Etseri & Pari, Svaneti, July 2010

Mineral water spring just outside Etseri

Mt Ushba peeking its southern peak above Pari

Fence gone horizontal

Etseri, Svaneti, Georgia, July 2010

Waltz, spin

Etseri view

Ruined house again, open to the sky

Etseri, Svaneti, Georgia, July 2010

Happy 20th Christine! (left)

Swinger

Long-ruined house, tragedy

Etseri, Svaneti, Georgia, July 2010

Views around Etseri fom a high vantage point - top, the hamlet where we stayed a month recently, a favourite haunt

Etseri, Svaneti, Georgia, July 2010

View back the way we came, towards Zugdidi

Young hen in the hand... worth any 2 in the bush, being chased, avoiding capture at any cost though all I want to do is put them safe into their box for the night

Fallen leaf, cherry, I think

Etseri, Svaneti, Georgia, July 2010

3 more from a favourite village of mine in this province

Etseri, Svaneti, Georgia, July 2010

3 country landscapes in this magnificent mountain land

Nodar's Aunt Wins Again

This time, at the recommendation (and with the very kind help) of NWB, I sent that photo of Lyuba to the annual AOP Open Awards in London. And she'll be on display there soon, and in the catalogue as well, one of 90 winners. Cool! To see the 90 online, and vote for your favourite, please visit

http://www.the-awards.com/OPEN_Judge

She's on Page 8, top right corner, if you decide to vote for her. Many thanks!

Regular posts will return after a few days.

Ps Do you like the new, tweaked blog letterhead? I decided that the land was way too dark in contrast with the sky (it's mostly snow, after all) and lightened it up considerably, changing the motto colour in the process. One day I'll print this thing huge as it's meant to be: it could go billboard-size with no trouble, being a 14-image composite of 10-megapixel shots...

Etseri, Svaneti, Georgia

A photo of mine which has just been chosen for kolga.ge 's anuual best 100 photos of the year, 2009.  This is Nodar's aunt Lyuba in Etseri a few years ago - she passed away January 2008. I submitted the photo in colour, but here's a quick b/w version for comparison - more than 1/2 of the winners were in b/w.  Final best 5 winners, with cash prizes, to be announced in Tbilisi on the evening of May 14 - hoping!  There was an initial evening's show of the 100 on Mtatsminda (Holy Mountain) overlooking the city - each photo printed about 1 m wide, with its own tripod and umbrella (fortunately the rain never came), orchestra on a stage, hobnobbing with all sorts, &c &c.  Time my photos started getting some money in, I think - I have enough of them from over the decades.

Etseri, Svaneti, Georgia

A young friend, Nodar's nephew Iviko (Ivane), who was a few months old when his father died in a mountain car accident

I hesitated to post this fridgetop image from Easter (that's what the box at left is, Georgian Easter cake), but then decided, No, this is what was there.  The calf belonging to this head was another addition to our holiday meal

Cracked paint - you KNOW this is a favourite subject by now, don't you?

Etseri, Svaneti, Georgia

An old friend

Spring stream, slow shutter speed

Nodar's brother Sergo "toasting" the skin of a piglet prior to roasting the whole thing in the oven

Etseri, Svaneti, Georgia

Twin sisters Valya (r) and Valida (l) and their collection of Easter cakes - yum!

Rain catcher in Valya's garden

Small "sign" of improvements in Svaneti:  87 km (?) to Ushguli from Etseri, and 111 to Zugdidi

Nr. Etseri, Svaneti, Georgia

Some of the more than 10 varieties of wildflower I saw near yesterday's mineral spring, in the forest. Sorry, I'm not the person to ask what they are!

Etseri, Svaneti, Georgia

The front hooves of our mineral water-carrying horse

Who says a new paint job is good decorating? I much prefer it when weather has had a chance to age it somewhat. This is on an outhouse door - plenty of opportunities for sun and frost/melt to work their magic over the years

A fall image taken in spring - these were hanging at the house which hosted me for part of my stay in Etseri

Etseri, Svaneti, Georgia

Near the village where I spent Easter.  A mineral water spring, with delicious, slightly gaseous water, one of nearly 2000 in Georgia.  Well enough protected from livestock getting to it; but I took these photos of Valya in action after having cleaned up a whole large sack of plastic and glass bottles and metal tins from arond the site.  C'mon, Svans, I KNOW there's no garbage collection anywhere in your whole province; but at least take your rubbish away from such places as this, if you consider them holy!

Etseri, Svaneti, Georgia...

Top: Sergo the Reaper

Next: Watching paint crack, a favourite pastime

Bottom 2: You've heard of James & the Giant Peach perhaps, but Sergo & the Giant Tomato?! It weighed in at 1.2 kg...

Internet sizmari (nightmare), Georgia

Several days now of no internet at home and in a significant part of Tbilisi, with rumours of an ISP having gone down. So I'm accessing it from a friend's house tonight. And a warm welcome to the first visitors to the blog from Jordan and Bangladesh, countries 91 and 92!

Today's photos are from my recent 25th tour of Svaneti - from Kurashi, top part of Etseri village. It has a purportedly 9th-century church with an 11th-century gospel, all of which I saw for the first time. The 3rd photo is a small copy of the wheel used to torture St George. And the bottom is a house in Kurashi.