Well...maybe time for one more blog from Estonia. Now it is under a week before we leave and the reality of this fascinating year coming to a close is sinking in. Strangely it is hard for us to get our minds around as it seems, now, to have gone so quickly. The facts are that we have been here just on a year now even though it seems much shorter to us. The calendar doesn't lie. On Sunday week, 25th March we will land in Melbourne and bring to an end our Estonian adventure.

Here it is a time of transition. Not just for us as we prepare to leave our little home and friends, but for the environment itself. A few days ago we had our first + degrees temperature since around Christmas time. It actually got to around +5C and felt quite warm to us. The result was melting snow and ice. Amazing how quickly the snow began to melt, and with the melt came lots of water, running, pooling and dripping off everything. Added to the + temperature was a little rain and that banished the snow at an even greater rate. Then, as it happens in this transition time between winter and spring here in Estonia, the skies cleared and the temperature plunged to -10C or more today, making dangerous areas of "black" ice on roads and footpaths. The ice on the river, which had melted to the extent that you could no longer 'walk on water' safely anymore, has firmed somewhat again as the temperatures dropped. The weather man tells us that -10C and more can be expected over the next week, so it seems as if Estonia is going to farewell us in the way it welcomed us last April with sub zero temperatures. This morning on our morning walk in -11C we were faced with very slippery conditions due to the recent higher temperatures and rain. Those higher temperatures three days ago along with the rain caused large ponds, or small lakes of water along our walking track. Now with temperatures again below -10C these little lakes have frozen over forming natural ice skating rinks throughout the park. Due to the fact that the ground is still frozen water cannot soak away and in these temperatures quickly turns to ice more than 100mm thick. Walking in these conditions is not without risk but still provides us with brisk exercise and a change from the heated interior of our apartment. It will be interesting to see how we recalibrate our thermostats upon arrival in Oz next week.

The Ema Jõgi bigins to melt...no longer safe to walk on the ice.

When we were planning this time in Estonia many of our friends asked us "What will you do there for a whole year. Well, here is a list of some of the things we have done.......

We have done 25000 Kms in our car. including driving through Finland and Sweden.
              and all of course on the "wrong" (right) side of the road!
We have traveled in 7 countries... Estonia, Latvia (5), Finland (5), Sweden (2), Norway (1),
           France (1), Russia (1)
We have had 41 visitors stay with us for a total of 120 days
We have had 8 ferry trips between Estonia, Helsinki and Stockholm
We were able to visit our elderly aunt, Erna, approximately twice a week for the last 8 months of her
           life, and to be there for her funeral.
We have also regularly travelled the 180 kms to Tallinn to visit our other Auntie, Liidia.
We have acted as tour guides in the Old Tallinn city for 9+ groups of visitors
We have attended 63 concerts..classical, opera, jazz, ballet and folk.
We have attended numerous markets and festivals, including the National Youth Song and Dance    
               Festival in Tallinn.
We have stayed with 9 different family/friends in three different countries.
We have enjoyed the sauna on over 40 occasions
Neville has attended 26 days over 3 months of language school learning Estonian
We have been skiing, walking on frozen lakes and rivers, riding in snowmobiles and watching ski    
             jumping, mushrooming and picking blue berries in the forrest, attending ice hockey games.
We have driven in sunshine, rain, snow and ice conditions.
We have drunk more than 350 cups of coffee each, contributing substantially to Tartu's economy.
We have walked more than 900kms in morning walks around our beautiful local park.
We have experienced temperatures from +25C to -27C.
And we had a White Christmas!!!!!

In addition we had to live....shopping, cooking, washing, renovating our apartment, and so on.

So..... that is some of what we have been doing. We are grateful, that apart from some minor skirmishes with the flu we have kept good health enabling us to extract as much benefit as we could from this ' year of privilege ', made possible through the generosity of Anti and Karin who made this apartment available to us for the year. The good news is that they will be visiting us in Australia in 2019 so hopefully some of you can meet them then.

What has all this meant for us? Well as I mentioned in the last blog, it may take time for us to reflect on that question when we get back home. One thing though is clear. For Helve to spend a year in the country of her origin, among her 'own people' and her mother tongue it has been extraordinarily significant. Many of you are aware that our life together over our 50 years of marriage has been quite a busy time, and often required Helve to sacrifice her priorities in favour of things I have been involved in. That we could spend this ' fiftieth year ' here in Estonia, where she was able to set the agenda and soak in her culture, language and family has been well deserved and something that I am so pleased has occurred. I have seen new aspects of her personality and abilities and am sure that such an experience has enriched our relationship and increased my already substantial appreciation of what Helve has brought to our life together. Being here has enabled Helve to fill in the missing pieces of her story, to understand and to appreciate more of "who she is", and I'm sure, to find a new peace within herself which is all the more important as we both enter our senior years.

