Been and gone

Someone has enjoyed rolling in the snow. Chanel is still
struggling with some skin issues though and it has flared up
again this week.

Winter has been back to visit again, but it can't quite make up its mind whether the season has finished for the year or not. The swans, the cranes and the geese seem to think that winter should have gone,, as they have been arriving back, but winter keeps checking back in. So some days it is white and sometimes it is that after winter brown, complete with mud. So in the spirit of the coming spring season we've been checking the websites for a new greenhouse.

I'm turning into my grandads, yes both of them! One used to
have an allotment and the other used to grow succulents and
cacti. These cups were too cute not to use and I thought they
made great places to grow something small, like these cacti.
I finally got them potted up this week

The view from the oak tree hill

Our large greenhouse needs some serious repairs, so we are looking to get a smaller one that we can work with this summer. I still have a backlog of tomatoes in jars and such like to see us through into next year, so shouldn't be too bad. It also means we can re-think the greenhouse space as a workshop cum events space. We will still have growing spaces, for that greenhouse ambiance, but the main part will be for ......... well whatever we decide to do.

I love the colours of spring starting to show through its
wintry dusting

The new smaller greenhouse will be put in the space where
the chickens were last year and extend past it. It will be
3x8m, so still a good size but not as big as the one we use now
which is 6x18m

The range of options for greenhouses though is mind-boggling. We decided on going for the maximum we can have without planning permission, which coincidentally fits well in a space we have. It means losing a couple of outside growing beds but they were only short beds anyway. It will also be well manured as it is where the chickens were last year. In addition to extra growing space while the greenhouse undergoes repairs we would need somewhere to store the feed for the alpacas but we have enough wood to build something, so that is a good start. That is as far as we got this week, as I'm still ploughing through the websites looking for the best option for us.

To keep the alpaca houses dry, Ian has put in a drain that he
empties. Unfortunately the water used to run into it, so Ian
made this elegant covering for it, l I jest, but it's functional at
least. The only problem is that now the water comes up from
underneath to fill the hole. The water table is so high.

Vanessa always looks toothy

On Thursday it will be the 12 anniversary of our arrival in Latvia. We won't be able to celebrate at the hotel where we first stayed for a week while our stuff was in transit from America, as it has suddenly closed. It has been struggling for a while and this lack of winter hasn't helped. Our area used to be a popular skiing destination, but it isn't possible to ski without snow and definitely not in this horrible wet stuff we have been getting this week. We had one week where it looked promising with a reasonable depth of the right kind of snow, but that was very early in the season and nothing much since then. As I mentioned before the lack of snow also meant the Schools Winter Olympics was cancelled and so that was another nail in the coffin for the hotel. Our problem of nowhere to celebrate is a minor inconvenience compared to the loss of another 32 jobs, in an area that has struggled with providing decent jobs anyway.

Meanwhile Silly Silla is sat outside in the rain and the snow.
Just why?

Oh is it snowing again?

The loss of the hotel has knock on effects for our village as it also means there are less and less opportunities for people to stay and something we have to consider for our felting course. Of course I now need to get on with the advertising for that, so people have a chance to book accommodation. It was something I was working on, but now it is a more urgent task. I don't think it will be possible to organise cabins before then, as that requires more cash than we have at the moment. Still it might figure in our reckoning on what we need in the future. We certainly cannot rely on there being a hotel for guests now.

When I saw the snow covered ice on the pond, it reminded me
of the painting, The Scream!

When Ian looks at it, he sees Australia.

Vanessa and Antonia are sensibly inside

Ian had some help at the weekend. One of our young neighbours wanted something to do, so Ian agreed to let him help on our land as long as he was up by 7:30am, as that is when Ian sets off. I was impressed, as he was up and ready. He helped Ian by shifting logs and branches so they are ready to pick up when the weather improves enough to drive a tractor on the land (which looks like it might be a while yet). He won't be helping with the animals though, at least not yet. He wasn't sure about the alpacas at all, in fact he was so unsure he was a few metres away from the fence, not even up close to the fence. It looks like he might need a bit of time to gain confidence around them. Oh well! At least he got done what needed to be done.

The sun is rising further round and the days lengthen. It will
soon be time to move out to the caravan again.

Mr. P. was the first to alarm us.

