A little natural immunity

I think we can say that mud season has begun

We finally got our first vaccination this week. I'm grateful we didn't have to wait too long after the cancellation and I'm not bothered that its Astra Zeneca either. As one video explained, the best vaccine to take is the one you are offered. I've been watching some of the chats on Facebook and thinking about the comment that I often see, that people would rather develop their own natural immunity to the virus. It suddenly occurred to me that is precisely what the vaccine does, just without the greater risks from the virus. I really do not get why people would rather play Russian roulette with a virus than take an inactive portion of it that stimulates your own natural immune response. Okay maybe there are some after effects and some people have been wiped out for about 24 hours or so, but generally that's it. If the reaction is stronger it could equally be due to fighting something else too. 

Coltsfoot, one of the first flowers to make an 
appearance every year.

Kind of a damp day.

Ian got the worst reaction, as he started a bit earlier and was feverish with it. I had achey glands mainly. We both woke around 2:30am though and were gagging for a drink. When the nurse told us to drink plenty of fluids I thought it was just the general recommendation for feverish people - plenty of fluids and take ibuprofen or paracetamol. We did get those drugs in because we weren't sure if we had any that were in date but we didn't bother using them. At least we were feeling better when we got up for a cup of tea. Both of us felt a big sluggish today and Ian went back to sleep after letting the animals out apparently. I just did fairly easy and mundane tasks for work today - nothing that demanded a lot of work or thought. 

We transferred some of these to our land last year
or the year before. We have about three that 
have come up now. It's a start.

Ian has been doing some thinning out and
chopping of trees before the end of the season, 
which finishes this week at the end of March.
This is so the birds can nest without being 
disturbed. We need some more wood for our
fire. 

Time seems to be flying by but at least I managed to get back to some database work (this is mainly written by my colleagues and I've just been uploading it, but some I've written too here and here). I even set up a blog on that too (you can see that here). The idea will be to share updates to the database but also to talk about different aspects of blue space and health and well-being, in other words little newsy items about lakes, ponds, the seaside or even fountains and spas that are good for our health and well-being in some way. It seems a timely piece of work when we are discovering the benefits of being in the great outdoors. The first blog is about cold-water swimming. It might be a bit later now for swimming in ice, but not too early to prepare to swim outdoors. With the proper preparation it can be a fun and safe activity to do. There are some links about the benefits too. 

Looking towards a soggy road.

Piles of wood

The snow has just about gone now and suddenly we are getting an uptick in requests to visit, even before we announce we are open. We ended up with three groups over the weekend and potentially there was one more but it got too late for them. We are going to be quite strict though on only allowing people to come who have booked. We want to make sure we are prepared and not have too many visitors. Although we've had one jab we won't get our second until the end of May at the earliest and we have animals that will need our care, whether we are sick or not, so it is best to ensure we stay healthy. At least we only have outside visits, so that is less risky than being inside. 

I love the colour of alder when it is freshly cut.

Yes! Valeria has been sitting outside in the mud.

Our car was in for a service this week. We were fortunate enough to be able to borrow a friend's car while it was in the garage. There was rather a lot that needed doing on it, so it was a bit on the expensive side. However, this is rural Latvia and not the UK so labour is not that expensive. It is getting closer and closer to the stage I guess where we have to think about changing it, but so far it has still been reasonably reliable and suffers mainly due to the dirt roads that Ian has to travel on daily and a newer car is not any less likely to cost us at service time and we know how this car has been looked after over the years. At least it will change soon as we will transition to caravan living, far less travel on the roads. 

More signs of spring. There is a Latvian tradition
of making a whipping branch from these and saying the following
Apaļš kā pūpols,
vesels kā rutks,
slimības laukā,
veselību iekšā!
Or in English means,
Round as a pussy willow,
healthy as a radish,
sicknesses out,
health in!!!" 

The Worm Moon - such a strange name

We did have one hiccup while the car was in for the service. I was having a meeting where I was going to show people our land and our alpacas but forgot to put my headphones in my rucksack. I had to drive back to collect them as the ones Ian had wouldn't fit my computer. As I set off, I thought the car sounded a bit noisy and by the time I got to our village, I was sure the exhaust had gone on it. When I got back to the land, Ian came striding over. He'd heard me coming and come to see what all the noise was. Sure enough the exhaust had broken. Sigh! All sorted though before it went back to our friend.

The ice is going on the pond at least

Brencis is such a nosy alpaca,
he came up for a look.

The meeting I was attending was a virtual tour of our village, done by me and a virtual tour of a small provisional town of Latvia done by a friend of ours. It was a nice exchange, as my own students got to join in too, although they were a little shy it seems. After my main talk, I then took them on a short walk to the boys alpaca house and they met Josefs on the way as Ian was taking him out for a walk. It worked quite well and it was fun to be able to show them the alpacas. Unfortunately it was a bit windy but at least it was okay in the alpaca house itself. 

This is usually the last place for the snow to leave

Kind of dull but nice to see, as it means winter
is just about over. There maybe still some cold 
days but it's not going to last long.

We'll soon be heading out to the caravan again. Last year we went out to stay out there quite early due to a threatened lockdown. We reckoned it would be easier to be out on the land than Ian having to travel backwards and forwards and the winter was fairly mild. This time the cold season has lasted a bit longer and so the drive to get out there wasn't so urgent. The changing of the clocks this weekend though does make a difference. Ian is now only arriving back well after 7pm, which means we eat late and that's not so good for someone working with animals and outside for much of the time. We make a point of sitting down together to eat, so it is not so much of an option for him to take enough food for him to prepare his own meal. We just need to get sorted now.

When the snow goes, we can see where the pigs
have been. Sigh!

More damage here too

With the snow melt comes our lake, but it has
taken quite a while to appear. I guess the 
ground must be wet through now, which is
a good sign for the summer, as it means the
water table is high.

Just little bits of snow here and there.