POTD: Grown-Up Lincoln Logs

From 2018 09 11 Yellowstone

Movin' on. Today's photo-of-the-day is from Old Faithful Inn in Yellowstone National Park.

Nice, but not where we stayed. Where we stayed is after the jump.

POTD: Gilded Monastery

From 2018 08 22 Kremlin

Today's photo-of-the-day is from the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius about 50 miles outside Moscow. It is the most important Russian monastery and the spiritual centre of the Russian Orthodox Church. It was founded in 1337, closed by the Bolsheviks in 1920, then restored to the Church by Joseph Stalin after WWII. I don't usually think of all these gilded decorations when I think of monasteries and monks and vows of poverty, but here we are.

Bonus photo after the jump.

POTD: I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke

From 2018 08 22 Kremlin

Today's photo-of-the-day is from the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia. It shows Ellen enjoying a Coca Cola while sitting in the gardens of Bol'shoy Kremlovskiy Square, where the czars used to stroll, with the Kremlin Senate in the background.

Bonus photos after the jump.

After Life (TV 2019)

Rotten Tomatoes

After Life (TV 2019): Even if, like me, you don't care for Ricky Gervais, try this series. He's mean-spirited and rude as always, but with a reason. He's grieving the death of his wife. There is wisdom here. Supporting cast is strong. Story arc is predictable. B-

POTD: Church and State

From 2018 08 22 Kremlin

Today's photo-of-the-day is from the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia. It shows two of the many buildings in the Kremlin. On the left are government offices. Vladimir Putin's office is in there somewhere. On the right is the Cathedral of the Annunciation. Church and state. Old and new. Side by side. All that rich history and culture.

POTD: The Kremlin's Churches

From 2018 08 22 Kremlin

Today's photo-of-the-day is from the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia. It shows several of the many churches inside this medieval fortress. That's not to say there aren't massive government office buildings there as well, but it's the number of churches and palaces and gardens and museums and open squares in the Kremlin that surprised me.

Bonus photo after the jump.

POTD: War and Peace

From 2018 08 22 Kremlin

Today's photo-of-the-day is from the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia. It shows the Tsar Cannon, cast in bronze in 1586, "the largest bombard by caliber in the world," according to Wikipedia, whatever that means. Behind it are the onion domes of two churches in the Kremlin. War and Peace.

Review: Underland: A Deep Time Journey

Amazon

From Underland: A Deep Time Journey, by Robert Macfarlane:
The same three tasks recur across cultures and epochs: to shelter what is precious, to yield what is valuable, and to dispose of what is harmful. Shelter (memories, precious matter, messages, fragile lives). Yield (information, wealth, metaphors, minerals, visions). Dispose (waste, trauma, poison, secrets)."

An adventurer's journal of exploring caves, mines, and vaults, covering the Earth's history from prehistoric cave paintings until the far future when landfills full of plastic and deep stores of lead-207, the stable isotope at the end of the uranium-235 decay chain, are all that's left of our stay on the planet.

POTD: Waxing Moon Over the Kremlin

From 2018 08 20 Moscow

Today's photo-of-the-day shows a waxing moon over the Kremlin wall in Moscow, Russia.

POTD: The Czars or the Communists

From 2018 08 20 Moscow

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Red Square in Moscow, Russia. Which is more Russian, the Red Star or the Double-headed Eagle? The former represents Communism and the Soviet Union. The latter, the czars of the Russian Empire. Which is more prominent today? It's hard to say. Leningrad was renamed St. Petersburg after the fall of the Soviet Union. But in Moscow, Lenin's body is still on display in his tomb in Red Square. Likewise, the double-headed eagle made a comeback after the fall of the Soviet Union, but the red star is still prominent as well. Both of these photos were taken in Red Square, which oddly enough was named that long before the Russian Revolution brought Communism to Russia.

From 2018 08 20 Moscow