Quick and dirty translation, part 3. See also, part 1, Fur Seals and part 2, Sea Birds.
На Командорах [Na Komandorakh] On the Commander Islands. Author: Gennady Snegirev. Artist: M. Miturich. Izdatel’stvo “Malish”. Publisher “Little One”. For older preschoolers. A print run of 350,000 in 1975. Cost, 16 kopecks. Read More
Are you familiar with Perm? No? I’m not surprised. I’ve only heard of it because I’ve read Tom Holt’s comic fantasy novel Who’s Afraid of Beowulf?, in which one of the characters gets a lot of ribbing for having gone to Perm. It’s on the western side of Urals, near Ekaterinburg. Maybe not exactly Siberia in my American mind, but pretty darn close. A place I don’t spend much time thinking about, and a place I didn’t expect to have a pumpkin festival.
But they do!
ТыкваDay [Tykva = pumpkin] 2013 was September 12-15, in Gorky Park. (Not the Gorky Park in Moscow, the Gorky Park in Perm.) Read More
In writing Sobel’s Skin, the first of the Isobel the Bear-Eater series, I’ve spent a fair amount of time on research. I have a youtube playlist of “Isobel the Bear-Eater – references” , plus a Pinterest board. Many are cultural references, but some of the most helpful are the sounds of nature. It’s a little odd, to be writing things down on paper [er, screen] and needing to know what they sound like. Fortunately, for things I haven’t encountered myself or which I can’t remember well, there’s always the youtubes.* Read More
Quick and dirty translation, part 2. See also, part 1, Fur Seals.
На Командорах [Na Komandorakh] On the Commander Islands. Author: Gennady Snegirev. Artist: M. Miturich. Izdatel’stvo “Malish”. Publisher “Little One”. For older preschoolers. A print run of 350,000 in 1975. Cost, 16 kopecks.
Full Russian book scanned here.
In spring endless caravans of murres [кайра] fly to the hanging cliffs.
![20130731_112735[1]](http://www.loshbaugh.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/20130731_1127351-e1375295619377-225x300.jpg)
This is really quick and really dirty translation from the Russian. I have left out a few words here and there that I didn’t bother to look up. I haven’t massaged it for English grammar and style — there are Dostoevskian run-on sentences.
На Командорах [Na Komandorakh] On the Commander Islands. Author: Gennady Snegirev. Artist: M. Miturich. Izdatel’stvo “Malish”. Publisher “Little One”. For older preschoolers. A print run of 350,000 in 1975. Cost, 16 kopecks.
Full Russian book scanned here.
The Commander Islands were discovered in the first half of the 18th century by Commander Bering, an officer in the Russian fleet, at the time of his expedition along the coast of North America and therefore received their name. They are located in a sea which also was named in honor of the famous seafarer – the Bering Sea.
![20130731_112800[1]](http://www.loshbaugh.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/20130731_1128001-e1375295568642-225x300.jpg)
Vitus Bering
Cherry jam, plum jelly, and Rainier cherries with basil
Now that I live in Seattle, summer means cherries from Eastern Washington and autumn means apples. I have a vivid memory of the first time I saw a tree with flowers on it, so you better believe that I was kind of amazed when I first realized that there are happy fruit trees throughout my adopted city. My first summer, I drooled over the heavily-laden plum trees in the yard of a house across from my apartment building. Finally, I built up the confidence to go and knock on the door.
“Umm, excuse me, but I was wondering if you are going to pick all your plums?” Read More