A Place to Be

A place to be?

From time to time I feel poetic, or at least I like to think I am. This poem came out of some thoughts on the research I am doing and the disconnect between what our rural areas are supposed to be like, producing food and recreation and what it can be like as people leave. On the one hand policymakers are increasing efforts to encourage younger people into farming and on the other hand removing the village infrastructure that makes life in the countryside liveable.

The beauty of the countryside

A Place to Be

How good it is to be in the countryside

A place to relax

A place to relax
A place to hike and swim
A place to heal
A place to be

A place to be?
So how come suicide is so high amongst farmers?
How come alcoholism so rife in the countryside?
A place to be is not enough
A place to be also has to put food on the table
For those who work the land
A place to be also has to provide social contact

A place of solitude is okay for a time
Some can take more than others
But at the end of the day
People still need people

So how come you expect your food to be produced in a vacuum?
By farmers devoid of social care and community
When you rip the heart out of the centre
And remove the school
Where do their children go?
When the jobs disappear from the villages
Where do their children's friends go?
Why should they stay?
In splendid isolation?

A place to be?
Dying
Isolated
Lonely
A place to exist
How long will your "place to be" last?
Without the work and care of its managers
Robots in the fields
Empty
Abandoned
Where will your food come from then?
Will it still be a place to be?

Well?

Never boring

Freddie was brave enough to come up and sniff my hat
this week

Sitting around writing can get a bit samey and I certainly do a lot of that it would seem. This last week I have written an abstract for a conference that I might never get to go to due to funding issues. I have continued on the paper I am currently trying to finish off. I have written emails galore and got a good way on with an advertising brochure for our Latvian Alpaca Adventure #2 and now I am writing my blog! I did emerge out of the apartment though from time to time, first to Riga and then out to the land.

King or is it Queen of the castle?

Ian has cut a path so the alpacas have somewhere to walk.
They will walk through the snow but prefer not to and it
is a way of encouraging them to actually get out a bit

The first event of the week was an email sent from my university to say I have been de-matriculated, which sounds kind of painful. If I was sick I could get a doctor's note and I would still be a student, but it seems a bit odd to do that really. It does now mean I cannot access funds for travelling to conferences from the foundation that Estonian students can apply to, hence the funding issues above. Mind you, I never got any money last year either. I can still finish my PhD, that isn't a problem, as soon as I get all three papers published that is. I'm still waiting for paper 2 to be accepted. I should get to hear soon, I hope.

Our old oak tree, always looks its best in winter. It really
stands out then

Looks like Brencis is having a chat with Sofie our cat

There was one day I have a confession to make. Ian rang me from the land to say that there was someone on the way to the apartment to have a look at the issue with our regularly overflowing pipework at the other apartment. I wasn't dressed! I was about 10 minutes later though. I had to take the chap up to the apartment and show him where the problem was. Eventually he got the idea and he said he would go and find our neighbour upstairs and lend him the equipment needed to fix the problem, since the problem (or so I thought) was in his wood store, which is underneath our apartment. I was told by Ian that actually the problem is further underground than that, so hopefully they will sort it out though.

All the boys coming to see Sofie

Ice-skating anyone?

The most eclectic day of the week was Friday. I found out early last week there was an interesting (and free) planning conference in Riga, so I got the 6:40am bus on a cold and chilly morning. The night before I printed off some work to do on the way in, only forgetting it is dark till about 8am and only light enough on the bus to read by about 8:30am. Doh! I was at the stage where reading it on the computer was just not working and needed a paper copy to sort it out. Anyway all was not lost along the route I took a phone call regarding details about selling our apartment and then sent off some emails to chivvy the process along. It also meant I could look out of the window and I spotted three deer running across a field.

Icicles

I was too early for my appointment and so had
a wander around old town Riga. I love old
doors and so took a few pictures

By the time I get into Riga I'm ready to eat — why am I always hungry then? I think it has something to do with trying to eat breakfast too early and arriving not long after normal breakfast time. I would probably be better just having a drink and then having breakfast when I get there, assuming I have time of course. As the conference was mainly in Latvian and only switching to English in the afternoon I decided to see if I could fit in a trip to a shop we hope to visit in June on the holiday tour. The shop is called Hobby Wool and it is a wonderful Aladdin's cave of knitted and felted products and knitting kits. I managed to arrange an appointment with the owner and we sat and chatted about knitting and alpacas. We arranged that we shall have a cup of tea there and a talk from one of the staff about Latvian knitting, particularly their wonderful varied knitting patterns - over 5000 have been catalogued across the country.

The back entrance to Hobby Wool

A little sunshine and blue skies does you good

Did I mention I like old doorways? 

It was still a bit early once I finished there and so decided to walk to the University across the river, but of course it started snowing. Fortunately nothing dire but did end up a little damp on arrival. I should have found the cafe and got something to eat, but didn't as I thought surely they can't factor in a whole day without a lunch break - well the answer is yes they can and so I lasted until I got home mid-evening on biscuits, tea and coffee. It was a good job that I had that extra breakfast earlier.

