street has not changed since winter. The recent week there were some revival but today there is no single man at the construction plot and the crane is not working either. Likely the World Economical crisis has caught this construction like it catch the sky-scrapers in Moscow-City. Pity, we are going not to know what is it supposed to be. Anyway the city is going to get a new mystery.

Spring happens

One week after Moscow new spring is at us. The weather was all right so I used the days off to spend them at the nature. You are welcome to find some pics.

The main destination of my trip was Kivach waterfall, one of the most scenic waterfalls on Suna river in southern Karelia. There are waterfalls bigger but this one is the most famous due to the poem of Gavriil Derzhavin who used to be the first governor of Olonia back in 1700th.





You see it's plenty of snow in the forest.










There ere quite few early flowers in our latitudes. Coltsfoot.



Mezereon.



Willows.





Scenic views from Sampo rock.

Springtime in Moscow

Ok, finally it is warm at my street. If I may say “my” about streets of Moscow. This is the week in the end of April when one change winter coats for t-shirts for several days. Now a thermometer on Tverskaya can confirm. It is spring.



Maybe one of these girls in Ukrainian national dress is the Spring. I haven’t asked them.



It is warm, it is sunny, and it is dusty. For there were no any rain and there are no green leaves yet. All the dust accumulated on the snow during latest five months is on the streets after snow has melted down. Tverskoy boulevard is waiting for the first green.



So Suvorovskiy boulevard does. The building of Oriental Peoples Art Museum is seen from the opposite side..



Green leaves are late this year. Last year there was all green these days.



Poplars on Fruktovaya (Fruit street).



The bushes are more advanced to compare with trees. Lilac.



Elder-bush leaves are quite big already.



This is how I first met spring this year. Now I’m waiting it to come Petro. :)

The spring of robin

Yesterday at the late Nordic sunrise I heard a first robin in Petro in this spring. That means spring really come to me.




European robin (do not mix with American robin which is not actual relative to European species) is very special bird for me. And not only because I did my student research about this bird. I would rather say that I chose this species because I loved it before. I like nightingales also but they are quite rare in Karelia so it was difficult to make research about them. So I took robin.

Robin is very sociable bird. Often it accompanies picking mushrooms human in forest in the autumn time. It lives in the cage quite easily comes tame. I used to keep one when I was 16 and it was really nice pet.

Unfortunately I can not keep birds right now still I’m often out of Petro. But when I hear wild robins I normally stop to look for this small bird with my eyes.

...and very soon it will be over.

Well, really soon it will be over.

This is how my workplace looked on April 7. The paint on the walls and the linoleum are brand new.



This is how it looks right now.



The table is at its place so the main problem are the books. I must put the bookshelves on the wall (they use to stand right on my working table) and fill them with books. You can check up the mess for a while.

Yet another spring day in Petro

I can hardly be called patriot but there is almost nothing can make me leave my country. I do not care about Russian slovenliness and alcoholism, about traditional bureaucracy, about lack of democracy and freedom of speech, about difficulties to go abroad, about horrors of GULAG, about United Russia party and about prime-minister Putin personally. But there is one thing I care about. This is our long Russian winter.
I have nothing against winter if it would be a month or two long. In this case I would even like it. But on the other hand it makes spring more desirable. This is my favorite time of year. And I do not care that it is all wet and the garbage soon appear from thawing snow. The main thing the sun starts to give out warmth and fresh green leaves coming soon together with bird singing. Yet March is just another winter month in Karelia.
But despite the low temperature sun is shining more an more so it allows me to check my new camera while walking around the Petrozavodsk.

Small streets come blue


So are the bigger ones


In a couple of months this branch will be covered with new season leaves


Icicles are shining of sum


This sculpture seem to wait for love


Even Peter the Great comes more bright under the spring sun


Those “freaks” are the gift of our sister city Duluth. As they are called at us “rachitis fight against the spider web”. Look, they are going to put it down to the ice soon.


The spring is the time to take away the garbage. There is something to take away down there!


And a little wooden man is looking at something really-really surprising. The spring is coming soon :)

Redecoration

The redecoration started on my workplace. Within the nearest two weeks they must paint the ceiling and walls and chenge the linoleum on the floor.

This is how my workplace lokked like a week ago:



This is how it looks right now:



Figure 3 coming in April. :)

Now I ahve to spend most of working time at home. The saddest thing now I am limited in Internet using.

Frosty Karelian spring

This is a view from the window at my workplace. It is snowing again but the temperature is about Celsius zero so everything’s thawing up and the street is all wet black. I hate this kind of weather with liquid snow. Unfortunately it comes more and more often in the winters. Global warming or just winters of childhood seem to be more winterish? Generally I have nothing against winters but WTH they are so loooooong at us? I guess there are spring flowers in Central Europe already. While at us it is snowing and snowing again.
Nevertheless this is a spring. And the first spring feature are seagulls coming back to Petrozavodsk. The fresh snow is very good to clean carpets so I used this opportunity in Sunday. And I saw seagulls while cleaning the carpet at the yard. They are going to crowd the dumpsters soon and wake me up in the mornings with their awful shouts. Then the snow will thaw and there will be some fresh leaves on the trees. But this gonna be later. We have our frosty Karelian spring today.

Just came from Moscow

Now I am back after spending my days-off in Moscow. I used to live there during my very young days and I probably still love it yet it is not among my favorite cities. You know, Moscow has changed a lot after I left it and I am not sure those changes are attractive for me. Too much of advertisement, too high prices, too unsuitable for life. Yet spending few days there sometimes is all right and I like it.

The point of this Moscow trip was visiting the game for football Super Cup of Russia, my beloved CSKA vs Rubin Kazan i.e. champion of Russia. The game was on Luzhniki stadium which is the biggest stadium in Russia. It is not so big like Maracana, of cause but nevertheless it is quite impressive. Some years ago the group of architects (strange way there was the current mayor of Moscow Yuriy Luzhkov among them) made the reconstruction with building the roof over the tribunes. I dunno how they made this project but after completing the reconstruction they found there is not enough of sunlight inside the stadium so grass can not grow there anymore. Then the field was replaced by artificial one and the games on frozen plastic became a true nightmare for European teams coming Moscow to play against Moscow teams.

The only exception was the final game of European Champions League in 2008 held in Moscow. A natural sward was constructed on Luzhniki stadium specially for this game. But after that this sward mysteriously disappeared unknown direction and all the games are on plastic again.






There are few pictures. Pity, I had no my camera with me so I have to took them using something camera-like in my phone.

Ah, the result. We won. :)

Hic sunt papputhi

Ok. More complicated exercise is started. Now my blog in Russian is followed by my blog in English (or should I say, in American?). I am going to post something here at least once a week. At least some pictures.

Who am I? My name is Sergey and (as you can guess) I live in Russia. This is a city in the North-West of the country called Petrozavodsk where I live. It’s a small nice city yet it is a capital of an autonomous Republic of Karelia. I think this is the best place in the world. Yet IMHO the winter could be a bit shorter at us.

What am I? I work as an ecology researcher (senior researcher to put it correct) in a local branch of Russian Academy of Science. I love my job the same way I love my City.

What or who is the “pappoth”? This is my nickname meaning a big wooly animal slightly related to mammoths just like “poppa” related to “momma”. And see, unlike extinct mammoths, pappoths are still alive and happy with their quite Nordic life.

The name of the blog is originated from Latin words “Hic sunt dragones” (Dragons live here) put for unexplored lands by medieval map makers. To my shame I am not sure if I wrote it correct. The plural from “papputhus” must be “papputhi” but what about the case… Oh, god I am not so good in Latin.