Monday, March 25
Mar. 25th, 2024 11:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gottawonderToday I am grateful for:
Good sleep, and though it means no one is working on the house, it's nice to have peace and quiet.
I did go to town today. I picked up items from people selling on Marketplace, and those transactions went smoothly. Nice.
Then I went to pottery. I was by myself again, which isn't all bad.
I tried again with the raku clay (for our once a year raku firing that is generally in June) to make something. I did make a vase, and I put a lot of effort into a lidded box (made with slabs) that I hope turns out okay.
I don't know what it is about pottery, but after just a three hour session I am POOPED! Then I still have to get through the clean up, which generally takes at least half an hour.
I didn't have to get a lot for groceries this week, since my husband will be flying to see his family on Wednesday, and back Monday (?), so I don't have to buy much.
I got home, we put away groceries, and pretty much my husband needed to go to bed.
In "Encino Man", Link, the recently revived caveman is said to have been from Estonia to explain his lack of English and different customs.
Estonia is another Baltic country, also touching Russia. It has over 2300 islands (besides the mainland area) that are in the Baltic Sea.
They do speak Estonian there, which is a Finnic language (it is right across from Finland).
Like the other Baltic countries, Latvia was kind of a long-term pagan hold-out, not adapting to Christianity (Lutheran) till quite late in the game, though today it considers itself to be very "not religious".
They had a pretty long history of back and forth wars and takeovers from Sweden and Denmark and Finland and so on, since it was kind of tribal anyhow and not a unified country.
"The land of what is now modern Estonia has been inhabited by humans since at least 9,000 BCE. The medieval indigenous population of Estonia was one of the last pagan civilisations in Europe to adopt Christianity following the Papal-sanctioned Livonian Crusade in the 13th century.[13] After centuries of successive rule by the Teutonic Order, Denmark, Sweden, and the Russian Empire, a distinct Estonian national identity began to emerge in the mid-19th century. This culminated in the 24 February 1918 Estonian Declaration of Independence from the then-warring Russian and German empires. Democratic throughout most of the interwar period, Estonia declared neutrality at the outbreak of World War II, however the country was repeatedly contested, invaded, and occupied; first by the Soviet Union in 1940, then by Nazi Germany in 1941, and was ultimately reoccupied in 1944 by, and annexed into, the USSR as an administrative subunit (Estonian SSR). Throughout the 1944–1991 Soviet occupation,[14] Estonia's de jure state continuity was preserved by diplomatic representatives and the government-in-exile. Following the bloodless Estonian "Singing Revolution" of 1988–1990, the nation's de facto independence from the Soviet Union was restored on 20 August 1991."
Of course WWII was awful. They were taken over by Russia first, who demanded that of course everyone fight on their side. They basically just used that country as a military base, put a repressive regime in place, and used all of it's resources for the war machine, including the people.
THEN Germany took over, did their thing (kill Jewish people and anyone else they felt like killing), and then forced whoever was left to fight for THEM (though some ran away to Finland, so they could join the fight against Russia).
Estonia lost 25% of it's population in WWII, as well as losses in territory to Russia.
When you think of Estonia, think wetness. It has a lot of lakes, rivers, bogs, artificially created water reserves, and mires (as we discussed, these are SPECIFIC swamps that produce peat). This place is a big, low-lying, flat, sponge.
They have an interesting animal there, the European Jackal. I mean, who has actual jackals these days?
They are also full of interesting algae and mosses, cyanobacteria, lichens, and fungi, which makes sense.
Their resources include oil shale and forestry (they've been cutting a HUGE amount lately, too much), and they export textiles, machinery, and hydroelectricity among other things.
"Estonia was the first former Soviet republic to legalize civil unions for same-sex couples, with a law approved in October 2014.[357] Political disagreements delayed adoption of the necessary implementing legislation, and same-sex couples were not able to sign cohabitation agreements until January 1, 2016."
It has a remarkable Medieval "old town" in Tallinn which is very intact and beautiful, and a major tourist destination.
I would LOVE to go see this town! https://youtu.be/hAAcSNR7Zng?si=qq0Vd95IzjoemK-x
It too, is a pretty nice country, with Democracy and a decent economy and Human Rights. It has a fairly low population of 1.4 million.
