An international flavour

Nice to see someone on the right side of the fence this week

And so it begins, the month or so of travelling, well travelling further than Estonia, which I visit regularly. Last week was a trip to Finland, a country I have never visited before. I went to the airport and got chatting with a guy I met. Over lunch we talked about our week, of village life and alpacas and then we went our separate ways. Oh wait a minute! That was my husband. You may remember that last week was our 35th Wedding Anniversary and he was in the UK visiting grandkids and doing an alpaca course. We met for an hour and a half before he had to go to put the alpacas away and I had to go through security to catch a plane to Helsinki. I was a little late arriving at the airport because I was trying to do some last minute jobs but at least we did get to spend some time together.

I gather it has been wet while I've been away

Veronica looking sprightly

I arrived in Helsinki with the instructions to get the train to the main train station and then my friend and her daughter would meet me there. I had made some attempt to find out what to do but in the busyness didn't really sort it out properly in my head. Normally that would be a recipe for disaster but I figured that by now I would be able to work the system out, I've travelled about enough in European countries. There was a lady by one of those "Welcome to Helsinki" signs and I stopped to ask her how to get a ticket for the train. She directed me to where I needed to go and told me the machines would be on the platform with guards in bright vests to help. She finished with a very cheery, "Welcome to Finland." Sure enough, the guard was down there and helped me to purchase the correct ticket and directed me onto the train, that just happened to be pulling into the station. Sorted! I was on the train on the way to Helsinki centre and for the first time in a week, I felt relatively relaxed.

I posted this picture last week of the pond filling up. It has
been so low over summer and finally the water was up to
the cattail rushes

Now let's play spot the rushes. The pond is now oeverflowing.
In fact all three ponds are overflowing, including the middle
one that doesn't hold water that much at all

Who are you looking at?

My friend, who is Indian, sent me some vague details about waiting inside the train station for her, which puzzled me until I got there and I found that it wasn't a huge place, even for a capital city. It was interesting doing some people watching while I waited. Helsinki has an integrated transport system that reminded me of our time in Copenhagen and so it was fairly easy to understand. Even easier was the fact that the signs were also in Swedish, which I can just about read, as well as Finnish obviously, which I can't read more than a few words of and only if they resembled the very few Estonian words I know. So after a short trip on the Metro we arrived at her apartment and my place to stay for the night. It was only a short stay but I was well looked after and my friend made sure I caught the right bus in the morning to the institute where I would be doing a presentation.

I wonder if it is going to be hard to tell these two apart?

A golden leaf shower

I was a bit worried about the presentation because of the lack of time I had. I had hoped to have my talk more worked out, but it went okay. It also worked well with the Dutch team who were from a project working on a similar theme to ours and so we had decided to collaborate with them on the workshop. I was very pleased with the response that our project leader had to to my presentation though. She told me that she was happy because she knew what a steep learning curve it had been for me, especially after joining the project late and she felt I had really "got it." I can't do much better than that, so I was happy enough.

A golden view

It has been windy today and so many of the leaves are now
on the floor

After lunch in the canteen, it was time to catch the bus up north. Again it was easy to book... twice! I somehow managed to click on the wrong time but fortunately the costs weren't astronomical even for a nearly three hour bus journey booked on the day. That's the way it should be! So my next stop was Mikkeli, the regional capital for Eastern Finland. Most of what I saw of Finland was from the bus and my impression was of a lot of forest, which was glorious golden colours interspersed with the deep green of spruce and pine. The towns were mainly modernist steel and glass buildings but wooden buildings in the countryside.

Did I say it had been wet?

Our well has filled up very rapidly and is a bit murky. The
moles have been digging tunnels nearby and so instead of
filtering through the soil, the water has been running
through the mole drainage system

I was meant to be meeting up with the Senior Education Officer on the Thursday morning but he had go to a seminar in the very north of the country and so changed the time of the meeting to the evening. We met in the city centre, which was only a five minute walk away from the bus station and we chatted over a cup of tea... and chatted.... and chatted. We both worry about the closure of rural schools. I from the community impact and he from the impact on children who have to spend such a long time on the bus to get to school. We decided there is definitely a need for more research on the topic. I think there is a problem when there is an EU policy that is working towards encouraging more young farmers and then a national policy of closing down schools before the young farmers get established. They need resources for their families too for them to thrive.

