Sunshine

There was lovely sunny weather on Friday, so I took a lunchtime excursion to the antiques store at Malaya Nikitskaya 16, which also has a books section that specializes in dictionaries and foreign-language (i.e., non-Russian) used and rare books. Not the most interesting bookstore in the city for me by a long shot, but it's close to the office and I hadn't been there in a long time. When I arrived, I found the store's power out and numerous employees sitting in the dark discussing (1) how this might have happened -- the consensus was that some construction workers in a neighboring building were to blame -- and (2) how they might be able to boil water for a cup of tea without the use of their electric teakettle.

The sun shining into the darkened, dusty air of the store, coupled with some well-placed antique busts, created an interesting effect:





The store's exterior has a classic "книги" ("books") sign, which I will try to snap the next time I am in the area. Somehow I didn't think of that today, but I did get this rather spontaneous photo of an elderly lady shoveling snow in front of a neighboring building: