Alpine Spring

A high-altitude wildflower meadow above the Svaneti valley in Georgia, with the Greater Caucasus peaks visible through a gap in the hills. Daisies, gentians, lupins, and buttercups cover the foreground slope in a density that felt almost implausible in person — the kind of abundance that only exists for a narrow window each July before the altitude and the weather close it down again. A road threads through the valley floor far below, tracing the same route traders and invaders have used through this corridor for centuries.