Has it finished yet?

"Has it finished yet?" says Brencis

Well the madness and the circus continues. I think the EU have got the right idea, get your house in order and do it quickly and by the way you have three weeks max to do it in. I guess that should concentrate minds this week. Just in case you are from a planet far away and wondering what on earth I am on about, yes I am referring to Brexit. There will be some who think the EU are being unduly bombastic, but those in the EU are as tired of the whole thing as the British public, they have an organisation to run that has been snarled up in negotiations they had no wish for for the last two years with no clear route out. I guess they are as prepared for the consequences of it as they can be and now is the time to say, "Enough! This can't carry on!"

It is nice to see the girls outside enjoying the sunshine. Josefs
and Lady V are eating up the last of the snow

The boys field is just about clear of snow now

Josefs wearing his food. He is going to be a nightmare to
shear as he likes to feed from underneath the feeder.
That means he has hay all down his neck.

Personally I have still been ploughing through academic literature for work this week and that has kind of absorbed my time. I had to attend a Skype conference call on my own again, as both my colleagues were tied up in other meetings. After two hours my head was throbbing and I had to then gather my thoughts together to update my colleagues. Fortunately for me, flexible hours meant that on a sunny Friday I could head to our land and take advantage of some fresh air. I had to keep an eye on my emails since it was still a work day for others, but other than that, I got the necessary space to clear my head. One of the issues to clarify was who was going to get my tax, the Latvian or the Estonian authorities. I think that is now nearly sorted thanks to my wonderful bookkeeper who filled in the relevant forms for me. I also found out that my Estonian ID allows me to electronically sign Latvian forms too - that saves some issues.

Josefs is still feeding from his mum, but very soon it will be
time to move them to their new alpaca house with the other
boys. Ian has been training them on the harness, which will
make the transfer easier.

Even the snow in the forest is clearing

Chanel is our only pregnant alpaca this
year. Her skin situation seems to be
stabilised and her coat generally is
looking good, so we hope she is over
the worst and will thrive once she is
out on the fresh grass. It just needs to
grow a bit first.

The snow has nearly all gone even though we had a smattering fall overnight about midweek. It has been muddy of course and the ponds were full. We also had our temporary lake back. All signs that spring is finally getting the upper hand and banishing winter for the time being. Although as Ian said in a parody of a northern British saying, "N'er cast a shovel till May is out!" I had suggested that three snow shovels in the greenhouse was a bit excessive and perhaps they could be put back in the barn to reside until next winter. The actual saying is, "N'er cast a clout till May is out!" Which basically means don't pack your winter clothes away until May is over as you never know when winter might make a surprise visit. With a touch of snow forecast that is still a possibility but I still don't think it is going to be that bad that we need the shovels in the greenhouse. Anyway, I put them away so that now guarantees it will snow.

Jakobs chewing some bark

It has been a bit breezy this week and it makes Jakobs very
fine fibres fly about.

The seeds in the black boxes soaking up the sunshine.

I decided to risk setting some seeds away both in the greenhouse and outside. I had a bit of a brainwave of putting the seed pots in a black box to absorb the heat during the day and protect them overnight. We'll see how that works. They are all hardy type plants anyway and nothing precious, so should be fine. Even if it doesn't work, I can try again in a few weeks time. The ones outside have gone under fleece. The soil outside is nice and dark, so it should also absorb the sun. The soil has really changed over time and it was nice to see it had some worms already starting to work. I also found some parsnips that I had missed when I dug them up late last year. That made a nice change to squash.

Someone else soaking up the sunshine in the greenhouse.
Behind Eyre are the chicken arks. They are coming into
production properly now and we are even getting blue
eggs from one of the chickens. One group are heading
for the pot though as they are definitely egg eaters. We
have to watch them carefully to see if they are laying
and then wait for them to finish and whisk it away quick
before they get to it. We put a cockerel in there with them
so we will get some eggs for hatching from them and then
cull them. 

Someone else soaking up the sunshine.

It is still cool in the shade. This is ice that has formed in the
barn

This particular plot where I sowed the seeds had sheep in it over two winters a few years back, some alpaca manure and plenty of hay mulch. The soil in that area tends to have a high clay content and therefore not usually workable so soon after the snow. The addition of the compostable material has made sure that it dries out quick enough to work, but not so much that nothing grows in it. We work on a bed system with permanent paths, so that is another reason why I can get to work on the ground so soon after the snow has gone. I do not damage the soil structure by walking on it that way.  The beds are all narrow enough for me to be able to reach to the centre to sow seeds or to weed them.