Looking through the shed

So embarassing! No peace when you are trying to use
the toilet

I have a friend who lives about 40km away from Mikkeli but he knew people in the town, so he organised for me to stay at the home of a young couple. I did get chance to see my Belgium/Italian friend briefly and he and his Finnish wife took me to buy socks in the centre as all mine were getting holes in them - not good in cultures where you take your shoes off at the door. Anyway my hosts didn't have a car and it was getting late after the meeting, so the guy who I was chatting with ordered me a taxi. That 8 minute drive cost me more than the three hour bus ride. Oh well! Such is life! At least it got me there and that was the main point. I was immediately made very welcome by my Russian host and found much to chat about. You may find a theme here! It seems that much of my week was spent chatting.

Mr. P. delicately nibbling on his leg

A restful place to be

With my meeting already over, it meant a relatively free day. Both of my hosts were working although the Finnish wife worked more in the evening and so she cooked me lunch. It was a bit of a damp day and so it didn't seem to be too bad to just be able to get on and work. In fact it was nice to be able to just concentrate on the work itself and not wonder what other chores I should be doing. It was nice not to have to cook for myself either and I was well fed the whole week by all my hosts. It was a delight to be able to stay in the home of a young couple who are working out their faith and thinking hard about what that means. We finished our conversation with the conclusion that the most important part was love and wisdom, and most important of course is love. Not a bad way to finish really.

You can see where the boys have been eating. It would be
good to get them onto the green grass, but they are already
fat, or at least some of them are.

The leafy lanes of Mikkeli suburbs

The next morning I booked to go back to Helsinki on the bus. I decided I wouldn't take the taxi but walk. My hosts had gone to work and I sauntered around the leafy lanes and by the lake. As I was taking pictures of the lake I got a message from my Belgium/Italian friend that my host was trying to get in touch with me, but Messenger wasn't working so well on my phone. He said he would come and pick me up from the house, but I told him I had already left, so he and his friend came and picked me up from the side of the lake instead. It turned out well, firstly because it was beginning to drizzle a bit and secondly the leafy walk was at an end and the rest of the walk would have been more boring. My host apologised and said he didn't know if his friend was able to help or not and that's why he hadn't mentioned it. As he left he told me the Finnish name for restaurant/coffee shop and indicated where they were and wished me well.

Leaves in the lake

Another view of the lake

I was met off the bus by a Finnish friend who had time for a cup of coffee and we talked about theology and environmentalism. It wasn't long as he didn't have much time, but then again, neither did I. I was heading towards the workplace of a Latvian friend of mine, who has stayed in our apartment a couple of times and now lives just outside of Helsinki. I got near the workplace a little early but found a rather nice bakery and so stopped for a cup of tea and a piece of cake. My friend turned up and we went to find her family and set off to the leafy outskirts of Helsinki.

Well something is of interest

A forest garden

My friend has been in Helsinki for a couple of years now but she and her husband have only just bought the house. It is a cosy little place that has a forest for a back garden. Such an amazing place for children to play. My friend and her husband still have their Latvian accents but her children, especially her little daughter, are fluent in English with an international accent and a just a twang of American.  The little girl read her school book to me, it was funny hearing stories of Kipper and the magic key again, as this was something my own children read at school.

That is an amazing ants' nest

The lake near my friend's house

We had a lazy Saturday, waking up late - well late for me anyway - a leisurely breakfast and of course lots of chatting, a walk around the lake - because there are lots of lakes in Finland, and a film night. I felt so relaxed it was a wonderful way to finish off my time in Finland. The next morning was an early start and I woke at 4:30 and decided it wasn't worth going back to sleep for 20 minutes. My Latvian friend drove me to the ferry terminal and hugged me goodbye. It was so much easier catching the ferry than going to the airport. In Riga I had to queue for 3/4 hour to get through security, at the ferry terminal it was just a matter of pulling up the email with the QR code, scanning it and up we went. No security and all my bags with me. Easy!

