Mud, mud, glorious mud

Spring has arrived out on our land in Latvia

The weather hasn't been much better this week, but we still got out and about. My daughter and I have been to Costa coffee a few times because my daughter prefers their coffee and she and a friend often meet up there with their kids. I'm just happy to tag along. It works well with the older ones colouring and the younger ones confined to a corner playing and at least it is out of the house for an hour or two.

Morning coffee spot for Ian. I hope I don't miss all
the good weather though

All the migrant birds have been returning. Ian even
saw four storks on the day our newest granddaughter
was born

There were dry evenings and so my daughter and her husband went for a couple of evening bike rides while I babysat. They came back rather covered. They may as well take advantage of me being around though. Mind you, I did end up on sentry duty on the door of the boys bedroom as they weren't exactly getting the idea of what sleep was for that night. Still been there, done that and got the t-shirt, so I didn't really mind too much. It's a phase!

Freddie

The new baby with proud older brother and sister

We were beginning to wonder what was going to be the best way for me to get to my son's for the third and final week, as my daughter didn't want to take a long ride down if my son's newest baby hadn't arrived, however, the baby finally decided to make an appearance on the Wednesday. It was very exciting to be able to say hello via Skype to my eighth grandchild and in plenty of time for me to see her. I love that her name also means resurrection or miracle.

At least the drainage is still working
to clear away the melted snow by
the side of the greenhouse

A bit dark but my granndaughter is blowing out the candle
on her birthday dessert.

It was my granddaughter's birthday at the end of the week and I had put together a little bag making kit from some of my fabric stash so I could make it with her. We spent one afternoon having fun sewing. I'm not sure she was that bothered about the bag in the end, but she enjoyed the process. It was lovely to be able to carry on a tradition, as my grandmother was one of those who taught me to sew when I was young.

Another sign of spring - deep ruts

And muddy driveways. We obviously still need to
work on the drainage here

Stomping in mud puddles

One of the joys of little children is their ability to find fun in a muddy woodland walk. It was a relatively nice day (one of the few) when my daughter, her friend and all their children went for a walk around a reservoir. Those children managed to jump in just about every puddle along the route, they found it hilarious and were soaked by the time we got back to the car. Near the end of the walk was a steep hill and the kids enjoyed rolling down, well the oldest rolled down but the younger ones only really managed to roll in circles.

There has also been some spring snow showers too
out on our land

The little one I rescued in his all-in-one

There was one point where one of the little ones was rolling round in circles when the oldest was coming down the hill rather rapidly towards him. I played my role of Supergran and swung into action by hoisting the little one out of the way by the back of his all-in-one suit. I always knew that swinging hay bales around would come in useful sometime.

A lovely spring day and the alpacas are getting the freedom of eating out in the fields

Young alpacas love to roll in the grass too

On my last full day we went to a soft play area in a sports centre. I was impressed with the chap who was supervising. He trundled the kids around on a snake for most of the two hours and played basketball with them, although he did have to spend a while trying to extract an over large ball that got stuck in the net. It was lovely at the end as shook all their hands as they left and thanked them for coming. He obviously had a big heart for kids and keeping them active. We finished the day with a family birthday pizza party. The kids were truly amazing, especially the two year old who managed to hold it together despite a lack of sleep and a lot of running around all day. I was half expecting a melt-down but he didn't.

The girls' field doesn't get as much sun as the boys
one does

Another spring returnee

Eventually it was time to leave and so we set off early on the Saturday morning to my son's house. On the way down we stopped off at a pub for lunch run by my son-in-law's older brother. We had a lovely meal but the best part was observing the conversation between my two year old grandson and my son-in-law's brother. He's been a bar tender for many years and he just went with the flow of the little chap's conversation. It was a classic and I was in stitches listening to them.

The girls' field may not get as much sun, but they still
find the bits of green grass

Our cats have been joining Ian on early morning
walks while I'm away. I think I am going to have
some major time change adjustments when I get back.
Apparently all the cockerels are crowing at 5:30am

After a long drive we made it to my son's house and I got to meet my eighth grandchild for the first time. It was lovely having a chaotic afternoon with six of my grandchildren and their parents, but sadly I had to say goodbye to my daughter and her family as they travelled back home. So now I am on the south coast getting to spend time with another set of grandchildren and helping mum with the new baby. I even took all the little ones to the park today for a bit of fresh air including the baby- another muddy place but fortunately for me, we managed to avoid the worst of the mud this time around. I think there will be enough washing to do this week somehow.

Eyre enjoying the sunshine on top of the cupboards
in the greenhouse

It wasn't me! Mari stood on the remains of the hay

Brencis

The ups and ups and the downs

On her birthday bike. Maybe a little room for
growth, but I am guessing not that long
though. What else do you expect from a
dad who is a bike mechanic? 