A crocus. Ian was surprised to find this as we thought the
wild boar had dug up and eaten all our crocuses and
daffodils around this spot.

A snowdrop plant that I transplanted last year and one small
leaf of a self seeded Good King Henry plant - a spinach
substitute that withstands the heat and is perrenial

George guarding the door and Mr. P and Brencis soaking up
the sunshine

It feels very weird at this time of the year. It is so close to winter, the reappearing ground showing the effects of months under snow cover and yet the longer days means Ian is coming home later and later. This means we are close to the time where we need to switch to our summer abode, aka the caravan. The caravan and the greenhouse need cleaning and sorting first though. We also have to prepare the kitchen equipment we need to take out there and the clothes that we will need. I'm ready for the change and I'm not ready for it. I like my morning read in bed with a cup of tea before I get up. This isn't possible in a caravan when we have to pack the bed away each day. I do like though the opportunity to just walk out the door and be there in the middle of a field. I'm not sure why it seems so much easier than in our apartment when there is plenty of space to walk just across the road, but it is.

George always looks like a smiley alpaca.
He was popular with the girls today when
Ian took him for a walk to see them.

Onions starting to sprout. I always have a bed of old onions
to sprout the next year. They usually come through, just as
my old store onions finish

A lizard catching the sun

Our apple trees got a hammering this year from the deer.
They had only just started to really get established too. So
frustrating

Self seeded pansies

Ian has had to pump out the root cellar.
We obviously need to sort out the
drainage. Mostly it is underneath the
cellar but one day it rose quite high and
flooded the actual cellar. Not good!

It's greening up... or maybe not!

A particularly dark day. This photo was taken at 10:36am

The snow finally departed this week .......for a day or two. Hovering around zero is not pleasant, it is neither winter nor autumn and the days are dark, never mind the nights. Yesterday we had snow flurries on and off and then today it snowed gently most of the day, so once again we are back to the monotone white of winter again. I usually try and get out to the land at least once a week and try to pick the best day weather wise to go, normally I pick the wrong day though. If the weather forecast is good one day and not the next, you can guarantee that they have it wrong if I opt to go out to the land. I have been known to spend the day in the caravan knitting because of the dreich weather, when the day before had been relatively pleasant. Admittedly it is better than stopping at home all day.

Oh look! The technical school and accommodation block.
How long have they been there? And all that green stuff

It didn't last long though. This was taken today

Not that happy to see me. Actually I was stood in the
doorway of their side of the alpaca house and were waiting
for me to move.

The animals are not fond of me turning up. They think I will be doing something. I did take the chance to have a look at Herk and Aggie's feet to see how they are getting on after their problems earlier on this year. Aggie's are not brilliant, but they are not as bad as they were, same with Herk. We are trying to leave them alone, because putting oil on when it is cold is not always the best move, Aggie's would just provide a nice moist environment for bacteria and Herk's would probably freeze his skin. There is fine line between stressing the animal and not allowing it to get worse, so we will continue to keep an eye on them and try and catch any deterioration before it gets too bad.

Veronica is more nervous of me than all the others. Not
sure why though as she is rarely the one that needs
attention these days. She moans all the time I'm in the
alpaca house though.

This is Bella, although she is not looking quite
so grumpy in this picture

Our cat Bella has disappeared. She has done this before in winter time, but not for so long. We think the last time she found a willing person to take her in, because someone had cut a chunk of fur off - that sounds bad, but actually with their long fur and propensity for going into the sort of vegetation that clings, they often end up with matted fur and sometimes it is just easier to cut it away than try to comb it out. She has been away that long now that we will need to ask our neighbour to contact others to see if they have seen her. At least she is quite a distinctive cat - think multi-coloured grumpy puss.

Ian put up feeders in the youngsters section of the alpaca
house. It should stop them eating off the floor - in theory

We went off to school again this week. This time we were talking to an older group and so could add in a few more details and up the pace a little. It was funny that the teacher sitting in for the four lessons we took, would chip in and remind us of little details we missed from the first run through the talk. I also got to tell them a little of the research I am doing and explained the reason I was doing it was because we both felt that there was great potential in Latvia but people needed to be able to grasp it and collaborate to get there. Some of the students seemed to really connect with the comments, which was inspiring.

A dusting of snow for a change! 