I said it was chilly. The Daugava river and that is ice floating
down river. Rivers further inland are more iced up than this

A memorial to the barricades built to deter the Soviets
from taking back strategic places in Riga after they
declared independence

The trip was interesting and I met a chap there who now lives in the town where I took my driving test as a teenager in the UK. That's going back some years. He has been to Latvia many times though to study planning and it was interesting to hear he had similar perspectives to me on the way things are in Latvia. It was nice to hear, he also has been ongoing with his PhD over many years, in fact longer than I have apparently. We both love the country but also recognise the challenges.

I am informed (because I know nothing) that these are
Fiat 126s

A metal design on a building

I also got chatting with a lady who has a summer house nearby to us and she was telling me how she regularly comes into our village to buy cheese from the Saturday market. I laughed when she told me who she bought it from. Of course it was my good friend the goat farmer. She also was friends with her. Small world as they say!

Aggie being nosy

Chanel investigating Sofie. The reason Sofie is in so many
pictures is because she was following Ian around all over

After the meeting finished I walked back into Riga centre with the guy from the UK, so I could catch the bus and direct him in the direction he needed to go to meet up with someone later. I got to the bus station with three minutes to spare. The driver was an absolute treasure as he let me pay with a €50 note. I think he knows me and I the fact I haven't done that before. Most would not have accepted that at all. So on the way home on the bus I had a little catch up on FB as you do and I found out that my hubby’s highlight of the day is finally getting poo from one of our alpacas to test. Oh yes and I got an email to say my mammogram from the Monday was clear, so that’s okay. I don't have to wait in the freezing cold again until next year. The things you find out on a bus journey these days!

A little motherly advice?

They sure needed cutting and this is after 2 1/2 months

The weather was supposed to be nice but cold on Sunday, so I went with Ian to help him with cutting the alpaca's toe nails. What I hadn't realised was that there would be a bit of a wind and a northerly one at that, so it wasn't just cold, it was freezing. Still the weather wasn't that bad and the sun did briefly appear. I also applied lots of wonder oil on different animals as it looks like the girls are struggling a bit with the mites. I suspect it is because it hasn't been cold enough to kill off the little critters. Hopefully this week it will. We also gave them all top ups with Vitamin D. I also cleaned out the chickens and was rewarded with an egg left in an accessible position by the chickens that usually lay their eggs on the far side of the ark and in a position I wouldn't be able to reach.

This is the look I usually get from Aggie. She doesn't like
me really! 😁 Can't think why! 

Alpacas often have such smiley faces. Here's our George

The little alpacas are growing up and Freddie now has his own bowl of food each evening. George still won't touch the grain though. George will eat the squash that Ian cuts up, but Freddie won't. I suggested that maybe if he mixed the two together, then they might start eating both. No! Freddie ate all his grain and left the squash and George ate all his squash and left the grain. Pah! Well that didn't work.

It happens

A foggy snowy day

It's not been too bad this week, but just some of those things happened that you can do without. The weather has been iffy all week with snow coming and going, so we have no huge build up but it is wet and slushy with an expected freeze from tomorrow. That will be fun! Not! I can cope with snow, but ice not so much! I'm hopeless on ice as many who follow this blog will attest to. To-date I have seriously hurt two arms and one knee from slipping on ice and had a few more minor slips along the way. Oh well! Out with the spiked walking sticks next week to keep me upright along with the ice grips on the boots, or just not reappear until spring.

Slushy stuff. Ian has had to clear the drains to keep the water
flowing and stop it all icing up when it does freeze. Some of
the rivers are quite high due to blockages from ice build up

At least the snow falls off the roof but it is starting to push
against the plastic of the greenhosue

On Wednesday I had a good chat with a friend about how to move forward on helping the refugees. We tossed around a few ideas and ways forward and we hope to see where that goes. The youth at his church are good at meeting people from different cultures and so that maybe a good start. We hope to slowly include refugees in different events, so that everyone has time to adjust. The youth maybe used to different European and American cultures but of course it is a bit different when it involves Arabic cultures and so slowly, slowly is always a good move, but we think there is still potential to learn from other cultures. The Lebanese lady I met last week knew a thing or two about hospitality, which many of us in the West could learn from.

When you have an itch

You just have to get in there and give it a good scratch

Don't ask!

Somebody has a damp, mucky hairstyle

I have been working on the next two articles for journals. I only need one more to count towards a PhD but it is better to have two out there in case one is delayed in the process. The more the better as far as a future career is concerned, apparently. We'll see. I still have more ideas to put forward based on the research I've done that could do with testing, so I haven't run out of steam yet. Some days though it feels never ending, as if the end is still so far away and yet tantalisingly close. To use Sir Winston Churchill's words again:

“Writing a book is an adventure. To begin with it is a toy and an amusement. Then it becomes a mistress, then it becomes a master, then it becomes a tyrant. The last phase is that just as you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster and fling him to the public.”

