Panfilov Park

Here is the monument to soldiers in Panfilov Park, Almaty. A Russian Orthodox church is in the background. Below are closeups of the firce men in the monument.

Here is a video of a woman stuffing cow brains into a piece of pantyhose.

Just kidding...just wanted to see if you were paying attention. It's horsemeat.

Backyard Shashlik

Maxim is teaching his Polish friend, Veronika, to play chess.

Someone said this was a good picture because I have red slippers from Kyrgystan, and Obama sweatshirt, and gloves. Man, this thing was HOT!

On the left under Maxim is Shimon, 12-year-old son of Aaron and Leah, from the US, going clockwise are Gary, Aaron, Leah, Edna (from BC), Andre (from Poland), Maura, Dave, Louisa (Polish), John, Oskar, Kyla and Cody (Davd and Edna's), Veronika (Andre and Louisa's), Ruby (Aaron and Leah's)

The wood burns in the funnel-type area. The white coals are spread out along the flat part.

In the pic to the left is John, the high school principal, and Gary, a New Zealander we met in Baku who is teaching here now. I have no idea what happened to Gary--maybe he ate something? They are standing behind the cooking skewers of meat.

I have 15 healthy strawberry plants growing nicely. Behind will be pumpkins.

Here is our backyard. The house in the distance is the house we lived in for the past eight years. We upgraded by moving across the fence.

5 kittens born 10 Friday 2009. This lovely mother cat has been with us for four years. She's had several litters of kittens--her first kittens were eaten by the dog who lived at the house we rented at the time. Last spring, we took her offspring to an animal market. We gave them the kittens and they would sell them to someone.

more pictures from 2009

This is last class I taught in Azerbaijan 8 years ago. One day, I received 4 Facebook invitation from members of the class. Read the story I wrote about it at: http://www.jamesmartinswriting.blogspot.com/


This is a bunch of cats Maura found lounging around at the Blue Mosque in Istanbul.

Here is a frosty tree one day in March not far from our home in Almaty.

Maxim showing his support for Obama. Who staged such a picture? Obama is showing his divinity with an appropriate halo.

Oskar's first love

Oskar presenting his first girl friend with a bouquet of balloons that he 'collected' at a birthday party.

pictures from 2009

Here is a common seen around the city when people are going to sell vegetables at the market.

What do you do when you see THIS traffic light?

This is a girl in Oskar's class trying to blow out this monster candle on her birthday cake.

This is Maxim's favorite kitty. She's going to have kittens soon.