I've seen the light

I wonder what these two are discussing?

....... you know, the one at the end of the tunnel and I don't think it is a train about to hit me - at least I hope not. I have actually finished off a lot of stuff this week, or at least posted them off to others to see what they think, before they push it back my way to do more work on. It feels good to finally see the workload depleting, unless my supervisor makes up more work for me tomorrow when I go and see him. There was also no further catastrophes on the travelling front. My Latvian classmate gave me a lift to Valmeira where I managed to grab some lunch and the late bus back to Cesis. It had only ten minutes to spare according to the timetable to catch the following bus and so it was a bit worrying, but it was a needless worry, as it actually got in 5 minutes early. I got back home on Tuesday and it felt like I had been away for a month, but it was really only a week. The last long stint away was to Peyresq in France, but that was so peaceful and remote with only around 30 people there, can't remember exactly how many, but it was around that mark, unlike the over 600 mark at the conference the other week plus catastrophes which didn't help.

Our very fluffy cat having a wash

It was nice for a couple of mornings to take my time getting up and not having to rush out somewhere. I took the Thursday off, but that meant getting up early to get out on the land with Ian. He is an early riser and the sun is up, so off he goes to see to his animals. Still the for the rest of the day I just pottered about and we sat and chatted for quite a while. I also helped Ian with the injections of vitamins and worming/anti-bug medications, which basically meant passing him the needles and then holding the heads of the alpacas after Ian caught them - support role really, but not one he can do alone with the set up we have at the moment. Ian is working on some ideas to make life easier for himself if I am away and he needs to give injections. Alicia our old alpaca is much easier to do something with, but if Snowdrop ever got sick, he'd be in trouble, she is so big and not as compliant as Alicia. Having said that, Alicia is getting rather canny when it comes to injection time, she knows and doesn't necessarily run away, but just sidles off.

There's just one problem! Her hair is that long........

She has to strain her head right back to get to the end of it

Since Spring seems to have arrived I decided to plant seeds, but since this is Latvia I played safe - well safer - and planted some in the greenhouse and covered them with fleece. I planted parsnips outside, but under black cloth to protect them, they take ages to germinate anyway and will stand a some frost. Inside I planted collards, spring onions, little round carrots, kale and corn salad. So I hope we have something to eat from that little lot sooner rather than later, our veg store is running low on variety now. It was with this in mind that I headed out into the field and snipped away at the just emerging nettles for a good spring tonic, the first harvested crop of the year. It was nice but a little gritty, must find a better way of rinsing them without stinging myself. Don't panic, for those who don't know, nettles are safe to eat after cooking, honest!

Oh yes! The sky was definitely blue that day

There have been plenty of other signs of spring, such as the kiwi plant in the greenhouse has started dripping from the buds, which means it's waking up from its winter sleep and some of the winter barley seems to have survived and started sprouting again, only hope the chill we expect this week doesn't finish it off. The storks are also back, the true harbinger of Spring around here and the first Ian knew of their arrival was when the chickens went berserk and started flying off in panic, pinging into the wire around the alpaca paddock in the process. Other signs are the bees, the wagtails, the ospreys and frogs in the pond. It is still rather chilly at night, the greenhouse can register -6C overnight, but then be up to +25C half an hour after sun up.

Spot the chickens! Hiding behind the alpaca

Ian had more visitors this week. The first he knew was Alicia screeching, a sure sign something was up. Ian went to investigate and found three adults and two children, heading for the alpaca paddock.  It was a lady who works in the local supermarket and her family, and she once translated for us when we visited the local orphanage. They spent about half an hour at our place and Ian let the kids feed Tellus, Ian also managed to get hold of Tellus, so they could feel the fleece. From hanging onto him the other day for his injections, I know he has a lovely thick fleece on him. He'll be a challenge to shear soon.

This is a series of pictures. Our attempt to capture a picture
of both of us, using a timed shutter with the alpacas. So
here is the first, just setting it up

I had an interesting email yesterday, from someone I don't know and at first I wondered if it was spam, because there was a link in it, but it was such a well written and lovely email my gut reaction was that it was not. I admit to sending it off to my son-in-law to check, since he is the tech savvy one and he thought it was probably not. Well I took a risk and I'm grateful I did. Hichu, wrote a piano piece entitled "A Journey to Somewhere" and put it up on the internet and then tried to google it, to see if it would come up and my blog came up. So if you want to listen then here is the link. To me it speaks of the halting and uncertainty of setting off on a journey to somewhere and is a lovely tune.

