When I was a little girl, my very best friend, Bonnie Ann, lived just across the street. That’s me on the the left with my “pixie” haircut that my mother adored. I coveted Bonnie’s hair, because she could wear pigtails.
When I was seven, my brother was born, and I was sent to my aunt’s house for a week while my mother and baby Billy were in the hospital. When I came home, Bonnie’s family had moved. I was heartbroken. Bonnie told me months before she was moving, but I never believed she actually would.
She came back to visit a couple of times, but then I didn’t see her for decades.
Until recently. A couple of years ago, she tracked me down. We reconnected through a blog post I wrote for Doing Life Together. We friended each other on Facebook, and last spring she came to Phoenix to judge dog obedience trials, and we got to spend a couple of hours together.
Bonnie recently traveled to Russia for three weeks. She posted hundreds of photographs on Facebook, and gave me permission to share some of them with you. I picked out just a few, mostly highlighting Russian architecture and art.
Bonnie is in most of these pictures. It’s amazing, isn’t it, how much she looks like she did in the picture above, even though she’s only a year younger than me (er, twenty-nine…).
Peterhof – Tzar Peter the Great’s summer palace known as the ‘Russian Versailles’
A mosaic at the Old Stalingrad market
Mural on the ceiling of the railroad station in Volgograd, depicting the 1918 Russian Civil War.
Statues (click on the smaller images to enlarge and reveal captions):
All Saints Church, Volgograd
Catherine the Great’s Summer Palace:
The Church of the Blood, St. Petersburg
Hermitage, Palace Square, St. Petersburg
Interior of St. Peter and Paul Church, St Petersburg
Bell tower of Our Lady of Vladimir Cathedral, St. Petersburg
The iconic St. Basil’s Cathedral, Moscow; Kremlin bell tower at left
Friendship of People Fountain in Moscow. The sixteen figures represents the 16 different cultures of the old Soviet Union. The statue over Bonnie’s right shoulder is special to Bonnie, because it represents the Ukraine, which is part of Bonnie’s heritage.
The Cathedrals of the Kremlin:
Changing of the guard at the Kremlin
Red Square; Kremlin on the left
Russia’s largest shopping mall – GUM Department Store at the Red Square – built in the 1890’s.
The Vodka Museum. Pretty door.
Pretty staircase within Izmaylovo Kremlin
Stalin’s grave
Samovars for sale in a marketplace
Decorative eggs
Nesting Matryoshka dolls
Putin’s Palace, Moscow
View of the Kremlin and St. Basil from cruise ship on the Moskva River
The subway station in Moscow must be one of the cleanest and most beautiful in the world:
Traditional Russian folk art – Gzhel – on subway wall
Mosaic of Ukranian Soviet workers
Sickle and hammer from Soviet times
Yes, this is the subway.
A great big ARHtistic License thank you to Bonnie Lee for generously sharing her beautiful photographs.
ARHtistic License 
What beautiful pictures! Makes me want to go see these sights myself!
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Breathtaking photos! Wow, thanks for sharing.
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Wow, what pictures and she’s so lucky to be able to go there (she has a wonderful smile). So great you guys reconnected and we’re able to see the pictures. (When Billy was born did you stay w/us?)
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Yes! Do you remember?
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Vaguely, you have a wonderful memory. Mine not so much, I believe I block out alot, and what I do remember isn’t, well, sorry to say isn’t happy memories.
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Well, it looks like I was causing trouble for you right from the beginning! At least you were able to re-connect with Bonnie again. The pictures are quite beautiful. It makes me think of how different and beautiful some of the places, architecture, and art are in Germany also.
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Hi cousin Bill, hope everything is well with you!
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Sorry for the delay in my response, Monica (I don’t go on a computer more than once or twice a week, usually). But all is well with me, thank you for asking! I hope all is well with you and Jens, too.
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Other than me having conjuctivities in the eye right now, we’re doing fine being retired. Glad all is well with you. Hope you’re having a good summer, hotter than Haities here in Florida now, is 94 in the sun but I know it’s even worse out west.
Monica & Jens
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This is such an interesting and fascinating city, rich with culture. I’d love to visit it one day.
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