Winter in coming...

August is almost over and it is feeling like fall. In the span of a week the temperature has dropped, the grey skies have rolled in, and the sun continues to shine less and less.  During my time here I have observed that people here will say with this ominous voice "winter is coming..."and it could be two days after the snow has melted, the first day of spring or even at the height of summer, there seems to be this constant looming death of sunshine just over the horizon.  In full disclosure I am a huge fan of summer here, it is one of my favorite seasons.  The sun is out about 20 hours a day, it doesn't get exceptionally hot, everything is green, lush and colorful, it is like you are living in a completely different world compared to winter.  That doesn't mean that I don't have my moments of complaints when it is 2 am and I am trying to sleep but my bedroom is full of light.

Winter here is such a stark contrast to summer. Nothing and I mean nothing can prepare you for the months of darkness.  I can handle the ridiculous cold temperatures but the darkness consumes everything and engulfs the world around you. Already the days are shorter, the temperature has begun to drop and the sun is quickly disappearing.  I do like winter here, but once there is snow on the ground and there are some days of blue skies and sunshine (but that usually means incredibly cold temperatures) but to get to that point you have to make it through fall.  Fall here is not pretty, there are maybe two weeks where the leaves are pretty, the rest of the time it is ugly and depressing. Every week in the fall the majority of the days are grey, cold (and in the later part of fall the same temperatures that I experience during winter in America) and usually rainy.

Winter is coming, so break out the Vitamin D, grab a scarf and hat, brace yourself for the darkness and heat up the kettle and settle in for a season of mass tea consumption. Adventure awaits...

White Mountain Monastery

Perched atop a hill in the Ural mountains sits the stoic Belogrosky Monastery.  With its gold dome toppers glistening in the sun (which can be seen from miles away) this monastery is considered the largest cathedral in the Urals.  

The building of this monastery began in 1902 with completion in 1917.  Not long after its completion the Revolution broke out and what was once a safe haven for monks turned into an execution site.  As you walk the perimeter of the monastery you will find a couple of places where the bullet holes still remain in the wall.  During the Revolution, the priests and monks that were part of the monastery where killed when they refused to denounce their faith.  

The persecution, killing, and imprisonment of believers would extend throughout Russia and would continue until the 1990's.  The majority of the icons in the church were torn down and destroyed, but some icons were taken by villagers who then buried them in the ground in order to try and save them from being destroyed by the Red Army.

After the Revolution White Mountain Monastery was turned into a psychiatric hospital and then used for shell shocked patients during the Great Patriotic War (WWII).  In the late 1970's a patient residing in the monastery set fire to the roof, resulting in the monastery being abandoned.  A group of monks banned together and started to work on restoring the monastery back to its full splendor in 1993.  Today the scaffolding remains as renovation is still being completed, but the church is a full fledged working Orthodox church.

View from the Monastery. On a clear day it is said you can see for miles.

To enter the Orthodox church you have to wear a head covering, but what we didn't know was that even though we were wearing long pants we still had to wear a skirt.  The church provides wrap skirts for women to wear.