It's a process

Hello! Lolly is fully weaned now and she seems
to have accepted this graciously. She doesn't
bother Ian for milk in the morning. 

Well not quite a monthly blog, but getting that way again. There have been more changes since last month, but it is all part of our regularly yearly cycle. The timing changes, to some extent, but they still happen. We are back out in the caravan as the animals are going way at night so late that it is difficult to find a sensible time to eat together. Fortunately, although the nights are cool, they are not that cool that they are unbearable and so we made the switch. Okay, -6C overnight was a tad cool but snuggled up under a quilt and blankets it works, plus the radiator is only an arm's length away and soon warms up the small space of a caravan.

Wearing our presents from one of our 
Australian grandsons. Not quite sure
how long it took to first get them to us,
via the UK and then for us to finally get
around to taking a photo, but we did it 
in the end. Oh and please ignore the hat
hair - bit of a problem at this time of the 
year.

Tuesday 5th April

Finally the snow is beginning to clear properly here. I drove up to Estonia recently for work and it was amazing to see stretches of land with no snow and then I got back to our land and there was still 20-30cm in places with hardly any grass showing. Gradually, gradually though it began to reduce in height and larger stretches of grass.... errr... I mean moss began appearing. As the snow got thinner larger areas of green appeared quite suddenly. It is startling to see green where earlier in the day it was white. We still have the occasional snow or hail shower but nothing that lasts and it finally feels like winter is drawing its last breath and fading away. I know, I know... it can still turn white, it is still early April and we are far north. 

Saturday 9th, yes a dusting of yet more snow and 
not much difference to four days before.

And three days later, Tuesday 12th. I
do believe it is finally going.

Well are you going to feed us
or not?

The normality feels deceptive whilst reading the news. The horror of the situation in Ukraine is awful, especially as I have read the history of post-Soviet countries. I can't even begin to imagine the sheer awfulness of the butchery that has been meted out on civilians, but a shudder went through me when I heard of people being bussed to locations in Russia, which sounds so innocuous but isn't. I've read about the forced deportations from Latvia to Siberia during the Soviet era and it is frightening to think deportations are happening again. This is not a benign action to take people to safety, this is a systematic attempt at terrorising a nation. A nation that knows its neighbour has been guilty of deliberate mass starvation (Holdomor) and forced deportations in the past. 

The crinkled effect of melting snow

The gas oven all cleaned up
and ready to go in the 
greenhouse! As you do!
Mind you, not sure how 
much use we will get out of
it this year, if there is a gas 
shortage. Good job we are
not dependent on it, we have
other options.

Another aspect that horrifies me is the slow response of governments to change for the sake of peace. Oil and gas is the currency that keeps this war going. On the one hand governments are supplying arms to support Ukraine and on the other the nations are paying out for the gas and oil that fuels such butchery. The reason given is that it would decimate the economy. War decimates an economy. War in Ukraine will have serious impacts on economies. When people die due to bowing down to the economy, then the model is wrong. One thing I have learnt over the years is that things like famine are not a failure of harvests, it is a failure in society. Famines happen when society lets it, after a failure of a harvest. There is no reason for sections of society to suffer unnecessary hardship due to a severe shock to the economy if the rest of society pulls together and works together then everyone can weather the storm. 

Yes the storks are back. Really! Look hard!

I guess the frogspawn will be appearing soon
then.

We only have to look at how Ukrainian refugees are being absorbed into societies close by to see how societies can pull together. It is possible to take care of and support others going through a bad period. This, of course, will not be a short-term event. Even if the war ended tomorrow, not all will be able to go back. Some will need to heal, some will make a new life in a new land because they do not feel able to go back, some will have to wait until there is some restoration of their homeland. We are in this together until we are through it, which we can, if we want to. I know I don't want to live in a society that puts the economy first and people second. The economy should serve the people and not the other way around. 

Oooh! Sunshine! I'm not one for sunbathing like
Silla, but I know how she feels to see that 
sunshine again.

The paddocks have been pretty wet as the snow
has melted. Mind you, it is surprising where the
water appears at this time of the year. How is
it so wet on the top of hills? 

So what do we do now? Grow as much as you can. Hoard or not to hoard? Maybe hoard what you will consume, like societies used to do before the advent of ever open supermarkets - in other words, store your excess from the summer for the winter. Share what is needed. I had thought I would take a year off from growing veg, but I've put that idea on the backburner. I'll throw in what seeds I can and hope for the best. Maybe help will turn up? Who knows. Our cabin is on order and as soon as this snow goes and the ground dries enough to stand on we (or Ian) is out there preparing the ground for foundations. 

Tasty!

Someone needs a haircut!

So is it crazy to be planning veg beds and cabins with Russia rattling its sabre? Who knows! They seem to be pretty occupied at the moment and we are in a NATO country, unlike the poor Ukrainians. So we carry on and wonder what we would do. We have the kind of animals you cannot just shove in the car and drive off, so that complicates matters. How do you even process these kinds of thoughts? I guess we don't. We watch, we wait and we pray, or stick our head in the sand, whichever is the most appropriate at the time. We have food, we know how to grow food, we know how to store food for the winter without using electricity, we know how to forage. We've already had our first meal with wild greens of the year - admittedly they were growing in the greenhouse. Does this prepare us? No not really, but it helps.