Not sure if this boat will be going far

Lots of boats by the lake

I arrived in Tallinn about 9:30 and met up for coffee with an American friend. We talked about faith and life in general before she helped me to get on the right tram to take me to the bus station for my bus to Riga. So on a damp and dreary day I headed home. Getting plenty of work done and dozing along the way. The bus was about 20 minutes late and I was panicking just a little. I had just enough time to buy my ticket, go to the loo and get some water and an apple (the most humungous apple you ever saw) before catching my bus back to my village. It was dark when I got back and Ian was waiting for me near the bus station.

The lake bottom is solid rock

So here I am, back in my caravan, after a fairly laid back day. A bit of work, catching up on emails, podding some beans and starting to think of the next trip, which is only a few days away.

Autumn slipping away

A heavy frost this last week meant that the autumn leaves
that have only just started turning have been falling so
quickly

Autumn leaves are falling, the geese have have been flying over in droves today and winter is beginning to threaten. It can seem such a sad time of the year and yet the riotous colour of autumn should bring us hope I think. I read a meme that said the colours of autumn should remind us of the joy that can be had of letting go. Not sure those are the exact words but that is my interpretation of it. Maybe that is the way we should approach a change in our systems to adapt to a changing climate. We are going to have to let go of a lot of things. We have to adapt to how we live our lives, what we eat, what we buy, how we spend our leisure time, how we support others. So much change is needed that it can seem overwhelming, but we can find joy in doing it together. Working on solutions that are kinder to our planet and supporting those who may lose jobs in the process, hopefully creating better more rewarding jobs to recreate a livelihood in the future.

Hard to see I know but this is one of quite a few flocks which
flew over tonight

Aggie is still not entirely friends with me yet. She hasn't been
too bad though, just a bit grumpy.

We have so much to let go of. Cheap flying, cheap food, cheap clothing. None of it is sustainable. We have to let go of our energy guzzling lifestyles, Says she who is flying tomorrow and meeting her husband at the airport flying in from the UK. I tried, I really did. I looked at every way possible to get to Helsinki by Wednesday but couldn't make it work. I'm not flying back though. I shall be taking the ferry and buses to get back home. One of the options they say is to use offsets, in other words buying trees, but we nurture trees on our land. It doesn't offset the guilt but probably does offset my CO2 emissions.

Before the frosts

Frosty morning. It took till nearly lunchtime before the frost
disappeared

Maybe these would have cheered up grumpy Aggie, but I
don't think so. We were given these happy flowers quite a
few years ago, but there isn't really space for them now, so
they have gone to a new home to cheer up children who are
in therapy at the local school

Anyway besides the guilt trip, it has been one of those weeks. I was a bit overwhelmed midweek with work and tasks to do on the land with the coming frosts, but by Friday I was beginning to feel like I was getting the better of the to-do-list..... then the weekend happened. I was plodding on, sorting through some apples a friend had picked for us. There were a few that would go bad quickly if they weren't dealt with and so I embarked on the task of cooking them in the slow cooker. Only that didn't work so well. In the end I used the steamer, which was much more efficient. The preparation was a bit slow but I got on with other things while they were cooking. A car pulled on and I thought I might have to show some visitors around, but no. I recognised the chap and he spoke in English, I think he is one of our regular visitors but Ian is the one who usually talks to him, so I'm not one hundred percent sure.

Before the frost

Frosty morning

A friend of ours has been in hospital and came out this week
so went to visit. This is the view on the way.

The conversation went like this:
"You have some alpacas down by the road"
"Oh! Okay thanks!" at this point I was thinking that maybe he had spotted the ones that are quite close to the road but behind an electric fence...."Err what colour are they?"
"White!"
"Oh!"...... at this point the topic had become urgent. If it was our new girls then they would be difficult to recapture. I shoved some apples into the steamer and went to see what had happened. Sure enough there were five white alpacas far too close to the road. There was no time to go and sort out the fence to make it easier, they needed moving away from the road immediately. My hand hovered over the phone ready to call in our neighbours to help me if needed. I managed to get between them and the road and slowly, slowly encouraged them in the right direction. It's a good job I've done this before.