Well I'm not writing the book just yet, maybe next year but writing articles and a thesis seem to go through the same process.

Some frosty alpacas

It hasn't all been writing articles for me, I managed a little felting too. I have been playing around with felted cuffs and a small landscape picture. I have been experimenting with ways to include embroidery into the felting without having the back of the embroidery on show. They still need working on and I was a bit disappointed with the result from embroidering onto dissolvable plastic. The embroidery didn't attach to the felting well and went a bit hard. It might need more washing and I might have to resort to some embroidery stitches to hold it in place. Still it was fun to try.

A white halo of frost

And this was as far as he got with the snow shovelling on
the day he hurt his back. Good job he wasn't heading for
the alpaca house

One of the things we could do without was Ian hurting his back. He was non too chuffed as he hurt it doing some snow shovelling. If he had shifted heavy slushy snow, he would have understood. If he had shifted a large shovel full, he would have understood. But no! He was shifting a half shovel full of very light stuff when it suddenly went. He was shuffling around like an old man the next day and I had to go out with him to help with clearing the alpaca poo. We also gave Lady V and George some vitamin D injections since I was out there anyway. Freddie will get his in tablet form when we give everyone else theirs, but George is still not into eating the grain yet and so we thought we would take the precaution of giving him an injection, so we know he has had a boost.

Before Ian hurt his back, he had been cutting wood in the
forest when he heard this tree creak. Good job, he heard it
otherwise it could have come down on him when he wasn't
expecting it. 

The tree was obviously diseased

But it does make an interesting pattern

Some wood clearing

Tracks in the wet snow

We also needed to go to the big town to get a forestry form filled in, but when we got there, there was a notice on the door. We weren't sure what it meant - mind you, in retrospect we could have photographed it and put it through Google translate. Doh! It might have saved us a trip. Ian thought that it might mean the office had moved, so we set off to travel another 10 minutes up the road to the central office only to find that everyone was in a meeting. It wasn't until later that we put two and two together and realised that the note on the door was probably to say that everyone was at a meeting. Still it was a bit of a wasted trip. We did manage to get some cash receipt books and get the details to the bookkeeper so she can register them for tax purposes and dropped off a whole load of receipts for her to sort out.

George doesn't look like he's sure of the white stuff outside

Freddie knows what to do with it, eat it!

Unfortunately the lack of success at the forestry office meant that Ian had to go today to sort it out. At least he managed this time and he also took a handful of forms for future use.  Why it is not available online and easy to fill in we don't know. Latvia is getting there with getting official forms online but it is not always easy as I have mentioned before. While Ian was on his travels he also went to get some new switches for the electric heater. They don't seem to be rated high enough for the heater, even though they should be. It is no wonder that heaters often end up with faults as they overheat the switch. It as if the manufacturers don't expect people to have them on full power for long at all, but what else do you expect when it is cold?

Outside with a thick warm coat. HIs inner fleece though is
much darker

Chanel, Freddie's mum with a smile on her face

My adventure for the day that I could do without was to go for a mammogramme. This is my first time and to give the authorities due credit, even though I live in a small rural village (or town if you are Latvian) miles away from any large hospital we still have travelling clinics such as a mobile x-ray machine. However, winter is not a good time to go to a mobile clinic. It wouldn't have been so bad if the doctor had printed out the form for me beforehand. I was told to go to the clinic after 2pm, which I did and after standing outside in the drizzle and melting snow for an hour I eventually got in. Why they didn't park the other way around so we could stand under the shelter I have no idea.

The bottom pond seemed to have shrunk lately, but the recent
melting snow has filled it back up again

One scruffy, damp looking sheep. This ewe is now nearly
a year old.

Anyway it was when I got in that I found out that I was missing this crucial piece of paper. I trundled off to the doctor, who I had tried to see earlier but couldn't find her at the time. Fortunately she was there this time. I got the paper and went back to the clinic. In the meantime the queue had lengthened and it was another 3/4 hour wait before I got in. I was a tad cold. It is a good job that it wasn't windy and I was dressed for the cold. I thought I deserved a hot chocolate and a piece of cake after that and so met Ian who was just finishing his day out on the land at the bakery before heading home.

The older ewe doesn't look nearly as scruffy as her daughter
does

The boys have taken to doing a lot of chewing on the alpaca
house.

One of the things we made progress on this week was getting a date to go and start the legal work on selling the apartment we are currently living in. We hope to get that started in mid-February. We won't be out until mid-April but getting the paperwork sorted and payments made means we can start to plan the next phase - whatever that is.

Close up arty shot

I think Herkules is looking so perky these days

Eyre doing her grumpy cat impression

More snow