Where did summer go?

One of our neighbour's cat on another neighbour's quad bike

It was summer on Friday, autumn on Saturday. The weather has broken and the temperatures have dropped. We still haven't had much rain, but quite a few short showers over the weekend. Just prior to that we had the warmest days on record for September in Latvia. I felt sorry for the rather large group that came on Saturday. A group from the same village came earlier on in the month when the weather was gorgeous. Saturday's group were not so lucky and were rained on earlier on in the day, so they got quite cold.  At least we were able to make space in the greenhouse to fit all 42 people in so they didn't have to stand outside. They really loved seeing the alpacas and eating some of our grapes though and weren't in a hurry to go, despite the weather. It was nice to have such an appreciative group. The daughter of our friend who translated for us last week helped us with translation this week, she was brilliant. Very fluent.

The damper weather has brought
out the mushrooms. We will not
be eating these

Nor these, but mainly because I don't know what they are

We managed to get our drivers licences sorted but we had to make a decision. Did we want to keep our ability to drive 7 tonne trucks along with everything else for five years, or did we want to lose a few categories and keep our licence for 10 years? We decided on the latter because at least we can still drive a horse box and trailer and a minibus with up to nine seats. Apparently if we wanted to we could go and exchange our current licence for one with more categories, but of course that will cost more. So our days of driving 7 tonne trucks is obviously over. I think I have only once driven something remotely that big many years ago, when I hired a box van to move house and that was when our first two children were very small - about the same age as some of our youngest grandchildren now.

Not this one either

Nope! Not on the list. There have been some though and they
are in the dryer as I write, but we forgot to take photos of
those one of course.

On Tuesday morning there was the great unveiling of the fabric we had steamed with leaves the day before. There were some lovely pieces, such as the silk with a dye blanket and one with an iron blanket. Sorry you will have to wait for photos though. The cotton pieces were a bit hit and miss. The fresh flowers and spritzed onion skins worked well, but the autumn leaves did not. I think it needed some moisture, so I will have to try again. The linen was very disappointing. The iron worked better, but I think it needed the leaves to be soaked in iron too and even then I am not sure whether it is worth it or not.

Sunnier days. Brencis eating with Turbjørn looking on

What better way for Ian to spend his birthday than playing,
errr I mean using the back hoe on his tractor to shift soil
ready to cover the root cellar. 

We got the root cellar covered in polystyrene, a layer of plastic, a layer of earth, then landscape fabric and a thin layer of earth over the top of that with hours to spare before the rain. We had to actually finish it by the light of the tractor headlights to get it done. It still needs a second door, but we are thinking that we should wait over winter to see what happens to the construction and to allow the soil to settle. Once we know what kind of movement it might experience then we can decide how to put the front door on. At least it will be a cool spot to keep veg and food in over summer when we seem to run out of space in the hotter months.

It is beginning to look like a hobbit house. 

More cranes heading south again this week, along with some
swans. Each time we hear a flock of birds flying we wonder
if it is the geese. That will tell us that winter is definitely on
the way. They are a pretty good indicator that snow will be
with us shortly. Fortunately I don't think we've seen any yet.

It has been a bit frustrating this week as I got news that the article I thought had been finished was not finished and they wanted me to make some very minor changes. I had been cracking on with my thesis up to that point, in between harvesting, sorting out the freezer and the greenhouse that is. The plan was to get those things done to be prepared for the arrival of the new alpacas next week and sorted for winter before I go away to the UK. Instead I have been emailing my supervisor to get comments on pieces I have written. I'm getting there but it is taking time. The only good thing is that my supervisor enjoys reading my work and so it hasn't been such a chore for him. I can get quite lyrical when the words flow.

More sunbathing while they can.

George hasn't quite known how to behave when people come.
He is interested but he hasn't got the hang of feeding from
visitors like Freddie has. Instead he seems to get excited and
then jump on Freddie or another alpaca that then reacts.
Hopefully he will get the idea soon.

I have felt like I was in an alternative reality this week. I was quite shocked that some people felt that Mrs. May was disrespected at the summit with EU leaders. I suppose I shouldn't be shocked by now, but I couldn't understand why she felt disrespected. I still cannot get my head around the attitude of the British Government regarding leaving the EU. It is the British Government who decided to leave, not the EU leaders. I wonder if during the negotiations the EU negotiators felt that if they waited long enough the whole thing would turn around and Britain would stay in, especially if they realised how difficult it would be to extricate themselves. The British Government have hardly come up with any clear steps forward though that isn't cherry picking at any point in the negotiations. Most of the time they don't seem to know what they want and yet they blame the EU. You cannot decide to leave a club and then still expect all the benefits for nothing, which is what it appears to me that the British Government are asking for. It is disconcerting that nothing has been sorted and there is now less than six months to go. We still don't know for sure what our status will be here in Latvia. Not helpful at all! All I seem to get is spammed by the British Government with emails about what happens to this that and the other in the case of a no deal Brexit. As if they really know! I don't think so!

Good chums

Some of our chickens. It won't be long before they are in the
greenhouse. They will have to be in before I go to the UK.