It isn't just the weather that has been on and off this week, my plans too have been on and off too. There is a seminar that I wanted to attend up in Tartu tomorrow morning, but it is only 90 minutes long and takes me a day to travel up and I could just would have just about been able get back after the seminar by bus and train. I was humming and hahhing over it, when two of our alpacas were sick on consecutive days. First Mr. P was ill. Ian rang me to ask if I was doing anything and if not would I come out and take a look at Mr. P. Typically of course, by the time I had got out there, he was improved, but still a concern.

Josefs is such a cutie, even if he does carry around a light
snack to keep him going

Herkules at his usual spot by the feeder. It is hard to believe
that he has lost so much weight over winter and yet he eats
well and normally is quite healthy looking these days, at
least for a nearly 16 year old alpaca.

On Saturday, Ian walked through the door and asked if tea was ready. Well it was, so we sat down to eat, but he explained that Herk was now sick and wouldn't get up to eat that evening. So as soon as we ate, we trekked back out to the land. This time there was no improvement. Herk was still sat on the floor and wouldn't get up when we tried to move him. Brencis then decided that something was wrong and maybe we needed protecting- oh that alpaca! I'm sure his heart is in the right place, but being so big he creates us real problems. Brencis tried to sit on Herk, which as you can imagine is not what we really wanted. We managed to get Brencis off and shunted him through to the other side of the alpaca house and shut the gate.

Josefs is very submissive to Brencis, but Brencis is not so
keen on the adulation

Turbjørn kept Herkules company in the night when he was
sick. Not that Turbjørn had any choice in the matter, but
at least we could trust him not to sit on Herkules

Now as you are probably aware, animals and children are never ill at convenient times, and that day was such a case. We tried to get hold of our vet, but she wasn't responding. We tried other options, but didn't get anywhere. Our vet eventually text us back, but she was in a theatre in Riga, so wasn't much help. Our neighbour also eventually got our messages and phoned back, they had been watching tv at the back of the house and so didn't hear me knocking. I went to pick our neighbour up and her son, she used to be a vet and works with cows and her son could translate. By the time we arrived, Herk was at least up and about and Ian had managed to swap Brencis and Herk around so that Herk was in a safer place, but still with Turbjørn for company.

Ilvija has been rolling in the snow like her mum

Mari looking happy with herself

After examining Herk, our neighbour decided he seemed cold compared to the others and his stomach seemed to be slow. He also seemed a bit gassy, so maybe that was part of the pain. We wondered if he and Mr. P. had found something in the hay that had given them some mild poisoning. It seemed to fit with the symptoms we could find in the alpaca book. She gave us some peppermint, wormwood and valerian drops, that is good for the stomach. Valerian is also a calming herb. Herk wasn't so sure about the drops on his food at first, but he ate it. We had to give him some more later and he seemed a bit more keen. The next morning he was very keen on the food. Phew! Emergency over. It is a good job we ate when Ian came back home as it was after 10pm before we got to our apartment that night.

Our winter wonderland.

The signs of spring are still there though

The following day I went out with Ian and we had a slow day pottering about and discussing greenhouses, as I mentioned earlier. We even opened the greenhouse door to enjoy the view outside, as the sun was out. It was still too cold to sit outside with a hot cup of coffee as there was a chill wind blowing, but Ian has managed a few times just lately - he's made of sterner stuff these days. It used to be him that felt the cold, now it is me.

A walk in the forest. Our forest will look
a bit different this next year as one of
our neighbours will be doing some more
cutting. Sigh!

A moody sky

Someone's sunbathing in the snow.

Happy Anniversary

A bit hard to see here, but the bunch
was really quite pretty. The
candlestick still needs polishing though

It has been an anniversary type week this week. The first anniversary was the anniversary of the day we met which was on October 4th, 32 years ago, first day of the first term of our first year at Sheffield University. I was studying Pharmacology and Chemistry and Ian was studying Physiology, little did we know we would be working in such different fields, literally, 32 years later. In other words what we didn't know was that I would be studying for a PhD in participatory development in a landscape architect department and Ian raising alpacas on a 13ha farm in Latvia. Ian surprised me on this particular anniversary, first he remembered (have to confess to forgetting myself sometimes, so I can't make it sound like he is always the one forgetting)! Second he brought me a bunch of flowers that he had picked off the land and lovingly tied with baler twine into a rather nicely arranged bunch actually (we counted up how many times he's got me flowers and I do have to use both hands to count them). Third he made me another candlestick. He was trying to make a bowl, but it wasn't working for him and he needs some more practice on the pole lathe, but still not a bad candlestick anyway.

