Medieval Lock by Vladimir Radomskiy

Some time ago a friend of mine from Russia, Vladimir Radomskiy, made a very beautifull lock. I would like to share pictures of with you.

And the picture of the author

6-7 of May, short trip

It is beautifull Spring here, in Taurica. The winter was long, cold and windy. And the Spring came in one day, it is +25 in the day, the trees and flowers are blooming, the birds are singing and the sea is getting warmer every day.

Perfect time for a short trip in the Crimean mountains. And what makes the trip even better? Yes, a little bit of reenactment.

There were five of us: me and my fiancee Maria, our friend Nik and two guys from Russia: Nikita and Sergey.

Early in the morning rented car brought us to the point A - willage Rodnikovoe (Spring willage). We started our trip at 8 in the morning. The weather was perfect and our leather flasks, which I made for the trip, were full of fine wine mixed with water.

It took us about 3 hours to get to the top. Only several groups of toursist have we met, wich is very cool :)

After a 30-min halt with some wallnuts, cheese and sausages we started the second half of our first day walking.

The hight there is about 800-1000m, so all the bad weather with clouds, fog and rain was under us. There were some minor clouds on our height, but always for a short time.

Than we have seen very nice rock. We called it "the cliff of the green dragons". The one who playen HOMM 3 will get it :)

But the sightseenig takes time, so we kept on walking

It was 7 in the morning when we have riched the place for our overnight. It was close to the spring with fine cold water. By that time we ran out of water and were very thirsty)))))

So while men were looking for woods for the fire and filling sleeping bags with leaves, Maria made wonderfull soup!

Finally the sleeping place was ready, we were fed, tired and happy :)

The length of the first day walk was about 15km. And the next day - 18-20km walk was waiting for us)))

We decided not to stop for the dinner, and walk all the day. The main conclusion of the trip for me is: MAKE YOURSELF FINE COMFORTABLE BOOTS YOU LAZY *SS!!! My old ones are not very comfortable, and when you walk that distance this is very important.

When we had our last halt near a little river I had suuuuuuuch a pleasure when put my hurting feet in cold water

But before that we had a long way down from the mountains. The views there are so beautifull.

The very last picture - we're coming to the Buydar valley.

This was our third trip, and the next one will probably be in early November, when it is still ruther warm. But we should prepare really good, much better that this time. Maybe we should make pilgrim kits? If by any chance you would like to take part in such trip - write me. I will let you know when and how we're going to go next time. :)))

More pics are here https://picasaweb.google.com/105554814987263013886/Trip

Purse for the bagpiper

This summer at the Companies event in Denmark I have met a woderfull person - Catherine. She was very kind to me and my friends. It was a great pleasure to discuss with her matters of reenactment, cuisine and some philological themes. Not only was she a good company, but also appeared to be a very talanted piper! We have enjoyed her and David's music all the week, both at the drilling and at the dancing.

I was very proud when Catherine asked me to make a good new purse for her. And there was an interesting project I was thinking over for some time: the bagpipers purse from the painting by Master ES! Everything matched :)

I tried to make my best with this purse. I used only veg-tanned leather.

The brass mounts are hand-made.

The purse has three compartments: first under the flap, second is on the other side (it is one compartment devided on two) and the third compartment has two sewn on pouchlets and a small case for wax tablets. The cloth part is made of a hand woven linen cloth, which has very beautifull texture.

There is a tooled design on the case.

Wax tablets are made of juniper wood, which grows on the South coast of Taurica (Crimea). It is forbidden to cut the tree, but I have found a small piece of wood couple of years ago in the forest. Also I have added a bone stylus to the purse.

Although it took me more time than I expected to coplete the purse, I am quite happy with the result.

Khersones under snow

This post was originally posted by my friend Sergey Anashkevich. All the pictures are made by him.

Thousands of tourists visit ruins of ancient greek town Khersones in Sevastol every year. Photographs of its views: the church, coloumns, the bell could be found on hundreds of post-cards and souvineers.
But just few have seen the town under the snow, which is rare in Taurica (Crimea).

2. The morning sun above the ruins

3. Coloumn supports the sky

4. Millenial coloumns

5. Listening  to the sea