Surprise

On my chilly walk to the other apartment. I love the
reeds in the frozen pond though. 

It has been a week full of surprises. Most of them pleasant ones. The first was not though. We went up to our other apartment to heat it, so we don't have frozen pipes and to have a bath while we were up there. At one point the people upstairs must also have been having a bath and let the water out. We heard it gurgling through the pipes and it didn't sound good. I went into the kitchen to find that there was water gushing out of an outlet pipe. Sigh! I quickly got the wet and dry vacuum out and started to suck the water up. Fortunately not much, but still more water seeping into the floor probably on top of those other occasions when we've had a leak at that apartment. It would probably have gurgled up into the bath if we hadn't already had the plug in and water in the bath. We know where the problem is because there have been previous problems with the outlet pipe and so we will call a local company, who hopefully have the right kind of equipment to unblock the pipe.

The sky was glorious though. Winter sky at its best. 

At least the rest of the week was much more pleasant. First of all we got a call and an invite to dinner. It was much appreciated as the call came before I had thought about what we were going to eat. It makes a nice change not to have to think about it. I do all the cooking in our house and Ian washes up - I sometimes make that a difficult job for him. Hahaha! Ian got out of washing up too as they have a dishwasher, so a win all round. I did take a cake but I needed to bake as Ian has now recovered his appetite since we are no longer the house of plague.

As Ian wasn't out on the land today, I had to dig out some
photos from another week. This is Lady V about to eat the
snow

Another plus is our friend's house is warmer than our apartment has been all week. It would seem that the new company does not seem much better than the old one. We are back to temperatures around 16C on normal days like last winter even though it hasn't been too bad up until recently, more like 17-18C. The school apparently wasn't warm enough after the holidays either. Not a good reflection on our local government - again. I was doing a lot of typing one day and so sitting around and suddenly felt rather chilly. The cold had been creeping up on me and when I looked at the thermometer it was reading 14C. No wonder it was a bit chilly for sitting around in.

Not a very good picture, as the barn was rather
dark and the kids wouldn't stay still.

We had to go and update the details for our farm, which a friend of ours does online. When we got to their house they were eating and since we hadn't eaten yet they quickly got out some more plates and we joined them for food. Two meals out in one week. It is so nice to be well enough to visit friends. It would be nice to be able to update the details ourselves but the website is not particularly user friendly even for Latvians. It's a good excuse for a visit anyway and we had plenty of time to chat, until it was time for our friend to go and see to her goats. They are starting to pop at quite a rate again and I think about 2/3rds of the pregnant goats have given birth so far, which I seem to remember was over 40 kids. Phew!

Here the kids are jostling for a place on a
cardboard box. These are all the bottle fed
ones

The next surprise was kind of mind-blowing. I was invited to a meeting in Riga about hosting refugees. I was asked if I would share my brief experience. I hummed and I hawed about it. In the end I thought I was being stupid; just because I was tired, just because I'd been ill, just because it was winter and would mean either an early bus ride in or taking the car and leaving Ian without transport out on the land was not sufficient excuse. It just did not compare to the refugees' often perilous journeys to get to Latvia. I decided I really should go and Ian felt I should too. The next decision was whether to take the bus or car. What decided me was kind of selfish, I took the car as it meant I didn't have to get up so early.

Chanel and Freddie sunbathing next to the alpaca house

To continue a rather bizarre chain of events, at Christmas time my mother had given me some beads to give to a refugee family who were earning a living making jewellery. I asked the family what time they went to church to see if I could arrange a time to pass these beads on. I thought it might clash with the other meeting that I had now decided to go to and was happening at another church, elsewhere in Riga. As it turned out, they would be having coffee before their meeting and it was perfect timing for me to still get to the other meeting. So I arranged to go there first, have a coffee and meet with the couple who ran the church who were British but I hadn't met them before and then make tracks to the other meeting. As I was having my coffee a young American couple were chatting to the the husband about refugees.

