The Journey: Brrrrr!

A frosted thistle

It's cold! The rains stopped and the temperature plummeted. We had a mild frost last week but this morning we had a proper frost. It killed off the leaves on the grapevine and the uncovered tomato plants. I think even the beans that were under cover suffered. It was a lovely bright day today but oh when the sun went down it was chilly. It was a good job that our friend came to pick up our blue grapes a few days ago to make wine. I think I will have to sort out some ice-wine with the rest.

Frost accumulated on Ian's boots after a walk around the farm

It rained a lot this last week. The ponds are much fuller
now and the top pond is nearly full to overflowing. The
alpacas don't seem to have been that bothered though.
Sometimes a drop of rain and they go scurrying inside and
other times they don't even bother, they just carry on eating.
At least someone took shelter under a tree here.

Ian thinks he saw one of our bikes that I mentioned were stolen in last week's blog. If it was, it was someone very local who took it. It was tempting to walk off with it, but since it was a different colour, due to a bad paint job and a different saddle we couldn't be 100% sure and it would have made us no better than whoever took ours. Every time I'm out and about now I'm looking at people's bikes to see if it is one of ours, which is kind of sad.

I don't think Freddie was under the tree in the rain though.
Although with such a sad face, you would think he should
have.

I couldn't decide which photo of Freddie to use and so I used
both of them. I like the close up in the other one and the
contrast of his colour against the trees in this one.

At least it wasn't all sad this week. We had a visit from a friend who has been many times before and so we got to sit around and chat a bit. We had to eat our evening meal back at our apartment, as it was a tad too chilly to be sitting around talking. It worked out okay as she was staying in our apartment anyway. It felt odd dropping someone else off at the bus station though the next day as it is normally Ian dropping me off when I go on my travels.

Is Brencis singing in the rain?

Nope! The droopy mouth gives him away. He's been spitting

We decided to go out for a meal this week for Ian's birthday. His birthday was on Friday but since I had a Skype meeting on that day we decided to go out for lunch on the Thursday instead. As we are putting the animals away around 7pm it is easier for us to go out for lunch and then we have plenty of time to get back and plenty of time to eat. Most restaurants around here close at 8pm or maybe 9pm on the weekends and the one we went to was half an hour away and not the local one. It was a lovely meal with an interesting salad, which was beautifully arranged and plenty of colour. Besides the normal normal cucumber and tomatoes there were local berries. No I didn't take a photo.

What a hair do.

Jakobs is no better.

It is our son's birthday today, so happy birthday son! Ian will get to see him soon, so I am sure they will take the time to celebrate, although I think our son has lined up some jobs for Ian to do while he's there. It's funny to think he was once a little baby that I carried. I was thinking of that today when I went for an ultrasound. When a woman goes for an ultrasound when she is young it is often to check on a baby, but when you are my age it is to make sure that there is nothing more sinister there. I knew there wasn't. As I mentioned last week I've been feeling pretty good just lately and mainly over the menopausal wobbles. As I thought it was just a fibroid that I have known about for ages. Nothing to worry about and nothing to do. Perfect! That's what I like to hear.

But Ilvija wins the cutest wet hair do. I just love the curls

Ilvija's mother, Chanel, eating over the fence again

Of course being in Latvia did mean that the appointment itself wasn't so straightforward. My friend took the call from the hospital to book the appointment lats week and so I thought I just needed to turn up at the hospital. Apparently not! I think I should have had the usual note from the doctor anyway. When I got to the registration desk they were a bit bemused and told me there were no appointments for today. It was my turn to be bemused. I thought surely they should have my appointment on the records since they called me. Fortunately I still had the number on my phone and my friend rang to find out what the problem was. The people in the department then rang the registration desk. Problem solved! The lady at the registration desk even left the office to show me to the room. I'd been before but we had taken the long way round to get to it the last time obviously, much to our amusement.

Not amused at being caught

The boys playing twister again.

So we sat outside and waited. We even let a lady go in front of us as she had an earlier appointment but had to come back and she needed to catch a bus. No problem, we weren't in too much of a rush, even though we had been waiting a while already. We reminisced and talked about hospitally things. Ian has spent many an hour in a hospital, fortunately working most of the time and not in it for health reasons. Eventually I went in and the lady was lovely. She contacted her daughter at one stage to translate - as you do. Her daughter spoke good English because she is an English teacher. This might not be considered correct procedure in some places, patient confidentiality and all that, but at the end of the day it got the job done. I got to understand what was happening and that there was nothing to worry about so there will be no complaints from me. I just have to make sure that my GP gets the letter and the ultrasound scan. I texted my friend and said, "It's a boy! Hahaha not really."

Good for wearing down teeth, not so good for the tree though

George giving yoga lessons. Not sure I will be joining in

What a weird political week it has been, although weird seems the new normal. I've seen some things that have dismayed me and some things that have encouraged me. I have watched with interest the court case against the government about prorogation of the Parliament and wonder if this is going to be one of those let downs or another tale which requires suspension of disbelief. The rise of young people to defend the climate though, is the one that brings most hope to me. These children and young people are the future and they are rising up and declaring our political institutions are bankrupt. They are no longer fit for purpose as their own futures are at stake. We need a radical generation to take us into the future, ones prepared to get out and demand changes. We do well to listen to them instead of patronising them.