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We have plenty of methods to make window frames look better. One of it is to put a cat in front of nalichnik
It looks like this cat waited for me, to make this kind of photo.

 

When in autumn, or (far more often) in long winter I look at some old photo (especially the one I did at the seaside) it come to my mind that even now it is warm and sunny there. And I want to be there again…

Or, sometimes I look at a photo made by someone else and imagine how good it should be there now, at this very moment…

I wish to share this feeling with you. 2013, the peak of summer, 24th July, 4p.m. a town of Stavrovo, Vladimir Oblast… +26°C…

And lots of beautiful window frames around!

Among my stories of nice-looking houses and their pictures, I almost forgot that the most unique event certainly worth mentioning has happened just recently. Aleksandr Solovyov and me handed this letter to the owners of a beautiful house in Ryazan.
. Continue reading “Letter of Commendation”

Town houses of merchants and noble families have one advantage over the village ones: their history may be traced rather easily. This house built in Yekaterinburg in 1896 belonged to a noble woman Selivanova (this is a surname; her name remained unknown to me). I hit on some curious facts when I was unfolding its background.

In early 1980s, students of architecture headed by Prof. N.S.Alfyorov had restored the building. Before they began, it was known to have a multicolor decoration, but its exact colors remained unknown. In fact, it is the very first experience of color restoration based on notions of the modern architects. So, it is very possible that, initially, the house was green.

Now, it is the house of the School for Architecture and Art. And, when I told you about of  the transition a historical building   because a highway had to be built in its place, it was in Yekaterinburg, too

Museum specialists often note that window frames may be decorated with mythological creatures, like mermaids, lions or water sprites, i.e. those earlier used for the decoration of wooden ships and related to the water element. This may be true for, say, the Nizhny Novgorod Oblast or the Volga Region in whole. Yet the birds, just common birds, are absolute leaders among patterns of living creatures used for decoration.   E.g. these ones are from Cheboksary.

I never counted how many thousands of framed window photos I have. Yet, only one of them is, in fact, a picture boring to death: a curtain carried along by the wind! Vyksa, Nizhny Novgorod oblast, 25 July 2013

76^th place held by Tomsk wooden architecture in the Symbol of Russia voting makes me feel deeply sorrow… This means restoration and making of new tourist routes can hardly expect any money form the government. It pains me that my beloved wooden houses are losers:(((

Friends, those who would be in Moscow tomorrow. Please grab a newspaper with name  “CITO” Some people say the newspaper has a photo with nalichniki at 5th page!

Yesterday, I read an article about Konstantin Muratov, a carver from a village of Soimitsy in the Palekh rayon of Ivanovo Oblast, which read: “Carving was his hobby but not his trade”. And : “For all his life – and he lived for 81 years – he had made about two thousand five hundred frames”…

If it is remembered that they are really beautiful and intricate, very typical for the Ivanovo Oblast (like these ones, from Shuya), my mind just cannot realize how the man could do THAT much in his free time.

Suppose, one frame takes three evenings to make; that is, 2.500 will need more than twenty years (weekends inclusive)!

But, for sure, he did have some free days, and there were not only frames he made, and, he had to get planks from somewhere, and, at last, perhaps he spent some time with his kids and grandchildren! Days of not feeling good should also be counted.

Which means, either the authors made a mistake in their calculations, or he had been made of some other stuff than the rest of human beings.

If only existed such a thing as a list of towns with the most beautiful window frames, I suspect Izhevsk would be rather far from its top ten. But why?!

It can boast attractive and rather old frames looking pretty good for their age.

And those street signs – simple but noticeable – are not too often to be found!