Mr. B. It makes us realise how big he is after seeing another
herd of alpacas today. He would tower above them

It turned out they worked with refugees in Texas and had come across to help friends make their own connections with the refugees here in Latvia. It hadn't turned out the way they had hoped as their friends had backed away from the initiatives as they felt it was too hard to help them here in Latvia. People generally have a very negative reaction to refugees for many reasons, mostly out of fear but also historical reasons from Soviet times. The young couple therefore had come to the church I was visiting briefly after finding out the church had had some connections with refugees in the past. They had come to see if they could finally get the kind of connections where they could help out and be of use. The pastor was telling them they didn't really have much contact these days when I chipped in. I told the couple that I was heading to a meeting that afternoon and they would be welcome to join me. I thought the meeting would have the kinds of connections they were after.

Herkules with fully fleeced ears. It is so nice to see this after
all his health issues a few years ago.

So how bizarre is that? This was their last ditch attempt at making the connections they had come all the way from America to make and I just happened to be dropping off a bag of beads to a Syrian jeweller and had the car to take them to a meeting. If that wasn't bizarre enough, I thought I actually recognised the young chap from America. I asked him if he had been to Latvia before and he had. He had lived over here for about six years. I asked him if he had been to our village before (bearing in mind we are about 100km outside of Riga in the middle of nowhere) and he had. It turns out we had met before about 12-13 years ago and he had even worked with one of our sons on the camp next to our land. We met him when we were still only visiting Latvia and hadn't yet moved here, in fact we were still living in Denmark at the time.

Herkules almost looks like he's smiling here too. Such
bright eyes as well.

The refugee meeting itself went fine and we were all able to make connections that should enable us to help more refugees in the future. I returned back home in a bit of a mind-blown daze after dropping the young couple off in town. Just one more bizarre fact, the young American couple are expecting a baby around the same time that our son, who he worked with and his wife are expecting their third. Ian and I ended up eating at the local bakery, as I wanted to process what had happened rather than having to think about what to cook. Well one excuse is as good as another and our bakery does make rather nice cakes.

Tellus in contemplative mood, chewing a piece of grass

Today's adventure was off to a place quite close to somewhere I know quite well. I have visited the little village of Kaldabruņa a few times to meet with an organisation there who are doing fantastic development work with the local people. It turns out that a couple have bought a house and some alpacas quite close to there and so we went to pay them a visit. Any excuse for Ian to talk alpacas really, even if it is quite a trek to get there at this time of year. I heard about this couple from two different sources, there was a lady who had visited recently who had met one of them on a veterinary course for small agricultural animals and then through a friend of a friend of theirs who have three alpacas. I found out about the three alpacas and their owner from the couple who are buying our apartment. Are you still following all this? Life never ceases to amaze me at times with type of networks you can make when you are open to making new contacts.

Sunbathing

After a chilly chat in the barn looking at the alpacas we were warmly welcomed into the home for home-made pizza and apple strudel. Every time my plate was empty the mother of the family put more on my plate, so I was well fed, but Ian talked so much he didn't get to eat as much. The mother commented that Ian's eyes were shining when he was talking about the alpacas and I had to laugh. It sure is a topic close to his heart.

Turbjørn in contemplative mood too. Having alpacas was
not on the horizon for us ten years back. 

And to cap a week of surprises, it is a surprise I am still blogging after 10 years. My first blog was the 18th January 2008 and I started it as we were preparing to move to Latvia. My blog sure documents how much can change in a decade! All three of our children have either got married or got partners and now had their own children. So our family of five is now a family of fifteen and soon to be sixteen. We have gone from one apartment when we moved here to two apartments, 13ha of land, eleven alpacas, three sheep, two cats and 25 chickens. We have got to know people from so many different places in that time too, including people in Estonia on alpaca farms and in Tartu where I am attempting to finish off my PhD. What a journey it has been and little did I realise when I named the blog a Journey to Somewhere, quite what a journey it would be. I wonder what the next ten years will bring?

More spring than winter!

