A tasty Christmas

Our Christmas cake - dark chocolate sponge, layered with
blackcurrants and soaked with rum and orange juice. The
toppring is sour cream dusted with cocoa and coffee. As
you can see it was close to a disaster as the sour cream
nearly ran over the plate but fortunately stopped at the
edge

After last week's debate over what to eat for Christmas dinner it was decided by friends when they invited us to dine with them and so we had a very British Christmas dinner with turkey, stuffing, gravy and plenty of veg, followed by Christmas pudding and mince pies. It was lovely and shows the advantage of having a flexible diary. Tim's bro, the chicken in our freezer that I mentioned last week was cooked the day before though. There wasn't a huge amount of meat on him compared to supermarket chickens in the UK, but it more than made up for it in taste and so a little goes a long way. The meat of our chickens is dark and not pale and even when boiled for a while in the slow cooker the meat retains its taste and gives lots of wonderful stock with just the addition of a few herbs and a bit of seasoning.

The temperatures dropped yesterday and we have had frosts
but escaped the snow in other parts of the country

The advantage of sunrises at this time of the year, is they
don't require getting up at an unearthly hour

Our Christmas decorations did finally go up on Christmas Eve, which is fairly normal for us. We chose a tree off our land the day before and we were going to bring it home but it was bucketing it down with rain when it was time to go home, we would have got wet just trying to get it into the car. Most of the week has been very dark and the ground is saturated - at least we haven't had the floods like elsewhere, but then again we are on high ground. Our ponds were overflowing though and our temporary lake keeps appearing and then disappearing. Surprisingly the water table is still low and so the water must be running off and not yet made it down into the ground to recharge the underground water levels.

I love the rosy glow of crisp winter mornings

A little Christmas and New Year greeting

Ian likes to follow Santa on NORAD and around 9.30pm Christmas Eve he told me that Santa was ahead of schedule. Well sure enough shortly afterwards our doorbell went, obviously Santa was not going to tackle our rather narrow chimney. As Ian had disappeared out of the room, I thought for a minute that he was playing games with me and maybe he had gone to fetch something from the car. I went to the door and instead of it being Ian it was actually a friend of ours with the most humungous box of chocolates, a bottle of wine and a candle with crocheted cover that his wife had made. He wished us Merry Christmas and all God's blessings for the following year. Such a surprise! Oh yes! Ian was actually just having a shower, so he missed the fleeting visit.

A golden glow

Brencis is starting his halter training. It was amusing to see
him come up to Ian a little while later as if to say "Please
take this thing off now!" We need him halter trained to take
him down to join the boys when he is old enough, which
won't be much longer now. We just need to know he has
been fully weaned off his Mum.

We didn't buy each other presents this year. I will be getting my new glasses soon and Ian has got new winter tyres for the car. If there is anything we need, we buy it and we are not really into buying things for the sake of it, so when I say "need", I mean "need" and not just a want. Having a nice Christmas Eve meal together, then the home-made croissants for breakfast on Christmas Day itself was present enough for us. Even so we had a few presents each to open on the day, Ian got socks from my Mum and Dad (he was very pleased with them, a good pair of socks for Ian are obligatory and Smartwool socks are some of the few he has found to be comfortable to wear), he also got some cycling clothes from our son and his family, along with a box of biscuits - all his favourite ones too. I got a book about the Duddon Valley from my Mum and Dad. I have mentioned the Duddon Valley a few times on my blog and it is one of my favourite places in the UK to visit, as well as being a place I visited often as a child because my godmother lived on a hill farm there. I also got wool to knit a hat from my son and family. Our daughter and her husband came up with a very thoughtful gift for the both of us, they have given us money, but on the proviso we go to the local hotel once a month - something we haven't been in the habit of doing as we were trying to save our money, so it will be greatly appreciated.

Eyre, our kitten, kitten likes to follow us wherever we go.
The alpacas are curious about her and we are not sure how
safe she is when she gets in, but so far she has run off before
coming to any harm. 

Ian has been busy laying new beds in the fields using some
old hay and putting manure on the top. The idea will be to
cover them either in black garden cloth or plastic to kill
weeds and then either plant into them after the weed seeds
have been killed off in spring or maybe even the following
year. We are still at the planning stage. 

