St Petersburg Travel Notes: installment one

Greetings from sunny and seasonably chilly St Petersburg, where the trees have just begun seriously shedding their leaves, running just a bit ahead of the old Slavic name for the month coming onstage at the end of this week, listopad (falling leaves). The sun may be up and about for less than eight hours on twenty-four, but its strength is still there – enough to turn the windowed balcony on our pied-à- terre apartment into a fine clothes dryer.