A Room With a View

                                             The view the last 5 months? Snow..............lots of it!

Up!

A Russian rocket that once did go up!

Samara is actually one of the centers

in Russia for building space crafts.

Valentine's Day

Pink

                                 
                                    The only pink we get around here is when I get to watch
      
                                    my friend's girls........nothing like cute little pink toenails!

Departed

The cemeteries here aren't taken care of very well. It was actually quite eery walking around the cemetery when I took these pictures. Everything seemed so run down.......quite depressing. Not to mention how many died at such young ages.

Strolling

Taking the dog and child out on a stroll.

 

Winter

 

This Winter has been pretty harsh. The snow came at the beginning

of November and will stick around probably until the end of March!

This Winter makes me wish I lived in the valley!

New Year Resolutions

3650 Challenge- Reading 10 Chapters a Day

Farm Animals

 

We live near the city center and let's just say there are NO farm animals but in August we have had to travel outside the city several times.  On the side of the very busy highway we saw cows!  They just hang around and feed.  Sometimes they are even sitting very close to the highway!

My Addiction

 

My name is Nat and I'm a notebookaholic!  I love, love buying notebooks or "tetradi" (Russian for notebook) and I use every single one of these in the picture.  

Strangers

 

I love taking pictures of strangers but I wish I had more guts to actually approach people and ask for a straight on shot.  I think it's the language barrier that keeps me from being so brave.  I love this

picture because it is not common to see older couples together.  Usually it's just the woman alone because the life expectancy for men here is so low - it's currently at 57 years of age.

Shadows

 

I wish there were nice bike paths for the boys to ride their bikes!

Sunset in Russia

 

Sunset on the Volga!

   

Refreshing in Russia

Wherever there's a high traffic of pedestrians.............you'll see these portable kiosks. 

Summer Time in Russia

 

On the shore of the Volga!

My Hobbies

 

I love to bake!  I also love trying new recipes.  

 

I also love scrapbooking except that lately I haven't had the time! 

Both of these hobbies require me to be a bit more creative in Russia

since a lot of the "tools" for these hobbies aren't sold here or if they

are sold here they are super expensive.  As you can imagine when we

return to the States you can usually find me in the baking and scrapbook

sections of most stores!

My Town

These are the basic postcard snapshots from my town!  My initial plan was to go to an observation deck at the train station but the weather has been gray, cloudy, and rainy.  Plus the one time we went it wasn't open to the public!

 

Russian Orthodox Church in the background and the site of 

Samara's eternal flame.

 

The local train station.

 

The big "slava" statue.

Upside Down in Russia

We kidnapped Woody from my mom's daycare years ago.  The boys love him.  The other day my youngest put Woody in this position:

May Flowers in Russia

 

And I love tulips!

 

 

These lilacs have been driving my allergies insane though!

Water in Russia

 

The Volga

 

Fountains