Success

Jakobs is changing colour. He started off almost startingly
white but now he seems to be getting more creamy coloured
like his mother

This week has been a case of returning to normality. A chance to get back on with my academic work in relative peace, with my own routine. That's not to say it has been all plain sailing but I can explain about that later. First of all the good news. I actually signed a contract this week for some academic work with my Estonian University. I shall be joining a project that looks at wellbeing and the Baltic coast. Not quite rural, but at least it has nothing to do with cities per se. I can also work from home and it means employment for the next 18 months. It is only part-time and so there is time to finish off my PhD and still do my chores in the summer on the farm. The income is not huge, but enough and takes the pressure off our dwindling finances. It is a relief to being part of a project finally, as it hopefully also gets my foot in the door.

He's getting almost as big as his mother too. Ian had to put
sand down on their paddock area when Jakobs did the splits
on the ice. All's well now though.

It is no wonder that Aggie is thin when Josefs is also getting
big. He won't eat from the tray yet like Jakobs, but he will
eat the hay while the others are all eating from the trays.

Tuesday I went out to the land with Ian so I could show him all the things that had broken while he was away or are in need of fixing before they break at least. The sudden drop in temperatures didn't help and somethings have got fragile out in the sun in the greenhouse during the summer and then broke due to the freezing cold and perhaps a little cack-handedness on my part. I managed to break the door handle on the greenhouse, the plastic water jug and the rim of the loo. I even managed to break the handle on our halogen oven on the day I was showing Ian all the other things I had broken. The oven had got very fragile out in the sun in the greenhouse over summer. The problem though is that it won't work now, as the handle has to be down to turn it on. Other things have just got old, like the string on the chicken ark that regularly needs replacing -a simple enough job but just one I didn't have time for last week. The tractor hand brake cable also snapped, but not on my watch, or kind of because I was there and not Ian, but it wasn't me, honest! At least I found two of the bits, not sure if that was useful or not, but at least meant the problem could be identified. I also managed to lose one of the small kitchen knives, but Ian found that today.

A blinding flash!

ET phone home! Blinded by the light! Hahaha

That's better! Herkules bless him

The rest of the week I was safely in our apartment and managed not to break anything else. It feels though like a time of shunting files around my computer, trying to organise them for the next writing phase and sorting them out in terms of importance. I have also been trying to clear some files off my desk top to give me more space. Not an issue I've ever had on other computers, but obviously one I have now. An absolute pain.

Guarding the treasure of our village

The apartment is not as confining as being in the caravan but still I hadn't been out much for most of the week, so it was nice to get an invite to a presentation and a craft day. The presentation was the culmination of an outdoor installation, so a bit of a cold event. Fortunately it was finished off with tea and cakes inside to warm up with. The installation consisted of a walkway to a pagoda to overlook the river and two ironwork sculptures of Great Danes. The legend goes that they were to guard the treasure of the castle and to me they represented guarding the greatest treasure of the village and that is the hearts of the people who live there. There has been much division in the village and it is telling that the mayor was not there, even though this must be the most significant installation in ages. There were representatives from the municipality but they were people who are less contentious than the mayor has been. Having said all that, folks who turned up were appreciative of the good work done and the improvement to a largely forgotten and neglected place of historical importance in our village (you can see more pictures here, see if you can spot Ian and I in the crowd, we do appear a few times).

The models, blue Great Danes. I think we were all blue
by the end of it, blue with cold. 

Freddie getting in the Christmas spirit with a dusting of snow

The next day was a craft workshop in an old railway station that is being renovated into a tourist and information centre. I was asked to come up with something for a craft that anyone could do that would make a nice Christmas gift for the poor or lonely members of our community. I worked on some Christmas trees but I wasn't especially thrilled with those and in the morning I made a quick bowl. There was someone there to help me, especially with translation, and she was a felter too, between us we came up with some simpler ideas for felted Christmas trees from sheep's wool and some mug warmers made from alpaca wool. The alpaca I was using was not from one of our animals that make nice scarves, but from Herkules who felts well but is not so fine. The lady who helped me has only just moved back lately and so we will hopefully get to know her better.

Mr. P didn't want to be outdone apparently. What is it with
these boys, going out and getting covered in snow?

I think someone was intent on getting as much as possible
from the outside feeder

It was mainly children who did the felting, but it was interesting that there were more boys than girls there. They even took part in the Christmas table decorating craft made from bits of a spruce tree and Christmassy decorations. It was refreshing to see that, after all the years of children's work when I had to take care over the choice of crafts and being aware of what boys would consent to do in the UK, here there seemed to be no concept of these are things boys will make and these are things girls will do. We stayed on after most people had gone home and just chatted over coffee and biscuits. It was a nice way to wind down at the end of the day.

And point! A little ballet lesson going on here

Antonia and Vanessa having a little chit chat after a foray
out into the snow

I was looking forward to getting started properly on my job today with an online meeting with other colleagues from different countries. Unfortunately I was unable to actually hear or see anything. I could see there were other participants and I could write messages, but I could not seem to get the audio part working, something to do with the way the plugin worked or rather didn't with my computer. I wasn't the only one and she also had a Mac. It is so infuriating that even today there are problems between Mac and Window operating systems. I thought we had seen the back of those kinds of days years ago. I hope to get this sorted out later in the week if I can with our tech guys up in Tartu. Another day!

Turbjørn eating the snow

At least Chanel doesn't look like she was out for long

Sorry to bring up the B word this week, you know Brexit! It has been such a sorry saga. I am filled with a mix of incredulity about the whole debacle, as has most of the rest of the world by the sound of it. Theresa May seems intent on dragging the whole thing out now, especially when she backed down from getting the MPs to vote on the deal. I feel that the UK Parliament should not be allowed to shut down for Christmas until the vote is held, as it just drags the whole show into the new year. What is that going to achieve? Perhaps she feels she can have a nice Christmas while folks like ourselves are left hanging once again, while we wait to find out where we will stand in just over 100 days from now. 100 days to try and sort something out and she postpones the vote to January 14th. Unbelievable! So will we be left scrabbling around to find documents etc. come March to sort out residency? Please someone stop this madness!