The pond has been filling. It is nice to actually be able to see
it again

I love these wispy clouds

The edge of our forest next to our
small hay stores

As we got close to their fence, I saw how they had got out and fastened the wires down in the hope they would go through, but no..... at least by now they were between the forest and their fence and well away from the road. Now I could take a bit of time to sort out the fence. I fastened another section down and two of them went through. I made sure they went through into their permanent paddock. Still three to deal with.

The rosebud opened just before the frosts

Frosty rue

Frosted yarrow amongst the grass

Two in, three to go!

I found some baler twine and fastened it to the hay store and the fence as a barrier to stop them going too far down the path. I spent the next quarter of an hour - or was it more? - trying to encourage them to go through the gap I had made in the fence. Eventually one, then two and finally the third one went through, coaxed by me with two electric fence poles to guide them. I sorted out the fence and then guided them back into the paddock. Confined to barracks until Ian gets back!

Phew! All back in where they should be

Ilvija and Chanel where they should be

Back to the apples! Back to bits of work in between. The afternoon drew on and I needed to ensure the other girls were back in their paddock area ready for putting away time. As I went up, Chanel suddenly started looking around. "Where's my baby?" she was muttering in alpaca speak. Where indeed Chanel? Behind the alpaca house on the wrong side of the fence. Oh great! First of all I tried opening the gate and encouraging her to come in, but the threshold was a scary place and she wouldn't come in. I tried the fastening down the fence trick... no! Then she went to see the other alpacas and they were very intrigued by her and she by them. Intrigued enough for me to catch her. I had to sort of manhandle her to the gate to shover her through it. She sure is growing fast. Her mum did not approve and she started spitting. I was not impressed and my jacket now smells of alpaca spit.

At the boys fence at putting away time from different angles

A misty frosty morning before the sun climbed above the
horizon

Muttering I went back to the apples. In the process I had forgotten to shut the paddock gate, so at putting away time they were back out in the field. Sigh! They were also a bit jumpy after the earlier performance, but eventually they were put away. Normally I gather the trays up from these girls but Aggie threatened to spit at me in her agitated state and so I decided I would look for that one in the morning. Added to which the boys were all over the place and had to be encouraged to all go inside. Are they missing Ian? Probably!

It looks like a painting

Frosted echinacea 

The following day little Ilvija was out again. At least she was easier to coax through the gate and I didn't get spat at. I managed to sort out electric batteries for their fence and so tonight at putting away time, all were where they should be, partly because the other girls are still confined to barracks. Ian will have to sort their fence out when he gets back, but they have hay and so should be fine. Tonight it was the boys turn to misbehave and Tellus took exception to being jumped on by Josefs and so Tellus decided to take it out on Turbjørn. Nearly all of them were charging around like crazy at one point. I went and got a stick and distracted Tellus from his charging about and eventually they all calmed down. Normally it is just a couple of them, but the younger ones do like to join in the "fun" and it doesn't help. There were a few uneaten trays of food tonight, as they can't eat after spitting due to sour mouth, when their lips go all droopy.

The pink of these michaelmas daises really popped in the
frosty morning sunshine

A door latch in need of repair too. It's just
hanging on in there.

To add to the catalogue of things going wrong this weekend, I've also bust the toaster and burnt the steamer pan when I forgot to top up the water. Fortunately it is only the juice that smells burnt, the apples themselves do not. However I think it's going to take a while to clean the steamer base out. Another Sigh! At least Ian managed to make me smile. It was our 35th Wedding Anniversary yesterday and he sent me an email wishing me a Happy Anniversary with a link of Slim Whitman singing "Happy Anniversary" with the words "Don't forget to clean the sick up, and have a good day." He knows me so well.

You want us to go in, well just hang on a minute or two while
we ignore you and continue to eat grass.

You mean you really want us to move?

Well hello

I'm more interested in your camera than
going in.