I keep thinking about languages today, for some reason (when I am not trying to sleep off my cold). How the choice of languages seems political at times even to me, living in Russia and speaking Russian ( Read more... )

The poem I read this morning, about grandmothers who shape our lives out of the small details, made me remember grandmother Vera again. Strange to think that she's more than eleven years dead. I still catch myself at only ever asking women for directions when I am lost: she taught me this, as she was taught by her mother in, I think, 1926 or 1927 ( Read more... )

I've been thinking for a while about writing here things about my family's history. I've been trying to remember and organize stuff, asking my mother about stuff I've forgotten or never knew... I almost left it all alone - too many things missing, too much of what I do not know, and many things I thought I knew turned out to be misremembered or ( Read more... )

My great-aunt came to visit and as a belated birthday present gave me my great-great-grandmother's (is this correct? I mean my grandmother's grandmother) cross-stitching and embroidery patterns. A couple of booklets and several sheets given as a bonus to a magazine. The magazine ones have dates - the oldest is from 1894, the newest from 1909.

At least, that's what we are supposed to call November 7th. I think. I'm not sure, mind you. Nobody is. The truth is that people got so used to having a day off work on this date that taking it away would be one of the few things that'd move our population to protest ( Read more... )