Lots of visiting

Ian was hunting alpacas in the fog today
meanwhile I had lovely blue skies and a
gorgeous sunset on my walk back to the
hostel in Uppsala, Sweden

I’m a little fed up tonight and it is probably because I’m tired and in a strange environment. I actually worked in an office today and it was really weird. I had a meeting this morning with a very nice chap north of Uppsala in Sweden. I am currently on a study trip at the Swedish Agricultural University, the aim is to make connections and so I am being hosted by one of the Professors. He drove me to the meeting, introduced me and facilitated the exchange of ideas, which was great. It was very productive and led to some possible avenues for future work, although as usual, it is all dependent on getting funding. So far so good! The professor then took me to the university and showed me around, so definitely no complaints with hospitality, I feel very well looked after. After showing me where to get lunch he then left me to my own devices to work in his office, which was fine, but like I said it’s weird, as I have always worked in the home or from home before and definitely never in an office.

Ian's view today

Yes we did have more snow and yes it virtually disappeared
again. I have been showing off my scarf this week that
contains some of Chanel's and Mari's fleece 

So the reason I’m fed up? It is in trying to get online and the fact my computer is acting strange. It is getting a bit cranky anyway and the last thing I want is for it to suddenly start doing odd things like reverting to factory settings for my desktop picture like it did tonight or taking ages to connect through to the internet on different systems, both at the university and here at the hostel. I even resorted to writing this blog in Word so I don’t have to spend ages doing it online. I also tried to connect my camera to the internet and at first it didn’t want to get online either. It wouldn’t find the connection. Of course it could be the hostel’s own system, but to deal with that it would mean going up to the house and finding someone to sort the problem out. There are not many staff about because it is out of season and there are not many guests around, especially yesterday as I was the only one. It also means a trip outside as I am in a kind of chalet (must remember to take some photos tomorrow). Anyway it isn’t the end of the world and I am sure a goodnights sleep will help. Well it will help me, not necessarily the internet connection. 

The sheep looking fairly ghostly

Heather gave me this scarf. It has a pink silk panel with
alpaca and merino felting. I think it is absolutely gorgeous.
Sorry the photo does not do it justice, but I wanted to show
you all

Last week was quite a hectic but pleasant week. As I mentioned in my belated post yesterday, Heather Potten came with her husband and I was showing her around the different activities we could try when we hold a felting course next year. We want to attract people from abroad to do felting but also to experience more of Latvia and what it has to offer. Of course we are out in rural Latvia with lots of interesting activities but they are maybe not the most sophisticated kind of activities all the time, but we do think it will be fun.  

A random photo from a while ago. I finally
worked out how to get photos off my camera
without the lead, which I can't find at the
moment

Mari tucking into the "tasty" snow

We of course went to see the alpacas and then we went to a neighbour who makes his own alcohol. Everyone else got to try it but I was the designated driver, so I didn’t. There were some interesting combinations, some apparently were better than others, but the whole trip was very entertaining with a very theatrical host. We had a guided tour around a porcelain factory and saw what we could do there and finished that day off with a trip to a very nice restaurant that Ian and I have never been to before. We decided this will make an excellent end of course dinner. We went to the local museum on a beautiful, sunny, crisp, winters day. The view from the top of the nearby museum was gorgeous, just not so easy to visualise it on a summer’s day, at least it will be warmer. 

Brencis lapping up the sunshine

On the way to Riga. The ipad does not do justice to the
colours of the sunset

We did get to do some felting at least on one day, we had hoped to do more, but it didn’t quite work out that way. When I get back I will have to do plenty of test samples to work out exactly what the properties are for each alpaca. Some have fleeces that felt better than others and we are trying to work out what the characteristics are that make it work easier. 

Tubjørn also lapping up the sunshine but he does look funny,
as if he is deeply meditating or singing - I assure you he
wasn't.

A gorgeous sunset, but like I said, the ipad
didn't do it justice

All too soon the week was over. We had enjoyed some good food, some warm Latvian hospitality and some great conversations. We have just about managed to put a plan together for the week and we now need to finalise a few costs and then it will be ready for promoting early next year. We finished the week off with a quick visit to our friend’s goat farm where we hope to sample or even make cheese and after a quick lunch I said goodbye to Ian and went with Heather and her husband to the airport. They were flying on the same day as I was, but they were going later, so they dropped me off and headed back into Riga. I meanwhile headed for Sweden.