So here is a picture of the big day. We didn't have formal
pictures, just ones taken by friends and so there is none
of us by ourselves without a background of folks, which
sums up the day really. It made me realise though that I
had better scan these pictures in and save them somewhere
as they are deteriorating quite fast now. 

The second anniversary is today, October 6th just 30 years ago we were married. If you think Ian looks thin now, you can see he was a whole lot thinner when I married him. Actually so was I! Funny that, who would have thought. To say it has all been plain sailing would be to tell a lie and of course there have been ups and downs, but I'm pleased to say that the journey has been good and he's not bad to have around you know! He's also put up with my hormones along the way, which could make treading around me rather a delicate operation and I have put up with his angry moods as he struggled with being on-call and the general working conditions as a technician in the hospital, where he used to work, when he had a regular job. We've weathered the times when money was in short supply and enjoyed the few years when it was abundant. We've enjoyed living on the edge in many different ways and wouldn't know how to fit into "normal" society if you told us. I think all in all, we work pretty well as a team and that's the way it should be after 30 years don't you think? To celebrate we went out to the hotel for a meal and rounded it off with the hot French chocolate cake, as you do. Saved me doing any cooking anyway.

The end of the season look. All the tomato plants bar the ones
destined to feeding the chickens are pulled up now and the
grape vine hacked back to the wire. Just the peppers, drying
seeds and autumn crops in there now. We have things like
 mizuna, rocket and radishes for a late salad or adding to a stir fry.

A picture that captures our present right now, with buckets
and crates everywhere. The top green crate is full of apples
that are bruised and need dealing with soon, the bottom
is full of small squash that will need freezing, the bucket is
full of the last of our tomatoes. Only one for a change,
usually we have far more of the green ones left. 

Well back to the present now. The time since I got back from Portugal has been rather nice, with bright sunny days and crisp mornings with many a frost. Came as a bit of a shock one morning when I headed into Riga so I could meet up with a couple of people, go to the dentists and then head up to Tartu. That meant  first of all a 6:40am bus, which usually means Ian takes me up in the car to the bus station, only this time he discovered he had to defrost the car first and I was just on time to catch the bus, as opposed to having a few minutes to wait. It makes us realise the descent into winter has really begun in earnest and emphasised by the sight of geese heading south. The Swans will be next and then it is the anxious wait for the first snows. The winds have definitely been chilled and so out have come the leggings and roll neck jumpers. Ian even had his thermals on and the heater in the caravan.

An additional shelter for bags of alpaca poo - a valuable
commodity

The girls were moved nearer to the boys. Here Estelle
is taking an interest in what the boys are doing, let's
hope that is not an interest leading to leaping fences. If
she is pregnant then that will be the last thing on her mind,
but if not......

The trip into Riga was good. I got to meet an old young friend, or is it a young old friend? Anyway, she is still a wee slip of a lass really, but we have known each other for a while now. I always enjoy meeting up with my crazy friend, although this week we were much more civilised, as we had coffee in a cafe instead of stood outside in the seriously minus temperatures in the middle of winter, like the last time. After meeting her, I met up with another young lass, who I was hoping would be able to help me with some work towards my research. We had a good time chatting, but I have a feeling that is not going to get anywhere. We'll see! At least I did get to hear of someone else interested in doing some research towards their Masters this last week, where she will be use the type of research that I am directing - for want of a better phrase, so all is not lost. I wish the next appointment was as pleasant as the first two, but a trip to the dentist is not my most favourite of activities. The appointment to be fair went fine and the rogue filling was sorted, but not the tooth that cracked a while ago, for this I would have to go back three times and will cost around €300 as it involves root canal treatment and then a filling. Errr! No thanks! It doesn't hurt and €78 for the filling was bad enough, as that is nearly four times the amount I pay in the sticks. I realise that is not necessarily the best treatment, so somewhere in the middle would be much better to my mind.

The boys have a spot with the currant and berry bushes in it.
We are still trying to work out if this will do them good or
a bad move. Still I won't have to do any pruning and the
boys seem to be enjoying walking through the bushes for
a good scratch. Don't worry, we have other bushes.

