Abandoned Russia

Deep deep in the forests of Russia lie undisturbed remnants of another age and the very stuff of fairytales. Untouched and crumbling, these structures are returning to nature - the very force that has protected them for so long. What I like about these buildings is that they belong to no one and anyone who happens to stumble across them, much like the bombed-out houses we used to play with in Italy. Yet only in a country with a wilderness so intact such as Russia could a wonder like this be unaccounted for. The very last of Britain's forests were officially surveyed in time for the second world war, leaving us without any mysterious shadowy unknown landscapes to conceal such secrets as these...

With the collapse of the USSR this railway station in Abkhazia was rendered useless, leaving Soviet ruins to the luscious vegetation of the region. In other photographs, you can see a turquoise sea shimmering on the horizon.

A Mini Adventure

Not 24 hours after we finished our small mince pies and white wine/cranberry juice mixers (poured enthusiastically by our merry faced tutor) at the annual Wimbledon College costume department christmas "hurray it's over for now!" party, we four unlikely characters embarked on a Scottish mini-adventure...

It was four days of childish glee, running about deserted castle ruins in the rain and getting unceremoniously locked out of our newly adopted home. There were chips without the haggis, the exchange of five quid and under presents around a beautiful yet teetering christmas tree, and soggy tramps across picturesque bogs and lochs.

The mini was driven by and provided very generously by Elizabeth, while the dodgy viking outfits and helmets were courtesy of the Caerlaverock Castle Museum interactive scheme. 

All in all, a timely antidote to the end of term stress-shenanigans that always seem to crop up and convert even the sanest of us into red-faced spluttering she-goblins.