Tellus and Brencis were having a disagreement 

Mr. P. taking the wisest option and staying out of it

Lady V contemplating life

I flew into Stockholm and caught the bus to Uppsala where I was met by the Professor. He ensured I was safely deposited at the hostel, with a bus card so I can get around and a map to make sure I don’t get lost. The following day he invited me to see the ecovillage where he lives, as well as the nature park and agricultural areas nearby and then we went on to have lunch with his wife at his home, like I said earlier, I feel very well looked after. 

A gorgeous sunrise in our village

Race against time

Is it safe to come out now?

Not sure if our alpacas were relieved, but we finally collected the shears and they worked. The two unshorn alpacas were spending a lot of time in their shed because of the heat and not looking terribly happy. Now they are shorn, they are not terribly happy with the horseflies, but that's a different issue entirely. Our son and I tried valiantly to hold the alpacas down whilst they were being sheared by Ian in 29C (84F) heat, but that didn't work and in the end we made an emergency phone call to a friend of ours to come and help. It didn't help that our son's back was playing up either. Fortunately our Latvian friend works on the local sheep farm and was able to come over. He's used to handling sheep, even the large rams and often gives the sheep a pedicure, so our alpacas not only got a hair cut but a pedicure too. I think the alpacas are getting used to him, as he's helped us before, or they recognise the strength he has, he is quite gentle but firm with them and they quietened on down for him. Every now and again they did fight back, whenever they felt a bit of leeway, but on the whole they were fairly placid, despite the attention from all the biting insects around.

Well that doesn't look tooooo bad I think!

Franken bucket holder. Franken objects are defined in this
household as objects made from previously used items. We
now have a variety of franken objects around (see previous
posts)

For those who remember my emergency dental treatment back in Australia in April, I have been in the process of trying to get the money back out of the insurance company. I have now spent over eighty minutes on the phone to various people, being passed from pillar to post trying to sort it out. I have to say they were all terribly sorry and tried to be helpful, but unfortunately mainly useless in getting the issue sorted. Eventually I ended up with the right person, who got someone to phone me back and within five minutes of that phone call I knew what was needed to continue with the application. Hopefully we now have some resolution regarding this. I can hope.

A new chicken hutch to hold the older birds, where they
can free range around the alpaca paddock and hopefully
keep some of the insect population down. We need this
finished before the newest chicks are ready to move
outside into the box that we have the last lot of chicks in,
so three weeks maximum and there is a hay harvest to fit in
as well.

It now feels like a race against time, as I have still been planting some seeds and planting out some squash plants that have been sat in pots for ages and wondering if it is worth it or not? Will there be time for them to develop or not. There is still time to plant some of the quick crops like radish and the like and the crops that will stand in the autumn like the kale, but as for anything else, not really sure and I certainly do not want to be managing seedlings while sorting out the hay harvest. One of the reasons it has felt like a race is when one of our neighbours noticed some apples on a tree and commented "another month and then the harvest." As usual there is a cry that wells up that says "but the season has only just begun"

At least three sides are finished, just the roof and the back.
We are trying to work out the best way to gain access to the
nests before Ian finishes it off.

Our son and his wife and baby went back to the UKon Thursday, for a rest I think and our new guest came on Saturday. Just enough time to turn around really. I hoped they enjoyed themselves anyway and our son can now add alpaca handler to his CV. I think they enjoyed the bakery the most though, as it makes for a nice walk - well most of the way after navigating fly alley. There is a spot, in what must be a swampy area, that buzzes with flies that lay in wait for them. At least the pastries and the ice creams were worth the effort I' sure. I will miss the cuddles with our grandson, but it is something we always realised would be an issue with living so far apart and so I'm quite at peace about it. I will enjoy them when they are here as much as possible and be content when they are not around.

Some creative decorations outside our local
supermarket

Our new guest has been brilliant at helping out and halving the time of some jobs. One afternoon she processed a bucket of strawberries, a job she remembers well from last year when she came to help me, as she has only just recovered from the over indulgence in order to enjoy them again. Another day it was two buckets, while I packed some of them into jars and syrup and made cordial out of the squashy ones and the ends that were cut off. Waste not want not! There were still three trays to freeze too. Today we spent about four hours while I weeded the potatoes which resembled a sea of greenery and she put a layer of straw around the plants to prevent as much regrowth as possible. The straw will also keep the potatoes moist in what still looks like a rather warm summer ahead, even if today was blissfully cooler.