Weeds all trampled and dead wood definitely knocked over
amongst the raspberry bushes. 

Something seems to be attacking the hornets nest,
obviously taking advantage of the drowsy state of the
insects.

Some of the markers of the changing seasons are escaping and argumentative animals. The grass always runs out sooner and is not as tasty and at this time of the year the grass is definitely more appealing on the other side of the fence. Fortunately we don't feel the need to freak out when they escape as they don't go far and are easy to entice back. Although Ian was a little concerned when he showed some folks around recently, some of our neighbours who hadn't visited before, as the sheep had disappeared, fortunately they had only gone around the corner of the grove that is growing near where they were supposed to be. Ian thinks the neighbours who came for a visit came from the block of flats that are nearby or it could be the farm. In the Soviet times when they collectivised the farms they built blocks of flats for the workers and hence you get these dwellings that don't seem to fit in a rural location, but should be in towns. The older lady seemed to be able to follow what Ian was trying to explain, although his Latvian is very, very limited, so maybe she was actually from the farm and not the flats. One day we may be able to converse better with our neighbours and then we will know for sure. It is taking some adjusting to when people feel they can just appear on the land, they don't have quite the same sense of private property that we do in the UK and in some ways that's okay, just different. Well as long as they respect fences and such. Although thinking about it, farmers in the UK have to account for rights of way that run across their land and so they do have to expect people traipsing through from time to time, so maybe it's not that much different.

I love the symmetry of sunflower seeds. These are drying
for seed for next year. The rest are drying for seed for
the chickens over winter.

As I mentioned, I made a trip up to Tartu again this week. It was an opportunity to see both my supervisors and thrash out some details for the year ahead. For them both to be in the same place and free to see me is a little like waiting for the stars to align and so I took the opportunity while I could even though it was at short notice. I also got the chance to meet the young man who will be doing some of the research for me in Estonia. I was quite pleased to hear my supervisor telling the young man that I brought certain skills into the department from my development background and teaching experience. It does make me laugh to hear someone say I have teaching experience, which I do, but not in the conventional classroom setting, as it involves teaching in churches, sunday schools, workshops and my own children. Still all valuable experience though for what I'm doing now, reaching out to ordinary men and women in rural areas. On the way back I stayed overnight with a friend and his family in Sigulda, I took the opportunity to discuss the house plans to see if we can take it forward a bit more, we seem to have come to a bit of a halt with that at the moment.

Oh yes! More apples. Should keep the
animals busy for a little while

My studies to date have sure made me question the role of aid and I have covered topics where people have debated if aid is any good at all. An article in the Financial Times by Ernesto Sirolli is on the one hand very provocative in stating that aid is not working and on the other hand is honest enough to state that as an aid worker he made a mess of things. In the article there is a quote by a Zambian born economist Dambisa Moyo who goes so far as to say aid is malignant. Sirolli argues that aid is best when it is in response to the people themselves and meeting the needs that they see in developing entrepreneurial ventures. I definitely see that providing the kinds of resources that people feel they need is a whole lot better than benevolently providing what we have either cast off or feel they need. I do see one flaw and that is where the entrepreneurial spirit has been squashed out of people, that is where I see a place for the kinds of aid that breeds hope and develops people's ability to work together and that takes time. Still that is better than blithely handing out goods to make us feel better.

Anniversary

The unremarkable Latvian/Estonian border
taken from the Latvian side and looking
towards Estonia

It was six years ago this last week that we arrived in Latvia. At lot has happened in that time and a lot has changed in what we do. We never thought we would be doing what we are doing now, even six years ago. We arrived with very few plans, in fact our only plan was to get the apartment sorted out for living in and see if we could grow some vegetables in the gardens outside. Well we did most of that in the first year. Six years on and I am sitting in the Estonian University of Life Sciences, trying to finish off this blog as quickly as possible as I have a deadline of tonight to finish some work for one of the compulsory courses towards a PhD. It is a good job that I didn't know that before we set off to Latvia to live, I think it would have frightened me to death. It was still a scary prospect starting out on the study trail, but I didn't realise quite where it would take me. Today I was lecturing for two and a bit hours to Masters students in the Landscape Architecture department.

