A Ukrainian serviceman stands on a flag of Russia's mercenary group Wagner near the Russian border in Sumy region, Ukraine on August 13, 2024. (Photo by Viacheslav Ratynskyi/Reuters)

The picture dated May 14, 2025 shows the RAF Typhoon display pilot, Squadron Leader Nathan Shawyer, who has now completed his Public Display Authorisation, rehearsing over RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire, UK ahead of this year's airshows. The RAF Typhoon display team will be participating in several airshows this year, including the Midlands Air Festival on May 30 and the English Riviera Airshow in Paignton Devon on May 31. (Photo by Claire Hartley/Bav Media)

English model, television personality and former beauty queen Christine McGuinness attends the Virgin Atlantic Attitude Awards 2025 at The Roundhouse on October 08, 2025 in London, England. (Photo by Instagram)

The Fuel Girls with their fire and pyro performance on stage in London on September 20, 2025. The Big London Tattoo Show, the UK's largest tattoo convention, is in full swing at ExCeL London, transforming the venue into a bold celebration of tattoo artistry and alternative culture. (Phoot by Imageplotter/Alamy Live News)

Timothée Chalamet and Kylie Jenner attend the Los Angeles premiere of A24's “Marty Supreme” at Samuel Goldwyn Theater on December 08, 2025 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Monica Schipper/Getty Images)

In this October 24, 2010 file photo, Canadian-born actress Pamela Anderson poses for photographers during a photocall to unveil a new advertisement in aid of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) in London to encourage people to go vegetarian. PETA turns 35 years old in 2015, is the largest animal rights group in world with 3 million members, and has done a lot with a little s*x, shock and celebrity. (Photo by Akira Suemori/AP Photo)

While communism, collectivism, worms, dry rot and casual looting failed to destroy the majestic wooden churches of Russia, it may be ordinary neglect that finally does them in. Dwindled now to several hundred remaining examples, these glories of vernacular architecture lie scattered amid the vastness of the world’s largest country. Just over a decade ago, Richard Davies, a British architectural photographer, struck out on a mission to record the fragile and poetic structures. Austerely beautiful and haunting, “Wooden Churches: Traveling in the Russian North” (White Sea Publishing; $132) is the result. Covering thousands of miles, Mr. Davies described how he and the writer Matilda Moreton tracked down the survivors from among the thousands of onion-domed structures built after Prince Vladimir converted to Christianity in 988.

“A balancing rock, also called balanced rock or precarious boulder, is a naturally occurring geological formation featuring a large rock or boulder, sometimes of substantial size, resting on other rocks, bedrock or on glacial till. Some formations known by this name only appear to be balancing but are in fact firmly connected to a base rock by a pedestal or stem”. – Wikipedia

Photo: “The Brimham Rocks are balancing rock formations located on Brimham Moor in North Yorkshire, England. The rocks stand at a height of nearly 30 metres in an area owned by the National Trust which is part of the Nidderdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty”. – Wikipedia. (Photo by Tee Time Tony)