Fiona4Ukraine

  This is what the amazing statue in Kyiv must have looked like every the night, before the full invasion and blackouts in Ukrainian cities. This year, on Friday night, pre-Independence Day, there was a definite middle finger to Putin. This was the main street in Kharkiv - LIT! - for the first time since the full invasion, half an hour before 11pm curfew, when the lights would have been turned off. Friday, actually, was National Flag Day of Ukraine - some interesting history below... I just missed this photo at Hell's Kitchen! 23 August is also celebrated as Kharkiv Day, commemorating 23 August, 1943, when Kharkiv was liberated from Nazi troops. 24 August is Ukrainianian Independence Day so no wonder there was so much festivity! The Ukrainian novelist, Andrey Kurkov, writes that, before the war, Independence Day seemed to be more of a formal occasion, organised by the state for the media, rather than the people. But its significance has gradually increased, turning it 'into mor...

 There is one good thing about a complete blackout after dark (other than adventurous night-time walks!) and that is being able to see the stars - as clearly, in Ukraine's second city, as if you were in the countryside. So the annual Perseid meteor shower, predicted to peak from Monday 12 August to Tuesday 13 August, was spectacular, viewed from my back garden after dark. I missed having an outside space so I moved, a week ago, from my large Soviet-style apartment to a much smaller, but cosier, apartment with a wonderful outside area, containing flowers, pots, a vegetable garden and fruit trees - a true Ukrainian garden in the middle of the city. And I don't even have to maintain it - the owner's elderly parents come to look after it every few days. The apartment is behind a small restaurant, past a bed containing sunflowers - the staff can often be seen taking a break beneath the umbrella... The 10-minute walk to work is along a route with many semi-destroyed buildings, bo...