Of course our days haven't changed much because it is Christmas. The animals still needed to be let out and fed, so we have been going out to the land every day as normal. The days have been mild for much of the week and so I have dug up the last of the leeks, and cleared out many of the Jerusalem artichokes from one of the two beds we have of them, as they were getting a bit overcrowded. I covered the bed with straw and layered straw onto the other bed that I will dig up in spring - they will be some of the first fresh vegetables of the new season that way. I have used some old tyres to make a clamp in the greenhouse to put the ones I dug up in, along with some potatoes that had been grown late on in the greenhouse. They have been surrounded by soil and topped off with a thick layer of straw to stop them freezing - well hopefully. It won't matter too much as they are mainly for the chickens anyway. I found some carrots that hadn't been dug up in the garden, I think they had been too small when I dug up the rest and then forgot about them. Carrots dug up in winter are often sweeter and these certainly tasted wonderful. It has been nice to have some fresh veg and maybe next year we will leave some in the ground and mulch with a thick layer of hay to stop the ground freezing on top of them and see if that works for late winter veg.

Not the best place to get a drink, that pond is only just
frozen

Winter coat 

I have had a few days off from writing another paper. That has been so slow, but I think a few days rest will be helpful to get it processed to the next stage. Instead I have been sorting out seeds for next year's growing season, dealing with a batch of honey that was still on the comb, trying to make sure the washing got done and at least a stab at the backlog of cleaning. So nothing too exciting for the Christmas season, but definitely restful for my mind and I suppose that's a good thing and something money can't buy.

Our little kitten is not so little any more

Enjoying a new bale of hay. The feeders can be stuffed with
hay and they will still come and feed off the new bale

One of the jobs I forgot to mention last week was sweeping the chimney at our other apartment. That is usually one of those marker jobs of the year, although it is usually done earlier on in the year. Normally we would go up to the other apartment at weekends to heat it, watch a DVD and just chill. It is only worth doing this once the nights get long enough to watch a programme or film at night and so is an autumn and winter treat. This year the days have been relatively mild and so not much point in wasting wood heating the other apartment, which is one reason we haven't bothered to sweep the chimney until now, also we haven't had a huge amount of time - at least Ian hasn't. The forecast was for colder weather this next week and so we needed to get a move on and sort it out.

Not the most glamourous of poses. Hehehe. It does show
the alpacas very mobile lips though. They are able to move
the two sides of their upper lips, which enables them to
be very specific about what they eat. They can move an
undesirable plant out of the way to get to the one they want

A little hard to see, as Ian had to do a lot of cropping on this
photograph, but it looks like it could be a hazel grouse. I
was quite chuffed with myself as I thought it looked grouse
like and so it gave Ian a clue in which section of the bird book
to look at. 

Good news, bad news week

It has been an interesting week this week in both good and bad ways. Early on in the week we found out that a friend of a friend was interested in coming to visit our place to see what we are doing and so at the last minute we ended up with an unexpected guest over the Easter holidays. We have had many chats with our new friend over the time he has been spending with us and one chat lasted for around 7 hours around the kitchen table. We did wonder how many folks these days even eat around a table, never mind sit for hours just chatting but it was good fun anyway.

We have finally been having some lovely spring days, plenty of sunshine and a warm wind which has been great for spring cleaning and getting the washing done as well as drying the ground out and melting the remaining snow. The rivers were running very high as the ice melted and snow ran off the fields but it would seem that the culvert that the local council put in last year on the road next to our land has meant that the snow run-off from our fields have not flooded the road this year, which is a relief (you can see the pictures from last year here). We still might try and dig out a pond a bit further back and see if we can make use of all that water for fish but I guess that may be a project for another year. Talking of ponds Ian has been using his digger attachment to dig out a pond near the poly tunnel - or rather where the poly tunnel frame is, so that when it is eventually finished then we have a source of water. There is some progress on that front for anyone following that particular 6 month saga, as the workers have been back and finishing off the frame but they are up to their ankles in mud - not good news from their point of view I guess.

Thursday this week was a rather difficult good news bad news day:-
Firstly I got to the hairdressers okay in the nearest large town - which is good news as the roads are diabolical at the moment and therefore this can be considered an achievement, the potholes are quite alarming in places
While I was in the hairdressers Ian went to get the technical inspection done on the car which cost less than we thought it was going to - so more good news!
The car, however, failed the technical inspection- bad news, the front suspension was wobbly for some reason.
We do have 30 days to sort it though- good news
We fitted in a trip to the accountants and found we might not have to pay tax on a house sale - very good news (I will qualify this and say our accountant is still discussing this with the tax service and so is not a done deal yet)
We went to the supermarket and found some beef which is a very a rare find where we are - good news for an Easter weekend treat