Come on boys, where are you?

I had a vague note from my oldest son, saying a present was on the way and was booked to arrive Saturday after 6pm. That actually got me worried, as I was thinking "no delivery company delivers on a Saturday and especially after 6pm." I asked for a tracking number, but he wouldn't give me one as he said it would spoil the fun. I was intrigued. At 6:20pm a ring on the doorbell and standing at the door was a lady with a bunch of flowers. It wasn't my birthday present after all (my birthday is later on in the month) it was a Mothers Day present. I know in most of the world Mothers Day, or Mothering Sunday is usually in May, but in the UK it is related to Easter, so is usually in March. The lady said some very nice things, well they sounded nice and I nodded and smiled, as you do when you haven't a clue what someone is saying as it was all in Latvian. That wasn't the only surprise I even got a phone call while I was travelling on the bus up to Tartu from my youngest son. We were never very good as a family about doing things for Mothers Day and so I was a little taken aback by all the attention, but rather nice.

Close but not quite

I think the biggest shock though was a post on  my youngest facebook newsfeed that quoted the verse below, I would think most have you have seen some version of it.

At 6 yrs "Mommy I love you"

At 10 yrs "Mom whatever"

At 16  "My Mom is so annoying"

At 18  "I wanna leave this house"

At 25 "Mom, you were right"

At 30 "I wanna go to Mom's"

At 50 "I don't wanna lose my Mom"

At 70 "I would give up Everything 

for my Mom to be here with me"

We definitely went through the stages 10, 16 and 18,  just not sure they were at that age though and so for the turnaround to "Mom you were right," feels rather odd at times, but nice.

Arrrhh! There we go, that's better

Another milestone passed this week, we finished watching War Time Farm. It was a fascinating story, as they said in the programme, we hear a lot about the effects of war on the cities, but not in the countryside. It was also quite surprising how much changed in those few years and in someways how much high intensity agriculture of today stems from that era. It is a good job that finished though 'cos we have farming to do.

Finally both of us, and an alpacas behind. 

Spring has sprung

It came as no surprise this week when our neighbours at our other flat asked if they could buy the stove off us we lent them after their catastrophe. It is in and working well - I don't think they had the problems we had with smoke on lighting as they haven't got quite the convoluted pipe work that we did - and to move it out and put another in must seem like a lot of hassle for nothing. We had hoped to use the stove in the polytunnel to extend the growing season but I think their need of heat is greater than our need for extending the growing season, having said that I did have a brain wave just before we got the request and thought about building a brick oven on site, it would be great for barbequeing as well. Hmm! Veg straight off the vine and onto the bbq. Nice!

Finally went to the dentists this week, something we have been putting off for ages. One very large filling fell out before Christmas and I had a tooth which disintegrated at the front but there was no pain fortunately, so there was no need to rush. We got to hear of a dentist in the nearby large town who actually speaks English and not German (not terribly helpful for us) and so we decided we really ought to go. The week before we had actually duped a friend into going as he was in a lot of pain but doesn't like dentists either so we said we would go together, the reality was that there was only one appointment and he had priority, but we didn't tell him that. I understand totally though, the thought of going to a dentist who messes about or is unpleasant is not my idea of fun, I want someone I can trust to do a good job without trying to do a whole lot of unnecessary work. That was one of the reasons for me not going to the dentist in America, as I didn't think they would like my teeth, not being of the pearly white perfect sort, and would want to start doing major megabucks work and I really couldn't be bothered with the hassle. Well while we were at the dentists with our friend we sorted out our appointments for this week, since she seemed so nice and spoke good English, very reassuring. It is a good job really as I haven't been to a dentist since Denmark, four years ago and Ian hasn't been since he left England and so that was over 7 years ago. Ian was, however, pleasantly surprised that he hadn't got any new holes, just needed old fillings replaced.

English Mother's day came a bit late for me as I finally got  a lovely card from one of my children - one to treasure I think, it is actually rather sweet instead of cheeky like some of them I have had in the past (when I got one that is, love you really kids and to be honest I am not really bothered). Even more surprising was to get a gift too, a Pat and Mat DVD. If you remember a couple of weeks ago I commented that the Czech airlines played a hilarious cartoon that I had never seen before, it is even more hilarious because we live in a country with a similar Soviet history, so I could imagine some of the antics happening here too. We sat through five short episodes the other night and roared with laughter, only another 30 to go. One of the classic scenes was one of the guys (not sure which is Pat and which is Mat but heh!, does it matter?) whose tap kept moving around so that it poured water on the floor, so the guy drags his sink over to where the tap was - easy eh! Oh yes forgot about the pipe connections didn't he. Next moment a puddle is fast appearing on the floor, so what does he do? Pulls out his drill and drills a hole in the floor of course. Slight problem he lives in a flat (apartment) and so it goes on. Great fun!

