'Golden Gates' from St Petersburg

Russian Golden Gates

We had a great concert in the library. "Golden Gates" came from St Petersburg, Russia, to give one show. They ended up giving two shows one after another! People came from everywhere to see them, and I hate that not everyone could get in and enjoy the concert. It was high energy folk performance, very entertaining and educational. I made a little speech before that show and announced the end of 'cold war' :) Everybody got relaxed.

Vitaliy Bezrodnov was so funny and skilfully engaged the audience. Kids had a blast! Click on the picture to view the slideshow.

It was the most attended indoor event in the library history. The door counter got broken (someone knocked it down) and we have no 'leg' numbers, but the numbers of books checked out skyrocketed that Sunday :))) Funny outcome of Russians being in town.

thinking summer...

Colors and warmth of the summer. Reynolda Gardens...

Russian Club in the library

I am super-happy to announce the start of the Russian Conversation Club in 2011! The first Class is this coming Saturday January 22 at 2 pm in Central Library. Join us for one hour of free Russian Conversational for beginners of all levels. Olena Crawford, a native speaker and professional second language instructor, will conduct the Club in 2011.

art and wood

I came to the library and got instantly happy - the art works by my friend Stan Gilliam were on the walls! He uses woods (and some paint) to create things that remind my Russian folk objects. May be I like wood, trees, everything wooden looks to me and feels alive, able to breathe, live. Stan's art works are bright, cheerful, and different. A year ago I asked him to show his wooden pieces in the library. Year gone, and - here they are! I love them.

photo © Natalia Tuchina 2011 use only by artist's permission

foggy sunday

This morning was foggy. Milk! It was rain in the forecast, and we went to the Greenway, trying to get our walk done before the rain. We took our cameras in hopes for good shots. Foggy days can be photo-rewarding. Not many people were on the Greenway today, mostly new ones we have not seen here before. Seems that they were working on their New Year resolutions.

We pictured trees (including artfully eaten by beavers!), each other (I finally switched to RAW), joggers, horses (including the horse in the blue coat!) and breathe a lot of oxygen that lasted all day!