Intresting rare videos of Marju Kuut on YouTube

Today I found some very rare videos of Marju Kuut from 60's to 80's.. Since our leaving the country, the Soviet system erased most of her videos and tapes. This is lucky that someone has copied them and shares them on YouTube. Today it feels truly Retro!

Wonderful Holiday in Saaremaa

Saaremaa 2008/2009 New Year

I want to share with you some really nice pics taken on the last weeks of 2008 and first weeks of 2009 in Saaremaa at our little vineyard.

We arrived at something that looked more like the Great Britain, +7, late fall. Then as the days went by, temperature fell to -1 and by the last week of 2008 we had a wonderful -18c and 20cm of snow. I managed to prune all the vines before the snow came, so all the vines got nicely covered during the really cold days.

This was the most wonderful short holiday of the past year.

The virtues with MacBook power supply

I am a proud owner of a black MacBook. I was amazed by the magnet on top of the power connector, which was intended to make the connection much sturdier. Yes, it was.

What didn't stand the time was the cable itself. Somehow it did not stand the dayly usage stress and actually burned today. I had to look up my soldering iron and to use some violence towards the plug. Yes, it works now, but besides being in matching black color, it is all but stylish.. And the plug will not come out of the Mac unless it brakes again, so I have to use my MacBook as a table top computer now;) The perspective of buying a 130 usd usp is beyond my comprehension. Good design, Apple!

But, they sell new bootlegs on Ebay..

Rosendals Trädgård

Rosendals Trädgård

I would like to recomend a wonderful place ifyou ever visit Stockholm. It lies on the island of Skansen (10 minute walk from the center of Stockholm) and comprises of several magic gardens, including a 5 years old vineyard.

I took those pictures for two weeks ago and the place is as beautiful in winter as in summer.

Winter has arrived to Tallinn

This weekend we had the opportunity to witness one of the heaviest snowstorms in years. The downfall was up to 44cm per one night and another 15cm the other night.

We had winds of 18-30m/s, yet the air was quite warm, around 0 c.

About 30 000 households stayed without power, most roads were stuffed with snow, airplanes were stranded, harbors closed, schools closed.

Yet our tough municipalities and government meant that no harm was done and no reason to call for national assistance was at hand. Their reasoning was: for an emergency there has to be severe disturbances of traffic, power and communications.



This is how it looked in Central Tallinn after the storm.





I have no comment;)

The varieties that can be found at our test-site

I have thought of making a list of varieties of grapevines that grow at our small farm. This could help sharing the information and experiences with other growers. Most of the list is currently planted on 0.8 ha.

On the picture to the left: we had a wonderful meeting this early summer with a snake couple making love in the Rondo pot;) under our window..

The list:

Black Hamburg, Cabernet Cortis, Cabernet Frank, Madeleine Angevine, Madelene Royal, Guna, Zilga, Jubilei Novgoroda, Mitchurinets, Zarja Severa, Jokke, Swensson Red, Somerset Seedless, ES-7-9-48, Krassavets, Aljoshenka, Dushambe, NY Muscat, Canadice, Valiant, Shirvinta, Russven, Toldi, Severnoi Rannii, Kuzminskii Sinii, Skandia, Hasanskii Sladkii (Baltika), Rondo, Vamushka, Loza Mira, Alfa - probably forgot some..

Information Horizon

There are a few thoughts that do want to escape my head once in a while. I have been following the progress of information physics and some quantum physics. There are a couple of things I'd like to ask Einstein, if he could answer me;)

There is to be a horizon of information around the perimeter of a black hole, no matter how physically small it is. Information is to be indestructible. If that is so, does that apply for the information that lives on living beings aswell? The Mems that reside on all living beings? What happens to the information that one person carries with itself during ones life once the living person dissapears? Where is the horizon? (please don't start with spirits and angels=or ufos)

We all know that the stars we see in the heaven is a reflection from millions of years from the past. In theory, we could travel away from the Earth and look back into the past if we had proper optics. Taking into account the possible quantum states of any photons, one could possibly read the time backwards without leaving the Earth. But! Since seeing alters the state of the matter, i.e. we have an unlimited amount of possible existences in parallel.. , then is there any way of seeing the past that we think should be the proper one? Because there seems to be an unlimited amount of pasts, presents and futures.

