Abastumani, Georgia

I TOLD you Abastumani was disintegrating.

These scupltures of nude children are in the garden of the former Tsar's "cottage". Resore the building if you must, I say, but please keep this trio as they are! They're much more interesting in this form, and symbolic of he general decay

People of Georgia

These people, from my archives, are all memorialised, long gone. From the top:

Kazbegi (Kazbek), writer, at his village just south of the Russian border
King David Aghmashenebeli (the Builder), who united Georgia for the first time, in Kutaisi
Unidentified figure from a church wall, Mtskheta
St Nino, who brought Christianity to Georgia in the early 4th century as a slave woman from Cappadocia, Turkey, from from the huge bell at Sveti-Tskhoveli Cathedral, Mtskheta
Stalin, Telavi (I found him like that; the bird's nest was there already!)

St George and the Dragon, by Zurab Tsereteli, Freedom Square, Tbilisi, December 2006

A replacement for the main figure of former Lenin Square - he was pulled down along with the Soviet Union. Some say we have just repalced one idol with another. I walked around the sculpture and shot it from many different angles. My opinion is that it IS beautiful, but perhaps it would look more dignified in bronze.