Since my wife and I started our Demetrian double life three winters ago, cold half of the year in Tbilisi, warm half in Svaneti, much has changed for us. Now, before each move, we must close down one living space, then relocate and open up the other. Given things like subzero temperatures (mostly in Svaneti), high heat (mostly in Tbilisi), plants to care for and more, it bears some thinking through to keep things unspoiled by their conditions.
Leaving Tbilisi: close the curtains. Leave the key with a neighbor to come in once a period and water the plants. Roll up the as-yet not-hung carpets to keep dust off them. Empty the fridge of whatever won’t last the summer; put what you can in the freezer. Take out last garbage. Pack what’s needed for Svaneti (separate, long lists), and off in the morning for the roughly eight-hour drive. Longish stop in Zugdidi for final shopping en route.
Arriving in Svaneti: shop and take with you as much as possible for the season in the shop and guest house. Check all water pipes and points for any winter freezing damage. Replace or repair as necessary, but hopefully this is little to nothing if you’ve winterized well. Work the garden, hoeing, planting, taking advantage of the short growing season. Sweep, mop, get rooms ready for guests who have already booked much of the summer.
We take from the barn and re-install a 1000L water tank with electric pump for the summer, to try to prevent any water shortages when flow is weak and we know guests are coming. This has been one of our biggest stresses during the summer season, and it must improve, for everyone’s sanity. The tank is one of the few things we didn’t have in the garage which burnt down a few years ago, so that’s a small mercy.
This spring, we’ve had some friends from Tbilisi come and help with renovation and repair jobs up here, which has been most kind and useful. Some water, in our bathroom in the house and in the whole cafe, we’ve decided to re-route from inside the walls or under floors to pipes fully accessible. This is both to repair inaccessible damage and just to have everything visible and repairable in future. Plus, the house kitchen cold water has been frustratingly much too slow for a few years, and now is our chance to redirect it and vastly improve this situation.
Children come bringing flowers for Lali, their beloved English teacher and friend. We reconnect with them and with the whole village, which expresses its gladness to see us once again. They come for this and also because our shop has enough items not found in the SPAR down the road: more of a general store, we are. Boots to rope to carpets, clothes, nuts and bolts, nails and renovation supplies, kitchen and house appliances, crockery, cutlery.
Weed-whack the front area around the house and garden, for guests’ and our comfort. Arrange for a neighbor to scythe the rest, one the current spate of rain stops and the hay will have a chance to dry out after cutting. He’ll then stack and take it away, doing both his cattle and us a service.
Weed around several seedlings, chiefly the tiny three-year-old walnut, barely hanging on but still alive, and a new Korean cedar which a friend brought and planted from afar late this winter. We really hope both of these will take. Our other two planted walnuts are now over our heads after about 16 years, and hopefully this fall will give us their first nuts.
New this year is a nest in one of our pear trees which is at about chest-height for me, with 4 eggs in it, empty when I first see it but now with a small bird sitting. I hope to see through the whole cycle of hatching and eventual takeoff from the nest of the little ones, assuming nothing gets to them first! More details to follow.
I glimpse from the corner of my eye the “watchful dragons” mentioned by C.S. Lewis, in clouds, mountain/snow interfaces and elsewhere, and shoot what I see, more material for my fantastical short stories about Svaneti. The mythology continues to expand. Svaneti continues to enthrall.
As for the rest of Georgia: While many people live year round in Svaneti (and we did for about 10 years in our house), there are other whole Georgian provinces which virtually empty out to the last handful of individuals for the whole winter. Khevsureti and Tusheti are the main examples of this, in the north-east of the country. My wife’s and my last trip to Tusheti, driven by our good friend Dato Urushadze who has been there more times than he can remember, ended on the last day of required snow removal by stipulated contract, in mid-October. Indeed, it was snowing as we left; although Dato was unfazed and calm. Stay any later there, and you risk an enforced stay until May.
These two provinces send their herds of sheep down to the lowlands of Kakheti for the winter, their owners having houses there too. Indeed, the annual migration (either direction, up or down) is quite an iconic photographic opportunity, although I have yet to experience it by plan, only by accident so far. Then they send them back up, in early summer, all on the hoof. Quite an epic migration.
We have an inkling what the north-returning provincial inhabitants have to deal with, from our own similar experiences from the last three years. Assess any damage, repair or replace. Get set back up for the coming rush of tourism from which you can make money (hopefully) for the lean winter months. Rooms, bedding, food, filling the calendar with advance bookings. Being ready for unexpected arrivals on the doorstep, because there will be these too. Flexibility is key, and cheerfulness as things change. This comes much more naturally to my wife than to me, I must admit.
BUT… up there in the north-east, do it all with at best a minimum of wired-in electricity, aided by solar panels, or a generator which must be fueled from a faraway petrol station. This is a key difference from Svaneti, which at least has power, thanks to the nearby Enguri hydroelectric dam.
We also note, this year, the disquieting recent news report that one of our most important guest countries now has a Georgia travel advisory out for its citizens: Poland (the other so far is France, with some but far fewer visitors to Georgia, or at least to us). Must confirm if anyone’s canceling because of this. So far, however, we’ve had a good-size group from Poland already. Summer is still in flux. Israel/Iran starting, Russia/Ukraine ongoing… It likely won’t be dull.
BLOG by Tony Hanmer
Tony Hanmer has lived in Georgia since 1999, in Svaneti since 2007, and been a weekly writer and photographer for GT since early 2011. He runs the “Svaneti Renaissance” Facebook group, now with over 2000 members, at www.facebook.com/groups/SvanetiRenaissance/
He and his wife also run their own guest house in Etseri: www.facebook.com/hanmer.house.svaneti
