It's over

A rainbow! That means rain.

I started to write this late August and then events and work overtook me. So well over a month later and an era is over with the death of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II making the title I chose back then seem even more relevant than ever. I'm not much of a monarchist and if anything rather ambivalent to the whole pomp and ceremony aspect. I didn't even watch the funeral as I had work to do. I didn't have a bank holiday since I work for an Estonian University and funnily enough it wasn't high on their agenda. There is still a sadness though, as I did admire her Majesty's dedication to duty and I expect at times that it was a very onerous job, but she also had the perks of a rich heritage and plenty of money to compensate. When I see the millions that go into electing a President in the US, I do wonder if a monarchy is cheaper but I think the election of a head of state by a Parliament as they do in Latvia, is perhaps the best option, although with the current crew in charge in the UK, I'm not sure about that either. What I do not like to see is gross inequality that is highlighted with an old fashioned monarchy. I guess we will see how it works out for the next generation. I do hope that some of those resources will now go towards serving the ordinary people better. 

It's over! They're heading south!

I think we all miss our lovely intern, who was such
a fabulous help over the summer. 

Oh no! Summer over?

So back to my original start of the blog, summer is done! I'm back to work; the hay is cut, stacked and under cover.; the leaves are starting to turn and the nights are getting longer. The summer heat continued for a while longer after the last blog and we were still suffering a drought but the cooler and longer nights meant more dew on the ground in the morning to keep things ticking over. We'd barely had enough rain to wet the ground in quite a while and so the plants were not exactly accelerating away, apart from some of the squash plants that excel at sitting there for months and then suddenly exploding in size over night. But the rain put an end to that and then the early frosts arrived As I headed up north to Estonia for the start of the academic year, I dressed for summer but packed for winter (well slight exaggeration, autumn).

Now a race to the finish. I think Marvin's ahead
by a nose.

Just lazing around

In all the years I've been with the Estonian University, both as a student and then member of staff, this was the first time I've been there for the start of term. I was there to introduce myself as the head of the masters programme, so they would know who I was. I then went on a field trip with them the next day to see parts of Estonia I haven't seen much of before, which I really enjoyed. I took the precaution of wearing a mask on the bus, glad I did! I was the only one though. The following week on another trip several staff members became sick with COVID. Not sure if the mask would have been effective on that trip but decided that in small confined areas or rooms, I would wear a mask now that I'm starting to mingle again more. 

Two falls and a submission

Lake Peipsi, Estonia

Another view of a lake in Estonia. Forgotten which
one now - guess I'll be in trouble!

A textile exhibition in a manor house

Just starting to turn colour

Back on the farm it's not been a great year for the garden. First the spring nights were cold that meant everything got off to a late start, just in time for the period of neglect when other jobs take priority. So generally the paths are barely visible and some beds look like a jungle. Fat hen the prolific but tasty "weed" was a staple in our diet for quite a bit of the summer, along with herbs which seem to be doing okay and the volunteer potatoes that taste awesome (volunteer as they sprout up in places where they were not deliberately planted). Our lawnmowers in the orchard have been the chickens this year as we've moved the arks around there rather than cut the lawn around the trees. Consequently we have suckers coming up from the plum trees in various areas. We will have to decide whether to cut them back or keep them I guess. Now the chickens are starting on their slow trek to the small greenhouse for the winter.

What are you two arguing over? Tis the season of
arguments amongst the animals.

Then the next minute, all is calm and they are 
sitting down ruminating.

Frosts? What are those? You are about to find out
little chap.

I do wonder how much we will get before the heavy frosts set in and just as everything is starting to produce. The tomatoes had only just started turning and before I set off for the start of term in Estonia we'd only had the grand total of two up till then but with lots to come. The beans were and are still flowering away and there are signs of some small beans but they haven't amounted to much over the last month, we had a handful one meal time. Some squashes were romping away but others are sitting there rather demurely. Oh the joys of a neglected garden. I planted some more seeds for some autumn veg and was hoping with some watering and the extra week of heat, they would get going but they have been slow too. I'm always loathe to water the garden as I prefer a rain-fed one and mulching - less effort and more sustainable. At least we are not using municipal treated water, just the water we collect from the run off from the barn roof or pond water. 

Ian's birthday mug

Rather vibrant fungi

Talking of sustainable water collection, I read an article recently where they used plastic mesh to collect the moisture in the air to irrigate new trees to repopulate an area damaged by fire. Maybe that would work in my garden to ensure the moist air is trapped. It might also mean that the wee beasties are kept off the plants and might provide a bit of protection from low overnight temperatures. I will have to experiment I think, but I think that might be an experiment for next year now.

