Recounting Rus

Quarterly photo update

Ручьёв — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 10:29:35 +0000

Some photos from the past 5-6 months (plus a few late photos from a year ago) can be seen here.

New photos

Ручьёв — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 10:30:28 +0000

You can view a new crop of photos here. That’s all for now.

Fall overview

Ручьёв — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 17:03:25 +0000

Here is a link to various pictures from the last few months. Life with a nine-month-old is still pretty busy…

Summer round up

Ручьёв — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:36:27 +0000

It seems that life with a 5-7 month old is more demanding than with a 0-4 month old… So I have at long last pictures from our summer trip to the US, where we visited my parents, brother and family (plus his inlaws), friends, grandparents, and extended family. You can see the pictures by clicking here.

Most minor update

Ручьёв — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 07:55:03 +0000

The reason for such long silence.

Picture update #742

Ручьёв — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 16:20:31 +0000

Tryphon poses in his floating device.

Tryphon tries out his floating device (not exactly a success as he is what we would call an "active" baby).

Looking out over the canal

Trying out the new baby carrier

We found a new place, not too far from our house, to take a walk

The Third Month

Ручьёв — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:16:58 +0000

Not particularly interested in writing so we’ll let the pictures do the communicating.

Tryphon’s Newest Feats

Ручьёв — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 14:52:46 +0000

At a record breaking 2 months and ten days, Tryphon has taught himself (with a little encouragement) to turn over. Observe, if you will:

He also recently went on his first picnic:

In the metro, on the way

And we arrived at "Path"

It was a hot day (with lots of mosquitos)

He was a good boy and took a nap

So that his parents could play some badminton

We even found a hammock

He practiced his array of faces

Dad tries out the sling

He sometimes looks at himself in the mirror

...and smiles

We happened in a church today and found an icon of St. Tryphon

Trying new methods for getting him to stay in the carriage

Including putting him on his stomach so he can "crawl"

New Jerusalem in Summer

Ручьёв — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 20:55:23 +0000

Now that the weather is much better it really makes Moscow unattrative so we’ve been trying to get out of the city as much as possible. Last Saturday we made another trip to New Jerusalem monastery as it is not that far away and fairly easy to get to. If you will remember, we also went to this monastery in the winter of 2008.

On the train

The main gates

And the tower over them

Found a gravestone in Arabic...

The main church complex

The main altar's nave

The main altar

The sepulchre

What you could call the moat

33 steps down...

...to this church

The skete

You can see the rest of the pictures (121) here.

The Feast of Ascension

Ручьёв — Thu, 28 May 2009 16:57:02 +0000

Today we celebrated the Feast of the Ascension at Little Ascension (the church’s feast day) and, unbeknownst to us, Bishop Ignaty, one of the vicar bishops of the patriarch, served. After liturgy there was a cross procession around the church:

I think it’s quite interesting, and something that I generally welcome, that several times deviations from “the norm” here in Russia have particularly been at hierarchal services; for instance, the bishop came out with the chalice before communion and had everyone repeat together the pre-communion prayer which is usually only read by the priest. I’m not saying, however, that the priests read it poorly (most I’ve heard read it with feeling) but reading it together makes me feel that those present are really united and part of a community.

And later that day we went for a walk by the canal near our house:

Tryphon has started to handle toys a bit