These little fellas are outside the local technical school.
One seems a little worse for wear

One of the ways we keep in touch is facebook of course, doesn't everyone? Well the answer is no because Ian doesn't use facebook at all, but at least I can keep in touch that way. I keep in touch with a few people through facebook and like to read the posts, what I hate though is the fact that adverts have started appearing in the news feeds. It seems like a real intrusion, a bit like being out for a walk around town and having a flyer thrust at you in a way that you can't help but take it. I was pleased, therefore, that some companies are beginning to take notice of how they are presented on facebook. Companies do not want their adverts placed in inappropriate places, such as on controversial pages that they have no wish to be associated with. Maybe they will realise that their adverts placed in news feeds is too intrusive too and withdraw their backing. I can live in hope anyway.

A record, four baby storks outside our other apartment

As anyone who follows my blog for any time will know I am studying towards a PhD and my studies are about trying to get participatory involvement central to development in rural areas (in other words letting people have a say in development that affects them). This means I get to talk to lots of different people in my capacity as a researcher - I really love that aspect. There are a couple of issues that keep cropping up though and one of them is Latvians admit to not collaborating well, and they acknowledge it as a problem. This is based on the lack of trust that many have for each other, again something they are aware of. Collaboration, cooperatives and trust are all issues partly because of the complicated history of Latvia, sometimes from the World War era and sometimes from the Soviet times and the subsequent chaotic collapse of that system. A blog "Latvian History" does a good job of highlighting the difficulties faced by Latvians during the different periods of time and the authors most recent blog on the Latvian soldiers in the red army demonstrates particularly well the complicated history of this land.  I just pray that at some point in time, the Latvian people will be able to reconcile themselves with the past and move on, after all we have found them to be a generous and kind people and we would wish them to be able to trust each other enough to work together better.

Cultural quandaries

Our village is getting a new hydroelectric
plant - not sure if it replaces the old one or is
in addition to it but the river has been
dredged in preparation. Before it was
dredged I went to get some water mint from
the riverside. I am so pleased I did as the rest
is now under gravel. Wonder what else was
lost under that and did they do an
environmental assessment first?

Culture is a funny thing and cultural expectations are so varied that it is difficult to know what to do sometimes, especially in a different country. Mind you culture and traditions even varies from family to family. In England if someone called in at our house, the first thing we would have done is offered a tea or a coffee and we loved it when people called round unexpectedly, we just loved having visitors. Some people though didn't like unexpected visitors and liked to be phoned beforehand or an appointment arranged. We found it quite hard in Denmark that we had to arrange weeks in advance to see someone, it was rare for a spontaneous event, although I did have one friend who loved unexpected visits, but she had a huge family so she needed to expect the unexpected. Having said that it was usually because families we knew were quite close to relatives and spare time was spent at their homes or having family visit them. In America it was more usual to arrange a meeting at a restaurant, but thankfully I did have a friend who loved to be visited and she lived miles out in the countryside and would always have the kettle on when I arrived.

This is the drained lake, it used to go to the trees and will
do again once they have finished the work on the plant

Here in Latvia, people are lovely but often not very confident and so it has taken us time to get to know people which is fine, I can understand that. It was therefore surprising that one lady we had got to know commented that we passed her house frequently but never stopped for a coffee. We did not expect that we could just drop by, except maybe to ask a question, maybe it is not even very Latvian. The problem is that usually it is just Ian that passes as he travels back from the land, and when it is both of us we can be rather tired, hot and sweaty - not the kind of state where you want to drop by and take a coffee, even if someone says it is okay. However the offer was made and so we decided one evening to call in and spent a lovely evening chatting and drinking tea outside on the patio. I sure think we shall be doing that again sometime soon.

This is the funnel through which the water
will flow

Other things that vary are superstitions. Here in Latvia you cannot give a gift of something that grows, you have to accept payment or it won't grow according to superstition. Shaking hands across a threshold is also to be avoided. It does make you wonder where such superstitions arise from. I remember in England there was a guy who had come to take a look at the house, I can't remember if it was pricing it up to sell or rent and after taking a look around inside we went out the back door and he had a look up the garden, but he would not leave the premises by walking around the house, he insisted on coming back in and leaving by the same door he had entered in by - he said it was bad luck otherwise. I hadn't noticed this work of bad luck personally and would hardly even take notice if I left by a different door to the one we entered. Neither had I noticed that things died that I had been given and I have been given many plants in my time that seem to have thrived even though they were gifts, okay I probably killed one or two in the process but the majority survived. I have to say there is one superstition that I am always hesitant to break and that is walking under a ladder, but to me that is plain common sense, as I always check to see if there is anyone up there before deciding whether to walk around it or under it.