It has been a lovely week visiting grandchildren and I have now made it to two birthday parties. One of the biggest problems of living abroad is not being able to make it to many of their birthdays, so this was lovely. Unfortunately the children may have been overly generous in sharing their bugs. I am not normally ill and was a little shocked to come down with a rather nasty virus that has taken some shaking off. It hasn't completely stopped me being out and about though, although I did have to cancel a meeting today to talk about herbalism, because I didn't feel up to riding on the bus and passing around the germs. It was a good job that I cancelled as I also lost my voice at times too.

Eyre's new boyfriend has been hanging around the place

My little granddaughter was quite upset today as I could only read one book before my voice gave out and I told her I couldn't read any more until later on in the day - well actually I squeaked the last bit of information. It was also funny trying to convey to people my desire to get through with a pushchair, as I could rarely shout loud enough to make myself heard and so people ignored me. Having said that my daughter said people rarely moved anyway, so it wouldn't have mattered if I had been loud enough apparently.

Taking a rest in the garden centre

So backtracking up a bit, some of the fun things I have done this week is to plant seeds with my grandson. These were seeds I had bought for him in January to grow his own salad. We first had to go out with his dad and little sister to buy some compost of course and while we were out we had a drink in a cafe and bought presents for the second birthday party. Such ordinary activities if you live close by I guess, but not so ordinary for me and quite a treat.

Our sheep would have been over those fences in two seconds
flat and certainly not tolerate the visitors in quite the same way

Next was a trip to a working sheep farm. It was amazing to see so many sheep calmly standing around in their pens while people milled around, some just having given birth and some about to. Our three female sheep only have to get the scent of people they don't know and they would be half way down the field and the low fencing they had around the sheep pens at the farm we visited would have proved little obstacle to them. It was quite a clever set up really as they only open to the public when most of the sheep are in the barns. People love to see the lambs the most of course and the rest of the year they are an ordinary farm with the sheep on the hills. They also have tractor rides out onto the South Downs where there were good views for miles around, even out to sea.

The official photo! Two very serious little faces

The selfie taken earlier

I look ever so small sat there. There were five of us in the
car and my daughter-in-law had to squeeze in the back

Saturday we took the long journey up north to the second birthday part and a chance to see all my children and grandchildren together. It is a long time since I was with them all at the same time. My parents came too. Just a pity that Ian couldn't have been there to complete the reunion. The problem of having animals.

Cousins having fun in the park before lunch

A view from the tractor ride towards the free range pig
farm on the opposite hill

My son who had driven me up with his family stayed overnight so we joined our daughter and her family for a time at Messy Church at the local Anglican Church. I was most impressed with the warm welcome and the fact some of the older ladies took the time to say hello and chat a little. It is far more important to make people feel welcomed into a community than to have the most exciting services. You can keep those for all I'm concerned and would much rather sit down for a chat with a nice cup of tea and a sausage sandwich like we did that morning.


Meanwhile back at home Ian says the snow is nearly all gone, the storks are back and Eyre has a boyfriend - so she is definitely going to the vets when I get back. He also said the wagtails were back and tormenting Eyre. I must admit our cats are not good for the baby wagtail population and I wish the cats would stick to hunting mice and not eat the birds. Ian has also seen some little orange butterflies and a bee and the first flowers of spring, the coltsfoot, are out on the oak tree hill. If I am still coughing when I get back I might be making some coltsfoot tea (although I do know it is a plant to be careful of for that)

Just possible to see the sea

And just in case you are wondering, I am feeling quite a bit better this evening, Although it would be nice to have a clear day tomorrow, I am hoping that I won't be taking any bugs back because I have been threatened with being put in quarantine by Ian otherwise.

Wash out?

A stormy scene

We had one of those rain storms this last week that results in instant flooding within minutes. Ian had just finished planting beans before the rain, so they would be "watered in," when the heavens opened and the deluge began. The rain washed gullies in the side of the road and started to eat into it in places. It also washed the woodchippings down off our roadway near our barn and into the woods. They've been down since late last year, so have already withstood the odd heavy downpour before now and the spring melts, with no problems. This time Ian recovered four wheelbarrow loads of chippings from the forest edge. The rain also ended up pouring through the roof of the boys shed. Ian has rigged up temporary plastic sheeting to keep the boys dry, as it has needed fixing for a while, but he knew it wouldn't stand the volume of water that was pouring down, so he spent the duration of the storm in their shed encouraging the water to flow the right way. At one point he realised that he was standing in a puddle of water, as the water was also pouring in through the front door. He will get around to fixing the roof, but just hasn't either had the weather or the time to get going on that yet.

