More from New Year's Day (Old), Jan. 14, as well as the next few days afterwards, from the bottom up:

Lile with part of the feast in the morning light, including (left of centre) the remains of my massive birthday cake

Me in traditional Svan costume

Football in a spectacular setting, with cows for an audience

Beauty and the beast: young lady with roast piglet's head

A visiting heliskiing team of 14 from Germany... paying $2700 per hour total for the machine, 3 pilots, a guard, a fuel truck, etc. They had a great morning on our virgin slopes.

Happy Old New Year from Ushguli! More on this important holiday soon.
Back online after a long delay. I lost internet capability after Jan. 1, and it's taken me this long to get through to the Magti mobile offices during the very busy and often closed Orthodox holiday season...

Here are a few shots from Ushguli of late:

Mt. Shkhara at sunset (above) and dawn (bottom), both from Lamaria Church. It was nearly -20 C with a light wind blowing when I trudged up to the church for these photos, but the view makes it worth it every time.

View of Ushguli from Lamaria Church's watchtower window (top) - it's been clear and cold for weeks now, down to as much as -22 C at night, really beautiful each day. School is off until Jan. 22, so I have time off from English teaching for photographs, video, writing, etc. More posting soon...