Winter? Spring? Whatever!

7am on Saturday morning. Looking rather
monochrome again.

We are still not sure from one moment to the next which season we are in. We woke up on Saturday morning to quite reasonable covering of snow on the ground that lasted until early afternoon. We've had sunshine and showers of various kinds all week: rain, snow, hail, sleet and sometimes all within 5 minutes. I guess it's spring then!

The trees wearing their winter lace again! It looks
really pretty at the end of the year at the start of
winter, not so much now.

Everywhere we looked a coating of wet snow.

By 1:30 it had disappeared.

I didn't really plan to do much other than get work done this week, but then our week took a slightly different turn to one that was planned. Firstly a friend of ours phoned and said one of her alpacas had a gash on their leg from fighting with another one. Alpaca male fighting teeth can grow quite suddenly and we either find out the good way at shearing time, or the sometimes the hard way when an accident happens. Young boys often play fight and so accidents can happen and in spring hormones can get the better of some youngsters. So we made a trip up to see her so that Ian could deal with the fighting teeth. At least there shouldn't be any more of those kinds of problems from that alpaca again. 

Only the line down the side of the greenhouse
reminded us that it really had been a very
white morning.

Our two little boy kittens are no longer little
boys. We have no desire to add to the kitten
population. There are enough born every year
as it is. We also want them to stay around and
work for their living

I worked in the car during the journey - thank goodness for laptops and mobile internet, so I still got some work done. We carried onto another of our friends' house to check on that, since they can't get to sort it out themselves due to Covid and their nearest neighbours are also away at the moment. All was okay except for lots of dead and dying flies and dust that must have been disturbed in the strong winds we'd had the week before. So after a quick brush up and putting down some more rat poison for the little critters that had been nibbling the previous ones I had put out, headed on back to our caravan. 

Rocket Ron earning his living.... or is he? He was
spotted today tucking into an old, manky Brussel
sprout leaf. Sigh!

My lilac is budding!

On Thursday it was my birthday. I started the day off with a Latvian lesson and my Latvian teacher played two Latvian versions of happy birthday. We also looked at different words connected to celebrations. A bit of fun anyway and even better I got some very good scores on some of the listening practice. I also got some very bad scores on some too. Oh well! Progress of some sort anyway. It is getting easier but I still do not get enough practice. I have a lot of work to do and just get too tired to focus on practising. I do binge watch some short Latvian programmes, from kids programmes to historical or environmental types. It helps. 

I think this captures this week beautifully! Sunshine
and showers.

Brencis enjoying the sunshine or maybe getting
a bit hot - he doesn't usually sit like this. 

I also got happy birthday greetings from so many friends that I was pleasantly surprised - I know Facebook reminds people, but it is nice when people do take the time. It is appreciated. I have to admit though the greetings from my grandchildren were the best; even though one of them got stuck with singing happy birthday because he couldn't remember the words for the nice version. I also got to see my granddaughters in the dresses I made and see a video of them twirling around in the dresses, in fact they spent most of the day twirling around apparently- so that worked well. 

Glad someone thinks it's funny.

Mr. P's breathing got even noisier this last week, 
so he was put on a course of steroids. The change
was quite amazing. The vet came out to see him 
today but she's still not quite so happy with his
breathing, so he's going on some antibiotics too. 

As my birthday was a work day I would have just carried on working but with horrible weather forecast for over the weekend and the day of my birthday promising sunshine, I took the afternoon off. Not to relax and chill or anything but get seeds in that needed moisture to germinate. I managed to get all the cabbage type seeds in - Ian will be thrilled at the thought of more Brussel sprouts (not!). I was going to put carrots and parsnips in but couldn't find the seeds. I eventually realised they'd been left in the apartment, so Ian collected them on Friday when he went to collect our bakery order. The seeds went in on Saturday afternoon after the snow had cleared. 

"Come on Mum! Come and Play!", says Ilvija
"Nope!", says Chanel

Chanel would rather sunbathe.

On Sunday it was more seed planting, but this time in the greenhouse- broad beans, peas, more cabbage-type things, alpine strawberries, a new type of rhubarb and all sorts of other plants and flowers. I would plant the beans outside but not after last year, when I lost just about all of them, probably due to mice. We'll have to see what works. It was certainly a nice activity to do when it was raining on and off all day. The greenhouse is a much more pleasant environment to work in, unlike Ian's work environment who was trying to put out fencing in between the showers so the alpacas could eat the grass without poking their head through the fence and leaning heavily on it. Sigh! 

Don't be fooled by that sweet look. Mari is our 
main culprit for putting her head through the fence.

The day before the snow. 

