This is a really cheap excuse, this couputer that I am writing on is Latvian, every word written in English has a red line under it as a mistake. If you like to correct the mistakes for me that will be fine, or make up the word you think I am saying. Thx



June 28, 2012
   We left the apartment at 12:45AM----the morning of June 28 to walk to the Neva River to watch the bridges open. We are living on this island in the middle of the city. There are 101 islands that are part of the city, plus the actual land. At 1:00 all of the big bridges that connect the island to the main city open one by one in a ritualistic pattern, one after another until all 7 are open. At that time there is no road transportation across the river. The metro closes at midnight. The island is closed until after 2:00AM every day.This is so the big ships ,barges,boats can come into the ports and rivers that connect the Baltic Sea to Moscow from the Volga River. It was a beautiful chilly morning. We walked back home to snuggle in our beds.
   Lera was up early making porridge ( oat meal).With wonderful homemade jam,bread,tea.
   We left the apartment which is on the 6th, top floor of the building, down the very old elevator , out to the busy city. We walked to the metro. Those of you that have been to the Atlanta airport, and have taken the escelator, the looooooooooong one, this is 3 times the length as it goes down under the water, then waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back up. We walked all day visiting churches, historical sights,businesses, flower shops,stopping for coffee and tea with delightful snacks in delightful places. One chocolate shop had two chocolate fountains as tall as me, maybe taller. They would not let me close enough to check or taste.I wish everyone could see St. Petersburg and Russia through my eyes and experiences.
   Jani had to leave for Riga, he took the metro to the station, leaving Lera and I alone, with our different langauges. She understands many words, I now know 10 Russian words, one of the them rubbish which does not come up in conversation a lot. It is about the same word in both .Jani set one of her computers to write in English, automatically transulating to Russian as I wrote. The other Lera wrote in Russian transulating into English as she wrote. It is Google transulator, great tool. It will even say it out loud if you ask it to. We had a fun time communicating , sharing our lives
, families and flowers.

June  28 &;29, 2012

  .
 Land Art Competition
 .There were 13 teams from many countries and cities in Russia and  Europe. There are 4 members of each team. The teams arrived to the event site on Wednesday morning, checked in , meet for instructions, rules and schedule. They then went into the forest and asres on site to find the place they choose to create their instalation. The only things they may bring from home are tools, fish line,nothing made from home. When the site was chosen, the team returned to report and register their site. They then began creating, until dinner time where they meet, talked, sang and enjoyed meeting each other.
   After breakfast on the 28th, the teams created all day, stopping for lunch and dinner. They worked until evening, ate more had entertainment, partied , sang more and to bed at 5:00AM on the 29th!!!!
    Lera and I were up early on our way by car to the country where the Land Art Festival was being held. It was a nice hour and a half drive to The Baltic Sea, then up further North. The competition is held at a private park/campground facility. There are hotel rooms for the contestants and guests, plus a cafe/resturaunt , beach,camping grounds and hookups. It really could be in Northern Minnesota, The Black Hills,any forest area.There we meet Aija and the other judges for the competition. Two  judges are part of the company presenting the event, a judge from Italy, Aija and myself. 

    We , the judges, photographers and event officials began our hike through the forest, up,down,in,out,up and down again for two hours. Each Land Art was marked on a map and numbered. We went as a unit, marked and talked about each one. They were eveluated on idea, mechanics, how it integrated into the chosen landscape,difaculity,effect on viewer and enviornment.It was wonderful. The misquetos were out in force. They are as bad here as they are at home!!!!
   We tabulated and discussed the installations, first through fourth place were decided.
   After our hike, we had lunch, then went back out to visit each site with the designers and guests. Each site was visited again with verbal evaluations from the judges.
   Every one went to their rooms, collected their belongings, checked out meet for final meeting , awards and final dinner.
   Lera, Aija, Ivan, the judge from Italy and myself drove back to St.Petersburg, to change clothes, walk about an hour to the canal in the city where a sightseeing charter/dinner boat took us on a thre hour meal and cruise on the Neva, in and around the city. We walked back home,had coffee and walked back to see the bridges open one more time, arriving home around 2:00.