Blue is a very sensual, indulgent colour, one that Klein used well. Some people say it's unfair of artists to use it because it's so eye-catching, too easy. The above, I believe, was not intended primarily as art, just plain bog-standard tiling in a public toilet, but they still went the extra inch by putting black filler in the gaps. White, cheaper, would have looked horrid. Someone deserves praise. 

Winter comes to an end, the slush begins. For the next month or so, Estonians will wander the streets with soggy socks as cars squirt fountains of grey snow soup from rutted roads and muddied puddles.

And at the other end of the scale: modern, unlovely, cold and military, the pure-line school of architecture. Why? 

Not really sure about this one. My SO (significant other) thinks it's Russian-style, and maybe it is. I am not at all qualified to pronounce on architectural niceties like this. Decorative wooden houses do seem to be the norm in northern countries... Other than that? 

Another building in Kadriorg Park, this time not residential: it's one of the past gatekeeper's lodges (is it? asks my lady friend Actually I don't know, but that's what it looks like and that's what the book now says). Today, ahem, I think, it's used by one of the Tallinn art museum departments. Well, the one on the other side of the road is, that I know: it's one of the restoration division's premises (confirmed by lady friend, can't be wrong). 

Somewhere in between are the old wooden houses that Estonians still love. "They're warmer," they say, "they breathe". Possibly. Despite the flammability, they are very appealing, if they're kept up well. This one, in Kadriorg Park, is. So is its freshly-painted next-door neighbour (awaiting fairer weather for photo session). More anon. 

Same building, from the other side. 

And as to whether the new spoils the old, it depends on the old. Many of the central Tallinn buildings were put up for their functional, rather than aesthetic, qualities. In today's architecture, like it or not, the aim is to combine the two, generally successfully. 

This is the Russian Orthodox Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. Luckily, Soviet alternative competence reconfigured the directive to mow down the old town and build workers' (was it?) housing or other proletarian delights, and the old town remains. Generally, with one or two minor glitches, the "town" has managed to preserve its heritage well, and the new buildings that go up down-town go down well.

Tallinn, like many other former Eastern-bloc cities, is building like crazy. The town centre has 8 skyscraper projects at various stages of advancement, and residential buildings are springing up everywhere. Caveat emptor.

An empty bottle. The French, for fairly obvious reasons, have a word for it: "cadavre". Seems also there's a new drug going around, purer, better refined, a killer. My neighbour found a body in the park while jogging last week. Choose your speed.
What's wrong with "Blog This!" these days? Anyone know?

Try again. I already uploaded this photo a few hours ago, but Picasa's been malfunctioning the past few days. Can't recall what I said, but basically it was to show that not all's gloom and frozen toes round here.

 
Estonians are a tree-loving, tree-hugging and tree-burning people. Like smokers obliged to carry cartons of snout about in their shirt pockets, Estonian drivers make sure they're never without... 

I now have 3708 photos of specifically Tallinn icicles (group and individual portraits), but not all are satisfactory, by far. This one, on the other hand, is a new species as yet undescribed by science. I therefore wish to name it a pokucle in honour of Edgar Valter, Estonian artist and story-teller, who died 4th March 2006 at the age of 76. One of his best-known works, the Pokuraamat, the Poku Book, describes the life and adventures of the little people of south Estonia who live inside sedge grass, the Pokus. This is what I imagine they look like in winter if, by chance, they come to town. 

After months of hardship traipsing across the bleak and barren landscapes of downtown Tallinn, I have come to the tragic, but oh so human, conclusion that there's no such thing as the perfect icicle. Nevertheless, as my own small contribution to iciclology, I offer the present specimen. Today was one of Estonia's first days of thaw (the local weather has a very hesitant personality, changing its mind more often than I my socks), and the sun shone lazily over the spires and other pointy rooves to sculpt the present set of celestial dentures. Tomorrow, 'twill be gone. 

Moon, almost full. 

Not that I'm religious, far from it, but I really love the trompe-l'oeil of flatness the spire gives, just like some of those corner buildings in France. 

It has been calculated that the concrete used to construct the Itaipu dam in Brazil (one of the seven wonders of the technological world, no less) is enough to build a staircase 82 cm wide, bannisters and all, to reach the moon. Why bother? Isn't it always a matter of perspective? 

Yes, it's FIBIT! Fashion Is Back In Tallinn. Estonia, land of blondes (among other things, of course) and one of the highest ratios of models per capita (or should it be per corpora) in the world, puts on regular fashion shows to entertain its malling masses.
Here we are in the recently-constructed Viru Keskus (or Viru Shopping-Centre, Viru being a poetic/archaic/mythological name for the country in question), acme of human evolution, the sanitised and insect-pure jungle of our desires. Spend!

After the string of W&Ws, a few in colour are needed. This one comes from behind the local supermarket one late summer late afternoon.
It's also a delaying tactic: I'm trying to find the perfect icicle. It's hard. Getting the light shining in the right direction where the best ones grow precisely in the shade is tricky indeed. But I persevere. Patience please.

Since I'm on a food binge, this here is Mannavaht: an Estonian delicacy made from a mixture of fruit juice such as apple, cranberry or black chokeberry (the latter not very pleasant, leaves dry taste in mouth), water, manna-croup semolina all whipped up together and eaten with milk. QED. 

Joyeux anniversaire!
Joyeux anniversaire!!
Joyeux anniversaire Eric et son ParisDailyPhoto blooooo-og!!!
Joyeux anniversaire! 

Another snowy day and the sun in my eyes. The cold is a fiction that kills: beautiful, pure and pitiless. From a distance, from a photo, there is even a sense of warmth. Tonight, off to buy nappies for my baby, I walked out gloveless. There was no wind and, being otherwise suitably dressed, my body felt warm even. Less than five minutes later, my hands were in pain. Gloves on. Still, I love it. And nature, our environment, is the hand that sculpts us. 

The rumours of Madonna camping in Kadriorg Park are just that: rumours. 

You guessed: I love the snow. Actually, I was on my way to Siberia when I got waylaid in Estonia. But I love the heat too, so warmer climes will give their warmer pix...
This is also in the park where I live, Kadriorg, but in the other direction - townwards - to the picture posted Sunday. 

More snow, with grafitti.