Cooling down

At least here they are just chasing each other
around. It will do some of them some good and
a good work out to warm themselves up.

We had a heavy frost this morning and several, large flocks of geese were making a determined headway southwards. Yes! Winter is creeping up. Not quite here yet, but you can hear its whisper in the cold northerly breeze, or the crunch of the ice underfoot on a frosty morning. Today was one of those glorious late autumn days, crisp in the morning and bright sunshine all day. The boys came out fighting, only Turbjørn didn't join in at all. Something was in the air as they are not normally like that. The younger boys usually get a bit argumentative in the evenings, but never in the mornings. The nip in the air didn't leave all day, but at least it was better than the damp, wet days, which we've had a few too many of just lately.

The physio came out to see Turbjørn this last week.
He had a painful spot on his neck, not just the 
stiffness he normally has these days. She gave him
some laser heat treatment on it and Ian is giving
him regular treatments with the heat pad again. Mind
you, he's not that bad as he's still sitting outside when
it rains. He was so wet one morning that Ian couldn't
use the heat pad - he would have sizzled.

Oh oh! This is looking serious

Sunday morning I cut down the shrivelled remains of the Jerusalem artichokes and started the process of digging up the tubers - at least enough to clear some ground for Ian to dump the alpaca manure and expand the bed widthways. The rain set in for the afternoon, but fortunately I had some proofreading to occupy my time. I also dug up the dahlias that I raised from seed this year. The tubers are drying off in the little greenhouse ready to be taken back to the apartment. I also cleared and mulched another bed and so now nearly all the beds are settled down for their winter sleep. 

Not just the odd flock of geese this time. Lots
of flocks have been flying over. Winter won't 
be long now, so they say!

Wish vegetable gardening was this easy. Just
put the animals out on the grass and let them
eat it down. Not much mowing goes on these
days.

I need to work on the garden for next year, as it has started to get out of hand and take too long to deal with. I'm thinking of a very low maintenance to no veg gardening next year to give me time to get the flower and herb garden sorted and make the veg beds more manageable. It doesn't mean we will have nothing to eat from the garden, there are plenty of herbs. 

There are some gardeners on our land who we 
do not appreciate. The moles have been
working overtime. They are all round the
greenhouse and have even been digging up in our
new greenhouse now. They are in various places
in the fields. They also dug up the ditch and
blocked it so Ian has taken up the small bridges
and has re-dug it. So far they haven't been back-
close but not back yet! 

Such a glorious golden autumn

There are also plenty of wild edible weeds that we eat a lot of in spring and I can sort of cultivate them too. Nettles are really nutritious and if we cut them back they can be harvested later too. I've already put some potatoes in to see if they will be okay over winter. I know I've tried it before and it didn't work but then again the winter was hard that year. We seem to have lots of potatoes that grow up anyway where I haven't planted them and they are cheap to replace, so no big worries. 

...panning round a bit more

Such a profusion of colours, all bathed in a 
golden light

I might also buy some plants instead of trying to raise them myself and put some seeds in that can overwinter. I tried it before with parsnips and that worked really well. Those sorts of veg don't seem to need a lot of work and so can just sort themselves out with a bit of mulching later on. . Once I have the garden under control I could then think about late summer and autumn vegetables as they seem to be doing okay. The garlic is already in too. It is easy to put that kind of thing in after the potatoes have been removed (I say removed rather than dug up as I don't use a spade - no need and a lot fewer losses from spade or fork damage). After the potatoes the bed is clear and just needs a quick raking over and then mulching. 

Then we had the damp squib of a day which
drained the colour and makes the photos look
like a slightly faded one from the 70s. Karla 
and Lolly were wet through this week, but
none the worse for it.

Generally they get on, but sometimes little Lolly
pushes Karla to her limit. Karla is smaller in
height but much stronger than Lolly. But 
Lolly can outrun all the girls I think with her
long legs and boundless energy.

Another aspect I really need to sort out is compost. We have plenty of manure and that, but not a convenient place to compost it all. I need the compost for starting seeds and it seems daft to buy it in when we have so much stuff that could be composted. I could do with doing some hot composting to get rid of weed seeds and then bagging it up, but I just don't seem to get organised enough for the beginning of the year. April and May is just such a busy time, both for the academic and agricultural year, that trying to fit in finding compost, raising seeds, finding sticks for beans and so on, all gets too much. Starting earlier isn't an option either in our short season, as the ground can still be frozen in March and we still risk hard frosts and snow. 

Like miniature stained glass windows.

