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.

In this Monday, July 20, 2015 photo, Bill Lattin, the Southern California Timing Association president and Speed Week race director, stands in the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. A small city of tents, trailers and thousands of visitors appears almost every August in the Utah desert to watch cars, motorcycles and anything with wheels rocket across gleaming white sheets of salt at speeds of 400 mph. But wet weather has forced the cancellation of Speed Week for the second straight year and revived a debate about whether nearby mining is depleting the Bonneville Salt Flats of their precious resource. (Photo by Rick Bowmer/AP Photo)

“Yucca is a genus of perennial shrubs and trees in the agave family, Agavaceae. Its 40-50 species are notable for their rosettes of evergreen, tough, sword-shaped leaves and large terminal panicles of white or whitish flowers. They are native to the hot and dry (arid) parts of North America, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean. Early reports of the species were confused with the cassava (Manihot esculenta). Consequently, Linnaeus mistakenly derived the generic name from the Carib word for the latter, yuca. It is also colloquially known in the midwest United States as “Ghosts in the graveyard”, as it is commonly found growing in rural graveyards and when in bloom the flowers appear as an apparition floating.” – Wikipedia

Photo: A yucca standing among flowers bursts forth a very large stalk of flowers as a heavy wildflower bloom on June 21, 2005 in the Angeles National Forest northwest of La Canada, California. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)

The maid-themed cafe in Hangzhou, China on September 29, 2016. A cafe has been bringing in droves of new customers after hiring young women to dress up in Frech maid costumes while serving diners. Curious coffee- and coffee-lovers are coming from all corners of Hangzhou, capital of East China's Zhejiang Province, to get a taste of the “maid cafe” experience. The business is said to have been opened by a man surnamed Yu and his friends, all whom are natives or graduates of the city. The all-female staff who donned the black and white French maid outfits are also students currenting living or studying in Hangzhou, allowing them to marry their passion for serving with the part-time job. (Photo by AsiaWire)

The valley of La Geria, which has been declared a 'Protected Area', is Lanzarote’s main wine-growing region, occupying about 20 square miles (52 square kilometres) and stretching on both sides of the road from Masdache to Uga and right up to the volcanic slopes. This area produces most of Lanzarote’s excellent wines, of which 75 per cent are made from the Malvasía grape, one of the oldest known grape varieties. Best known as a honey-coloured, very sweet wine with a rich flavour, already praised by Shakespeare hundreds of years ago, today the Malvasía grape produces a wide variety of quality white, red or rosé wines, from very sweet to very dry.

Two Inuit children at Point Barrow, Alaska, holding the tusks of a large walrus, probably killed for food, circa 1930. (Photo by General Photographic Agency/Getty Images)

The expertly colourised shots were brought to life by French bank technician, Frédéric Duriez (51). The images were provided by the Valois collection which belongs to the BDIC. “By colourising these photos, I reduce the time that separates us today from this conflict”, said Frédéric. Here: Car cannon sections in firing position, Auxi-le-Château. (Photo by Frédéric Duriez/BDIC/Mediadrumworld.com)

Serbian police officers of the Special Anti-Terrorist Unit pose for a picture in their base outside Belgrade October 8, 2014. When the killing of an unarmed black teenager by a white policeman in Ferguson, Missouri, in August sparked sometimes violent protests, the response of police in camouflage gear and armoured vehicles wielding stun grenades and assault rifles seemed more like a combat operation than a public order measure. Some U.S. police departments have recently acquired U.S. military-surplus hardware from wars abroad, but there are many law enforcers around the world whose rules of engagement also allow the use of lethal force with relatively few restrictions. But for every regulation that gives police wide scope to use firearms, there is another code that sharply limits their use. In Serbia, police may use measures ranging from batons to special vehicles, water cannon and tear gas on groups of people who have gathered illegally and are behaving in a way that is violent or could cause violence, but they may use firearms only when life is endangered. (Photo by Marko Djurica/Reuters)