Grandma Oh Oh strikes again!

Such a smiley face

Before you ask, I'm fine! Really I am! Just a little tightness in the muscle now. Honest! I got away lightly I know. The snows came, the snows nearly went and then it froze. Walking around on our land was fine, lots of crunchy snow and where it wasn't snow it was just thin ice that cracked as I walked over it. Or rather, what I should say is, that it was mainly thin ice, except for the bit I stood on. Last week I titled the blog, "Step by step, moving forward" Hmmm! Well this week it is more "Step by step! Whoops!" I'm not called Grandma Oh Oh for nothing, as one of my granddaughters nicknamed me. I had gone out to the land to help Ian with the sheep, collect some more vegetables that were still in clamps (piled together and covered in hay to stop them freezing) and put some cream on Aggie's foot and Veronica's legs.

And another sweetie

I didn't realise Ian had taken this photo, but this is me sorting
through the barrow load of veg. Some for the chickens and
some for us

I was doing quite well, I cleared out the chicken arks and left them to dry a bit. While I was waiting I went to collect the vegetables and was walking back to the greenhouse with a barrow load when I slipped on the ice. Ian was in the girls' alpaca house and didn't see me, so I just sat there for a while with one leg straight out in front of me and one at an uncomfortable angle. I thought that's not good. After catching my breath I moved to the side and straightened out my leg. I managed to get up and hobbled back to the greenhouse with the wheelbarrow. I was nearly there before Ian came to find out what was wrong. He had seen me walking a bit oddly. I decided it was time for a cup of tea and rest my leg.

In contemplative mood

The lambs are not so small now. Here they are with the new
feeder that Ian built. They are still interested in what bit of
grass is under the snow at the moment though

We still had the sheep to move and so I suggested we get that done before my leg tightened up too much. It involved sorting out their shelter as it still had sheepskins hanging up from when we slaughtered some earlier this year and hay needed putting in their feeder. We went over to the sheep and I had the bowl of feed to entice them out as Ian lifted the wires for them to go underneath. The sheep maybe pretty stupid most of the time, but they are not so daft when you lift the wires, they do remember where they should be. The young ones seem to be getting the hang of this moving lark though and one of this year's lambs was the first under the wire. Once one goes through the others usually follow and so I set off with the bowl. I was a bit slow but the problem was that they have got used to Ian with the bowl of feed and so they went to him rather than me. Once they were all out of their enclosure, Ian took the bowl from me and he walked them over to the paddock where they will now spend the winter.

The oldest ewe eating the salt from the salt block that Ian fixed

Determination to get to the hay here. Mari is also the one
who puts her head through the fence outside to eat the grass

A certain little alpaca is still sneaking some feeds. George
on the right occasionally still gets away with taking milk
from Chanel, who is not his mother

I still had other jobs to do, but my leg continued to tightened up, not good when I was planning a trip to Riga for three meetings at separate locations. I finished off the chickens arks by putting fresh sawdust and hay in. I also finished off sorting through the vegetables and separating them from the leaves. I had another rest before putting the animals away and ensuring that they got the treatments they needed, Vitamin D for all the girls and cream on Aggie and Veronica - then home and my leg up. I had used comfrey and plantain cream on my knee, the same stuff I use on the animals and I think it helped. Still I decided that it was not wise to go into Riga. There could have been a lot of walking and definitely some bus rides. It was okay getting on and off a bus that was stationary, but if the bus set off before I sat down as they do in the city, then I wasn't so sure my leg would hold out, so I cancelled.

Such a pretty picture. I love the colours in winter

Sunrise on a wintry morning

Peach coloured clouds

When I got back home I found out I wasn't the only one to be in the wars as we say. One of my grandsons had had an unfortunate argument with a car boot lid and lost. I had a chat with my son whilst they were waiting to be seen in A&E (accident and emergency or ER for my American friends). It is getting a bit too regular to be chatting with my sons while they are waiting for their children to be seen, my youngest son has been in a couple of times with their little one due to concerns with jaundice recently too. Fortunately nothing serious in the end for any of them. This time around the poor little chap needed a gash on his head gluing together and then he was good to go.

Frosty greenhouse

Ian found these leaves. We thought they had such an
interesting pattern

After a restless night for me it was nice to be able to lie in and get up slowly rather than rushing around getting ready for a couple of days in the city. I would have had to stay over night because I wouldn't have been able to get the bus back after the evening meeting. Instead I hobbled around the apartment a bit in the morning but gradually the ache in my ligaments subsided and just left me with the tight muscle. I am walking properly, albeit slowly. At least it did mean I got more writing done which I also needed to do. Little by little getting finished.

Ian had the snowblower out this week to clear paths, so
of course they were first to melt. the tracks to the side are
for the well, which is coming in useful again

The sun glistening off the path like
diamonds

Besides writing I have also been to a conference. I unexpectedly got some local funding to go to it and a lift there, a double bonus. It was still an early start and Ian had to drive me about 25 minutes to the rendezvous for the lift, but at least it wasn't any earlier than my usual trips. The conference was on the bioeconomy, which of course influences rural areas but one thing I had forgotten about was the interaction with the scientific community to develop products. This meant a trip to the university to see their food product development department, which was quite fascinating. Such a long time since I've been in the labs, but it also brought home to me how my background is proving useful for rural development. Rural development is so much more than two farmers and a cow.

These two pictures amused me. First Tellus at the front looks
like he has something to say

then its Herkules turn

Chomping on the hay

Having a wide range of interests and a background in science is proving useful. I might not know a huge amount about each topic, but enough to get by and can hold a conversation with a range of experts. I also can make connections with the different types of knowledge and see possibilities that could potentially open up. It was so encouraging to meet someone else who could see those types of synergies too and it is not just me with some crazy ideas. It was also encouraging to meet someone working for a municipality in Lapland who was thinking in similar ways to me about how to improve regional planning and even better he was getting to put it into practice. I do hope that something comes out of all these contacts, as I still need to make some headway next year on what to do.

This was a view out of my bedroom window at the conference.
It was right by the river Daugava

A view the other way

If you look carefully you can see a hairy
growth over the wheel of this bike. I think
potatoes attempted a takeover down in our
basement