A view from the tractor of our cutting

We have been highly entertained this week with the antics of the young boys who live in the other apartments. They have been having a whale of a time (where does that phrase come from to mean having a fantastic time?) in the sand pit, as they have had the delivery of more sand and they have been digging big holes and filling it up with water, first carried from the pond which must have been hard work, and then from the drain pipe from the roof during a very heavy shower. It was one of those moments when you can see the fun they are having and thinking "thank goodness they are not mine as they are going to need a lot of washing by the time they have finished." I know what it is like to have to clean up after a youngster who has mixed sand and water together. We had a sand pit in our front garden and I had put out a washing up bowl for our youngest to wash himself off before he came in after playing in the sand pit. It was obviously too much of a temptation as he poured the whole lot into the sand pit and plodged away to his hearts content, he had a great time. I had to laugh but oh the mess, he was covered up to his knees in a thick layer of sand. I had to retrieve the washing up bowl and pour water all over him before he could come in.

An eagle looking for an easy meal

Well besides watching the neighbours kids and drinking tea we have been quite busy this week. We had a few days rain and so we took the opportunity to get on with some indoor projects. We have ordered a wardrobe from the local joinery firm, the one who made our kitchen, and I asked him the other day when it might be ready, expecting him to say a couple of months, "Oh about 3 weeks he said." The problem is that we wanted the floor redoing before we got the wardrobe as our bedroom is the only room in the house not to have had the old vinyl taking up and replaced with laminate. Once the wardrobe is in it won't be moving in a hurry, it will be dismantable but not easily at is 150cm wide and 210cm high. It concentrated our minds somewhat and so we got the flooring and laid it this last week - it's looking really nice. Ian also replastered a wall in the hallway that we just haven't got around to finishing off. We could be in serious danger of actually finishing the apartment we live in - well nearly, perhaps! Is it only us who actually finish jobs that need doing just before moving?

Still flying around!

We have also started cutting hay this week as we are expecting a week of no rain or only short showers. We decided to start cutting the hay on the old ski hill as there are no corncrakes there- Ha! That's what we thought anyway. It is better to cut into the middle of a field and then work outwards if there are corncrakes but that is really hard on the ski hill as it is a difficult area to cut anyway and besides we have never heard corncrakes in that area. Yesterday Ian started off with the two wheel tractor cutting a steep part while I got on with some other jobs which included stacking two big piles of hay that has been laying on the ground for far too long. After lunch I started cutting another steep section, if cutting is what you call it. The grass is much longer this year, obviously the hot dry June has benefitted the grass and it has grown well, in fact it is higher than me and I felt like I was fighting the tractor the whole time to get it cut. I am sure the guy cutting the hill at the top on the neighbouring property was having a laugh as there were a few times he came near and would have seen me hanging over the tractor exhausted. Ian meantime used the little big tractor (bigger than a two wheeled tractor but still not what you would call big) to start on the rest of the hill. At about 6pm we called it a day even though there was a small section that still needed cutting right at the top of the hill, but with a big black cloud rolling in and rumbles of thunder the last thing I wanted to do was to be caught in a thunderstorm at the top of the hill with a piece of equipment I couldn't run with. Ian went back today to finish off cutting with the little big tractor and was just finishing cutting a section when the hay rustled and out popped a young corncrake - they get everywhere! Consequently we have a small refuge in the middle of our ski hill for the young bird, rather than make it fend for itself against the huge number of storks that were following behind Ian waiting for a meal.

Storks are also interested in an easy meal

I was interested to read this week an article by Polly Toynbee on the need for collaboration in the health services rather than an atmosphere of competition. Collaboration works well in many spheres not just the health service if the aim is to help others. Here in Latvia many firms would benefit from collaboration so that they could fulfil bigger orders for export but they are often wary of working with others, usually due to a lack of trust, settling for less rather than working with others. In some ways this is a hangover from the Soviet times where co-operatives were not run for people's benefit but for state decided initiatives but it is also a hangover from the early years of independence when some forms of collaboration were milked by a few to the detriment of many. Collaboration which seeks to make a profit at the expense of people is obviously not desirable as in the case of cartels but some forms need to be encouraged. I for one will be glad to see the back of the need for competition in a profit motivated society. Competition to provide the best service, or the best product or a good price is to be encouraged. I say a good price and not the best price as a good price should be one that reflects the true cost of the product, not paid for by slave labour and yet is also fair to the customer. Hopefully one day companies here in Latvia will see the benefit of working together, each contributing their own expertise at a fair price to the customer. I can live in hope!