Climate, weather and my little one

Having a daughter of 1 year and 4 months age I'm the one who is extremely interested in weather changes. For practical reasons, of course. I don't know if it was for the reasons of global warming or something but this winter has been the most severe for all 12 years we've been living here: -30 C is somethig. And it is really SOMETHING for the one who spent the previous years in "sunny Uzbekistan". There snow in winter was like a present and melted as quickly as fell down. Frankly, I'm not aware of all climatic changes but in Volgograd region the weather is changing: the summers are becoming more rainy and the winters - colder.
I will add something else concerning local customs and culture 'cause this "little angel" is going to turn my comp off!

loading a picture - what could be easier! take 2 days, lots of patience - and here you are! even a person with a humanitarian type of mind (like me) can understand how to make it.

Volzhsky

It happens so that when I tell my foreign friends about Volgograd I usually have to remind the name of Stalingrad which it had before and which in its turn reminds of the famous battle of the WWII. Volzhsky, where I am living now, is a beautiful city situated on the left bank of the river Volga (you may see the picture on the right) 20km north-east of Volgograd. The population of Volzhsky is about 300 thousand people with more than 20% younger than 16 years of age. The city itself is young: it was founded in 1954 to settle those who were building Volgograd Hydro Electric Power Station. So, the city is only 52, and as the statistics says, only ¼ of its citizens are older than their city.
It’s a beautiful place although there was almost nothing 50 years ago, only steppe. Now the city is all green, in summer it may boast its wonderful flower-beds and neatly cut trees and bushes (on the left the picture of the centre). Last year it was called the most comfortable city in Russia among those with the population of 300 thousand!
Several years ago the authorities declared that they were going to make Volzhsky “a city for students”. Now there are 4 high educational institutions, 5 research institutions, 3 specialized and several technical colleges here. My “native” one is Volzhsky Institute of Humanities, the largest and the most famous among those who are going to become lawyers, economists, linguists, historians, psychologists and ecologists. May be our students are not the most talented ones but it seems that they learn here not only their future profession but also something which could be called the ability to adapt themselves in this not-always-friendly world.In the centre of Volzhsky you may see a very large billboard with the words “Volzhsky is the city of my destiny”. Although I wasn’t born here, every time I see these words I can’t but agree with them: here I got married, gave birth to my daughter, found friends and my work which gives me so many possibilities for communicating with people and, in particular, brought me to the wonderful workshop on blogging!
Finally, a view of the surroundings.