One of my favourite songs is "When we walk in fields of Gold" sung by Eva Cassidy. Lately we have been doing just that. First the golden fields of wheat and barley on the farms of southern Estonia. Rolling hills with a patchwork of gold and green, the gold of the harvest and the green of the forest. Now, just a few weeks later, the gold of autumn. Here the predominant tree is the silver birch and in autumn it turns to gold. Dotted among the dark green pine trees of the forest it gives the impression of perpetual sunshine. This somewhat compensates for the grey overcast skies, an illusion that you willingly embrace in the hope that maybe it might become real. But no, winter is on its way and there is no avoiding it here. Temperatures are on their downward journey and will drop[ to near zero by the end of this week. We are being educated about winter clothing. Estonians say "there is no bad weather, only bad clothes" so now we must learn the art of keeping warm in sustained below zero temperatures. The saying is "layer up"......lots of individual layers of clothing that can be peeled away once you enter a warm house etc. In February we are being taken to Sweden for a weeks skiing in the "real snow country" and we are not sure what presents the greatest risk....freezing or breaking a leg!!!

Talking about Sweden we have just returned from a 2000km journey through Finland and Sweden. With Geoff and Jocelyn on board, we took our car on the ferry to Helsinki. Sixty kilometres to the east of Helsinki is the historic old town of Porvoo. Helve's cousin, Anne-Marie and her family live in this old town where nearly all of the buildings we constructed in the 1700,s. It's beautiful, quaint, and very well preserved. You can wander the cobblestone streets, poke into old shops selling all sorts of merchandise, or just sit in "historic" cafe and enjoy a latte.

 From here we journeyed north for some 800kms, passing through forests, farmland and beside dozens of Finlands 187,888 lakes. Yes, thats not a miss print. Our first days accommodation was on one such lake....

Our Cottage for the night

The view over the lake.

On the Baltic Sea, at the apex of the Bay of Bothnia, a large river (Tornio River)  constitutes the boarder between Finland and Sweden. On the banks of this river on the Swedish side our friend Birgit runs her farm based bed and breakfast known as" Nivagarden". Some of Birgits family have stayed with us in Newhaven and so, each time we are in Estonia, we take the opportunity to visit. Here you are only some 30kms from the Arctic Circle and the seasons exhibit extremes that are beyond our experience in Australia. In summer the sun does not set, it just goes round and round on a circular track, maybe just touching the horizon near midnight. In the winter the kilometre wide swift flowing river freezes as temperatures plummet to around -40 C. No matter what, life goes on. The farmers farm, the workers travel to work each day, the children go to school. For these northern folk this is normal, this is their country and their climate. We visited a large vegetable farm here where they grow cucumbers and tomatoes in huge greenhouses. The difference being, the greenhouses are necessary for growing these vegetables during the summer, not the winter as we would utilise greenhouses in Australia. The day we were there they were closing down the greenhouses as the temperature is way to low and the greenhouses freeze during winter. If you get the chance to travel in Sweden make sure you visit this region and stay at Nivagarden.....it's beautiful in the summer and bright sunshine at 2am!!! Google up Nivagarden and look at the pictures of that lovely peaceful place.

Kairi is like a daughter to us. Fifteen years ago she was in Australia working on a farm near Warragul and we met her there, She is an Estonian girl and so the connection was immediate. Over the years we have visited her and regularly we talk on Skype. Christmas 2015 Kairi brought her mum and dad and her sister and two of her nephews to Australia where we celebrated Christmas day together and spent sunny days on the Woolamai surf beach. Kairi has been living and working in Sweden for some years now and is currently studying at a institute in central Sweden. So...we managed to travel down some 800kms and visit her school, staying the night there and then the next day travelling the 400kms to her home town of Borlange to spend three days together. 

Maybe a bit hard to see..but that is Kairi outside the accomodation for students. 

Once again the beauty of these lands in autumn greeted us all along the way, with Swedens large and plentiful rivers crossing our tracks over the whole journey. Travelling for the sake of travelling has limited value ( at least I think ) but has real content and meaning when you spend time with friends who live in these areas. It was so good to spend time with Kairi, her sister and her family and long after we forget the sights they will remain in our hearts and lives.

Back to Eva's song......we have been literally walking in fields of gold. Today on our early morning walk through our little forest the path was carpeted in gold. Never seen so many leaves. Later in the day we walked the 3.7 kms into Tartu city centre, and once again our path was a golden carpet. Overhead the trees were dressed to perfection, with golden, red and brown leaves. 

The birch, the oak and the maple all contributing their particular colour to the street canvas. Later as we travelled home by bus it appeared as a giant frieze, the black tree trunks and the yellow leaves like a guard of honour on the road to our place.   ( If we didn't know better we could be forgiven for thinking Tartu was celebrating Richmonds win at the grand final!!!!! ) Unfortunately this show will be relatively short lived, each day the carpet on the ground is thicker and the branches above are a little more bare. We must enjoy it while it lasts. We are reminded again of how definite are the seasonal differences here in the far north. When this carpet has gone it will be replaced by the white carpet of snow ushering in the winter season. 

Yesterday I started school.  (Late developer! )  8.30am saw me seated in one of the lecture rooms at the Folk University in the centre of the old town of Tartu. My task is to try and fast track my learning of the Estonian language in the hope that I can soon put away my explanation to those I meet.....".Vabandust ...ma raggin eestikeel ainult nattukene " (which translates....sorry I only speak a little estonian )  It was all concentration for one and a half hours as our teacher, Evelyn,         ( Estonian lady with and english name!) speaking Estonian (yes she lectures in estonian,not english ) tries to help us understand and speak this notoriously difficult language. I have joined the class some weeks into its program, so this adds another degree of difficulty. For someone whose head has been around for as long as mine none of this comes easy. Yet I am making progress, and I am sure the discipline of the class will help. The emphasis is upon dialogue and my "dialogue partner" yesterday was a Russian woman who speaks no english.....interesting and challenging but good. The class meets two times a week, Tues and Thursday, and then of course there is the homework. At home Helve and I try to speak eestikeel, as it is called,  and this is helpful ( to me at least!), though it is so easy just to relapse into english to make life more comfortable. Perhaps, by the time we return to home in Newhaven , we will be able to talk about you without you knowing what we are saying! The possibilities are endless!!! Meantime, if you know any tricks for 'reconditioning old brains' please send them over ASAP. 

Just a few more pictures of Autumn. Today, as I finish this blog it was almost dark by 4 pm and the sky was heavy with the signs of more rain. Hopefully these pictures will keep all our spirits alive, yours in those days of searing hot north winds and ours in the winter dark and cold. so...

Nagamiseni.......or in Oz,  'see ya later"