Ushguli, Svaneti, Georgia

Top: 2 of my 3rd-group English student boys taking the manure sled back home after a trip to the field

Clearing a potato field for footie - a line of guys walking with linked arms to trample the knee-deep snow.  I joined in, but after 2 round trips I felt as though I'd played the whole of a 2-hour game, so here I am collapsed in repose, watching the actual game, which ended up being played in the cows' day-paddock, once this had been suitably shovelled of cow-pats (final shot, ball helpfully false-coloured yellow so you can see it!).  Such is footie in Ushguli.

Ushguli, Svaneti, Georgia

Welcome to visiting country no. 95 - Luxembourg - and my new total of 5 blog followers... Will I reach 100 cuntries as the total number of visitors hits 10000?! It's not far off now.

I seem to be stuck on this slow shutter speed thing. Yesterday evening I took in some of the daily footie (a.k.a. soccer), which takes place conveniently close to my house. I stuck to blur as my approach to the subject, panning with the camera to show motion but also to stop anything in the frame which was moving at roughly the same velocity as the camera was. Rest assured, those of you who are getting motion-sick from all the streaks: I'll move on soon, or at least mix in some more still images. (My new blog profile photo is also from yesterday, shot in a mirror.)

This morning was -11 C, a bit colder than yesterday, after a night of light snow and partly clear skies. Nothing for a Canadian. The evening gave us a quick glimpse of only one bright object in the sky - Venus, I think - before clouds obscured it.

Stay tuned, faithful visitors.

Football, Ushguli, July 2007

Us vs. them, i.e. guests vs. locals. 2 clips from opposite ends of the field, which is at the top of the village; a goal by each side. We (guests) won.