A gorgeous sunset tonight, so hopefully another sunny day
tomorrow. I hope the wind dies down a bit but I doubt it. The
only good thing about the cold wind, it is drying out the
ground after all the wet weather, which means being able to
drive the car onto the land again, rather than parking at
the bottom or just on the crest of the hill, next to the girls'
alpaca house when it is not
quite so bad.

Finally we had more spring like weather than winter this week. There was only a couple of snow showers and of course Ian got caught in them. It seems every time he stepped out of the door on a few of the days this week that he got soaked with rain too. When it snowed there were mutterings about going out in the blizzard and fighting off some polar bears, but fortunately none of it has lasted and gradually the sun has shone more. Unfortunately the wind is bitterly cold and so we have to wrap up warm to sit outside and have coffee, worth it though to soak up some sun. I have to admit to getting more and more nesh with age though and Ian who used to be very nesh, is not as bad as he was (Nesh is an English dialect adjective meaning 'unusually susceptible to cold weather' Wikipedia).

Yup! It's been wet alright! Mr. P sure needs his teeth
trimming. At least he will get that done when he is sheared.
Now just need it to be a tad warmer for when we take those
nice warm coats off

It doesn't help Ian though that his zip has failed on his coat and needed a repair. I don't mind doing most sewing repairs but I hate doing zips, especially on clothes that already have been made. It is not as bad fitting a zip into a new item of clothing, but undoing seams to repair clothes is not my favourite job. In our village is a technical school though and they teach sewing for industrial employment, so I figured someone there would be able to fix the coat and some trousers that have also got faulty zips. I contacted someone we know there and she relayed the message to the teacher. So hopefully now we have dropped them off, they will get repaired. Not sure when, but sometime.

Rather pretty

Someone else expecting too. Ian got to feel their tummies
this week and felt some movement in Mari's and certainly
there seemed like evidence of babies in the other two
youngsters, like Aggie here.

We have had a few announcements this week, the first and most important of course is our son's announcement that grandchild number seven on its way. It is due somewhere towards the end of the year, so we are looking forward to a return trip to the UK to welcome the little one. The not so good announcement, however, is we had a cancellation for our Latvian Alpaca Adventure felting holiday. It is getting quite close now and the time will fly, so it would be good if we could fill this place as quickly as possible. If you know someone who would love to go on a crafty holiday with lots of excursions and accommodation and food included, then please do point them in the direction of our website (click on the link here) there you will see more details of the holiday and costs. If you need more information use the contact form on our website or use the email icon on this page (click on the envelope)

She found a rather nice spot there. There are two bags of
alpaca fleece to make it a rather warm and comfortable spot

Such a charming, "I've just woken up face"

Looking particularly cute and not her usual pesky self. She
has been threatened with declawing after another escapade
up on the greenhouse where she put holes in the plastic.
She also keeps jumping on the tables as soon as we put
out our merchandise and demonstration examples. She can
be fast asleep at the other end of the greenhouse, but as soon
as there is anything like preparations for visitors, she saunters
down. Quite a few were taking pictures of our oh so sweet cat!
Meanwhile I was hovering to ensure she didn't wander across
the stuff with her mucky paws. She has also been threatened
with the cat box next time.

Lady V with a mucky mouth. All of them have this as they
are eating grass close to the ground - not ideal but the
grass is growing so slowly at the moment and Ian has to
move the fences very frequently. Ian also felt Lady V's
tummy and he said she could possibly be pregnant, he
wouldn't be surprised, even though the scan didn't show
anything. She sure is showing all the signs such as standoffish
behaviour and sitting at a slightly odd angle but without any
obvious signs of discomfort. We do hope so, I am sure
she will enjoy retirement after that.

In preparation for the holiday I went off to Riga to see Ieva Prane who will be taking our first felting workshop. She is a textile artist who uses felt, rather than a felter who does artistic designs and so her approach is quite different to the usual approach. We were able to plan how the day will go and what she hopes to achieve during the day. We will also get to hear about her work and see some of her preparations for exhibitions.

Did I say it has been wet! 