It isn't just because I see great potential in Latvia I am doing the kinds of research into people led development, but also because I have a faith in a good God who will bring about a renewal of this earth. I also believe we have a part to play in that. In the Lord's Prayer it says "May your kingdom come, may your will be done, on earth, as it is in Heaven." God's kingdom here on earth, now! Today! Not some airy fairy time in the future. I don't believe in the earth burning up or Christians disappearing off and leaving everyone else in a mess. How horrid is that! I'll be honest and say that was an important concept to me once but not now. What is the point of doing the research I am doing if it is all going to burn up in an end time holocaust? What is the point in seeking long-term solutions to society's problems if it is all going to end soon? None at all. But what if we are meant to be part of the solution, part of the process of renewal? Then there is a point. The Left Behind Series has a lot to answer for and I don't think it portrays a loving God who sent his son to die for a world to be redeemed.

Diamonds in the trees. Yes I did actually
see some sunshine, in between the snow
showers

When I got to the land, there was no
snow and I managed to dig over the
new Jerusalem artichoke bed. Then it
snowed and I wasn't sure what to dig
over after that. I knew there were a few
spaces that needed a bed of straw on
them, so Ian and I did that, but I
couldn't do any more.

Whilst in school we also got into a chat about a hot topic, immigration! I find it odd that some Latvians find the issue of asian people in the UK a problem, why do they seem to care so much about it? It is not their country after all. There is obviously a fear of the unknown, as Latvian society is not a particularly diverse one, although there are a mix of nationalities from ex-Soviet countries, just not further than that (although the Soviet sphere did extend to quite a few countries, which is difficult to remember sometimes). It is almost as if they forget that many of their compatriots are regarded as unwanted immigrants too, by some people in the UK. There seemed to be more to their objections though and I didn't understand it, until this week. One lady described the feeling in Heathrow as "like an occupation." So while I had been viewing the issue as a historical one from the UK's connection with primarily Commonwealth countries, i.e. ones that were ruled by Britain in former years, she was viewing it through the lens of the Russification of the Baltic countries during the Soviet era.

Our errant sheep have not escaped this week. Then again,
they've been penned up in there all week. No escaping from
that then.

There is a big difference though between the Russification by the Soviets and people coming from the Commonwealth, for a start Russification was imposed, but many of those from the Commonwealth were originally invited. The roots of British Asians also goes back further in time than when people were encouraged to come to fill roles left vacant by fallen soldiers in the Second World War and to staff the new NHS service. In fact the first Indian restaurant opened in London in 1810 and seamen from asia were settling in the UK in the 1600s after they were marooned there when they were refused passage back to their homelands by the East India Company. They had filled in vacancies in the crews sailing from India, but were not expected to travel back. Wikipedia has a whole section on British Asians and it is quite a fascinating read.

I love the colours in this photo of the grass  just covered in
snow and the dark clouds.

The topic did remind me though how we view many issues through different lenses. I understand quite a few of the issues that have stemmed from the Soviet times, for instance the coping mechanisms that means that people do not always deal with issues well, because to deal with issues in Soviet times could be dangerous, but obviously I still get caught out at times. The fact is that I haven't lived through the Soviet era, I have only studied it, so I cannot possibly understand all that it means to everyday people. I wonder though, how many times the Latvian youngsters fail to understand their elders, because they haven't lived through the Soviet era either. What tensions does this create! Something else to look out for too.

Chilled out in Oz

Yay! Oh little granddaughter, already growing up fast

Our little granddaughter is gorgeous, but then you would expect me to say that wouldn't you? In just the nearly two weeks we have been here, there are many changes going on, she is starting to take notice and you would almost think she really is smiling at you and it isn't just wind. We haven't got up to much whilst here, having a baby around with frequent feeds, does tend to curtail outdoor activities. My health hasn't helped either. I was back to the dentists for a second prescription of antibiotics after the first lot didn't agree with my system. Fortunately with the second prescription and the recommended probiotics I actually felt human for the first time in weeks and I am finally off the painkillers.

We did manage a short walk and were rewarded with the
sight of some wallabies

So much of our time here in Perth has been hanging around at home, taking trips out to the shops, taking the baby out for a walk to let Mum sleep and in the process testing out the waterproofness of the new pram - fortunately it passed, and a barbecue. We have been looking at the photo updates from back home in Latvia and the snow has now almost gone, with quite a rapid thaw in the last few days and so barbecue weather may have arrived or be about to arrive in Latvia, whereas here it was just about the last of the season with temperatures finally cooling, much to the relief of our daughter and son-in-law. It has been an unpleasantly humid summer for them here.