Got home and found a certificate from OU in the post for a module I passed in October so my merit for that is now official - good news
Ian decided to change the tyres on the car to even up the wear and found that the wobble on the wheel was worse than he thought - bad news
Went to see our Swedish friend for a second opinion and he suggested going to the local garage to have a look and everyone agreed the car is not safe to drive because for some reason the wheel bearing on our two year old truck has gone- very bad news - we then had just an hour before we were due to set off to pick up our guest for the weekend at the airport.
Our American friend and neighbour then offered to drive us to the airport to pick up our guest- good news
He then offered us a spare car for the weekend- very good news

After all that it was a good job that the holiday weekend has been one of relaxation and lots of talking. Unfortunately we had more good news/bad news trying to arrange transport for the truck to Riga. With some help from our neighbour Ian thought he had managed to arrange for the truck to be transported into Riga on Tuesday but due to a little miscommunication it turned out it was arranged for Monday and we only found out after the arranged appointment - bad news. With a bit of to-ing and fro-ing our neighbour eventually managed to sort everything out - good news but it does mean Ian has to set off tomorrow at 5am - bad news (well it is for Ian, I am going into Riga later with our neighbour - good news). All bit of a palaver really.

Photos
Photo 1: Some last remaining snow in a barren landscape
Photo 2: White water rafting on Bank Holiday Monday down the local river
Photo 3: One of the numerous potholes that have sprung up after the ravages of winter
Photo 4: On the left hand side of this building is the local police station and on the right hand side the water and heating supply company (thought you might like to see some local landmarks).
Photo 5 & 6 : The weir where it has burst its banks
Photo 7: Some of the washed up wood on the side of the weir.

Humour needed!

Thought I would give a little update on the Latvian lessons first. We are by no means fluent in any shape or form as I have just not had the time to do more than glance at the books before the lessons and Ian is struggling to memorise what he needs to remember but we muddle on through. The great thing is though that our teachers are wonderful and patient and when things aren't going well we can laugh. I was listening to a service which was part translated on Sunday and I realised that I could recognise quite a few words which was great and I even managed to follow along with a piece that wasn't translated - I don't think I got the whole of it but at least I think I got the idea of what they were talking about which is encouraging.

Last week I mentioned how Ian was switching between the roles of consultant, farmer and househusband and the pattern continued for the rest of the week and the result of that is that he is off to Cyprus at the end of this week. He told his colleague that he will only go if she can guarantee some sunshine to which she replied she couldn't guarantee the sunshine as it is cooling down now in Cyprus, but she can guarantee it will be warmer than in Latvia. How true! The Everglades have just begun to defrost slightly with a rise in temperature and the snow that fell at the end of last week is disappearing but it is going ever so slowly, the crocodiles are ever so sluggish!

Just in case you think we have finally lost it and maybe you are not so far wrong on that score, our piece of land was jokingly labelled the Everglades last week as the ground has become rather saturated over Autumn. The problem with jokes in our household is that they have a tendency to rumble on for weeks, if not years. It is a trait of Ian's family! Honest! His Dad used to joke that the Queen would regularly pop in for a cup of tea on her travels and the spin offs from that joke still rumble on now and Ian's Dad died a couple of years ago but they are heroically kept alive by son and grandson in his honour. So various jokes about the Everglades have abounded, hence the crocodiles and the frequent mention of hovercrafts. 

One of the things we have to get used to in Latvia is the attitude to private land is rather different to that in England. I would never dream of venturing on land in case it belonged to someone but here there is no such scruple and perhaps that is as it should be, as long as they are not damaging land and respecting the environment. Often people go into woods to collect mushrooms or willow which is fine. One incident that I had forgotten about from the previous week happened to Ian while he was busy clearing out the wood. Ian came out of the wood and spotted a lot of people with high visibility vests on, Ian's first thought was that it was the police and there had been an incident, especially as they were all in a long line walking across the ploughed bit of land. Ian summoned up courage and went up to one of them and asked if they spoke English (Angliski?) which fortunately the guy did and he explained that it was a hunt. Phew! Well they set off into the woods "whooping" as they went along, I guess they were driving the game towards those with guns - no wonder they had high visibility jackets on then. Not quite sure what I think about folks driving game off the land we are stewarding but in some ways I just hope they reduce the number of wild boar as I can foresee they maybe a real problem if we try and grow veg. I perhaps would feel better if we could benefit from their activities though, I don't think I have actually had venison but wild boar is pretty good. 