Spring suddenly decided to make an appearance this week and over 20-30cm of snow disappeared within two days, great patches of winter weary grass started to appear as if by magic and then it started to rain. I love Spring when the bulbs start to push up their heads to greet the gentle warmth of the sun, but this part of Spring when the snow is melting and the ground is turning to mush and the days can be dismal is not something I enjoy. It almost feels like when you go for an operation, or to the dentist, you know it is something you have to go through and something good will come out of it but you would rather it was just over and done with. We went to have a look at the polytunnel and it is in the same state as last year when they couldn't work on it because it was too wet which is so annoying because we warned the guy there would be a problem if he delayed any further (we only had to look at the weather forecasts to see that), but we need that plastic up or we are not going to be able to get a good start for the new planting season so something has to be done.

On a slightly lighter note I thought I would list some of the things which herald the Spring here in Latvia:-
We rediscover which roads have tarmac and which ones are dirt roads
The pothole challenge - the roads are in a desperate state until the tarmac lorries get out and until then it takes nerves of steel and a quick response time to avoid them
Ice breakers - teams of folks out chipping away at the ice
Green grass where the heating pipe travels from the boiler at the top of the hill to our apartment
Reappearing features - bins (trash cans, outdoor seating)
The fly swatters out - I got four this morning but then again they were sluggish.

One thing I discovered which I wasn't so happy about in Latvia is to do with the interest rates. Interest rates on deposits seem to have gone down rather a lot just lately and I was wondering if by any chance my bank had reduced the interest rates on loans (which would be good for many folks here, something I could accept) and I was absolutely gobsmacked to find there was no information on the amount of interest paid, I can find out how much a loan will cost per month but not the interest charged. Interest rates in the UK have to be clearly stated, and rightly so, but I thought this may have been in line with EU law, if it is not then it is no wonder that people here in Latvia have been duped for so long - how can you take out a loan and not know how much it will actually cost you in real terms? I decided to do a little comparison of some of the banks and found that Nordea, DnB Nord and Swedbank do not advertise their interest rates on Latvian sites but they do on Swedish sites.  Now that it is downright criminal, why do these banks (and I don't think they are the only ones) not practice "best practice" and make sure the customer has all the information they need to make an informed choice? You would think that Scandinavian banks would practice the utmost transparency in all their dealings and maybe they do in Sweden but there doesn't seem to be much evidence of that in Latvia.

Politically things are a little jittery here as one party pulled out of the Latvian Government, meaning the coalition parties in Government are in the minority and the question is will it fall? Not likely I think! Who would want to take on governing this nation at this minute, who would take the poisoned chalice? No! Let the Government get so far and hopefully by October, when an election is due, everything will be looking better then and so another party could take over and take the credit. Oh yes! And if it doesn't go to plan then the previous Government could of course be blamed anyway.

I was doing some research for my studies and came across and astounding fact that 90% of all soybeans in the US contain the Monsanto gene, that is a huge monopoly of the market and makes me wonder how it has taken the US authorities so long to investigate this as they are now doing. It would seem that today crops are not about feeding the world but about the world domination of the markets by no more than four seed companies. There is also inappropriate development that only serves the seed companies, ie developing seeds that resist their own herbicides rather than developing what the farmers need. In fact more food is lost due to poor storage than through loss to pests and diseases and so tackling that is a low cost, low technological solution which would improve this world's ability to feed its citizens. Improving agricultural techniques such as crop rotation and more appropriate crops for a region will do far more than tying farmers to a seed company, which is what happens when GM crops are used. I don't often pass on details about online petitions but the Avaaz organisation appears to have a better way of organising them than passing on through emails, which to be frank is a waste of time, and if you disagree with GM crops being introduced into Europe then this is the link to register your disagreement, you do need a European address to sign it though.

Photos
Photo 1: Reappearing seats and bins (trash cans), you can compare this picture to last weeks where the bin was only barely visible
Photo 2: Reappearing manure heaps - lovely
Photo 3 & 4 Pat or is it Mar?
Photo 5: Little one enjoying walking on grass again, it was so funny to watch him walking up and down it and jumping the ditch at the bottom
Photo 6 & 7 More disappearing snow which you can compare to previous pictures.