Snowdrop enjoying the sunshine

Our poorly Alicia

Another thing we didn't anticipate although I think we always desired it, was to have a farm. We got that and seven alpacas, three sheep, two cats and goodness only knows how many chickens later and we have a mini-farm. Unfortunately life down on our farm hasn't been easy this week. I have been going out there a bit more regularly so that I can help Ian with the alpaca boys, as we are using a medication to try and tackle the mites that have got a hold on poor Herkules and started on Tellus too. The girls will need doing, but we need to know the treatment works before treating them. We are using an injection of something normally used for worming treatment, but it is used for other types of parasites too, that has to be given three time two weeks apart. We also have to apply a mix of mineral oil - purchased from the local tractor shop of course, an antibiotic, and a few other bits and bobs mixed at the local vets and applied directly on the skin to smother the mites, the problem is that poor Herk is fed up with all the treatment he has had just lately and won't stand still. His eye is still cloudy and he is now having a treatment to seal the cornea, to see if that works. At least so far it hasn't taken a toll on their general condition and other than that they are fit and healthy. Alicia our oldest alpaca, has also been having a bit of trouble breathing just lately. Ian called the vet out to see her as she wasn't interested in her food Sunday morning, which is not like her at all. The vet thinks she may have a bit of fluid on her lungs and so she is on antibiotics too. This is a good job it it Latvia and not the UK, we would have been bankrupt by now.

Not more chickens in our paddock!

We go where girls?

We had to do some rearranging with the chickens this week too, we need an empty ark for new chicks, as we want to start new ones much earlier this year, so they are laying by the winter and then hopefully through most of the winter too. These new ones this year, weren't ready and some are still not laying even now. We sent some of the new chicks down to the chicken ark, as there is still plenty of room in there and since they aren't laying yet, they are not so precious. We had to have a rethink on the males too and we asked our friend for a couple of her cockerels to replace a few of ours. It is hard, but we had to cull some fine looking cockerels because they are related to the females. James was one of those who was culled. Ian wasn't happy about it and Ian thanked James for being a good cockerel in looking after the girls before the axe was swung. He was tasty though! The new cockerels are much bigger and so we hope they will make good sentinels for the girls, at the moment though they are following the girls around who know the ropes.

A suave looking chap - our newbie

So this is the water mill, and near by is a lovely camping
ground overlooking a lake, So if you are looking for a nice
spot with a bit of trout fishing here's the link

We finally got around to making a visit to someone I had met at the Transition initiative workshop the weekend that Benedikts was born, all the way back in January. It was World Women's Day so I got given a hyacinth flower in honour of the day. Our new friend took us on a trip to see a rabbit farm where he had helped with project advice, a sweet shop that makes their own sweets and a walk around his own water mill which is on its way to being renovated that he has been working on for many years. He is a business consultant and has helped many people along the way to get going and realise plans, so is a good contact to know, as well as a lovely fella to meet. It was nice for us both to be doing something different for the day. If I go out to the farm, it means Ian doesn't get a break and if I stop in, it's boring.

Rabbit farm near Skriveri. No rabbits in residence though
they are waiting for warmer weather as the winters are too
cold here - thank goodness

Eggs are once again becoming a regular feature of our diet

It has been a hectic week for me study wise, so much work to do for deadlines and I have found it a bit stressful. I thought I was on top of it the other week, but obviously this week was not so good. It didn't help that there was an extra piece of homework for one course, some software to sort out for another one so I can run a mapping programme on my own computer and a lecture to prepare. It was wonderful to discover the delights of a techie son-in-law and remote access though. After a little bit of fiddling about, we got the remote access working and I went to bed on Saturday night and by the morning the programme I needed was installed and running. Yeah! He'll be pleased to know that I even got a map nearly prepared to finish an exercise on it. My lecture went well this afternoon and the course leader was pleased with the added perspective I brought to the students. He liked my ideas to demonstrate some of the difficulties experts face when trying to decide who the people are who have an interest in the development of a project and how hard it is to separate them into groups to help when interviewing. It was simple really, I gave each group a set of card with details of a person, such as an indication of how long they had lived there, type of job and any affiliations to groups. With those three simple details it was hard to think who would be most likely to work with who and why and there were always the problem ones who won't fit into a group. I think the course leader enjoyed trying to sort them into groups more than the students did.

Is this edible?