It was a horrible day for driving though, it snowed where we are up in the mountains of Latvia (Chortle! Highest peak 312m) but elsewhere it just rained heavily on and off. I had one more appointment in Riga and that was to drop off some beads with Habibi jewellers. They are a couple originating from Aleppo in Syria and establishing a jewellery business in Riga. They also used to make jewellery in Aleppo too, but for obvious reasons they can't now. My parents were jewellers for a long time and owned their own shop, they have retired or at least semi-retired now and had some beads they were willing to donate, to help them along the way. So it was my privilege to get the beads from my parents when I was in the UK to them. It took me a while though, as I just do not go into Riga that often, but it was worth the effort. The beads were much appreciated and I am sure they will go into some lovely pieces.

Very wet and very cold and so not much grass to eat. Don't
worry they have hay they can eat, but I know they prefer
grass.

One of the issues we have had an ongoing battle with here in Latvia is over the heating. In some ways that is not sorted but the issues have changed. It used to be an issue between the heating provider - or not as the case maybe and the apartment block, now we are not sure if it is the apartment block or the heating provider. The heat we get at least now is consistent, but unfortunately it is also fairly cold., usually around 16C and our contract is for 18C +/- 2C. We are not sure if that is to do with the the recirculation pump our house management have put in or the company due to poor relationships with them. It is frustrating for sure. However, one of the reasons we have consistent heat is due to a change in company. The men who used to stoke the fires who were regularly drunk have been fired and now there is a regular supply of woodchip, they don't seem to run out like the previous company did.

Wonder if Tellus is thinking "When will it ever stop raining?"
Ian has been asking the same question for much of the week

What used to be a heating and water company is now just a water company and they have a new director. Unfortunately for him he has all the debts to sort out that were owed to the company, the new heating company did not get any of those. We had a debt with the water and heating company due to our argument with a lack of heat, which we documented. We refused to pay for something we were not receiving - heat! and they kept adding interest charges. At one point, however, the company offered an amnesty and agreed to cancel all interest charges if people would pay their debts. We decided it was a good opportunity to draw a line under the disagreement and worked out how much we owed minus the interest charges and paid up. Only the company disagreed with our calculations, partly due to some rather odd accounting on our bills. This has also been ongoing for quite awhile. We tried several times to get them to sort it and in the end just left it and refused to pay the sum. Now at least we feel the new director, who fortunately speaks reasonable English, is looking into it for us, especially the bills we highlighted as odd for their double interest charges.

Queuing up waiting for Ian to move their fence

This week has been a time of transitioning into caravan living. Our routine tends to now revolve around milk days, which are Tuesdays and Fridays. Our milk is delivered to our apartment block and so it means a trip into our village, which I time with getting the washing done, having a shower and any other chores that need doing while I'm there, such as printing or cleaning ready for visitors. Since there will be people in both apartments for much of the summer I need to get my act together and sort them both out, which means some rearrangement of stuff. I also water the tomatoes and pepper plants which are also waiting for the warmer weather so I can plant them in our greenhouse. Bit of an issue though, not just the frosty nights but also the caravan and chickens are still in the greenhouse, also waiting for the warmer weather. Still at least the rainy weather meant Ian spent time sorting out the caravan so we have more room - often a sign of spring. He also put in a new switch so he can switch the light off without having to get out of bed. I wonder how long I would have had to wait if I requested such a thing?

Gorgeous clouds tonight

Other signs of spring, we heard the first cuckoo of the year, my little daffodils are poking through and we had our first booked group. We were told the group spoke Russian and so arranged with our friend to come and translate into Russian, instead she translated into Latvian, which is easier for her anyway. We have no idea why they requested a Russian translation, although we suspect the tour guide was Russian speaking, even if everyone else were Latvian speakers. At least they were happy enough and it was good to see the men were engaging with the tour, sometimes they do not listen as well, but this time they seem more engaged than some of the women in the group.

