September

I always love the start of a new season, and always get good and sick of the old one well before I start to miss it. Living in New England so long is perfect for such a temperament – I love the change of seasons and what each brings. So it is September, and there is no trace of summer around Moscow. The temperature is in the mid-teens, and there is a stiff Eurasian breeze that unmistakably says autumn. The green of the leaves looks worn and tired, and the sun goes down at a reasonable hour once again. The arrival of Russian autumn ought to be particularly morose, however, because it comes with the realization that a whole vast arena of human activity – outdoors – is getting ready to close until May. You see hints of what is to come all around. The double-windows that have spent a few months thrown open to let in the fresh air, but are designed to be sealed shut and well-insulated. You see the little metal fences that mark off sidewalks and roads in the yards, and realize they exist solely so you can tell where the path is on a dark winter day when there are several feet of snow lying around. You realize that those giant radiators – the Russian word for them is “battery,” as in artillery battery – that have sat quiet are about to start roaring again. The experience of seasons is very acute here, and summer is no different. It is like a sort of madness here. The sun stays up until 11 o’clock. Women walk around half naked, people randomly jump into fountains and rivers at the slightest provocation, often with disastrous results. People abandon perfectly good apartments with running water and plumbing in the city to live in shacks on the edge of town for weeks on end. It is all very disorienting. So September starts to feel very strongly like things are getting to normal. There ought to be a chill in the air, and the city feels like everyone is coming home and settling in for awhile. But with all that in mind, my family are going to try to stretch summer just a tad longer with a trip to Montenegro. I’ll write more when we get back…