Whoops! Bella looks on as Sofie tumbles off the logs

Ian and I still watch a DVD on Saturday nights together if we can, even though we haven't been up to our other place for a bath since the radiators burst- don't worry we have a shower too. At the moment we are watching the War time farm DVD and it has been quite an eye-opener. I hadn't realised some of the issues facing folks in the countryside in the war, such as the culling of livestock and the millions of hectares of land ploughed up for food. I knew about the dig for victory drive, but hadn't realised the sheer scale of it. It has also made me realise how far the English society had come from knowledge of the land, I didn't realise how unusual my own grandparents knowledge was of natural plants and some of their remedies, never mind my parents. Here I am telling Latvians that people my age don't often know much about their natural environment and in reality the rift had started even further back than that. Here it is not unusual for people to know at least a few natural remedies, a good number of edible mushrooms and berries and they actively seek them every year. Around in rural Latvia, it is more unusual if someone does not know how to grow vegetables and it is not because they are poor, it is because they like the taste and they like to be close to nature. So obviously much more in touch with nature than even the Brits before the Second World War.

Still a tad muddy! It is amazing where
all this water comes from though, as
we haven't had much in the way of rain.
This must be the water frozen into the
ground after the miserable autumn days

Spring? No not yet!

Our neighbours horse drawn hay rake, still where it was left
waiting to rake up hay before the weather changed last year

I'm not very good at anniversaries and birthdays and that sort of thing. Facebook kind of helps by reminding me when it is someone's birthday but that is a bit late if I actually wanted to send anything. And anniversaries are only remembered if I set them as alerts on my computer. Well I missed one anniversary last week. Ian remembered it on the day, but I forgot to comment on it in the blog. And the anniversary? It is on the 4th March 4 years that we arrived in Latvia to live. It's hard to believe that four years have flown by, but what a lot has happened in between times. We now manage a piece of land, two of our children are married, I am in my final year of a Master's course and we still haven't learnt much Latvian. We have made some lovely friends and are thoroughly enjoying being here, even if at times we still wonder what on earth we are doing here.

It was still deep on Friday

I did think of updating last week's post, but didn't think it was worth it as there was something else I had forgotten too. At the drumming concert we went to last week, we were sat on a table with another couple and fortunately the guy sitting there could speak English, it turns out he knew rather a lot of people we knew, in fact one of our good friends who is the reason we are even here in Latvia has stayed at his house quite a few times. Small world as they say. It was funny to start talking about someone and go "Oh yes! We know them too." He is a pastor of a church in Riga and as one young man went past he said, "that's our church's youth pastor." The brain cell started whirring into action and I thought "I know that face," sure enough I did, another person we both knew. The young man had been in the Netherlands translating for a team of Latvians that I had travelled with to a conference and Ian and I met him at another friend's wedding. It is strange to meet someone and know so many of the people he knew and yet we hadn't met, or not that I can remember anyway.

And yes, Ian was still shovelling snow this last week. Mind
you this was to clear the road to get the horse box down

This week has seen some glorious days and I had been stuck in a lot of the week writing up. One day I was looking at the weather forecast and I realised that Friday was going to be another glorious day but the weekend looked poxy as we say. The forecast was for warmer temperatures and a mixture of snow and sleet, so rather than miss the good weather, I declared that Friday was the new Saturday and took the day off. I'm so glad I did as that meant that I could enjoy the sunshine and walk around in the snow for what will probably be the last truly glorious wintry day of the year. I would have enjoyed it even more if I hadn't slipped on a sloping path that had iced over so hard that even my Yaktrax wouldn't grip. I ended up on my knees having twisted my ankle and there was no way I could get up easily without help and so my gallant hero, Ian, leapt to my assistance, that's twice this winter he has been my Sir Galahad. Makes a change from being laughed at anyway. Fortunately my ankle wasn't that bad and I could still sit in the greenhouse (20C that day) and sip coffee. We even managed to get the horse box into the barn, which meant Ian reversing it by car all the way down a hill with a sharp turn at the bottom and I kind of directing, well saying "stop, stop" and waving frantically every now and again when it was obvious that the trailer was not going in the direction that it should do or a bit too close to the barn door.

Horse box safely ensconced in the barn. It is now easier
for Ian to change the brakes and the wheel bearings
even if the weather changes.

