What are the happenings around the pasturelands and the Ecolodge this spring?

The electricity has been off locally for 10 days; it was cut by the government because of power-stealing by nomads.  Whenever the power is cut, we get a lot of visitors, mostly young men, charging their phones.  It is a pleasure to see them — Garam Nora, a teenager who races horses for a living — you can win a car if you are lucky; Tashi Repten, who is back from an apprenticeship in thangka painting in Lhasa and who cleans his traveling suitcase like it is the only one in the world; Tashi Nora, thin and lithe, and reminiscent of a fashion model in both shape and mood, but really living the life of a deadbeat, gambling away yaks and cars at an astonishing pace.

And then there are non-electric related visitors, people who have lost their horse, or who stop for a moment while driving a herd of yaks down valley.  The spring flowers, yellow and pink, are out, and we have installed screen doors in preparation for the flies of summer in an area with a many animals.

Soko is going to come come down from the high plateau in a few days; she will spend about 2 weeks in her winter home before migrating again to high spring pasture.  Our yaks have done well this winter, with only 2 deaths, one a very old yak whose time it was, and one younger one from illness.

The birds are backs, the Kessler’s Thrush and the Ruddy Shelducks and the Mandarin Ducks.