For now we continue the round of farewells. We have just returned from our local shopping centre where we met again with our friend Raul who is severely disabled and confined to a wheel chair. We had a chance to share a coffee with him, his mother and sister. He is finding it hard to see us leave but we plan to keep in touch through Skype. Raul cannot talk but understands ( Estonian of course ) quite clearly. He has a sister who is also mildly disabled, so Sirje, his mother has had a tough life and still has a heavy load to carry. We were glad we could establish a friendship and it seemed to lift the spirits of this little family under pressure. Most nights this week we have been out to dinner with family or friends which has been wonderful and a little sad also. Each visit raises the question whether we will ever be there again, a question that only time can answer. Also on the home front we have begun the task of preparing the apartment for our leaving and of beginning the task of packing. We will leave here on Thur 22nd morning. Anti and Karen are driving us to Tallinn (in our car) in time for us to pay a last visit to Auntie Liidia before we board the ferry for Helsinki. Saying goodbye to Auntie Liidia, who is 90, will be another painful parting. In Helsinki we will be met by Harry and Britta who will take us out for dinner before delivering us to the Helsinki Airport for our 11.55pm flight out for Singapore. Hopefully we can sleep on the plane though it is not something we find comes easy. This afternoon we have been packing, and for a couple who usually travel light with just carry on baggage, we find that we are pushing the baggage limits for both checked in and carry on baggage on this occasion, even after a big load to the op- shop!!

As I write the sun is going down, the temperature is down to minus 7C on its way to minus 9C tomorrow morning. We certainly look forward to some warm balmy evenings back on our beautiful Island. Till then.......

Here we are back in Tartu after an amazing week (for us) in Sweden. Our great friends, Matts & Inga and Kairi had invited us to share their winter skiing holiday in the mountains of central Sweden close to the boarder with Norway. Yet another new and fascinating experience for us in this year of surprises. Our cottage for the week was in a small mountain area known as Sälen which is about 390 kms north west of Stockholm. As you can see from the attached picture it was hard to see as it was buried in more than 2 meters of snow. Fortunately someone had cut a path to the front door through the snow so we could get access.It was truly a beautiful sight, house roofs covered in a meter of snow, trees looking more like statues shrouded in snow, and to cap it all off, brilliant sunshine on most days. In the sunshine the white of the snow was almost blinding making it difficult to distinguish where the ground was and where the road or path was going. Amazing.

The trench into the front door

The cottage

The path lighting just clearing the snow

During our week there Sweden holds a very big event known as  "Vasaloppet". This is a series of cross country ski races which attracts a total number of around 60,000 contestants from all over the world, including Australia. The program consists of 4 ninety kilometre races, one held at night commencing at 8 pm, 1 ninety kilometre team race, 2 thirty kilometre races ( one for women only ) and a forty five kilometre race. On the final day there is the 90 km race open to all but also with an elite field of skiers as well. Its hard to believe but in that race alone there were 15,000 starters!!! Its a huge event and it takes more than half an hour for all competitors to get through the start line. Even in the night race some 3000 people participated, some of whom were in their 70,s and 80,s. It's amazing sight. The 90Kms can take the professionals around 4 hours and the ordinary mums and dads and young people up to 10 hours. Its a gruelling up hill and down hill course, and as we went and watched them on the track one wonders how they keep up the effort over such a long time and distance. Our friends Inga and Kairi both participated in the 30km race getting in just under 3 hours. Some years before they  both did the 90 km race as well. If you check on Youtube I'm sure there would be videos of the race, especially the start. Well, we tried a bit of cross country skiing, our first ever time with skis on our feet, and found it hard but enjoyable...not sure about 90 kms though!!

Inga & Kairi after 30 Kms,

Here skiers in the 90 km race enjoy a little down hill slope.

While we were there we were taken for a trip into Norway, a country we have never visited before. The mountains were higher and much snow. Beautiful scenery and we visited a popular ski resort, mainly for down hill skiing. It was great to watch the hundreds of people and families enjoying skiing together, including tiny little children who just about grow up with skis on their feet. It was not uncommon to see little ones maybe 2 years old skiing down the slopes with their parents....sometimes attached to mum or dad with a short rope lead to 

prevent them from "escaping". Skiing is a huge industry and pastime in these countries and is quite expensive as well. The cost doesn't stop folks from being involved...they just budget for it as part of normal life. Well, it was some week and to add to it we were told that they have not had this much snow and so good conditions since sometime in the 1970,s, so we felt pretty privileged to have experienced it all. Before we left Kairi took us by snowmobile high up above the treeline where the landscape looked a bit like being on the moon except everything was snow covered. Here it was very cold and we could only stay for an hour before returning to base for 'finger therapy'

Now it is only 17 days before we leave Estonia for home. It is hard for us to believe that a year has passed and hard for us to face all the goodbyes to family and friends here. In addition there are lots of things to do like cancelling phone accounts, bank accounts, health benefits and other such administrative things. Then there is the apartment and the dreaded packing for the journey home. It will be a busy and emotional 17 days and then the joy of returning to our own country and people (and sunshine). This will most likely be my last blog from Estonia but when I return I will take time to write maybe one more as we reflect on the whole impact of this year. Certainly it has been an experience never to be forgotten and we are both sure that our lives will not be unchanged by our time spent here, but that will have to wait till we have a bit more time to reflect. Now we can truly say...."we will see you all soon" and whatever the strains of leaving here might be they are certainly matched by our anticipation of being with you all, our friends and family, again. Keep the sun shining for us please.