The Kirillo Belozersky Monastery Goritsy (Воскресенский Горицкий монастырь), is the only female monastery (convent) remaining in the Vologda Oblast of Russia. In fact, it is one of the only four remaining monasteries remaining in Vologda. The earliest records of the site date back to 1544. There is some troubled history remaining as well: Monasteries were often used as locations for political exile. More on all this at the Wikipedia article here.   This image was taken on a fine July day, with plenty of warmth and sunlight.  The gardens were plentiful and ready for early season harvest. One can only imagine this place in the dead of winter with many feet of ice covered snow.

Traveling north from Moscow is pretty easy by boat along the many interconnected canals and the Volga River. This is a view of the banks from the boat I took headed up to Kizhi. The sky was a clean deep blue with fair weather clouds during the day. At night in July, the sun does not get very far below the horizon. It remains pretty bright even up to midnight. We did see some noctilucent clouds, though, and that was a treat.

This little fellow was hanging out while I was trecking around Ки́жи (Kizhi). The only easy way there is by boat through Lake Onega, and once there, the place is largely your own unless it is the deep part of summer. The whole island is unpopulated in winter: it’s just too harsh. In summer, the residents return to their да́ча (my keyboard doesn’t handle Cyrillic well), and enjoy the long days and twilight nights. Well, this is an Arctic Tern (S. emparadisaea/em). They (being ornithologists) say that these fellows come as far south as Massachusetts, but I have not seen one (yes) here in the USA. This was my first sighting, and it was literally just a few feet away.