Ian wasn't working outside the whole time, he also did some work in the greenhouse and in the shed. We now have more shelves in the shed and things in the greenhouse are a little tidier - not much but again, it's progress. We have also been sorting out getting our barn and greenhouse properly registered. It stalled a few years ago when we weren't sure what all the additional costs were that kept being added on. Now we know what the steps are and the greenhouse is just about sorted, but we need a topographical survey done for the barn, so now we are just in the process of getting that arranged - next job!

They are all enjoying the grass. Hopefully the 
moisture will encourage it to grow faster.

GT (aka Ginger Tom) looks 
huge here, but actually he's 
pretty small.

Our routine is changing, almost imperceptibly. The nights are gradually getting shorter and shorter, so we put the animals away later and later each day. We also wake that bit earlier each morning too. No longer do we have to rush to get the evening meal prepared after the animals go away and before it gets too dark and cold, nor as the days get longer do we have to rush to eat before the animals go away. Now we have plenty of time after eating. It is funny how accustomed we are to the light levels determining what we do and when. Watches aren't always necessary to know when it is time to do something. It's a different rhythm when we are out on the land. 

Don't do it! You'll get wet!
Fortunately, he didn't. He's not so daft. Not so sure
about the other one though.

Speaking of which! Here he comes!

Started off well

Mari looks like she has been styling her eyebrows

It was a sorting out kind of week. I had a Skype conversation with my supervisors one evening where I got some solid advice and promise of help that will hopefully push me forward to finishing off a paper and a big step forward to finishing off the PhD. I will be so happy when I get that sorted out.

A rolling alpaca having a dust bath. Vanessa's group are
enjoying the bank that Ian created. Not sure we are ever going
to get grass to grow on the bank.

Trying to regain some composure after the inelegant roll

I was using google docs for working on the paper and it wasn't working so well for me. I needed to amend the references in it and it isn't so easy, so I decided to download it to my computer to work on it using Word, as I have an automatic reference app for that. The plan was then to upload it to the cloud for my colleagues to comment on. Only the plug in for the type of reference I had to use wasn't working and so I had to deal with that first. It seems that nothing is straightforward at the minute. You want to do that? Then download this app then you need this plug in! Now you need to do this, then learn how to use the thing. Then overcome this little glitch and it feels like yet another week has gone and it still isn't finished. Not really this time, but that's what it feels like sometimes. Probably just showing my age.

Kind of strange, the grass looks like the middle of summer
but the leaves have not come through yet.

Contemplating something or recuperating from gardening

I was sorting out the gardens over the Easter weekend. The potatoes are now in, well most of them. We appear to have eaten too many white potatoes and so need some more to finish off the last row. I also potted on cabbages, cauliflowers, lettuces, Chinese cabbage and chard. Unfortunately they seem to be growing rather slower than I hoped, because the nights have been so cool. At least they are still alive though. It was my birthday on the Monday and so it was nice to be doing the potting on and potato planting rather than computer work. I know how to enjoy myself.

The moon shines down too

Is it fleece or is Chanel beginning to show a bit of belly there.
Still a few months yet before she is due, but Ian has increased
her rations because the alpaca cria (baby) puts on most of
its growth in the last few months.

My daughter tried to send me a WhatsApp message for my birthday but unfortunately WhatsApp stopped working on my phone two days before my birthday and won't update. Sigh! The phone is working reasonably well and so it is annoying to need to change it for something like that. Still at least there are more options than WhatsApp to communicate with. Messenger fortunately was still working, so she resent the message that way and I also got a message from my youngest and a video from three of my grandchildren wishing me a happy birthday.

Sunbathing on the mound

A spring visitor. This one was hopping away from the pond,
so Ian caught it and put it in the pond as there are not many
frogs around at the moment. 

Spring is definitely in the air, despite the cool nights. As we are out in the caravan now, I am using the outside loo and so as I wander on down there, admiring the backdrop of the forest, the birds singing in the early morning, all is well with the world. The problem is that just as I am enjoying the atmosphere the stupid chickens started creating a fuss over nothing. We have two cockerels who freak out at a hen announcing she has laid an egg, or a passing butterfly or whatever it is that seems to freak them out on a frequent basis. The noise drowns out the more melodious warbles and trills of the woodland birds. The cockerels crowing in the background from time to time did amuse my work colleagues though one Skype meeting. Not your regular business meeting background noise. We moved the caravan out of the greenhouse this week and so we don't get woken up so easily with the sound of the cockerels crowing right outside the caravan window deenow either. Bliss!

A nice large nesting box and they have to practically sit on
each other to lay an egg

Probably the same deer we saw, although we are seeing a lot
of them this year. Normally in March we see them as they are
hunting for food under snow, but by now the grass is usually
appearing and they disappear deeper into the forest.

