V is for Village

The common dictionary definition of a village is:

1.a small community or group of houses in a rural area, larger than a hamlet and usually smaller than a town, and sometimes (as in parts of the U.S.) incorporated as a municipality. 

2.the inhabitants of such a community collectively.

Our visit to the Northwest Highlands of Scotland this summer brought us to Torridon Village.

 We stayed int he village of Kinlochewe, and hiked through the village of Gairloch.

This leads one to wonder what constitutes a hamlet and what a town. Those definitions are suitably vague, though it appears that a hamlet, at least in Great Britain, does not have its own church and a village does.

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 If you've read my blog on any kind of regular basis, you probably have figured out that I am blessed (or cursed) with wanderlust. So, though I've featured sites and sights from our trip to the UK for this round of ABCs, I've had some previous experiences with villages by all definitions.

In India ten years ago, we made several evening visits to nearby villages. We visited in the evening because we were busy working during the day  on the roof of the boys' home where we were volunteering. We met with them to learn about their life

 and the projects through which they were improving conditions for themselves and their families.

The question we were asked at each village we visited was "How are your marriages arranged?"

We visited some villages in Siberia when we were there. On this Sunday afternoon we traveled with the priest for Mass in the village of Krasny Pochara. This is the little church there and some of the congregation. Most of the village (definition 2) were out harvesting wild mushrooms, an important part of their diet.





Rural would be the part of the definition that applied to the village of Kargasok, because it was much larger than any other place I have heard called a village. It was one of a number of villages on the Ob River traveling north from Novosibirsk--maybe the largest. The trip by boat was fifteen hours, and we spent two days visiting with internet friends.


Maybe isolated is a better word than rural. But since the cows greeted us in the yard of the hotel in the morning, I guess "rural" works, too.

After we were home from Siberia that year, I compared photos with my friend who had spent her summer in some Alaskan villages. The scenes were remarkably similar.

So these are some of my village memories for ABC Wednesday, round 7.



Amazing Race!!

 Do you watch the Amazing Race? Tonight they were in St. Petersburg, Russia, and their activities reminded me of some of the beautiful sights we saw when we were there twelve years ago.

After a visit to the circus, the teams were sent to the Banks Bridge--somewhat behind us from this view of the Cathedral of the Resurrection, known as the Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood because it was built at the site of the assassination of Czar Alexander II. The church was their next destination after finding the clue in a tower nearby.

There's something about Russian cathedrals--this one and St. Basil's in Moscow especially. I feel like Christmas--I want to eat the gingerbread. Hmm. Maybe I will make a gingerbread cathedral this December.

Now, the teams didn't actually go to St. Isaac's Cathedral, unless I missed it and I must admit I came in late from class at church so I could have. They did have a moment of facts about the locations which told us how much gold went into the making of the dome of St. Isaac's.


We climbed to the top of the dome. Yes--me, too! And I wonder that my mother managed to climb Half Dome--is it any different? The view is amazing.

 Oh, my, look how young we look. Well, actually my husband looks just the same--a little more jowly and his moustache is gray now, but his hair is still just like it is here. We didn't have to rush to the next stop, but there it is in the distance--Peter and Paul Fortress. The teams had to figure it out by finding out where Peter the Great was buried.

The spire is very distinctive, and here is a statue of Peter the Great himself. I think this is Peter, anyway. I remember that this is a fascinating statue. Look at his head.

So that was our amazing race--I'm glad we weren't competing with any other teams. It was much more fun that way.

Lincoln Castle

When you live in a city like Lincoln, having a castle is just part of everyday life. The castle might just be in your back yard.





Or maybe your playground butts up against the castle walls just outside the gate.

Or perhaps you are a publican just digging a bit for more of a garden for fresh vegetables for your lunch patrons and turn up some archeologically significant findings--and a fine for digging in the castle wall.

Walking along the castle walls, you can have another view of the Cathedral towers across the Bailgate, or look down into the castle grounds to see that, yes, indeed, it continues to host the crown court (though no longer the site of a prison.)

Cobb Hall was a defensive tower built sometime in the thirteenth century. It was later the site of public executions, which took place on the Cobb Hall roof. Currently, it is the home of one stubborn pigeon...

The rounded arch of the main gate, with the pointed Gothic arch which was later added, point out the years of changes of an active castle.

The Countess Lucy was a Constable of the Prison, a post held by several women over the centuries when the castle housed the prison as well as a military presence
The Keep was the home of the Constable and place of last resort in case of siege. The Lucy Tower was also the burial place for prisoners.

The Observatory Tower is a significant landmark of the Keep. The stone standing on the lawn is remnant of one of the Eleanor Crosses, monuments in honor of Eleanor of Castile, established at the nightly resting places of her funeral procession from Harby, near Lincoln, to London.

And a Weekend Reflection from the Wayback Machine

Since I posted a SkyWtch Friday from India, I thought I would show how adventurous I really am and show you this reflection which I searched and found in my folder of pictures from Russia. I would have posted one that was actually from Siberia, but I didn't find a good reflection in the files. This is near St. Petersburg on the grounds of Catherine the Great's Summer Palace. (What it really means is that since I went to the Wild Horse Monument on Monday, I really haven't had time to take any pictures.) We went to Russia, to Siberia, to visit our son. We traveled from Siberia back to Moscow and St. Petersburg on the Transiberian Railway. This was in 1998,

James sponsors Weekend Reflections at Newtown Daily Photo.

Sunday's Psalm--Third Sunday of Advent

(Not a Psalm today, but a passage from Isaiah.)

Cry out with joy and gladness: for among you is the great and Holy One of Israel.

God indeed is my savior;
My strength and my courage is the LORD,
and he has been my savior.

With joy you will draw water

at the fountain of salvation.












Cry out with joy and gladness: for among you is the great and Holy One of Israel.

Give thanks to the LORD, acclaim his name;

among the nations make known his deeds,

proclaim how exalted is his name.

Cry out with joy and gladness: for among you is the great and Holy One of Israel.

Sing praise to the LORD for his glorious achievement;
let this be known throughout all the earth.

Shout with exhultation, O city of Zion,
for great in your midst
is the Holy One of Israel!

Cry out with joy and gladness: for among you is the great and Holy One of Israel.

Isaiah 12: 2-6

Looking down on the Wenatchee Valley from a hike to the Peshastin Pinnacles

fountain on Seattle waterfront

congregation gathers outside village chapel in Siberia

choir practice at Boys Village in India

native drummers in Alaska

Shrine of St. Thomas the Apostle, Chennai, India

Sunday's Psalm--33rd Sunday of Ordinary Time

 You are my inheritance, O Lord!
O LORD, my allotted portion and my cup,
you it is who hold fast my lot.

I set the LORD ever before me;
with him at my right hand I shall not be disturbed.

 You are my inheritance, O Lord!

Therefore my heart is glad and my soul rejoices,
my body, too, abides in confidence;

because you will not abandon my soul to the netherworld,
nor will you suffer your faithful one to undergo corruption.


You are my inheritance, O Lord!

You will show me the path to life,

fullness of joys in your presence,
the delights at your right hand forever.

You are my inheritance, O Lord!

Ps 16:5, 8, 9-10, 11

icon in the monastery at Sergiev Posad, Russia
sculpture, Maryhill Museum sculpture garden, Maryhill WA
path around Dewey Lake, near Skagway AK