I've changed my homepage on my internet browser this week, not momentous news I know. I like the range of articles in the Guardian, especially as they have a section on development, but I hate the language. It is almost as if they seek out uses of the "f" word. A report on the protest in Russia, seemed to single out any badges or banners which had on the "f" word to report and that was the final straw. The "f" word for me does still have a shock value, but not to many people around me, they think it is normal part of the language and indeed it is for some, but that does not mean that it should be bandied around in the English press. Now if all the banners had the "f" word in the protest I would have seen that a fit place to report it, but not the odd one or two and I am sure that the Russians have more in their vocabulary to express their protests and if they had then what were they? So it is back to the BBC for me, a bit staid and not as interesting at times, but at least the language isn't as bad.

Our kittens have grown but are still cute. Sophie has found
her voice just lately, driven us barmy today but we think
the dehumidifier is unsettling her, but we need it on because
someone didn't use the litter tray again!!!!!!

It has been a week of computers, partly as I am deep into writing up my thesis now that I have finished the research phase and also because I updated Microsoft as well this week from a very, very, very old version (in computer terms that is i.e. 2001). It was so old that it wouldn't update automatically and so all my settings were lost - that wasn't the real problem though, the problem came on updating the email client that proceeded to delete messages off the server, ones I had kept for ages. I wouldn't mind but I have done that before when changing email clients for work from Thunderbird that got corrupted and wouldn't update to Mail. It is something to do with the difference between IMAP and POP accounts - I don't know, but what I do know is I am not keen of what happened to my emails. I am a hoarder I know, but in some cases I was keeping them for reference. Fortunately really important ones were downloaded and kept separate but general emails were not and now I have lost a huge chunk of my past. It made me feel very grumpy.

In pensive mood here, but occasionally still shows herself
to be the livewire she was as a kitten

I am beginning to wonder if God is saying something through this though, there is something about hoarding that keeps hold of "things" as security and my security should not be in things, or emails but in God alone. I wonder what else I need to let go of? I had seen so many posts on hoarding, the good and the bad aspects of hoarding. It is good that we don't throw away jars, because it means I can process so much of produce from the year to eat over the winter. Hardly a day goes by when we don't tuck into some of the food prepared over the summer, and jars were handy the other week when we found maggots in the plastic packets (still finding the odd one, but I think we have got the infestation under control now). But how much other stuff do I keep that I should let go of, or is it more a state of mind that hoards, that I should let go of? This was on my mind when someone posted a link to a song called Pioneer by Rick Pino on YouTube (thanks Paul). Not quite sure how all the pictures relate to the song, but the lyrics were what caught my attention. "You travel light and you travel alone," well I don't travel alone as I travel with Ian, but travel light? Perhaps, in some ways, but I'm a hoarder and along the way I have accumulated stuff. A hoarder cannot be a pioneer, a pioneer cannot be a hoarder - too much baggage to take with you.

Leduspuķes or literally translated as ice flowers on the
greenhouse plastic

Rick Pino - Pioneer

Pioneer, Pioneer
Keep pressing onwards beyond your fears
And only your Father goes before you, to your own frontier
You're a Pioneer

Uncharted wilderness stretches before you
And you thrive on going where no one has gone
Still it gets lonely when darkness rears
So sing by the fire until the dawn

You travel light and you travel alone
And when you arrive nobody knows
But your Father in heaven, He is glad you can go
Cause those who come after you will need the road

And what you have done, others will do
Bigger and better and faster than you
But you can't look back, you gotta keep on pressing through
There's a wilderness pathway and it's calling you

Calling you, calling you
Keep pressing onwards beyond your fears

And only your Father goes before you, to your own frontier
You're a Pioneer

Hoarding? Getting a little crowded in the greenhouse just lately

So what do I let go of? Where do I go with this? I don't know, I just know the season is about to change as I finish this phase of studying and move on. I don't think it is moving countries, but just into the next season of life. It excites me that others will follow, but do things better, faster and bigger than I will, and so I am happy to tread the road for others if that is what is needed. Well I guess I had better press on.

Hard to believe that these will be uncovered soon. Once
the snow goes and the fence re-electrified then the wraps
will be off.

(I'll also post a poem from years ago (see I said I was a hoarder) of the questions that occurred to me as I thought about the pioneers who forged a route across America, when I gazed across the landscape from what was then home in Colorado)