Outdoor showers

This has been my office in the heat of the day
just lately. Finally the trees in the orchard
are big enough to sit in their shade.

I should really be editing a paper, but I cannot focus at the level required for an academic paper. I'm half asleep and another early night is needed. It isn't just the two hour and 20 minute zoom call, interesting though that was, or the fact I had a pause in the middle to help Ian stack hay as it was about to rain, but also due to the fact I was up early this morning. 

I found out the name of a flower that I had seen frequently recently and it was called lesser 
stitchwort. I looked on my computer at a guide for
Latvian plants in the different habitats and found out
there was also a greater stitchwort. I thought I had found
it this week, but no, it was wood stitchwort instead. 
Well now I know.

Ian found this bug. I think it had only 
just hatched out. I guessed it was a 
longhorned beetle, because of it's long
antennae but never seen anything
like it before. I got excited that it was
perhaps a migrant a spotted longhorn
beetle as that was the closest on 
iNaturalist. Someone corrected me and
said it was a ladder longhorn beetle.
Close but not close enough. These are
more widespread than the spotted
ones though

Let me back track a bit. Yesterday was one of those days. The day started off in the sultry heat of summer. The sort you get before a thunderstorm. We knew there was a possibility of rain on the way, but it was not certain. Ian was baling in the tractor - a hot and humid job since the aircon is not working and he can't open the door for ventilation - that would be a big pane of glass to replace if it breaks. The other problem is that flies would get in through an open door and make his work impossible anyway. So while he was sweltering in the tractor, I was sweltering outside as I ensured the twine on the bales were properly secured and then started the process of rolling them to the old alpaca house that is now used as a hay store. I rolled some down the hill, which is kind of fun, but not so much in the humid heat of the day. I had to get them inside and that was my focus, even when Ian was showing visitors around. 

A video of the stork dance that happens every 

time that Ian cuts hay.

Apparently these are green tortoise
beetles because of the shape of the
shell casings. 

There was one point I realised I had to get water and cool down, I was overheating badly. Fortunately we have water stored in our root cellar, so that was cool and I dropped my shirt into a rainwater trough at the back of the barn - also a cool spot. That got my temperature down and I could carry on. I managed to get all the bales stacked that could be easily rolled. Another group of bales were covered with a tarpaulin, five bales were hastily thrown into the horse box because they were nearby and another group stacked near one of the barns ready for Ian to put in. All the time I was watching the dark clouds gathering and then after the briefest of showers - if you could even call it that - it passed over. I felt I could relax. Ian finished the baling and we even allowed ourselves a cup of coffee and a sit down. Then back to work. 

After 11pm at night

A robber fly at the bottom.

Whilst Ian stacked bales into one of our other store houses, I went and sorted the bales he had just done by gathering them together. Before you think I'm superhuman, these bales weigh about 25kg not 800kg like you see in many fields today, so not too horrendous to move around by rolling but it does mean they do not do well in the rain, so something we try to avoid. I got two lots of bales grouped together and once again I watched as the rain clouds gathered. I got the third group gathered and then it started to rain, I decided to stack them so at least some were off the floor. It rained harder. I saw some of our neighbours walking down, I wondered if they were visiting, but no, I realised as I walked past they were waiting for the bus. It started to rain even harder. By the time I got up to our greenhouse, I was absolutely saturated. I shut the doors on the new greenhouse, because I couldn't get any wetter. Rain was pouring off my cowboy style hat in sheets. Ian was a little more sheltered but just managed to get the bales in, but by the time he'd sorted out the doors on the animal houses so they weren't wide open, he too was drenched.

Just a member of the mustard family
but such sweet little flowers

Alkanet a dye plant

All we could do was strip off in the caravan and leave the heap of sodden clothes on the floor while we dried off. I was sat in a towel when there was a knock on the door. The bus hadn't come, could we take our neighbour into Riga. Oh! Errr! Yes sure! I decided to go with Ian, and hastily got ready. At least we could find something to eat on the way back, as I was too tired to cook something and it would be late when Ian returned anyway. We got as far as our village when our neighbour decided he was too wet to carry on - apparently he was beginning to feel chilly in our car. We dropped him off in the village as requested and headed for the bakery for some cold summer soup and a cake and then do some shopping. On the way back, our neighbour caught up with us and asked if we could take him home and then take him for the bus in the morning. Hence the early morning this morning. The joys of public transport in remote areas.

I thought this was an early marsh orchid,
again close but not close enough. It's a
Baltic marsh orchid. Fortunately Ian 
just about managed to avoid running it
over.

Our first box of strawberries. I hope
the rain hasn't ruined many of them.

At least that was the most exciting point of the week. I can't do with too much excitement like that. Although is losing my phone in the alpaca house one of those moments? I realised I had dropped my phone somewhere between our greenhouse and the alpaca house, but that is still a large area to lose a phone. Ian phoned, it wasn't in the caravan, he phoned again, it wasn't in the greenhouse, so we tried again and sure enough it was buried in the hay in the alpaca house. Whoops! Goodness only knows what the alpacas thought of my phone going off. 

A green cucumber spider

Hay cut and cleared from this area. Except one 
area because we are enjoying seeing all the 
flowers in that patch, plus the grass is never
really high in this particular place.

We have finished round one of the hay cutting season, there are still two other areas about the same size to cut, although these are a little less fiddly to do. It was dry most of the day today and so the bales at least had a chance to dry off so Ian could stack them, only he had more visitors to show around and so needed some help this afternoon to finish off. Our stores are nearly full already so we can be a little more relaxed about it. I should also be finished with the majority of my work soon too, so I can concentrate on getting the garden into shape, as well as helping more with the haymaking or at least stacking hay bales.

This area gets left for the flowers too

Poor Mr. P. gets all the difficult cases. Vanessa
is not what we would call a compliant alpaca
and she shows her displease at our choice of mate
for her by putting up quite a fight. Normally that
would mean she is pregnant, but not in her case.

We sheared the last of the alpacas at a mini-zoo this week and a small llama. Normally llamas fleece grows more slowly and they only need shearing every two years. This one year old llama already had quite a long fleece and she was still tiny for a llama. The fleece was also pretty good too. Hopefully next year we won't have the problems of lockdown - well maybe. It would be much more awkward next year as we have continued on with the mating season and one or two of the alpacas are showing promising signs of being pregnant. That will mean shearing will need to be finished by mid-May.

An oak spider. I thought at first that
was because there are lots of oaks on 
our land and then I realised it has an
oak leaf pattern on its back.