RIP Snowdrop

Snowdrop in June of last year

I finished my blog last week with the worry that we were in for a snow storm, fortunately that did not materialise. We have had snow but nothing we couldn't handle. Not so fortunately, however, we lost Snowdrop. Our vet came out again to see her with another vet and both said it felt as if she was pregnant, which we knew would have been extremely unlikely. There was a day when she and the others got out of their enclosure, but the only intact male we had at the time was still safely within his enclosure. He would have had to have jumped over the fence and then nipped back in, which would be rather unusual. Alpaca mating is also a rather noisy affair, so I think Ian would have heard. Ian joked to the vet that if she was pregnant he was going to change her name to Mary.

No snow storm, but lots of frost

Winters are often stunning times of the year here in Latvia

The examination by the vets though seemed to tip the balance and shortly afterwards Ian found her on her side and breathing very shallowly. One of us stayed with her for the next 3 hours or so as she faded away. We, along with our vet performed an autopsy on her shortly after she passed away. We didn't have a choice, with temperatures way down, there was only a short window of time to investigate before having to deal with a frozen animal. We needed to know why she died so we can increase our knowledge, it also helps the vet to know what she is looking for when examining other alpacas. They don't learn this in vet school yet, not here in Latvia anyway.

The same oak tree taken at sunrise this morning.

The ram is finally taking an interest in at least one of the ladies

Towards the end it looks like her heart started to fail, a little like Alicia's did a couple of years ago, but it didn't appear to be that that made her sick, it was her liver. Firstly it was huge and it was also unusual, not a fatty liver thank goodness, which would have had possible implications for our other alpacas, but probably cancerous. The liver is now awaiting a histological examination. We don't have the facilities to do that sort of investigation.

Frosted tree, perfect blue sky and the moon

Frosted tree, cloudy sky and the moon

Snowdrop was a bit of a character. She wasn't a dear, sweet, old lady. She would have been twelve years old next month and so technically nearly a geriatric, but some alpacas in good condition are still producing cria at her age. She was the one we used to have to lock away when we had visitors as her interest in food was always paramount, and if she thought another alpaca was going to get "her" food she spat. Not helpful when you want visitors to come. She was also always, always, always the first in at night and we placed her food down first in a corner so that we could then feed the others. Woe betide any alpaca trying to eat from her tray. She had calmed down a lot though, as she got used to us. As long as we handled her correctly to make sure she didn't spit in our direction when trying to deal with her for any reason she was fine. She was only articulating her displeasure  after all.

Liquid gold sunrise

It has been difficult to choose photos from the ones Ian has taken

Of course we have also been trying to think back over the last few months to try and identify if there was anything that we could have done differently, any signs we should have been aware of etc. I don't think it would have made any difference to the outcome, but it could help us to recognise when another alpaca is sick. It is often difficult to recognise when herd animals are ill, because they don't show until it is often serious and something we just have to accept. There were a few things though that we now know were signals that something was wrong. We were worried about her weight, as she definitely seemed thin and despite not breeding from her this year to allow her time to recover, she didn't put weight on, despite extra feeds and free access to hay.

Soaking up the sunshine

Sometimes our animals prefer snow to the cold water

Another sign was the day she walked up to Ian and looked him hard in the face. When some of the others do that it usually means they would like some water, but that wasn't what she wanted. We remember an alpaca breeder mentioning that if an alpaca was pregnant and seemed to want attention, then something was wrong with the birthing process so perhaps it also means they are trying to get attention when they are sick. The final sign was a rapid weight loss in the last few weeks. I was surprised how much she seemed to have lost since it got cold, but I guess all her energy was going towards trying to stay warm. Thank goodness those two blankets made her comfortable in the end.

Says it all

The morning view from our apartment

Her name and her birth date should give you a clue that Snowdrop was a winter baby. The breeder we got her from didn't intentionally breed at that time of year and she was a surprise birth. It almost seems fitting that to bury her we had to dig through 40cms of permafrost before finding ground soft enough for the back hoe to handle. We had to use long handled chisels and a masonry drill to get through, then the frozen ground was so strong we were able to excavate underneath it without it giving way. So our feisty old lady is now buried beneath a blanket of snow, close to Alicia.

