Friday Fences - Rustic Russian

While in Russia I saw many styles of fences, grand to very homely and rustic. For this first one in a long series (warning!) I'll go back to Mandrogi village, our first stop from St. Petersburg, after a day's cruising on the Svir River. Mandrogi is a small, somewhat touristy stop, which has examples of Russian country crafts and buildings. This simple fence near the blacksmith shop was made from small saplings that were split at the top to hold the cross pole as you can see in the second photo. Since starting to participate in Janis' Friday Fences meme, I've noticed that fence builders use the materials that are readily available and often "repurposed". Fence builders: a thrifty bunch, no matter where they live:

And then a couple of other scenes from the village, like this old fashioned haystack which looks like it had a rake made from another sapling sticking out of the hay:

And then this log house with brightly painted and curtained window and flowers growing under just said

Russian countryside to me:

 

And every home had a corner for the holy icon, often draped with this traditional red embroidered cloth:

 

Finally, a personal anecdote on travel worries. I love to travel to adventurous places and make my own way, but boy can I worry and stress about things--messed up flight plans (happened on my way to Russia--sat on tarmac for three hours in Chicago which caused me to miss connecting flight from Helsinki to St. Petersburg--had to fly through Stockholm to get there), making it through customs and immigration when I don't know the language, having my money stolen, guides not showing up, getting sick, not bonding with other travelers, troubles back at home--you get the picture. Well, on this first stop on the cruise I looked out my cabin window to see this swinging bridge stretched from the boat to the river bank. Surely not! They didn't expect us to disembark on that--many passengers were using canes, one double crutches, one was nearly blind. For myself, I'm totally intimidated by heights, and the motion from swinging bridges.

So, I just figured I'd have to stay on the boat until I explored a little further and discovered this perfectly safe dock where we could walk down a gangplank and be on the island:

Moral of the story: nothing is ever as bad as you can imagine! Now for more Friday Fences go to our host Janice's site at Life According to Jan and Jer .