Not the most glamourous of photos, but showed I did get a
look in, in the cuddles stakes. Grandad is still the best at
getting little ones off to sleep

My daughter surprised me at the barbecue by putting candles into the cupcakes she had made and getting everyone to sing happy birthday to me. I hadn't realised that was what she intended to do with the cupcakes and nearly spoilt the surprise by tucking into one, as she was busy feeding the baby during the barbecue. Fortunately no one else decided to follow my lead. My birthday is not actually until today and so the celebrations have continued on this our last day of our visit to Oz. I have been thoroughly spoilt, first by my son-in-law going out first thing to get us croissants for breakfast, then out for a quick trip to the shops to find some elusive sandals (haven't been able to find many - well it's autumn here isn't it), next for lunch out. We let my daughter and son-in-law out and about for a few hours on there own too, while we babysat - a treat in itself, as it has meant lots of cuddles with baby

Australian scerey

The problem with not feeling quite so human is that I haven't been able to get on with my studies which was kind of worrying with assignment deadlines looming. I managed one assignment on the plane on the way here and checked it when I arrived, while I still felt reasonably human, but the statistics defeated me. Many of my notes weren't written up after the lectures due to not feeling well and when I look back at the work I did it isn't making a great deal of sense, partly because not all the information is translated from Estonian, which slows me down a lot. Fortunately my lecturer has proved very understanding and given me extra time to get the work done and a book recommendation. It would have been nice to get this finished off, but such is life!

Snow has nearly gone back home

I bet these guys are pleased to see the back of the snow too!

How different!

Under that mound of soil is the last bit
of snow on that part of our land. There
is still some down the other end where
the sun doesn't get to as much.

Well what a difference a week makes, the snow has nearly gone, I have finished writing and so out and about on our land and in the garden and life is starting to return to our environment as it wakes from its winter sleep, even the grass has just a hint of green and not its post snow brown. Our ponds are starting to teem with life and we have already spotted the dragonfly nymph which we are keen to encourage as they eat mosquito larvae, and a water vole which we are not sure if we want to encourage as it is in the pond nearest our greenhouse. I had the fright of my life when something large, brown and with a rat like tail suddenly appeared and swam for cover in our pond. Ian also spotted our first lot of frogspawn ever in our ponds. He was a bit disappointed last year not to see any, especially since we have so many frogs that frequent the ponds and the year before we imported frogspawn from the pond nearest our apartment to increase the number of frogs we have - always a good thing when you have a garden.

Not a cloud in the sky and the storks soar 

I spent much of my time this week raking molehills and pig holes on the bank next to our currant bushes to flatten out the steep area that cannot be raked with the tractor, not an easy job but good exercise - at least that's what I tell myself when I ached the next day. I also planted more seeds in preparation for the middle of next month when we can start to plant things outside, albeit with some protection probably from previous experience, or in the greenhouse. Other jobs on the land included completing our new deep bed system that hopefully over time will improve the soil in the orchard plot which is a bit sandy. We have layered up rotting hay, of which we have got much, and topped with rotted wood chips. This will probably need some extra soil for the plants to grow in this year, especially the more shallow rooted plants, but next year will hopefully be an easy to weed but perfect substrate for the plants. Well that's the plan anyway. Ian also made a jetty for our top pond so that he can more easily get to the pond for watering the greenhouse. I think it will be a bit high for me to get buckets of water from, but maybe he can sort me out one of those windy up buckets that they have over wells - a project for when he isn't building fences, raking grass, harrowing ground, filling in pig holes, putting up wire for the tomatoes, landscaping around the barn, digging drains for the barn, ploughing some land for oats and clover, rotavating in the old buckwheat, and whatever else is on his list of jobs to do over the next month or two.

Such class work heh! The first step in

The new jetty, complete with woodchip path
so no slipping in wet weather

Sophie on the run!

We have also been adding to menagerie or at least plotting and planning to. We finally managed to get a source of eggs for our incubator and we went to collect them today and they are currently in the incubator. Hopefully we don't have to do much with it  for the next 19 days as it is an automatic one but then we prepare the incubator for hatching by increasing the humidity and stopping it from turning the eggs and they should hatch out at 21 days. Quite excited really as we saw in the lorry, where we collected the eggs from, whole trays of little fluffy chicks - very cute! Must remember though these are utility eggs and they are broiler chickens, some will be to raise more eggs but some will be destined for the freezer - sad I know but we love chicken and a decent roast chicken will be a very welcome change to the pork we get here. The other decision we've had to make is on the type of alpacas that we are going to get. We have finally managed to get in touch with someone with alpacas for sale that is easy to get to to collect them ourselves. He has offered us either two neutered (castrated) males and one which has won a prize but is an untried male, so it has potential to be a good breeder but that is not guaranteed or the two neutered males and a pregnant female but that female has had difficulty rearing her cria (baby alpacas) before and have needed some tender loving care to help them survive but could mean we have a breeding female and a baby so four altogether. We are thinking that the three males are going to be the best bet though as that means that next year we will already have the male and it will be easier to collect females next year if we decide we are going to go ahead with the breeding of alpacas. At least it is a step nearer to our plans anyway.