We don't often have guests turn up unexpectedly very often  but  this week was an exception which has been fun. I agree with one blog site that measures how beautiful a home is, not by the elegant setting or the eclectic chic appearance but by the abundance of generous hearts, so hopefully our guest was blessed by arriving at a meal time and my eking it out to feed three instead of two, he seemed to appreciate it anyway. Our young American friend, Marvin, also came round for a meal for the last time this week as he is off back to America, he will be sorely missed around here. His last visit will be memorable for one reason in particular though as he made an explosive exit  - well not him personally but the front glass section on my oven shattered while we were in the kitchen preparing the meal, thankfully no one was hurt. Not sure what I am going to do about the door now and it is proving interesting trying to get food into and out of the oven as it does not stay fully open due to the lack of weight from the missing glass front and it requires an almost yoga type exercise in order to keep the door open. 

A few weeks ago I asked on a forum site if anyone had any good ideas for marrows as I had used them in just about any way I could think of and had run out of ideas, an interesting suggestion was to make marrow rum. The recipe was easy enough, brown sugar, juice of an orange and some yeast all packed into the hollowed out centre of a marrow and left for a few weeks.  Eventually the marrow started leaking and so we thought we had better deal with it as we didn't want anything exploding in our dump room, I think that would entail a far more complicated cleaning up job than the exploding pumpkin down in the cellar (anyone get the impression that it is getting dangerous around here?). We opened up the marrow and a very pleasant but alcoholic smell began to permeate the apartment, we tipped the juice into a plastic bottle and added more orange juice and yeast, scraped the rest of the flesh out of the marrow and left it to drain in a colander to extract the maximum amount of liquid. The sweet alcoholic smell lingered and wouldn't you guess it that is the time for more unexpected guests to turn up, we smelt more like an illegal distillery and wondered what our neighbours would think as the smell wafted out the door. Alcohol is a major problem here in Latvia so they probably thought we had just succumbed to the onslaught of poor weather and turned to drink. Fortunately our guests saw the funny side of it and we laughed and giggled about it. 


Last week I mentioned that our tractor had been driven back to the tractor company and wondered how long it would have taken them as it takes an hour by car and our tractor is only little, well we found out it took them three hours. Three hours of bumping around on dirt roads for our little tractor - poor thing! Can't imagine whoever drove the tractor was in good shape either at the end of that. Worse thing is that didn't even solve the problem, our front loader is still not fitted. Somehow the wrong part was either ordered or sent and we have to wait for the right part to come from Italy. We had the tractor delivered back to us for the time being though and would you believe it, it arrived one snowy evening! And yes the transit pulling our tractor on a low loader did get stuck didn't it! And yes Ian pulled ended up pulling it out to the land. He is going to have to get a new tow rope at this rate but Ian did say it looked rather peculiar with our red truck pulling a big transit that was pulling a low loader with a tractor on it. So what is the betting that the part comes next week while Ian is away? I have to go and get tractor driving lessons to learn how to reverse it out of the tight space where it is parked just in case. Deep joy! Advantage of the returned tractor is that Ian could turn the tractor lights on and the guys finish off the concreting for our poly tunnel base, we are kind of glad that bit is finished despite the mud, rain, ice and snow, just not so sure about the wisdom of trying to concrete in the ice though. Only time will tell on that one.

Our eventful week was rounded off by the announcement that our chimney is ready for our new stove. We weren't able to find the right parts but that doesn't seem to matter here in Latvia, if you don't find the part, you find someone to make it for you. That did mean that our living room needed a radical rearrangement. Well we kind of put it off as long as possible as changing furniture around and deciding where it is going to go is fraught with problems in our household, Ian hates change - I think it might be a man thing, not sure, but I love to change things around and would do it a lot more if it didn't cause so much strife. The thing I don't like though is the wires to all the bits and pieces of electrical stuff - now that causes me strife. Well we survived the trauma without too much strain and if anyone asks the yellow bruise on Ian's nose is because a twig hit him last week. OK!

Just a quick ponder this week so here goes, as I sit and write this blog it is 20 years ago since the fall of the Berlin wall. I remember the shock of that happening and the consequent falling of the communist regime. It was amazing how such an act can have consequences down the line and even the fact that I am sat here writing this blog here in Latvia would not be possible without the momentous changes that  occurred all those years ago.

And talking of wonders that will never cease an influential think tank released a blog this week that supported the work of the Latvian Prime Minister in the face of the IMF and doesn't think he deserves the flak that he is getting and believes that the IMF has been making a hash of things in Latvia. Now where have I heard that before?

Pictures 1 & 2 - Our wintry village

Pictures 3 & 4 - The cleared out woodland and the pile of brush (I know I am only little but that pile is still huge and one of I think three)

Pictures 5 & 6 - More scenes from the land.
Picture 7 Our new stove, do you like the fire?