Spring is (nearly) here

The snow is melting and the hills are beginning to look greener, but the nights are still pretty cold. Last week we spent an hour basking in the sun on our balcony before the sun went behind the mountains, but a couple of days later there was four inches of snow at the top of the Rugova Gorge - though by Monday this week there was not enough left for skiing, according to friends who hoped to do so. And it has rained a good deal. Rather like an English winter in fact.

The big event of course has been the declaration of Independence by Kosova on 17 February. The photographs included this time were taken by a friend, as we mistakenly took the official advice and stayed indoors. In fact, in Peje the celebrations were pretty muted compared with those in Prishtina. A stage was erected in a central square and there was music and a good deal of dancing but it was all over by the Sunday night, and the public holiday on the Monday saw the city almost deserted.

But of course everyone is very pleased, and there are signs and flags everywhere still, even if most of them are Albanian flags - the double headed eagle on a red ground. The new Kosova flag with a map and six stars on a blue ground does not seem to arouse much enthusiasm.

Otherwise little has changed. There have been no food shortages and the post, internet and telephones still work. It is thought that bread will get more expensive but this is more because of high world flour prices than a specific shortage in Kosova.

In fact since we have been here we have noticed that many prices have crept up. Bread doubled in price last summer but many other staple foods are also more expensive, though compared with the UK meat is not at all expensive even if there is not much variety.

The strongest sign of spring, in fact, is the large number of cars with foreign number plates which are appearing. In the summer the city is always full of big cars, but independence seems to have brought them early this year. And that's before any European peacekeepers arrive to take over from the UN forces.

Anyway, here are some pictures.