45,000 arrive at Parliament in Wellington, flying the red, black-and-white Māori sovereignty flag, and waving placards announcing tōitu...

“When you hear the secret words, arise, sword, and kill … collect the debt of a murderer and fulfil the wish of your creator,” Ilmarinen...

Clouds are gathering fast as we pitch our tent, at an RMK campsite beside the pühajärv , the holy lake. Unused to thunderstorms back...

As for Alice in wonderland, so for New Zealanders visiting Estonia, parallel worlds obeying different laws. What we call pests and weeds...

More than a year ago we arrived with our bikes at Lennart Meri airport, where family and a friend met us, and drove us into western...

“I grew up among junipers and stones,” an old poem says, “they are my brothers and sisters, those without names.” We cycled through alvar...

Hunting for Napp headstones in the Otepää cemetery , I took a note of last names. Besides the nature-based ones listed in an earlier blog...

Of old, trees and stones shared the same reality as animals – humans could treat with all, as living beings imbued with a soul. In other...

I could barely swing the pickaxe into the soil for two wild cherry saplings a friend gave me, to grace the summer cabin. Toomingas  are...

My favourite river in Estonia would be the treppoja , a clean waterway that cascades into the Baltic sea over a series of widely...

An Estonian walks along a field, the westering sun behind him, and he sees in front of him a lengthening shadow. He’s limping a bit, and...

Among the more entertaining figures in Estonian myth is a real person in peasant culture, the rehepapp  or the dryer and thresher of...

This was a question put to academics at a botanical field station in western Estonia, and they laughed. “Not at all” was one view, citing...

I am now admitted to a select group of sauna brothers in Golden Bay. Observing “Estonian rules” in evening twilight – no clothes, towels...

Ski jumping would be one of the more death-defying winter sports ever conceived.  Andero Kapp takes it in his stride. Fixing 2.56-metre...

Like the Mona Lisa and the Taj Mahal, the fishermen’s sheds at Altja are smaller than expected, still impressive. Five of solid timber...

A wooden comb dated to 150 CE at a Danish site has the oldest known runic inscription, harja,  said to be a man’s name. Well, it might...

To understand Estonia’s history in the lead up to the first independence, I took an interest in Russia’s Tsars. Knowing these characters...

Oak, birch, pine, hawk and lynx, spring, beach, sea, cliff, hill, sand and island - typical Estonian surnames today. For peasants,...

Knit patterns for a long time preserved Estonian tradition, during the long centuries of foreign rule. On leaving Otepää, our family gave...