A good overview video: https://youtu.be/1TTPq38LyPU?si=hNyaCwa3fAG-oqll
Good sleep, and though it means no one is working on the house, it's nice to have peace and quiet.
I did go to town today. I picked up items from people selling on Marketplace, and those transactions went smoothly. Nice.
Then I went to pottery. I was by myself again, which isn't all bad.
I tried again with the raku clay (for our once a year raku firing that is generally in June) to make something. I did make a vase, and I put a lot of effort into a lidded box (made with slabs) that I hope turns out okay.
I don't know what it is about pottery, but after just a three hour session I am POOPED! Then I still have to get through the clean up, which generally takes at least half an hour.
I didn't have to get a lot for groceries this week, since my husband will be flying to see his family on Wednesday, and back Monday (?), so I don't have to buy much.
I got home, we put away groceries, and pretty much my husband needed to go to bed.
In "Encino Man", Link, the recently revived caveman is said to have been from Estonia to explain his lack of English and different customs.
Estonia is another Baltic country, also touching Russia. It has over 2300 islands (besides the mainland area) that are in the Baltic Sea.
They do speak Estonian there, which is a Finnic language (it is right across from Finland).
Like the other Baltic countries, Latvia was kind of a long-term pagan hold-out, not adapting to Christianity (Lutheran) till quite late in the game, though today it considers itself to be very "not religious".
They had a pretty long history of back and forth wars and takeovers from Sweden and Denmark and Finland and so on, since it was kind of tribal anyhow and not a unified country.
"The land of what is now modern Estonia has been inhabited by humans since at least 9,000 BCE. The medieval indigenous population of Estonia was one of the last pagan civilisations in Europe to adopt Christianity following the Papal-sanctioned Livonian Crusade in the 13th century.[13] After centuries of successive rule by the Teutonic Order, Denmark, Sweden, and the Russian Empire, a distinct Estonian national identity began to emerge in the mid-19th century. This culminated in the 24 February 1918 Estonian Declaration of Independence from the then-warring Russian and German empires. Democratic throughout most of the interwar period, Estonia declared neutrality at the outbreak of World War II, however the country was repeatedly contested, invaded, and occupied; first by the Soviet Union in 1940, then by Nazi Germany in 1941, and was ultimately reoccupied in 1944 by, and annexed into, the USSR as an administrative subunit (Estonian SSR). Throughout the 1944–1991 Soviet occupation,[14] Estonia's de jure state continuity was preserved by diplomatic representatives and the government-in-exile. Following the bloodless Estonian "Singing Revolution" of 1988–1990, the nation's de facto independence from the Soviet Union was restored on 20 August 1991."
Of course WWII was awful. They were taken over by Russia first, who demanded that of course everyone fight on their side. They basically just used that country as a military base, put a repressive regime in place, and used all of it's resources for the war machine, including the people.
THEN Germany took over, did their thing (kill Jewish people and anyone else they felt like killing), and then forced whoever was left to fight for THEM (though some ran away to Finland, so they could join the fight against Russia).
Estonia lost 25% of it's population in WWII, as well as losses in territory to Russia.
When you think of Estonia, think wetness. It has a lot of lakes, rivers, bogs, artificially created water reserves, and mires (as we discussed, these are SPECIFIC swamps that produce peat). This place is a big, low-lying, flat, sponge.
They have an interesting animal there, the European Jackal. I mean, who has actual jackals these days?
They are also full of interesting algae and mosses, cyanobacteria, lichens, and fungi, which makes sense.
Their resources include oil shale and forestry (they've been cutting a HUGE amount lately, too much), and they export textiles, machinery, and hydroelectricity among other things.
"Estonia was the first former Soviet republic to legalize civil unions for same-sex couples, with a law approved in October 2014.[357] Political disagreements delayed adoption of the necessary implementing legislation, and same-sex couples were not able to sign cohabitation agreements until January 1, 2016."
It has a remarkable Medieval "old town" in Tallinn which is very intact and beautiful, and a major tourist destination.
I would LOVE to go see this town! https://youtu.be/hAAcSNR7Zng?si=qq0Vd95IzjoemK-x
It too, is a pretty nice country, with Democracy and a decent economy and Human Rights. It has a fairly low population of 1.4 million.
A good overview video: https://youtu.be/1TTPq38LyPU?si=hNyaCwa3fAG-oqll
