This morning, I woke up, showered and had my usual fare - oats & sunflower seeds with milk and chopped up banana - and for a change the Russian Earl Grey tea (tea bag). In the muddle of waking, and it is still very dark and womb like at six, I settled to have my breakfast and "flick" through some books - I find this a great pleasure, browsing and leafing through books. Of course in the morning not all the cylinders are firing yet! I did look at the copy of Alexander Blok's poems - hundreds of pages. Thanks to an internet source, I discovered the "Snow Maiden" and a couple of poems, also I found a line with the word "fugitive" in it. How apt because I think that the heart of Blok's poetry eludes me - until I really get down to translating one of his poems. The "Snow Maiden" has a connection with Mikhail Vrubel whose wife was an opera singer - and he painted her as the "Snow Maiden" - years earlier I had used the theme of the avenging Snow Maiden as a story - she spoke the Old Russian, rode a magnificent ice blue horse and was in seen during a tank battle in WWII - the story is about one of the young men who encountered her and saw her fire ice arrows into the vehicles.... now the bus awaits.