Socks completed by our friend for a
customer

Little Betty. We keep her in the cage at night, as
we wouldn't want her to become a little snack. 

I mentioned in the last blog that we seem to have lost GT. He still hasn't returned and so we fear the worse. However, we now have a new kitten. Ian phoned me from the place where he had gone to do some late shearing and said they had a kitten they needed to re-home, did we want it. I said yes, and so we welcomed Betty to our farm. She's quite a sweetie, very affectionate. Not wild like the previous two were as kittens. She can be a bit feisty too though. She is not afraid of Rocket Ron and poor Rocket Ron didn't quite know what to think of her at first. She sometimes chased him off, but he started to fight back a little eventually. Nothing serious, just a paw to say, "Keep off!" or "Enough!" It was hilarious to watch this tiny little kitten chasing a cat three times her size. Generally they just sniff each other though, so that's a relief and now they seem to be fine together.

What is that scary little thing? 

Chanel, our temperamental, stressy, spitty alpaca
but she's sweet really.

Chanel is still causing us some issues. It has been too hot sometimes to wash her as she would boil as she dried out. Then there's been the times when we are cutting the hay and there are just not enough hours in the day to sort her out too. If she was an even-tempered, easy-going alpaca like her son, then we could have done more with her, but because she is so temperamental and difficult to handle then we cannot work on her as much as we would like. Unfortunately the last washing she had meant the skin was soft enough for the flies to start working on her again and she got some nasty sore spots. Blue antibiotic spray followed by turmeric and garlic powder worked well. The patches at least now look dry. She was too sore tto carry on the washing programme and now it's perhaps too cold. Sigh!

Over? Really?

Well never mind, there's always hay!

Our summer house progressed slowly but now the main structure is finished and we even have an electric supply to it. The roof boards and shingles were put on before the rain started thank goodness. There was some frustration as there were days of rain forecast that didn't actually materialise or there was so little that it hardly dampened anything. Frustrating when dry weather is needed to get a job done, even if the water was needed for the garden. So this is the worst of both worlds. Now the damp days with bits of drizzle is holding up the work to get the outside preservative on. Most of it is done now though, so it isn't so stark and dominant. We chose a dark colour to help it blend in. 

More flying south

I got Ian to take some photos of
me for work, but thought that
I looked rather like my 
grandmother. I think it's the 
colour of the jacket. Quite scary
really!

The week I went up to Estonia some of our family arrived for another visit. It was lovely to see them again when I got back from work and Ian enjoyed the company of our grandson every morning as he got up early to help with poo clearing again. We were really grateful to our son for helping Ian with the flooring but we didn't think he needed to test the strength of the membrane and netting that we put to stop mice nibbling through. I hope his leg is okay now, he did get a bit of a bruise from it. It seemed like everyone had a good time though and the kids got plenty of opportunity to play outside in a sandy patch and play with the kitten (I'm sure she misses them).

Well the colours are better I guess!

One haircut, my favourite colour purple
and a black wall at work. Well that's 
better!

All the fun of playing in the sand with an auger!

All too soon it was time for them to go home and and me to head to Poland. I decided to drive down to Kielce. It was quite a journey and so opted to stay in a hotel in the north of Poland before heading for the event the following day. I think I've said this before, as we drove to the UK for our son's wedding years ago, but Poland is big. It also has some very pretty places and a lot of new roads. I can understand them building the new roads, there was so much traffic, but it is sad to see them carving them through forests and green belt land. Nice to drive on but not good for the environment. I would have taken the bus down but I just could not face an overnight journey to Warsaw, I long for the Rail Baltica project to be completed and for Europe to get their act together with overnight trains. During my time in Poland it was also time for our Ukrainian guests to leave for the UK. We will miss their borscht, smiling faces and our spotless apartment. 

Weaving linen in Poland

The workshop room for the workshop
I was hosting

A view from the tower of the workshop room. I got 
stuck in there as the lift stopped working. Had to 
find the service lift, but thankful that the guy who was
also stuck up there was Polish and could contact the 
service crew.

Already for the workshop

The not so beautiful view of the grain silos 
situated next to the hotel I was staying in. The
hotel was quite posh and had lovely breakfasts, 
so all was good.