And last, but not least. The conciousness. For the information physics: the way we do percieve the surrounding time and space. Is there only one way to percieve the universe or are there similar countless experiences in countless universes? Or do we choose the universe every second of our life by our choices? Yes, you can talk about Karma now.

Good thinking;)

The future of Digital Music on the Internet

Sometimes I do get a flash or two about a thing or two. In my life as a musician I am following the demise of the record industry and I see the digital services not really filling that void.

Then it hit me. Well, in order to really capture the masses, future licensing of all music should be included in the monthly internet or mobile bill. The user should not have to bother to buy and pay for the exact songs or files, instead a world-wide catalogue should be avaliable for a monthly fee.

The files should be stored on the net, a bit like the photo-hosting services today. Instead of file duplicates, different databases of your chosen music lists should be held there and recalled for play-back. In order to access that catalogue and your own favourites, you have to pay for it to your operator.

Actually, come to think of that - that is the way we act today when we access You Tube.. or MySpace... The only difference is that the content owners do not get paid. What if the music there would be legal and the authors would get paid in the same way as with services as Rhapsody or I-Tunes?

I thought as usual, that there is no output to my idea, since I am not working within any organisation or company in this field. But then again: I have a BLOG. So let this post be like a bottle that you throw in the sea.. Who finds it, could use it;)

The little vines are waking up

I planted those little guys last July. They took root and grew nicely until one morning in Octobner they got a bit of a cold.. - 4 c I didn't give up, but took them up to the attic and after a nice winter sleep they woke up in January. Right now they are quite happy in the early spring sunshine..

Late Fall in Saaremaa

Now frosts have re-decorated the plants and the landscape. We could enjoy the frost-bitten view last time in Saaremaa.

This is the view from our farm towards the neighbours.

This is a little vine that I planted in July. It has taken root and will grow in the pot for the winter. We'll plant it on the field next summer.

I have a hard time moving around the garden, since it is all dug up for the piping.

Baltica - Hasanski Sladkii - Varajane Sinine..

Royal Dane: my favourite rose.

Roses are all over our vineyard.

Here we have managed to plant about 550 plants.

The old wine-cellar (renovation in progress)

This lovely friend got hit by a car. In Memoriam.

Mesmerising views projected by the setting sun..

The entrance to our vineyard.

My fathers album

I recently got hold of the family album of my fathers family.

On the right there is my grandma Maria with her sisters.

I had seen the album just once before, but now my uncle shared it with me and I could scan in all those old and wonderful memories.

Almost a hundred years separates me from those people...




Yet another memory from this book: my great-grandfather Jefim with one of my great aunts. Come to think of that: he has the same smile as my late dad. The girl (great aunt) must have liked her grand-dad. It shows from the picture.

My dad died on my 40th birthday. I was on the ferry to Saaremaa with my wife and son when I got the message. There must be something with the numbers. Nothing happens by chance.

Longing for my vines

Dec. 1st. Sitting in Tallinn, being in a middle of a very difficult year-end I keep longing for the vineyard we managed to plant with my wife last summer.

The little island: Saaremaa (Ösel) near the western coast of Estonia has a wonderful mild marine climate, bit chalcky grounds and a wonderful energy.




During my travels around the world, I have allways dreamed of having a silent hide-away in Saaremaa. Having studied my roots a little, I found that they have lived in Saaremaa since the medieval times.

Two years ago we did find one particularily charming little farm for sale. It had been left alone for many years and waiting for someone to bring some life back to it.

We couldn't resist and bought it right away. After settling in, we experienced a short clash with the last occupant that had lived and died in the house. It was a little bit of a poltergeist story, but it all ended well with the spirit moving on to higher grounds.

We have had two summers of work and joy, pendling between Tallinn and Saaremaa.