It is amazing to see the forest coming to life with the wood anemones bursting into bloom once again but we were even more amazed one lunchtime as we were sitting outside eating our sandwiches and enjoying the sunshine when Ian spotted a deer in the forest. We sat and watched her for a good 15 minutes or so as she searched for food. She seemed completely unaware that we were there. She also looked rather thin. This time of the year is hard on the wildlife as the vegetation recovers from the winter, but it is even harder this year due to the lack of rain. We have not had more than the merest hint of drizzle in the last week and it is getting critical.

Josefs looking very fluffy around the face

I've seen quite a few cranes this week. No not the big industrial ones but rather the large birds, I even spotted a group of them from a train window. It was more stunning to see two of them flying slowly over our land, they were so low. We also saw two swans flying over several times and I'm guessing they may have been whooper swans, definitely not mute swans as they were making a right racket. Some must have flown over on an early morning flight as we were in the caravan when we heard them loud and clear.

At 16 years old and she can still do yoga poses. Do be
careful Veronica!

We had English visitors to the farm this week. A couple and their daughter. Apparently it was their first trip out so far from the capital and the husband was a little unsure and wondered if they were lost. It is a lot of countryside with not many people around if you are not used to it. Fortunately they found us okay and we spent a good couple of hours chatting about life in Latvia and of course alpacas. We just had time to grab some lunch when we had a phone call from a Latvian couple who wanted to visit. I let Ian get on with it this time, as I had the garden to deal with and I had heard it all before already that day.

Out enjoying the sunshine and the breeze

I went to get my haircut this week. My hairdresser had just got back from Georgia and she gave me a gift of Georgian Svanetian salt. It was rather nice on some potatoes. Apparently it is produced up in the mountains and has eight hand ground ingredients in it, including marigold, which gives it a lovely golden colour. Very different anyway and a lovely gift.

Just trying to get that itch!

Ian often does a search for our farm on the internet to see if anything has been published recently and was rather bemused to see my article from Dispatches Europe translated into Russian. Unfortunately it was on a rather dubious news site, which I know has a rather loose connection to truthful reporting. So while it is nice to get free advertising, I would rather that be on a more reputable news outlet, but as I was told, that's the way the internet works.

Prep time

Wood anemomes

I have spent the whole week prepping, or so it seems. Such as prepping our newer apartment so that the one we were living in can be emptied.  I say newer because we have still had the apartment for a while, but not as long as the one we lived in up until now. I've also been prepping garden beds ready for sowing seeds and transplanting strawberry plants. Well that's just about it! Short blog then! Hahaha only joking.

The woods look really pretty illuminated by the evening
sunshine and carpeted with the wood anemones 

The four heaps in the background are the un-composted hay
that was put on the beds over winter after the potatoes. They
will now be used to grow squash on and the four beds
in the front are for carrots and parsnips. I also need to prep
some beds for onion sets too.

Most of this week has involved a high degree of planning, which is a bit unusual for me as I either wing it these days or just have a rough idea of what needs doing. This time though I needed to be more prepared. One day my list read as follows
                     1. Go to new apartment prepare bread and leave to rise
                     2. Go to old apartment and put on washing load number one
                     3. Fill empty boxes with books, stack in the car
                     4. Take eggs to friend
                     5. Do shopping
                     6. Collect washing load put on second load
                     7. Go to new apartment and hang out first washing load
                     8. Unpack boxes and empty area in the office ready for bookcase and sideboard
                     9. Bake bread and cakes
                     10. Go back to other apartment and collect second washing load
                     11. Finish off tidying up, sort out kitchen and wash up
                     12. Back to the land and do gardening.

More prepping. These ones are for sweetcorn, salad plants
and other things but not brassicas as this is where they were
last year

One lone hanger on after the winter. They were meant to be
Brussel Sprouts, but it will give us some cabbagey leaves
soon

There was that much to-ing and fro-ing that I think the neighbours must be wondering what we are up to. Meanwhile Ian was clearing out the bedding out of one of the alpaca houses. He did the other one the day before while I sorted out veg beds and a strawberry bed. I suddenly realised that the strawberries had been on the same patch of ground for longer than three years and I know from past experience the number of strawberries plummets after that.

Coltsfoot is often the first plant to flower on our land

Poor Chanel, she is missing Freddie, but it is for her own
good. We had hoped she would wean Freddie herself, but
that wasn't happening and she needs to recover some
condition in preparation for getting pregnant again. Normally
the alpacas would have been weaned by now, certainly the
more experienced Lady V had weaned off Brencis much
earlier.

We have also done more shifting around, both furniture and animals. The young boys needed separating from their mums and because we now have more males than females we needed to move the girls up to where the older boys were and the older boys to the girls alpaca house. This in itself had to be planned too. We constructed a corridor to ensure that the animals would move between the two places. Ian shut the girls in their alpaca house with the younger boys separated into the small side. We then haltered up Brencis and Mr, P, as they are used to walks and the plan was that Ian would lead those two and the rest would follow with me encouraging them from behind.

