The circus rumbles on

Muah! Just kidding, they are play fighting again

It has felt like a circus in many ways this week. The article I wrote about last week for Dispatches Europe on living the rural dream in Latvia and what that can mean in reality, was translated into Latvian. Not that I knew anything about it, until a friend posted it on Facebook. The stats for our farm page went through the roof - okay not into the stratosphere but certainly we have seen a lot more activity online and people liking and following our page. At first we didn't know why. Normally we may have a flurry of activity if I advertised it somewhere or told a group about what we are doing, but that would be under 10 folks at a time maybe. So far this last week we've had 53 page likes and 65 page followers and they were mainly Latvians, so more likely to actually visit. In fact we did get visitors this week on a fairly grim and muddy weekend.

Altogether now! Jump!

Looking in

Poor Freddie has a splint on his leg. He is bottom of the
pecking order and he seems to have weak tendons or
ligaments. Not sure what happened but he has to wear
this splint for two weeks. Now just to try and keep it dry in
this weather! When Ian was examining Freddie with a lady who
is coming to learn more about alpacas, he rose up and Brencis
went for Freddie. They had to confine Brencis away in the
alpaca house. Ian wonders if Brencis was trying to protect
him - although in reality there was nothing to protect
from as Freddie really is quite the sweetest little fella. He
was only objecting to being handled, as all of them do.

The circus doesn't end there because there is always Brexit for a complete and utter farce. A German friend of mine with political leanings declared that he wished Britain would just go, so the rest of Europe can get on with planning for the next funding cycle, instead of being sucked into what feels like a never ending story of bewildering ineptitude. I sometimes think that folks in the UK forget that this Brexit process is hugely expensive for everyone, not just the UK. It demands time that could be better spent on fixing some of the myriad problems our nations, continent and world faces. At least students have the right idea by striking to try and concentrate the attention of politicians onto climate change. It doesn't matter whether the UK is in or out of Europe if the future is dire and becoming more inhospitable to mankind. As I mentioned in another article for Dispatches Europe, it is rather like fiddling while Rome burns (you can see my reflections here)

Oh yes! The snow is going properly now and more geese
have been arriving

Suspicious clouds building though

I had an issue this week that could have had disastrous consequences. I had lit the fire and thought it smelt a bit hot. I went to investigate and realised the pump was not on and the fire roaring away. I went to check on the electric and realised it was not on. I called Ian and he told me to check the switch outside the door. It was odd that the door to the switches was slightly open and our switch was down. It is as if someone had switched it off. I have a suspicion why, but I can't be certain and just hope it doesn't happen again.

A smiley George. He looks all sweet and innocent here

Comrades, listen carefully!

I was in a bunker this week, literally 9m underground. There was a university group visiting from London and I was invited to join in. They were mainly students studying for a Masters in Urban Planning, but also finding out about planning issues in the small provincial town of Cēsis. The first part of the day though was finding out about life in a Soviet bunker in Ligatne. One student said it was awful and at first I was a bit confused, but then I realised she felt the whole place was depressing, which it was sort of, but I have got used to the Soviet colour schemes and Soviet decor. These still do exist in some municipal buildings and Soviet apartments. Not all places have been renovated completely yet and like more local visitors, I recognised the wallpaper, floor coverings and even the plastic covers on the tables - I had seen them all before in other places.

1980s Soviet style computing

A child's gas mask

Clothes designer's space

The trip to Cēsis was interesting. We visited Skola6, which is a co-working space and an entrepreneurial starter hub. People can pay for small spaces to experiment with setting up in business or just work with people rather than alone at home. It looked a busy and fun place to be. The lady who started it off was a passionate but modest lady and one of my friends stood up to explain what a remarkable achievement the project was. After a tour to see some of the work going on, I explained to the students what I was doing in Latvia.

The artist who works here, also
displays her work in Berlin

The joys of soggy paddock areas at this time of year

I was treated to a late lunch and then we were off to hear from the municipality about the reality for planning in the town. Cēsis is one of the more successful places in Latvia due to a forward thinking mayor who is not afraid to experiment. We had a lively debate on how these kinds of places can have a detrimental effect on rural areas or can have some positive impacts. It was good to be able to air my concerns about the lack of vision for rural areas and it gave me much to think about. I ended up writing a short report and sending it to my friends who had invited me to see what they think of my vision for creating a positive focus for surrounding rural areas.

Still some ice patches though

Thank goodness we have full ponds and well that is close
to overflowing

We had a sad visit though this week. Our friends who had bought alpacas last year let us know that one of their alpacas had gone into labour, but when Ian rang back he found out it had not gone well. We put our own animals away early and went to see them. The poor little thing was barely alive but there was nothing to be done for it. It had a deformed nose and therefore likely to suffer all sorts of breathing problems. It also had extra feet and totally deformed back legs. It was a genetic mess. The kindest thing to do was to let it go and not fight for this one. The mother fortunately, despite being an old mother, seemed to be in a good state. She obviously realised that her baby was not going to make it, and indeed it breathed its last while we were there. We do hope the next birth does much better for them, but at least it is a younger animal this time that is pregnant. Ian milked the mother so that the colostrum can be frozen in case it is needed later for other births.

Veronica's crew are also suffering
from a wet paddock, but they still do
get out and about

Ian calls this a Chanelapillar - because this caterpillar is
the same colour as Chanel.

The rest of my time has been spent getting my head around the importance of the Baltic Sea to health and wellbeing again. It was swimming around my brain until this afternoon without a clear focus (no pun intended), which is not terribly helpful when I am supposed to be coming up with ideas of what we search for in academic papers. The project's aim is to find evidence that would help policymakers to make good policies for the environment and for people. They don't understand the concepts clearly either, so I need to be able to find a way of thinking about the issues in a way that makes sense to them. Fortunately, as I mentioned, this afternoon the whirlpool of thoughts started to slow down and form some sort of a coherent idea. Let's hope I can do something with it by tomorrow.

Vanessa is getting braver these days. When we had one group
of visitors one of the ladies managed to feed some of the girls
in this group. A major step forward