In Kimovsk is where my apartment is located. Last summer I visited my granddaughter who lives in Tula. I stayed there for two months. I became very familiar with the city of Tula.
Tula Region is one of the industrial centers of Russia, famous for its long-standing traditions of weapons and samovar production. Here are three more important symbols of this region.
1⃣ ЛЕВ ТОЛСТОЙ (Leo Tolstoy)
The famous Russian writer was born on September 9, 1828, on the Yasnaya Polyana’ Family Estate near Tula. He spent a significant part of his life there, creating his main novels, including ‘War and Peace’ and ‘Anna Karenina’. His body was also buried there.
2⃣ ФИЛИМОНОВСКАЯ ИГРУШКА (Filimonovo toy)
Whistle toys in the form of people and animals with conical heads began to be made in the village of Filimonovo near Tula in the 16th century. After the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, the craft died out for a while, but was revived in the 1980s.
3⃣ ТУЛЬСКИЙ ПРЯНИК (Tula gingerbread)
Tula gingerbread is the most popular among Russian gingerbreads. It’s rectangular in shape, glazed on the top and filled with apple, cranberry, plum, cherry jam or condensed milk.
Credit: nantonov/Getty Images; Public domain; Celest (CC BY-SA 4.0); Tashka/Getty Images
🔔 Gateway to Russia
Today I walked the Batumi Boulevard from the airport to the sea, pointing out the objects of interest along the way.
I am retired and living like a king in Batumi. I highly recommend it as a retirement destination for the following reasons.
Safety: You can walk the streets at any hour of day or night without fear of being bothered.
Affordability: Absolutely everything is less expensive here than in the USA or Europe.
Often the quality is far better.
A big shout out to the people who follow me. Unfortunately I’ve had to leave Russia. It became impossible to receive any funds from the US. I am currently living in Batumi, Georgia.
This is my family in the living room of my apartment in Kimovsk, Russia. I am a disabled Vietnam veteran. Seventy six years of age. My son Aleksandr (left), and my granddaughter Dasha (center) look in on me. Here, I had hoped to live out my retirement years.
February 19. Third preparatory week for Great Lent. Cheesefare Week – continuous. No fasting. Tone 3. LEAVE OF THE FEAST OF THE PRESENTATION OF THE LORD.
February 19. - 987580477586
Forty days after the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, and after the days of legal purification had been fulfilled, the Most Pure and Most Blessed Virgin Mother, together with Saint Joseph the Betrothed, came from Bethlehem to Jerusalem to the Temple of God, bringing the forty-day-old Infant Christ to fulfill the Law of Moses. According to this law, it was necessary, firstly, to purify oneself after birth by bringing a proper sacrifice to God and through priestly prayer, and, secondly, it was necessary to present the firstborn child before the Lord and make a ransom for him at the established price (Lev. 12:7). This was commanded by the Lord in the Old Testament to Moses, in whose books about the law of purification of the mother it is written thus: "If a woman conceives and bears a male child, she shall be unclean for seven ...
A person's epiphany usually comes at the moment of death. Until the last moment, he is certain that the world belongs to him. But then he sees everything leaving him, everything turning out to be a dream, and he is left with only what he managed to acquire in his heart. That is why the memory of death is so hateful to the Devil.
A person must always expect death and constantly remember that every day could be his last. This is precisely why today, through repentance, can become his day of salvation.
For those who do not remember death, death comes to them suddenly as an enemy and takes them captive. For those who remember it and prepare for it, it comes to them as a liberator from labor and suffering, leading them to the land of eternal peace.
For a Christian, the memory of death, combined with prayer, is a fiery sword directed against the Devil. As long as a person remembers the impending end and the mystical experience of death makes their heart tremble, they cannot sin, just as they cannot, ...