A picture I painted in our art class on a fantasy theme

The nibbler

She isn't the only one causing concern this week. As I mentioned last week I made a coat from an old sleeping bag. The bag must be over thirty years old, as Ian had it before he met me and we have known each other 33 years and so the fabric is not terribly strong. Our youngest alpaca, Brencis, is nibbling everything in sight at the moment. It is possible that he is a bit hungry as he isn't feeding as much from his mum and he hasn't quite got the hang of feeding from the trays yet. More often than not he picks the tray up in his teeth and so scatters the pellets everywhere. He does have free access to hay though and chomps his way through that, but you know how it is when kids are growing fast and trying to fill them. Anyway, he managed to tear a big section of the blanket and the next morning the patch was torn right off and no evidence of the fabric anywhere. We can only surmise that he has eaten it. Ian keeps checking to see if it has appeared, but nothing yet and after checking the internet it could be a while. Apparently the contents of an alpacas stomach can stay there for up to 60 days!

Our geriatric alpaca, is still going strong. Her condition is good

Eyre with her winter ruff

Next on the concern list was Eyre our youngest kitten. She may have eaten something she shouldn't have and definitely has worms. Great! Anyway I finally found the tablet we have for worming cats in my handbag at home, so tomorrow she will get that and hopefully that sorts her out. She got to spend a night in our caravan, rather than the greenhouse like normal. Don't worry about our cats though, firstly the greenhouse gives them lots of protection from the elements and they have both put lots of growth into their fur coats and have bushed up beautifully. We used to take Sofie and Bella (our previous cat) home in the winter, but found they hated the over-heated flat at night, which is why they stay out now. Finally we also lost one of the chickens yesterday. It was the one that was sick a little while ago, so the cold probably hasn't helped. At least the rest seem okay.

Contrast!

I finished knitting my Christmas hat

Talking of over-heated flats, that isn't the case this year. For anyone that has followed the blog over the years, you may realise that we often have heating issues. Too hot or too cold and too expensive regardless of the heat. This year it has been consistently cold and we even had mouldy walls. We now put our woodburner on in the evenings to keep us warm enough and to dry out the place. It is no good complaining, because it is a house issue and not just the company who provides the heat. Until the people in our apartment block decide to come off the communal heat, it will remain expensive and unpredictable. The re-circulation pump that was installed at excessive costs about eighteen months ago is the reason for the cold, but steady temperatures from what we understand. So the saga continues.

Don't panic! Don't panic!

Herkules or Herk as he is more often
known, is our oldest male. He is
castrated. He is looking a bit grotty here
due to the oil treatment he is having on
his skin. He is quite a good natured
animal though and stands quite well
and puts up with all the messing around,
not happily but he does do it. He will
quite happily eat grain from your hand
though. 

 I tried to organise quite a few meetings this week and failed. One will now be via Skype, so at least that works. One will be conducted during travel time to a seaside village for some more interviews and the other one postponed until April. Some you win and some you lose. I also tried and failed to get a couple of other people organised to send me information that was promised. I do despair at times of trying to get my life organised, when others seem to think that two or three weeks before an event is soon enough to let me know what's happening. It wouldn't be so bad if that was all I had to do, but I have got some dreaded deadlines looming again.

We have had snow showers over the weekend and today.
The return to cold weather was not very welcome, but the
trees did look pretty. It didn't show up so well on the
photos though and so I did a bit of playing around in iPhoto

This last week has been a time of reading, reading and yet more reading in preparation for a paper that needs to be finished by May 1st. So all the interviews need finishing and analysing plus the literature review done before the end of this month.That is for an 8000 word paper and on top of that I have two small papers to finish of around 1500 words and a presentation. I had forgotten about one of the short papers, but fortunately I set a reminder on my computer. Will there be more? Who knows! Depends on when I get answers to those questions I have been trying to find out about. What I do know though is my reading speed has picked up, but I do miss the chance for some deep reflective reading.