Our damaged woodchipping road

Flooding around the sandpit at outside our apartment

The barn was flooded too

The good news is that at least it looks like the buckwheat, oats and barley all withstood the downpour. We weren't sure if they had germinated or not and there were small gullies in the fields, but in the following few days the shoots really began to show. The beans maybe a different story, as we can see places where there are groups of them and Ian used the seed planter to plant them in rows and it is too soon to tell where they ended up. At least the animals enjoyed the fresher day following the storm, the girls especially as they actually made it out of the shed. They still haven't produced yet and so Ian is still on babywatch.

The girls enjoyed the soaking to cool off

Looking for chicken food?

We have had two lots of visitors this week. The first was a young couple and an even younger relative of theirs. We haven't seen the husband for ten years, but we have known him since we first came to Latvia, his new wife is someone we don't think we have met before, but you never know, as she did go to the same camp we have been to, but she was rather small to remember much and I think she will have changed somewhat for us to recognise her. Now that's scary! The young wife's mother lives in one of the neighbouring villages and wanted some hens and we decided to reduce the number of free range hens we have, so we struck a deal. I have mentioned before that two of them in particular had got into bad habits and were wandering too far, which was encouraging the others to do the same. The young cockerel was partly to blame too, but we wondered what would happen if there were less ladies to look after and if those particular ladies didn't wander as much, would that curtail his meanderings? Well so far the wandering seems to have reduced, although I have still found the errant young chap in our greenhouse again! I think he is getting the idea that the ladies are not for wandering as well, at least I hope so. I am hoping that the change of area, will also settle down the older ladies that we gave away. We know the younger two were not so bothered about wandering far from the hen house and with a new cockerel, hopefully that will keep them in order.

After the rain, looking down the hill

Five days later the oats are greening up now (looking up
the hill)

After the storm 

Five days later the barley is showing some strong growth

Feeding the alpacas, although on this occasion it is Ian
feeding these two as they weren't so cooperative today,
the girls were though (and no, Ian isn't in a dress and
wearing a blonde wig, he is standing on the other side
of our visitor)

The second group of visitors was a last minute arrangement. My supervisor was at his summer home in Latvia and it was his birthday, so he invited a few colleagues down from Estonia to join him, as well as Ian and I. Unfortunately Ian couldn't join me, as the timing for putting animals away would not have fit in with a trip up and the folks coming down from Estonia, so I went on my own. It was nice to meet up with folks in a more relaxed setting and we had some quite interesting conversations. The guys all went for a sauna from time to time, but a younger lass and I didn't join in that part. The downside was the mosquitoes have emerged and I got well and truly bitten and the bites have been driving me mad for two days. I can't remember how we got onto the subject of manure, but at one point my other supervisor mentioned that he had just got some chicken shit for his garden, at which point I remembered that Ian, in a half joking way, had said that there was some alpaca poo in the back of the car , if anyone wanted to take it, (not quite sure why we had half a bag of alpaca poo in the car, but there you go), so I relayed the information. Cor! I never had such an immediate response and my supervisor said definitely he would take it. It was only a small, half bag, but at least he was happy with that. Next time I ought to take more and think how much to charge, as he did offer to pay for it. Some of the folks were travelling back up to Estonia in the early morning, but some weren't and so I extended a welcome to see our land and of course our alpacas, which was accepted. I somehow think, folks wouldn't be as quick to come if it wasn't for our alpacas. So we had a pleasant early afternoon sat in the shade of the barn, since it was so hot, after a brief tour of our land and a visit to the alpacas.

Does my bum look big in this? No but the belly does. Ian
has seen the little one kicking too

Hmmph! I would rather you didn't take pictures of my rear
end

Oh look! Dandelion heads

The rest of the week has been studying, surprise, surprise. I am at the stage though, where I am going to have to submit a reduced version of the final piece, as I just do not have the time to complete the review I'm writing, within the time frame that I have. I am sure I already have more than enough to pass the course, but I want to use the work for other personal assignments towards my PhD and so I will have to come back to it at a later date. Rather annoying, but time is of the essence, especially when I have to organise a reflection workshop for an organisation on Friday. Busy week! Actually I am quite pleased it's a busy week this week, as it means that I haven't paid too much attention to the European elections. We didn't vote this time around, but that was due to a mix up regarding some papers we should have sent back. Anyway I am still appalled at the rise of the more extreme elements of the political factions and I just hope and pray that it wakes up the more moderate politicians to engage better with the electorate, rather than see a slide into fascism.

Estelle after her shower

Veronica, not looking her best

Ian's been busy of course this week.
This contraption is hopefully what we
will use to restrain the alapacas when
they are being sheared. Not been tested yet

Ian added some windows at my height to improve ventilation
in the greenhouse

Looking outwards

He has also been cutting grass again. We noticed that cow
parsley was beginning to flower and we don't want that
going to seed. It is a biannual, so a couple of years of making
sure it is cut, will hopefully put a stop to that particular weed.
Pity that wouldn't stop the dandelions.