Spring in Mongolia
I took my first wander of the new year this afternoon. I was pretty enthusiastic this summer and fall with hiking in the hills just outside town, but when the weather turned wintry and vengeful, I stopped.
It did feel a little like rebirth this afternoon, walking in just a light jacket without a hat or gloves, and soaking up the strong Gobi sun. My sense of temperature is all discombobulated because anything above zero feels warm to me now, but honestly I’d have to say it was somewhere in the low forties today. Drifted snow was melting fast and the ground was soggy underfoot. Birds seem to be back as well, and not just the pigeons that stubbornly stick it out through the winter, but also small songbirds that are usually too skittish for me to photograph effectively.
I’ve got some pictures from the walk today. Have a look at spring in Mongolia…
p.s. Tell me what you think, but I think that circle of stones might just be a burial site. I read about them and saw lots of pictures at the Mongolian Cultural History Museum in UB when I was there in December. I might still be a budding archaeologist!
I read somewhere once that the little kids in Mongolia like to play “house” by making stone gers outside. According to whatever I read (as if I could possibly remember where or when), some of these ger circles are hundreds of years old & passersby will add stones to the circles, sort of like an ovoo, but not quite.