Remembering to Stop & Look Around

Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it – Ferris Bueller

I walk to work every day.  It's an pretty easy 15-20 minute walk through a park and the city.  I'm usually carrying too many things - a purse, a gym bag, a briefcase, lunch.  I need to work on that before I cause permanent damage to my back!

But Ferris is right.  So many days, I just rush along the streets, looking down so I don't slip on the ice, and avoiding direct eye contact with anyone (and no smiling!) to avoid being tagged as "the American".  How many of us forget to actually look around?  We're so busy getting from point A to point B, that we sometimes forget to stop, breathe, see the beauty in front of us.

I know I need to work on this.  So I took my time walking home from work the other night & took some phots of what I saw

What will soon be a new Four Seasons Hotel, very close to our apartment.  They are restoring an old palace that was originally built as the residence of Princess Ekaterina Alexandrovna Lobanova-Rostovskaya in 1820.  They have been working on this project since befor I moved here (2 1/2 years ago), but Russian contruction projects are notoriously slow.  Hopefully it will open soon so Pat & I can sit at the bar enjoying a cocktail & doing some great people watching!

This crazy guy is standing on the Moika River (really just a canal), painting a watercolor.  The ice can only be a few inches deep, because on the other side of the canal it was already starting to break. 

View of St. Isaac's Cathedral from Alexander Garden or Park (Александровский сад).  I walk through this park twice per day.  Pretty amazing...

The Bronze Horseman, also in Alexander Garden, as the sun was setting....  The statue is of Peter the Great, on a horse, on a single block of granite.  It's named after Alexander Pushkin's famous poem. It's a VERY popular spot for brides & wedding pictures all throughout the year

Have a nice weekend!