A baby giant panda plays at Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Chengdu, Sichuan province, China, January 22, 2017. (Photo by Jason Lee/Reuters)

Eagle Prime (MK3), a giant robot by MegaBots Inc. which manufactures giant piloted humanoid fighting robots headquartered in Berkeley, California on October 18, 2017. (Photo by Courtesy Michael Mauldin/Reuters/MegaBots Inc)

An “asparagus eating contest” made of asparagus and carved pumpkins is on display on the sidelines of the Giant Vegetable Competition in Klaistow, northeastern Germany, on September 20, 2015. The vegetable giants compete in seven categories. (Photo by Bernd Settnik/AFP Photo)

A breeder puts a giant panda cub into a crib at Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Chengdu, Sichuan province, September 23, 2013. Fourteen new joiners to the 128-giant-panda-family at the base were shown to the public on Monday, according to local media. (Photo by Reuters/China Daily)

19 giant panda cubs, all born this year, meet the public at the Shenshuping Base of the China Conservation and Research Centre for the Giant Panda on October 13, 2017 in Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, China. So far China Conservation and Research Centre for the Giant Panda has successfully bred 42 giant pandas this year. (Photo by VCG/VCG via Getty Images)

One-month-old cubs given birth by giant panda “Su Shan” are seen at Shenshuping giant panda base on August 17, 2021 in Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province of China. (Photo by He Haiyang/VCG via Getty Images)

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.

“Kimchi, also spelled gimchi, kimchee, or kim chee, is a traditional fermented Korean dish made of vegetables with varied seasonings. There are hundreds of varieties of kimchi made with a main vegetable ingredient such as napa cabbage, radish, green onions or cucumber. It is the most common banchan, or side dish, in Korean cuisine. Kimchi is also a main ingredient for many popular Korean dishes such as kimchi stew (kimchi jjigae), kimchi soup (kimchiguk), and kimchi fried rice (kimchi bokkeumbap)”. – Wikipedia

Photo: South Korean housewives, among more than two thousand who gathered for an event sponsored by state officials to help the needy, make kimchi, the traditional pungent vegetable dish on the grounds in front of Seoul City Hall on November 20 in Seoul, South Korea. (Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)