Arrrh! That's better I can see now

Greeeeeennnnnnn! Well nearly! Kind of
green anyway

At least with today's accessibility to information there seems to be more time to make the kinds of decisions to leave if we had to. I just wish someone would turn off the tap that fuels these kinds of atrocities (no pun intended), wherever they are in the world, not just Ukraine. We need to get serious about renewable energy for a more sustainable future in more ways than one. Let's hang on in there and be kind! Please!

There's nothing like a good scratch, but could you
do this while being 8 months pregnant.

Finally outside enjoying the sunshine and finding
the odd blade of grass.

The wagtails are back

Just chilling! 

The snow is getting further and further away

Mr. Tellus

A crane. They've been back longer

Not snowdrops - but snowflakes.

We don't know how much is snow
and how much is manure in these
beds yet.

The snow wasn't deep enough to
protect this bush that was trying
to be an apple tree.

Slowly, slowly melting

Rocket Ron is still an active cat but Ian had to take
him to the vet today as he's got ever so thin. We are
hoping it's just worms, although he was wormed 
recently. He has expensive kitten food, several 
injections and big tablets and he goes back to the
vet 26th.

The willow is budding

There are still a few piles of snow around

Who needs to dye eggs? Actually I think
the light was playing tricks on me. There
aren't really purple and pink eggs, more
a delicate hue perhaps, but they really are
green eggs.

Swimming

As Ian has been rather busy these photos are some from the
previous week when the weather was glorious

Swimming? Not literally, but my head is at times. Well I now know there is a part of the Baltic Sea called the Quark and it is between Sweden and Finland, about half way up in the gulf between them, which is called the Gulf of Bothnia. I also know where the watershed of the Baltic Sea is, in other words all the areas where water flows from, which feeds into the sea. Well roughly and it is not as far as I thought it was. I also know where the Sargasso sea is, where all the European eels originate. I had heard of it but couldn't have told you where it was. How about Kattegat! Any ideas? I'll let you look it up 😀

The morning sun

I love the sepia tones this picture

So what have I been up to, besides being holed up reading papers, reports and general information? Not a lot. Short blog then! Well actually a couple of things did happen this week. We finally got a new chimney put in. Up till now our fire had been vented through the ventilation shaft, which is not exactly safe long term. It took a while to organise but finally the new chimney is in. It snakes its way through the kitchen to a flue fitted on the outside. It is not exactly pretty but it is safe. One of the downsides to it is that a cupboard had to be taken off the wall as it would be too close to the pipe. We are already struggling for space and so it took yet more rearranging to put the stuff away and we have a cupboard that we can't decide what to do with at the moment.

 Delicate rose pink frosted trees

Lots of icicles around over winter

Another downside was the mess. The guy reused part of the chimney that was already up, which wouldn't have been so bad but it must have been ready for cleaning. I went in at one point and there was soot everywhere. It was a good job that I had covered everything with plastic sheeting, taping it onto the walls to act as a screen. It saved a huge amount of cleaning up, but there was still plenty to do. I was wise to the fact that it could be a problem because many years ago, Ian and our eldest son were cleaning out a fire at our home in the UK when the front came off and soot went everywhere. It is awful stuff to clean. It is oily and one of the constituents that used to be used to make ink. Well you can imagine what that meant. After he left we spent the evening cleaning up the best we could. I got Ian to bring a take away from our local bakery, as there was no way I could cook until the place was cleaned up a bit.

Not an elegant solution

The hole where the chimney used to
go through the toilet to the ventilation
shaft

The ice structures are always so incredible

The following day I did get out. I still read papers on my computer in the car though. I wasn't driving of course, because Ian was. We were off to see a lady and her son about 90km away. They had been to see us recently and are interested in having alpacas. The idea was to see her property and see if it was suitable for them. It was also an opportunity to see her other animals, such as beef cows, a couple of horses, chickens and cats. She likes to train her animals and so they were all fairly people friendly. Of course we had to be careful with the beef cows, but we were up close to them and they were fine. She has some Belgian Blue crosses and they are certainly an interesting colour. We spent the rest of the early afternoon chatting about alpacas, and eating home-made pumpkin soup, followed by ice-cream with frozen blackcurrant jam. It was a pleasant way to fill in another snowy day.

A thoughtful lookin Jakobs

I'm glad this is just the angle of the photo and not really
the fact the snow is so high

Poor Ian has spent most of the week just shifting snow, along with all his other normal animal caring duties. We had quite a bit of snow at one point, then we had a melt and then it snowed again. In fact it snowed that much today that we had to shovel the snow away for him to park so it wasn't a solid compacted mess later on in the year when it really does melt properly. There was probably about 15-20cm just today. He has also had to repair the greenhouse plastic. It is getting old and close to needing replacing and so it splits, especially with the wet heavy snow we have been getting this week.

Winter evening chores. He's pretty good

The snow is still getting deep though. We've known more, but
this is the snowiest winter in a while

Vanessa 

Our fairytale orchard

Winter hats

Just a few tracks across the snow at this end of the land 

We won't lose Mr. P in the snow

Clearing snow off our balcony

A sunny morning after a few overcast days