Stuck In Brown

Lots of background to fill in on the branch side, and just a bit of neck done on the left.

Pushkinade

 There was a cannon right next to the statue of Pushkin, so both go into this post.  Every Russian speaking city seems to have a love affair with Pushkin.  I personally don't understand why.  It could be because he had at least an affair in every town.  I suppose I should read some Pushkin to see if his writing's any good.

New Class Start

We've moved on to more difficult things in my temari class.  We're beginning the C8 marking.  The pattern we picked is one from a temari given me in an exchange.  Mine, from the colors I picked, reminds me of a tobacconist's shop.

Fencing In

Since this is now in my rotation, I'm working on it, albeit as slowly as everything else.  The floss is Madeira, as is the blending filament.  I'm not really pleased with using blending filament.  I'd rather just use metallic braid.  But there it is - it's a kit, so blending filament is in the cards.

Odessa Town Hall

Naturally, since Odessa is a port, there are a lot of ship symbols around.  Here's Odessa's town hall.  It was originally the port house and has had other functions.  The building's in remarkable shape, and Demeter and Mercury stand guard.  The flag is Odessa's town flag.  I saw it much, much more often than the Ukrainian flag.

Topped Off

One more milestone completed on this- the top is completely backgrounded!  Now to finish...

Sister Cities

Evidently, Odessa has a -lot- of sister cities.  This signpost shows names, directions, and distances to the first thirty or so.  The farthest from Odessa that I saw was Valparaiso, Chile.