'Yesterday I arrived in Pyatigorsk. I have engaged lodgings at the extreme end of the town, the highest part, at the foot of Mount Mashuk: during a storm the clouds will descend on to the roof of my dwelling. This morning at five o'clock, when I opened my window, my room was filled with the fragrance of the flowers growing in the modest front garden. Branches of bloom laden cherry trees peep in at my window, and now and again the breeze bestrews my desk with their white petals.'
A Hero of Our Time, Mikhail Lermontov