Looking gorgeous there Mr. P

Ian will have to get cracking with wood chopping, as now we have finally got the wood to the apartment and down in the cellar there, ready for our return in winter. I say we. We both stacked the horse box and Ian did one run to the apartment on his own. I had work to do and there was rain forecast which makes getting the horse box on and off the land tricky, so he made a start. We both went another morning to finish it off. We made it before it rained anyway. It would have been done earlier but we had a problem with a delivery of flour. I get my organic flour online and it was too heavy to use the post box and it had to be sent by courier. Well there are problems with our address since the administrative changes as there are now two places in our larger municipality with the same name and the courier got the wrong one. I always wince when people swear in my language. I'm not the swearing sort and so this just kind of compounds it. I did feel sorry for him though as I know they are on a tight schedule. 

A soggy Brencis

Mr. Tellus with a few glistening jewels

I heard last week that the paper that seems to have gone on for ever has finally been accepted. I sighed a huge sigh of relief but then got a message that they would like a summary of the paper for policymakers and the general public. Oh boy! Just condense 18 months of work into 1000 words please! Don't use anything too technical! Okay but it's one of the most technical papers I've ever written.... so....anyway it's done and sent off to my colleagues to comment on. Work seemed to be piling up this last week but at least I've managed to clear some backlogs in the last two days and can now get back on with the more routine side of things - whatever that is. 

A two-tone George

Golden morning rain with Freddie and Jakobs

A rainbow in our forest

The other end of the rainbow on the hill

Two-tone George on a frosty morning

Josefs and Freddie fighting

Still at it

Josefs taking a breather

Morning jog

Father and son wrestling now.

Now it's Freddie and George's turn. But don't
worry, Ian calmed them down after a while and
no one was hurt.

Ice on the car

A disagreement this time between Freddie and 
Jakobs.

You're supposed to fly south!

A glorious autumnal day

Have we missed winter? Did we fall asleep and not wake up for months? It felt like that on Sunday when a small flock of large geese flew north east. After a few minutes one lone goose flew south west. It was honking away as if to say, "I told you all, you're flying the wrong way, but would you listen? No!" I knew how it was feeling. There are times I feel like I'm just flying the opposite way to everyone else, but I think we all feel like that from time to time. 

....but winter is on its way. The photo looks 
greener than it did that morning

...to prove my point

Well, Latvia is in a state of emergency again for the next three months. People are simply not getting vaccinated in enough numbers. The government are organising mobile vaccination clinics and hopefully that will help in the more rural areas. There are also more restrictions on non-vaccinated people, which seems to be providing an incentive to get in line to get the jab. Meanwhile Sweden, Norway and Denmark have reopened after they have vaccinated a high proportion of their population. It's not rocket science. Vaccines work. It brings down the incidence. It reduces the severity of the disease even if you do get the virus. But as long as people are not getting vaccinated in enough numbers this whole stupid situation continues and the virus goes round and round and round.

Mari. Ian mulched this long, dry grass today

Two trailers! There's a kids story in there 
somewhere. 

Not sure if ivermectin is a thing in Latvia but I understand that it is elsewhere in the world. Marvellous! So not only do we have a virus circulating around due to a lack of vaccinated people we are storing up problems for resistant parasites, as people take ivermectin as a precaution against Covid19. There is already a huge problem in the livestock industry of resistant parasites. So mange anyone? And yes people can get it too and it's called scabies. Or maybe a nice intestinal parasite like roundworm or a wonderful case of lice. Oh life will be fun when we can't get rid of these things because they are resistant. It will add to our woes with failing antibiotics due to overuse. 

The girls enjoying the sunny spots these days, 
after spending the summer seeking the shade.

Silla!

Well life for us does carry on in our little rural bubble, especially as we've closed the farm to visitors for the winter, so I don't think we slept the winter away. Our caravan is now back in the greenhouse. It didn't seem to go in very easily and it took a bit of too-ing and fro-ing to get it up the ramp and in but at least there were no disasters - close but not disasters. It's a good job that this autumn hasn't been as wet as last year, because it was mid-November before we got the caravan in the greenhouse that year. The weather this October though has been mainly dry and over the weekend it has been glorious, if a little cool. This last week we had a couple of hard frosts that finished off any tender plants, but we still have plenty of hardy stuff in the garden.  

Spot the babies! They're getting big now

Not long before Ilvija will be scanned to see if
she's pregnant.

The dark blue grapes have now been cut back, a bucketful of them steamed and some of the remains sieved. I did give up after the third attempt at unjamming the hand food strainer though. This was despite using the right insert in the strainer that is supposed to handle grape pips. Oh well! The tub full of pulp was added to what might be the last of the autumn raspberries and steamed in the pressure cooker to add to porridge over the winter. Another job done. We still have other grapes and they will have to be cut soon, but they've held up under the frosts. 

Aggie. She's a funny one. She seems like she's
almost getting motherly with Lolly. A bit late now.

Aggie's eye is slowly getting better now. She's
had more antibiotics and now on a steroid
cream as well. It might be caused by ingrowing
eyelashes but we will check again, once all
the swelling has gone down.