So as you can see, rather a dreary sight and not quite like
Thursday when we sat outside drinking coffee sat on
the hillside on our land

I have been trying to be good though and take a couple of day off to do something completely different sometime in the week. I usually aim to do that when Aggie and Herk need some treatment to their skin problems and I also aim to do that on a nice dry day. There is nothing worse than trying to apply ointment to soggy alpacas and is a waste of time anyway. Up until the last few days we have been enjoying some really nice weather, so it was the perfect opportunity to spend some time out on the land. On one of the days, Ian and I both went for a walk with Estelle and Aggie. They were very good but we were a little perturbed to see a dog roaming around that looked a lot like a German Shepherd. Not the ideal dog to have roaming around with livestock about. On another day I went out with Ian to get the milk and we took Aggie with us, so she got to walk up the road. I'm sure it would be good to help keep her toe nails short if she did that more often, but isn't really feasible all the time. I also helped Ian clear some trees that he had cut down and sifted compost to plant up some cabbage seedlings. It felt good to be out in the sunshine and fresh air.

We might not have seen the Northern Lights, but we did
get to see the solar eclipse. Ian took this picture with a
polarising filter and pair of sunglasses over the lens.
The morning was nice and clear and of course it started
to cloud over just as the eclipse was beginning,
but I think it makes for a great atmospheric shot

I noticed on the internet and via a friend's facebook post that there was good chance of seeing the Aurora Borealis. I hadn't realised that there were posts with details of imminent magnetic storms that give rise to the phenomena of the Northern Lights until recently and so it was quite exciting to know when they would arrive within a few minutes. I kept looking out, but couldn't really see anything, but we have street lights now and so of course it is not going to be so obvious. I decided to go out for a walk to see if I could see them, as we don't have far to go before street lights peter out. I still didn't see much, but the sky did look a little weird and lighter than would be expected for a night without the moon. As I was walking Ian drove up in the car and we headed out to the land instead to see if we could see it there. We had quite a romantic night out as we walked hand in hand up the hill - that's because Ian had the torch though. We still didn't get to see the Northern lights, well maybe we did but it was faint and looked like a glow in the horizon where there were no villages. Where we live is not very heavily populated. The sky was amazing there were so many stars that it was hard to pick out the constellations that are so familiar. It makes me wonder how the sailors in olden times managed to navigate by the stars when there are so many, especially since there would have been even less light pollution then, they must have seen even more than we could. I also got to see two shooting stars.

A bit grim really

We are still trying to sort out our heating issues as far as the bills are concerned. I have taken to emailing them and actually getting some pretty fast responses, which is quite remarkable. They are still not answering the questions, but at least it is faster. I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that we had changed our electric providers at the beginning of the year. I eventually found out we really did have an account with the company, even though we still don't have any paperwork for it and I dutifully entered the readings for the 1st March. I kept checking, almost daily to find out how much we owe. I even got a  friend of mine to look at it to see if I was missing anything. It wasn't me who was missing something it was definitely the electric provider. Finally on the internet a sum came up to pay and after a bit of hunting around I found out who to pay, so I paid the money for each property separately, only to find about three days later that I could have paid it all in one go and they actually sent me an email invoice. At least I now know how it all works and know they will send me an email. I feel happier knowing that. I am also happier knowing I can enter the reading on the internet.

A wee bit chillier than earlier on in the week

Lance Corporal
Jack Jones from
Dad's Army 

One of the news items this week, surprisingly more in evidence on Russian sites than anywhere else, was the Dragoon ride. It was a procession of American tanks mainly through the Baltic States meant to reassure everyone in Europe that the American army is around and also do some logistics and manoeuvres along the way. What I would like to know though, is it just posturing? It sure doesn't reassure me, it just reminds me of the unstable situation that people feel and perhaps the media is feeding. How unstable it is in reality I have no idea. It also potentially inflames the situation and I wonder if it might also bring back painful memories for people? I don't know! Maybe others feel reassured, I don't. I just have that scene going through my head in Dad's Army of Lance Corporal Jack Jones shouting "Don't Panic! Don't Panic" and then