Me and my mother, we clearly have differing ideas of style. Like, when I attracted her attention to the combination of my pink plushy dressing gown and my baby blue plushy slippers with crocheted roses, we agreed that it needed some small detail to make it complete - only she thought it should be a garter, and me, another (bigger) crocheted rose in ( Read more... )

Today was a terribly sleepy and slow day, with nothing in particular achieved. Well, some work. And some answering letters and comments - why do I keep delaying answering? Sometimes it feels like such a burden ( Read more... )

I finished the first draft of Yuletide story. 4,5 thousand words. Go me. Tomorrow I'll be rereading it and hoping it won't make me want to kill myself. Not sure about betaing, though - oh well, we'll see ( Read more... )

I read a story today which involves an Englishman from 1911 travelling in time and arriving in 2014, IIRC. Upon learning that his female acquaintance is a published writer, he is very surprised that here women can write and publish books. This Englishman in his time is a footman in a big country house, with just four years of village school, but ( Read more... )

Both circumstances and someone's blogpost kept me thinking today about what do you do if someone dear to you has problems. How can you help, if you're not at the same city at the moment, for example. If you can't give practical help and they are not in the mood to be distracted/entertained with random fun/pretty things. If you can only sort of give ( Read more... )

I think Yuki missed the windowsill most of all while I was away. He ran into the room as soon as he could, ran around madly, clearly not sure where he wanted to go most, and then jumped onto the windowsill and promptly got to sleep there. He's still there, his tummy up for the world to see (and pet), a bent paw covering his eyes - his favourite ( Read more... )

Spent half of the day out with my mother; kind of fitting for Women's Day, isn't it? We went to a concert in the Lutheran church on Vassilievsky Island - Bach, Handel, Vivaldi and other church music for organ, violin and voice. It's an old church, its facade is all covered by scaffolding for reconstruction, but inside it's neat, and the organ ( Read more... )

There is some sound outside when I am walking the dog which sounds like footsteps. I think it's something thawing. I never try to expect spring in Saint Petersburg in March, it's too futile; but still, I'll be glad when it comes. I think ( Read more... )

Mother's back from Vienna, absolutely enchanted. Says it's lovelier than Paris.

I want to go _somewhere_. I hope I will still be able to, next year.

... Medvedev says 'So what if there's a cold war? We're not afraid of cold war'. Maybe he isn't, but I am.

My mother and aunt are going to Vienna on Thursday... *sigh* And I spent the summer not travelling any further than Vyborg (even though I had a lot of guests from everywhere). I admit I am envious.