Today was glorious again and so I took half a day off to stack wood in the horse box with Ian. That's another job that needed to be done before winter rains set in. That was enough for Ian's back and so I will take another half day off to help him stack it in the basement. It felt a bit of an odd day, frosty first thing but then a relatively warm wind from the south. No wonder those geese were confused. It felt like something was in the air, a wind of change. I'm basically an optimist, despite the rant above, my optimism keeps me going, pushing forwards for change. It's six years since the song, "Winds of change" hammered into my brain (link). Six years ago seems like a lifetime away and so many situations have taken a turn for the worse. More countries feel precarious or on the edge. 

Lolly has grown well on grass and bottles of milk
from the neighbour's cows. Ian has dropped one 
of her feeds in preparation for weaning and also
to ensure she is ready for when we do go back
to the apartment and cannot give her late night 
feeds.

Karla looking dreamy

But it is times like these when change happens. A generation has gone since the Scorpions sang their song and now it is time for a new generation to rise up and step away from the path that others have trod towards destroying the planet on which we live. Change scares us, but staying the same scares me more. I want to pass on a living, breathing planet to my children and grandchildren. Not a shrivelled up wasteland that we are preparing for them at the moment. We've seen in the last couple of years that if nature is given space it can grow in abundance. It can fill the gap. If we don't! It's not even worth contemplating. So I will continue on my path of looking towards the landscape changes that will be needed to give nature and people space to breathe. The paths that involve political change, individual change, system change, the lot. That path will also continue on our own land, as I give myself room to breathe and space to think. It's been awhile!

Vanessa soaking up the sun again

Sometimes there two are the best of pals and
sometimes they're not. Like kids really!

Chanel is still giving us cause for concern. She
might be having a course of ivermectin. At least
in this case it will be used for what it is intended 
to be used for as an anti-parasite medicine to treat
mites. 

A wintry blast

It was about -3C or -4C this morning. A wee bit
chilly after the comparatively warm days we've
been having but not exactly unexpected for this
time of the year.

We woke this morning to a very heavy frost. So that's it for the raspberries then. We hadn't got around to picking them all, but we do have quite a few in the freezer anyway, so I don't feel too bad about not getting them all in before the rain then the frost. The poor little chicks spent much of the time today in their box - but they do have their heater, so not too bad. They still need to fully feather up yet and probably put a bit more weight on to be able to tolerate the cold. This week has been mainly wet though and there is mud everywhere. It was nice to see some sunshine finally on Friday and today. 

It's a hard life being a kitten

Keeping warm

Ian found this rather sleepy toad in
the barn drain today. It has been
released into one of our ponds. It
will be better to overwinter there
than in a shallow drain in the barn.

I mentioned last week that I had to decide whether to travel up to Estonia last week for my graduation. The university emailed me a letter confirming that the travel was for my graduation and hence it was related to my studies, which was still allowed for those travelling from Latvia to Estonia. Estonia was also still on the white list last week and so fine for me travelling back. So much to take in for a day of travel. I travelled there and back by car within the day, a journey I used to do over two days on public transport. On public transport I can work, but that is not exactly possible whilst driving - well not recommended anyway. In the end the letter was not needed and the travel was event free.

Ian had to move the fence for these girls this week.
It is always hard at this time of the year as the 
grass gets shorter and shorter in supply. They would
still prefer to be out on the grass than eating hay 
though.

One of Ian's jobs this week was to remove
the mud and the hump outside the barn to let
the water drain away, rather than into the barn.
It seems to be working so far. It's better than
it was

My friend needed the car that I was being lent the night before so Ian drove me into the village early in the morning of the graduation to collect the car. The idea was that I should go straight to Estonia from there but as I set off I realised I had forgotten my flask of coffee. I figured it was quicker to go back and get it, as well as safer, than stopping off en-route to buy a coffee. Some of the places I was travelling through had higher rates of the virus than where we live or where I was travelling to. The ridiculous partt is that I had to ensure my travel arrangements were okay for crossing the border and yet I wouldn't have needed to take these precautions travelling into Riga where the rate is much higher. Quarantining Riga would make a lot of sense for curbing the virus in Latvia but more problematic for those who live outside and work there. More politically problematic too I imagine.

Amanda wants to know what all the fuss is about

The boys will need moving soon too. 

My day of travel was timed perfectly. The following day there were announcements that more restrictions were being introduced as the situation is escalating in the country and more are testing positive for Covid19/ Unfortunately there are more deaths each day too. The rate is not as bad as in many countries in Europe but the health service in Latvia is not as good either, so definitely best to keep the rate down than deal with a full blown epidemic. The numbers are escalating in Estonia too and even more so in Lithuania - the Baltic bubble has definitely burst. 

