Mestia, Svaneti, Georgia

The new Museum in Mestia, so much better than the old one, for the fabulous collection of regional history and art.  Icons more than 1000 years old painted or in chased gold or silver, and many other marvellous things

2 more views of towers

Mestia, Svaneti, Georgia

Views of the town from one of its bridges

Spring has sprung

Mestia, Svaneti, Georgia

Top 2:  The search is over - I've found the car to use for our wedding day.  Problems - 1) it's in Mestia & 2) it's a fixer-upper... Oh, & 3) I need to run it by the lady

Bottom:  The town's beautiful new Orthodox church, background, reportedly financed by a... very... rich... Svan in Moscow in thankful response to his wife's giving birth to a son after many years of trying

Mestia, Svaneti, Georgia

On my way back from Etseri to Ushguli a week ago.

Mikho, Ushguli's public minivan driver, showing me the engine between his and my seats

Walnuts in a stocking

Sled, all-important Svan vehicle

Rebuilding after Fire, Mestia, Svaneti, Georgia

Dali and Shero and their house after the fire some months ago. They're hard at work returning it to a state fit to be lived in. It was basically a total loss, though thank God no one was harmed. But the family escaped at night with what they were wearing.

Mestia, Svaneti, Georgia

More from Mestia. The middle shot's a favourite angle which I need to get the lighting right on.

Mestia, Svaneti, Georgia

Internet at home is back at last! Nearly 2 weeks without it reminded me how much I use the thing - not hours per day, but some time each day for sure. We switched to a different ISP in the end, while the other 2 battle it out and lose us customers. Their loss.

Top 3 - Mestia scenery.

Bottom 2 - Home/museum of Mikheil Khergiani, celebrated son of Mestia, mountaineer who died doing what he loved but much too early, in the Italian Alps.

Mestia, Svaneti, Georgia

All from the visit earlier this October.

The artist's cat.

A sample of the artist's son's work.

The artist and his own work.

Fall foliage, Mestia.

I still don't have internet back at home yet, so reduced to occasional surfing in other locations. Warring internet serive providers, you're not doing your country any favours, ra!

Mestia, Svaneti, Georgia

Top 3 - details from a carved wooden door.

Bottom - sorting out my book collection back in Tbilisi - 8-900 books or so...

People of Georgia

Might as well call this set "Person of Georgia", because there's 1 man in 4 of the 5 shots.

Nodar: in Khevsureti; holding an unusual set of horns in the old Mestia Museum; with children and nieces in Dizi; and (last) with an ancient mortar, also in Dizi.

The 4th shot is of Yours Truly, Tony the Mighty Hunter, in Etseri.

Mestia, August 2007

In and around the town. The top shot is - surprise - the twin peaks of Ushba, obligingly revealing themselves long enough for another portrait. Just long enough. This must be one of those mountains which makes its own clouds.

Mestia, August 2007

More from the walk above Svaneti's capital town. Cloudy weather only added to the drama of the landscape, though it also shrouded Mt Ushba after the initial glimpse. Never mind. The top shot shows Mestia so far below that even its watchtowers are indistinct. There used to be a large straight wooden cross at this spot, overlooking the town, but it either fell apart or was pulled down, and now only this simple one stands in its place.

Above Mestia, August 2007

The walk with my 2 American friends. Ushba nicely visible in the top 2 pictures before vanishing.

Svaneti, August 2007

Today may be the first time I've synchronised video and photographs - same time, same place.

Above, with my 2 American friends on a walk towards Mt Ushba (which hid soon after we saw it) from Mestia.

Below, on another walk, this time towards the magnificent glaciers of Mt Shkhara above Ushguli.

Mestia, August 2007

A morning walk to overlook the town.

Usually Ushba's awesome size has its own scale, fitting its surroundings. But I find that from this angle, with Mestia below, it seems to be peering over the top of the mountains in front of it, altering dimensions in a way which makes me feel that both the rest of the landscape and I are very, very small indeed. Rather a numinous sensation, if I may say so.

Mestia, August 2007

The only time I have travelled all the way to Ushguli twice in one month. Both times I was acting as a tour guide for foreign friends. Here, some more views of Svaneti's capital town with its many towers nestled among the mountains. Such a splendid place.