The rather grand bed on my way back from Poland

The t-shirts were a gift from our intern. Spit 
happens is a common phrase amongst alpaca
owners but it genuinely never occurred to me
that it might resemble another phrase that I 
would not really use! Sigh! How naive I can 
be at times!

I did appreciate being able to see many familiar faces and make some new acquaintances at the conference I went to (The European Rural Parliament), although I still feel uneasy about the consumption of resources to cover such events. Out of the new networks I've made I've  been asked to speak to an online lunchtime seminar in the UK about my research and one lady said she would love me to go to Iceland - not holding my breath on that one though and the uneasiness over travel by plane concerns me for its impacts on the environment - so difficult when I do actually still like travel. I was slightly alarmed on this trip though that I developed a cough but in the end decided it was all the chemicals they use in the air-conditioning systems and the cleaning fluids and it was setting off an asthmatic cough. Once I was outside my coughing subsided. Anyway, in preparation for a flight to Spain I got my COVID booster. That's enough flights for one year anyway. Planting a hedge to screen the alpaca boys from seeing the girls seems like a good idea and would offset those airmiles - and yes I did add extra for offsets to the air tickets, which is a concept I hate. So many dilemmas to face.

Progress on the summer house

Well that was close!

Our dear sweet Freddie

The forecast was for a drop in temperatures, so I thought I had better make an effort to dig up the root vegetables this weekend. The cabbages, broccoli and Brussel sprouts would stand some frost and I would still be able to get to them. Root vegetables once frozen in the ground are not so easy. It was a good job I did, not because they were in danger of being frozen in the ground after all, but I would have had more difficulty locating them under a blanket of snow. We were expecting some snow, errrrrr.... but not quite so much. Not that it is a lot of snow by Latvian standards and we've known more to fall in one day, but the consistent fine snow that fell all day today means we have a reasonable accumulation that we weren't expecting. 

George in a festive frame. No the snow was not
that high but the shot was taken from between
accumulations on the gate.

Beetroots

I started off nice and easy digging the vegetables with the beetroot. I was quite pleased that the majority were a reasonable size, especially as I use our own beetroot seed mixed in with some new ones. They are now all in a crate snuggled in a blanket of wood chippings. The beetroot leaves are drying in or on top of the oven. I have some leaves in the freezer already that will be used as a spinach substitute. I find spinach hard to grow because the summer is not kind to it and I always remember too late to grow some at the end of the season, so this will work instead. The beetroot leaves I have drying will add to my dried vegetable powder stock. I find that there are quite a few things that take up too much room or not quite right for eating directly because they might be a bit stringy or too strong in taste but dried out and ground into a powder they make tasty low salt stock. I dried out bean pods and ground them up. This was not a total success but I sieved it to separate the powder and the flaky bits, we get the powder and the chickens will be quite happy with the flakes added to their food, so nothing will be wasted.

Brencis does like to come up close and personal.
He can be a bit intimidating at times as he's so
big, but he's a gentle giant really - as long as
you don't touch his back legs.

A barrow load of parsnips

I also dug up the parsnips. I've had a couple of years where I've managed to grow these successfully but it is a bit hit and miss. This year was absolutely amazing, I've never, ever, grown parsnips as big. The ground was possibly a bit rich for them and they sent out lots of side roots, but even so, they were enormous and not woody at all and they tasted nice and sweet. I hope to save a few for next year to get seeds from or at least re-sprout the tops for new seed plants. I also dug up a bed of Jerusalem artichokes. I save a few for us and give most of them to the chickens -they are fine under a mulch and then they can be fed on a regular basis to them. We like Jerusalem artichokes but not so keen of their smelly effects. If that was all we had to eat, I would certainly do that no problem, but we have so many other things to eat we don't need to bother. I will have to do some research on ways to reduce their aftereffects though as they are super easy to grow and take no care at all. I dig them up in autumn to use in winter and then again in spring as soon as the ground defrosts. They are some of the earliest vegetables of the year for us.

Meet Pete the Parsnip. The fork and 
my old wellie is for size comparison.

My view from the apartment window this
morning

Of course work takes up much of my time now and this week I've been searching for photographs for a book and database - easier said than done when some companies do not even bother to respond to emails. Anyway, I persist and that usually gets some results. We have a database launch date this week and so I've been making sure that is sorted. It will still be a work in progress but there is enough there to create interest and it can be added to over time. There is still a paper to finish and so I've been dipping into that, which kind of feels like getting blood out of a stone as it is such a slow process. I shall be glad when that one is done. I put on my diplomatic hat on this week too as I had to finish peer-reviewing someone else's paper. I needed to be kind and constructive with that. I feel sorry for the authors as they will have a lot of work to do on it. The science writing aspect is a tricky path to navigate especially if they do not have access to a native speaker to help them. 

