Heroes of socialist-realism, Kherson, Ukraine

The onlookers were watching the US ambassador, who had come to Kherson to celebrate the 225th anniversary of the induction into the Cossacks of the founder of the US navy - John Paul Jones. John Paul Jones was a Scottish sailor.

So the US Navy was founded, bizarrely enough, by a Scottish Cossack from Kirkcudbrightshire. That fact has to come in useful at some point in life.

http://usembassykyiv.wordpress.com/2013/06/17/john-paul-jones-american-cossack/

Kherson

Simon Crofts 9/22/13 Simon Crofts 9/22/13

The oddness of normality in Odessa

You can never be quite sure in Odessa what might be round the next corner. It is a city where the extraordinary seems quite normal, so that you start not to notice it. Something passes by that you barely glance at, but afterwards you do a double-take: 'Did that just happen?'

Simon Crofts 9/21/13 Simon Crofts 9/21/13

Echo from summer, at the Hydropark, Kherson, Ukraine

This boy was running about as fast (it felt like) as the motor boat. I thought he'd blacked out my frame when I pressed the shutter, but, no the photo was taken a fraction of a moment earlier. The difference between having a photo, and having a blurry blob of a waster frame.

Simon Crofts 9/20/13 Simon Crofts 9/20/13

Street-walker, Kherson, Ukraine

Simon Crofts 9/17/13 Simon Crofts 9/17/13

Days of socialist realism - Kherson