Estonia again

You're leaving us again? Actually I haven't had the chance
to see this chap this week. Ensconced at home getting work
done before my trip up North

I'm back up in Tartu again today. I have some admin to do this week and so thought I may as well be with my colleagues for the online meeting again. Maybe the next time I will actually do the meeting from home, but it depends on what else needs doing. It is good to have a face to face meeting with them from time to time.

We have water in our well. In summer it virtually dried up,
but now it is so full that it is above the level of freezing.
A rather different problem. 

A smiley alpaca

This week I finally managed to finish off a paper I was re-writing, sent an article off for a news website and even got around to doing a bit of tidying up. I also managed to recover from the cold that at least one of my grandchildren passed along. It looks like I avoided the real nasty one that drags on and on. That doesn't give me much to write about but at least it means somethings are finished or at least in the final stages at last.

The new girls are just milling about

Forgiven! 

Ian has been making friends with the alpacas again. They don't seem to be too unsettled after his time away. He had to do some repairs on the greenhouse doors that were damaged in a storm while we were away and clean out chickens and alpacas. Alpaca cleaning was kept under control while we were away, but we cannot expect someone to spend the amount of time that Ian does on it.

Having a good sniff! It's a male thing

I only managed to get a picture of this chap because he
was so slow, all the other skiers whizzed past. I took this from
the door in our lounge of the Latvian Schools Olympics
track race. 

We still have snow on the ground as it didn't disappear completely, but slowly, slowly it has been disappearing until this weekend when the temperatures dipped and snow moved in again. Heh ho! Winter in Latvia! I'm quite pleased really as there was the annual Latvian Schools' Winter Olympics on over the Friday/Saturday here in our village and it would have been awful without a bit of fresh snow on the top.

He's losing his head! 

Poor Herkules, he's looking like he's ready for spring

One of the things I do these days, especially on journeys is to try and read the land. I guess not everyone does it in the same way I do. Most people read the land in a general way, appreciating a nice view, or a well managed garden and such like. In some ways I read it because I am part of a Landscape Architecture department and my colleagues have taught me but I also read the land for the information it gives me on development, particularly rural development. Sometimes I'm looking at the wholesale look of a land, what can it tell me about the uses people make of that place? Sometimes I am looking at the details of what edible or useful plants there are around me. Landscapes are fascinating for the details they show if you look.

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A cute a little fella

So much interest!

One of the topics we chatted about with Ian's brothers was Brexit. They are not for Brexit at all either. It seems so ridiculous that the plans or lack of them are dragging on and on and the UK Parliament do not seem to be able to make any decisions. They seem to know what they don't want in each of their camps but not what they do want on the whole. There is one big problem with this whole debacle that I don't think many folks realise. Even if Brexit does go through with or without a deal on March 29th, that is not the end of it. That is just the start. Now imagine that the deals that need to be made will carry on for years. Especially as layer after layer of complexity has to be unravelled. I don't think we have even scratched the surface of it yet.

Ian is on drain clearing duties now, not
as much snow clearing

Galling indeed! Thanks for your understanding Mr. T

It is galling as we have got to make plans, but with no idea what our situation will be. Ian is making plans for shearing, but will he need visas? Will he even be able to travel? Until a definite decision is made on leaving the EU or not and in what form, no one knows how to handle us. Yes interim plans have been made, but again, they are just the start or a transition phase, but what kind of transition phase we are in, will depend on what the UK Parliament decide and on and on it goes. Will it stop? Nobody knows.

Even the ponds are now full thank goodness

Unfortunately the root cellar is in danger of flooding too.
Not good!