Ian's morning view out on the land

George, Mari's oldest son had been outside in
the snow

There was a break from work on Thursday when I went out to the land with Ian one morning to help hold alpacas while they were scanned. We had 8 of them scanned and five were pregnant. Vanessa we were fairly certain was not due to the fact she was very adamant that she was not going to sit down for any male alpaca, well not for Mr. P anyway, as Tellus and Brencis are too closely related to her to be mated with. We were disappointed that Valeria and Antonia were not pregnant again this year and we'll have to try early again next year. Aggie and Chanel we were fairly certain were pregnant as they have been horrid, spitty and temperamental and so it was a relief to know they definitely were pregnant and not just obnoxious for no reason. Mari was definitely not as far on as they were, so due much later but at least she is pregnant - she does have nice babies too. Amanda and Silla were easy to see too, so it looks like most of them are due earlier rather than later. 

I love this shot as it would make such a good
subject for a detailed drawing showing the
way George's fleece covers his face, especially
around the nose.

The detail on Lady V's face would be a good
one to try and capture in pencil

We went to see some friends on Friday. One of them has been very ill for such a long time and we know he's vulnerable to any infection. You could guarantee though that even if we thought about going to see them I would get a tickly cough or start sneezing. Then there are the days when trying to get work done means I finish too late. We also didn't want to go and see them if we had been in contact with others where we weren't sure about their Covid bubble either and so time just stole away. To take Covid19 germs to someone already reliant on oxygen is not helpful though. Finally we found a time when we hadn't had contact with anyone other than in the local supermarket and so went up to see them. 

Hay stacks with a blanket of snow

Have you been out in the snow Mr. P?

Life used to be so simple when we didn't have to factor these things in. At least we are more confident of not having come into contact with the disease due to being tied up on the land means we don't see many people and our trips to the supermarket are relatively safe due to there only being a low incidence of cases in the area. In the whole of the time since the disease came into Latvia there has only been twice when there has between 1-5 with the disease in our region (they don't give numbers below 5). The numbers in certain parts of the country are not looking good though with huge spikes in numbers and the hospitals close to being full for allocated beds. There are additional restrictions in several places but not in the capital, which has the highest number of people and the highest incidence - just not the highest number per capita and that's how they get away with not placing the additional restrictions there. Unless the numbers come down quickly there will be a lockdown according to the murmurings.

Hmmm! I can see you have. He looks like an old
grizzled man

I see our Christmas tree is ready decorated

On Saturday we took a trip out to see someone with some alpacas. She was a relatively new owner and needed some advice and guidance. The alpacas' toe nails also needed cutting and so Ian demonstrated the correct way they should be done. It looks like we will have more customers in the next shearing season too and so Ian was explaining how to prepare the place ready for the shearing process. It is worrying though that she needed the advice on simple things like toe nail cutting, body scoring to ensure they are not too fat and general ideas on how to make sure they stay healthy. Ian wouldn't let any of our alpacas go without the people knowing how to care for them, as any responsible breeder should. `He would find selling them hard enough as it is and even harder if he wasn't sure they would be looked after properly with the correct after care services too.

So bright despite the gloomy skies. Makes a change
from dark and dreary we've had.

Little Ilvija doing her best to look like a unicorn

One of the things I've been spending time on this week is sorting out Christmas presents. I haven't finished yet but I've been trying to think of presents that will be of use, but fun and where the profits do not go into the hands of the temple of mammon, aka Amazon. Buying local becomes a bit more tricky when you are many miles away and they are not always ideal anyway. I've been putting together some sites for myself of places to buy local foodie items and things we might need and so that was helpful to send to my daughter when she wanted ideas. Maybe that would be useful for anyone who has distant relatives, a bit like the wedding gift list but packed with details of greener, more local companies, especially when it will not be so easy to pop over to deliver presents yourself. 

I think the unicorn look needs a little work though

I said the snow had got a bit thicker than we were
expecting

Mari with Lady V looking anxiously on. I'm not
going out in that, I think the look says.

The greenhouse looks quite gloomy with its blanket
of snow. I hope that plastic holds.

Boys you do know you have water
buckets inside don't you?