Fall is here. After a couple uncharacteristically warm weeks in September which had all the locals muttering superstitiously about climate change and disaster, we've started to have a bit of rain. Now everyone seems grimly content - wet, grey, cold, this is what Peter is supposed to be like in autumn. Anything else is suspicious to them.
Although I know I should be bracing myself for a hard winter, and soaking up the last rays of the afternoon sun when I'm not running to my next class, I can't help but enjoy this sudden plunge into crisp, rainy weather. Maybe it's because this sudden dreariness reminds me of Seattle, or maybe it's because I've always loved the fall. There's something about the transition from summer to winter which has a magic I don't think I'll ever tire of or cease to be amazed by as I see it occur in the leaves, the sky, and the air around me. Every day is a little darker, a little wetter, and yet there's something inexplicably invigorating that begins to crackle in the air as I crunch through the leaves under foot. It energizes me, and fuels my creativity.
The moody streets give way to the water in the canal dappled with golden leaves, their formations disrupted by the ducks nibbling hopefully away at them as they drift downstream together. On my walk every day to the conservatory, it cheers me to see the neighborhood dogs snuffle delighted away at the piles leaf mold as their owners stick cigarettes in their puffy faces and sip paper cups of coffee (the preferred breakfast combination for many Russian city-dwellers, apparently).
As an aside for the dog loving readers - the canines here are polite, but utterly disinterested in people. Whereas in the States, all friendly dogs wag their tails and happily approach a stranger with a sweet voice, and a proffered hand, here they merely pause, look at you rather stoically, then trot on. I suppose the only ones more confused than the canines at my persistence in greeting them when we meet in the street, are their owners. They look at me with polite incredulity, as though I were mad when I beam at a particularly beautiful spaniel or retriever they're walking, and offer a compliment about their animal. Ah well. This is an American habit I don't think I'll be able to break as easily as the others.
I await the coming winter with some trepidation, due to all I've heard from people about how hard it was especially last year, but in the meantime I'm enjoying this late autumn and all the majesty it has to offer. The lighting here is wonderful, more so now than ever, so hopefully soon I'll have more time to take more photos of Peter's changing seasons.