I'm happy to see that my rose that Heather Potten (one of our felthing tutors) gave me last year is still alive and looking good

Wise old Lady V. taking the changes in her stride - well she
 is now

Well that was the plan anyway. What actually happened was that the older ones headed straight out leaving the ones that Ian had haltered up behind and Ian almost getting tangled up with the pair of them. It was amusing to watch, if a little disconcerting that things were not going to plan. Turbjørn is our most sensitive animal and freaks out easily, but this time he did a fantastic job of leading them all out and into the field where they could be contained while we sorted out the girls. There was only one point where we were a bit worried he was going to go the wrong way at a section that narrowed up, but with a bit of encouragement he got through. That went better than expected, if not quite how we planned it.

Meeting convened with Lady V offering her advice

We used to worry about our alpacas whenever they were laid
 out like this. Now we know they are just sunbathing

The next phase was to drive the girls out through the gate towards their new place. There was some hesitation at the gate and Chanel heard Freddie and panicked. She ended up getting caught in the wire and breaking several electric poles in the process. We got the girls back in the alpaca house and went to Plan B. We haltered up Aggie who likes to go for walks and Chanel, who doesn't to say the least. Well Chanel spat and kicked and created havoc, but with rather more manhandling than we would like we got her out of the paddock and following Aggie at a brisk pace. Once on the move she wasn't so bad.

See! Mari is fine

Aggie enjoying the sunshine too and looking rather pregnant
now

Next we had to get Lady V and Mari haltered up. Mari was okay if a bit stubborn about walking, however Lady V thought it was beneath her and showed she can still put up a bit of a fight if there is something she does not want to do. We got them both going in the right direction but bizarrely Lady V kept thumping Mari with her neck on Mari's back- those two don't really get on very well, usually they just tolerate each other. Anyway we got them up to where we wanted them and fastened all the girls in for the night. The boys in comparison were not too bad, with a bit of persuasion they did go in the alpaca house.

The guard hairs are long on Mari's fleece

All the boys together now

The little ones were on the smaller side of the alpaca house and the older ones on the other side. There was much sniffing through the fence, but all seemed fine and they were also locked away for the night. The next morning Ian kept them in until coffee time, when we went up so we could watch how they interacted with each other. We didn't need to worry. The youngsters seemed to take a liking to Mr. P and followed him around everywhere, which Mr. P found rather alarming. The youngsters also quickly found out that Uncle Turbjørn was as crotchety as Auntie Aggie and needs to be avoided. Apart from that, as long as normal alpaca manners were observed then they were fine.

Chanel looked more content eating today. You can see the
problems she had with her fleece on her hind legs. The sun
and the grass will do her good though

Father and son together. I think George takes after his Mum
(Mari) rather than his father in looks. His colouring too is the
the colour of Mari's spots

Today we shifted more furniture, two sideboards and a large bookcase. This means we now have places to store more of our stuff and start to put away most of the hundreds of books we have. What is encouraging is that everything seems to be fitting in quite nicely and we can still move around the place, which is rather surprising considering it is a smaller apartment. There are still a few large pieces to move but we mainly know where they are going, so that works. Moving in small amounts at a time, gives us time to sort things out, but we are also restricted by first the size of our horse box, but also by the road between our two apartments - there is a short bumpy section which we wouldn't want to bounce too much stuff around in the horse box

- we would just end up breaking things.

A sign of spring. This is in the top pond for a change. We
usually see it in the bottom pond. We also saw the fish this
week, so at least some have survived the winter. We are not
sure how many though, as we are only seeing a few tails
peeping out from under the dead weed floating in the middle
of the pond.

Sometimes it has been chilly due to a cold wind, but we still
can have coffee looking out from the greenhouse onto our
land. 

So that's about it, apart from Sunday when I celebrated my birthday - well when I say celebrated, I mean we went to the hotel for dinner to save me from doing the cooking and Ian from washing up. We don't tend to do birthday presents these days, but the fudge my daughter sent me home with was a rather nice. Still it was a pleasant day, the sun shone, we had coffee watching the boys who all seemed to have settled together nicely, I did more gardening and enjoyed my evening meal - what more could I want?

Brencis looking for grass

The gooseberries are leafing up nicely

The roads are generally drying up, but this is an appalling
section just past our land. I have never seen cars slowing
down quite so much on this stretch and they are bouncing
around all over. We went up in our four by four just to see
what it is was like - even we were bouncing around a lot.

Tractor tyre tracks. The grader did stop and put its blade
down, but I think he didn't make a good job of it and was off
somewhere else anyway.