Two furry mechanics doing a bit of an inspection of the
bodywork of the car

Our heating situation continues to be a bit of a pain. For the whole of March the heating was barely enough to keep the place warm, but at least they haven't charged a lot of money for that - surprising really isn't it! Think it might have something to do with checking up on them? Who knows! This month the heating season is supposed to finish on April 15th and to be honest I am pleased the heating is still on today the day after the heating season is supposed to finish, as the weather has turned chilly with the rain, but I found the heating was too hot last night resulting in a poor nights sleep, could be something to do with our home being 21C instead of the 17C we had got used to. Something definitely needs to change next year, but what is a problem. The heating company despite apparently poor finances seems to have stocked up on wood chips - fairly wet woodchips judging by the smoke/steam coming out of the chimney stack, but why are they able to buy in woodchips when finances are poor? Is it something to do with keeping the dormitories warm for those working on the technical school's accommodation block and upgrading it to passibhaus standards (highly insulated standards)? Or could it be an amazing bit of forward planning of buying wood chip cheaply - experience tells me that might be an over optimistic thought, but you never know.

My original inspiration, but it
already looks nothing like this

I took the opportunity of a cold afternoon to start another fabric piece that is, as usual, turning out to be an evolving project, i.e. one idea triggering another. I liked the picture on the left by a textile artist called Bobby Britnell. I thought maybe I could do something along these lines but with blocks of fabric rather than painted blocks. I then decided some of the blocks of fabric needed dyeing and started off with teabags and then added some onion skins expecting to get an orangey-brown colour but it turned out to be bright, bright yellow. Looked nice! So my next idea is now to colour some more fabric with onion skins and then make some sunflowers to stitch over the top of the fabric blocks, i.e. nothing like my original idea.

Frogspawn

I nearly fell on the floor laughing when I read an article about the dear old chancellor for the UK, Geroge Osbourne and his shock that those who earn a lot do not pay much in tax. Errr! Which planet is he on? It does not bode well for the UK economy for a politician to be so blind to the ways of those who have much money. They pay accountants a lot of money to find any loophole there is in the system and anybody who has even an ounce of nous about them will know that is the way the system is played. Surely he was not that naive? Surely it was just the way it was reported that makes him look so silly? 

A bird box added to the barn

While we are on the subject of the economy, could someone tell me who owes what to who? Who are we risking people's health, and livelihoods to repay? And for what are they being repaid exactly? I know Greece cooked the books so to speak, but that was with the aid of Goldman Sachs. I also know there is a living beyond the means problem and so scaling back on some things maybe necessary, but foisting the cuts onto the poor and the needy, expecting the grassroots population to fund the paybacks is repugnant and unjust. Unfair debt is unfair debt and even more unfair when those least able to pay and least responsible have to pay for it. It isn't just the UK with the rich who pay little in the way of income tax after all. Sounds like Divine Comedy might have a very good point in their song the Complete Banker.

Can anyone led me ten billion quid?
Why do you look so glum, was it something I did?
So I caused the second great depression, what can I say?
I guess I got a bit carried away
If I say I'm sorry, will you give me the money? 

The pied wagtails are back. They seem to find it highly
amusing to torment the cats, especially by sitting on top
of the greenhouse where they can't get to and singing their
little hearts out.

So start trying to think of ways no matter how small to get out of the corporate culture, otherwise they will own everything in the end. It can seem like an immense task to get out of that culture but often these things do start in small ways, buying one fairtrade box of tea in five is a start, better than none. One hand-made article for a present for someone special, secondhand clothes, mending things instead of throwing them out. Those are just little things, but add up over time and help break the cycle of better, newer, bigger that we can get sucked into. So let's make sure that the next time the bankers or any other professions feel they can get away with sucking the economies dry there is not the scope for them to do that because we have turned to making our own local economies work, and paying others a fair wage to make what we cannot get locally, without relying on our credit cards to do that.

Even the ice has nearly gone on our bottom pond.