Valeria always looks so toothy bless her, but her
teeth are fine. Here she is enjoying some sunshine

Valeria's rather bossy mother, Vanessa, however,
wants to know if everyone is behaving?

As good as gold, hones!

I arrived early enough at the university to say, "Hi!" to my colleagues and stop for a socially distanced cup of tea and a chat. I then arrived at the venue, where someone squirted hand santitiser onto my hands and someone gave me a mask to wear. I now have a nice new mask with the words, "Eesti maaülikool hoolib", which translates as, "The Estonian University of Life Sciences cares". Not that many will be able to understand that except in Estonia where I cannot now travel to. "Oh the tangled webs we weave!" I did have my own mask but it seemed fitting to have something that would remind me of the strange times we currently live in, besides the diploma and the rose that I was given on the day in recognition of the culmination of a 12 year journey. 

I call this a Botswana agate sky. I love the mix
of greys and pinks

Taken from the live screening on my son's telly

The one upside to these strange times is the live streaming of the ceremony. Unfortunately the quality was not so good and it kept buffering and stalling. Still at least some of my relatives got to watch it, who wouldn't have been able to get to the ceremony anyway, Covid19 or no Covid19. Some of my grandkids organised a party to celebrate and watched all of it, even though much of it was in Estonian. I was hoping to join their party online but missed my chance to escape the auditorium at the end of the presentations of the diplomas to those who had gained their doctorates and ending up sitting through the presentation of more diplomas - not sure what they were for, but that's the way it goes when you cannot follow along in another language. 

Before the sun peeped up and revealed the frost.

Just beautiful to watch while having breakfast

The moon this morning. I'm glad it wasn't out
last night otherwise the milk way wouldn't have
been as stunning as it was.

After the presentations had finally finished I joined a couple of friends for a short celebration and so I could eat before heading home. It had been a while since I had seen them, although both of them had managed to make it down to see us in the times of the Baltic bubble over the summer. The trip home was absolutely glorious. The sun was setting - actually the sun had appeared from the gloom it had hidden behind all week for a start - in the process it turned the whole of the landscape a beautiful hue of gold that glowed and shimmered. The sun also at one point completely dazzled me and there was a moment of panic as I could not see what was in front of me and couldn't stop because I knew someone was too close behind me.  I managed to see the barrier at the side and kept my eye on that and looked for the red lights of the car in front. Fortunately in Estonia (and Latvia) car lights have to be on all the time. 

I love wintry mornings

A deer in our forest, quite close to our alpacas.
Ian spotted some on our ski hill and they have
been there a lot just recently, so he went to 
collect some of their poo and tested it. He wanted
to know what parasites they have because of
course they could infect our alpacas too. He 
classified them as needing monitoring - well
if they were one of our alpacas he would have!
They were not stuffed with parasites but would
need watching to treat if it got worse.

A rainbow but just the red from the setting sun

I would have loved to have stopped to take a photo of the fabulous scenery, but the drive would be long and I knew I would be tired by the time I got back. Still it seemed fitting as the end of an era that the sun would set in such a glorious fashion. 

I'm not talking to you!

That glorious end to my journey of gaining a doctorate was followed by a rather gloomy weekend. Fortunately that was just in terms of the weather. Our first job was to cut the toe nails of our rather spitty girls, give them Vitamin D injections and put cream on the feet of one. By the time we had finished I needed to wash my newly washed coat. I also had to change my jeans before driving our friends car back to them. The rest of the weekend involved finishing of preserving some food and doing a seed stock take, so I could order some more from my favourite seed company before Brexit scuppers that. Normally I order in the New Year because there is no hurry to get things started when winter is so long.

No closer! Dear Chanel! She can be very sweet 
and timid sometimes, a trait she has passed onto
her children. Unfortunately, she inherited her
spitiness from her mother. I'm just pleased she does
not do this to visitors. 

Caterpillars at this time of the year?
Hiding in my cabbages. 

So that's it! A new era begins and new chapter of my life to write. I know for now I have work until the end of the year and then we shall see what happens. At least I have started the process of getting my residence sorted in preparation for Brexit. After that? Who knows?

Marie was a bit feisty about having her toe nails 
cut. She has quite a kick on her. 

Even Veronica wasn't behaving terribly well. Still
bless her she cannot get away as easily these days.
She manages okay on her unsteady old legs (she's
17 years old) but toe nail cutting of her front legs
has her old legs shaking.

Ilvija at least was better behaved than her mother, 
which meant that at least Chanel didn't spit so much
as we were cutting Ilvija's toe nails. Mind you, I had
my hood up in anticipation and Chanel was on the
other side of the gate.

We are still worried about Aggie's eye, but it reminds
us of her mother. We now think she might need 
extra zinc. Now to get some! Easier said than 
done sometimes.