Monday 24 January 2022

The confessions of a hoarder

Yes another of those impossibly serene landscapes.
I never get tired of seeing them but they do look
unreal I think.

I wasn't really sure what to write about. It's winter, which may or may not provide lots of nice pictures depending on whether it's blowing a blizzard, in which case not, or a brilliantly white landscape set against an impossibly blue sky that looks rather surreal and also staggeringly beautiful, so perfect for pictures but maybe a bit samey. It is funny being very busy and not really having much to write about. Working online means lots of contact with people from many different countries, many of whom are not living in the countries of their nationality. It's fascinating and their stories brighten up my day, but not really appropriate to share. One contact though did have an unexpected connection, as his aunt has an alpaca farm and part of a rural development network - that could be a promising networking opportunity. 

Ilvija looking like a bat with white nose disease
(yes it's a real disease, but not for alpacas)
A little bonding time? No! Not likely! More like,
"you're not coming in here".

Is this Brencis singing of the joy of winter?

So what do I do all day? Well slum around in my dressing gown, or so it may seem, but my nice thick dressing gown saves me putting on any heating until well into the afternoon, so that works out well. Just a bit embarrassing when the postie rings the doorbell and opens the door to hand me the post. I wish she would wait then I could quickly discard my dressing gown for a few minutes. I also wish she wouldn't open the door, it feels kind of rude, but I guess it's just I'm not used to it. It wouldn't happen in the UK for sure, unless you lived in one of those out of the way places where the postie is probably one of your relatives. 

What is that son of mine doing? 

And now here's Tellus' daughter playing peek-a-boo

Meanwhile, Ian is out taking pictures in our forest!
I still can't quite get used to saying, "Our forest!"

I spend a lot of time on the computer, trying to learn Latvian, keeping in touch with friends and getting work done - currently I'm working on three projects as well as preparing for teaching two courses, one in spring and one in autumn of this year. One project is looking at whether citizen science can influence how the environment is managed or policies made or does it just take the learned experts to get things changed? One is looking at lessons that can be learnt from plans to avoid harming biodiversity and feeding that information to some policymakers. Lastly another project is just trying to finish off a database that is taking longer than it should. Added in a bit of proofreading and working on developing the courses keeps me out of mischief anyway. 

Not such a frosty day, but beautiful in its own way.
Time to soak up some sun.
More white nose disease. Mari also soaking up
some sun.

Over the course of a few Saturdays though I managed to cut up old t-shirts that are in my rather large stash of fabrics and old materials waiting for projects to use them up. Ian was complaining of having to stand on a cold floor in the mornings and so I decided to make him a modern version of a proggy mat - well that's what he would call it, I would call it a rag rug, or hooked mat. This was the quicker version of an old method of using up fabric that was not fit for much else. I cut the t-shirts up into lots of scraps 3cmx8cm (or thereabouts) and then sewed them down the middle onto a large piece of old thick interfacing. I then folded them to one side and sewed on another row. Eventually I filled up the interfacing and it certainly looked like an old rag rug by the time I'd finished - so no more complaints of cold feet. 

Now Mari is sharing a bit of gossip with Aggie.
A different angle to our land for a change. Looking
through the trees at the wintry sun.
Tracks in the snow. A hare? 

I know there are quite a few half-finished projects in my dump room and there are so many potential projects that I get overwhelmed with what to do next. At least I did manage to make a pair of baggy trousers from some self-dyed fabric, which I'm wearing and they are surprisingly warm. I have cut out some fabric to make some more, but I want to see how these one work before sewing up the other pair. I think the pattern needs a little adjustment. I also confess to starting some felted scarves this last weekend and now they are added to my half-finished pile as I didn't have time to finish them. It did use up some of the fleece we had lying around the place though, so that is a plus. 

A more subtle scene with a cloudy sky, but still
amazing to see such frosted trees.
Looking at Lady V's residence for young ladies
aka one of the alpaca houses from another different
angle.
The snow is not deep enough to cover the 
molehills. We must have mole city under our
land. 

So while I am slaving away on my computer Ian has been doing lots of snow clearing, poo clearing from the alpaca houses as they don't go outside so much on the more miserable days and feeding Lolly. When he gets back to the apartment we eat and then he washes up. Quite a few days this week he has then been spending some of the evenings testing poo samples for parasites. Exciting heh! So exciting he fell asleep in the alpaca house. He needed a poo sample from a couple of the alpacas and it is a good time of the year to just spend time with them and get them more used to his presence, so he took up a chair to watch them. 15 minutes later (so he tells me) he woke up with two contented alpacas either side just chewing the cud. 

Karla having a bit of trouble with a long piece
of hay.
Such peaceful scenes

This freeze/thaw cycle is not much fun

The other news for this is week is my car arrived. It was driven from Riga along some quite icy roads to our village and then we had to drive to the big town to get it registered as owned by me and the bank. The only piece of paperwork we couldn't do electronically. Very annoying really as that was a couple of hours of my time, when most of the procedures in Latvia are going across to digital signatures, which I can do. Oh well! At least I'm now able to travel up to the university this week for staff training. The young guy asked if I had owned a car in Latvia before and the answer was no. We've had a car for 14 years but it has always been registered in Ian's name. I did once take it for its technical inspection because he was away, but other than that, my name has not been on anything to do the car. I have had a Latvian licence for 14 years but wouldn't have thought that would make a difference, but somehow it did. I have six months of full insurance for just over €50, I was expecting double that at the very least. I'm still conflicted though, as I would rather do without a car, I realise the environmental costs but I also have to get to work from time to time. 

A series of plants with their ice-crystal gowns




The neighbour's land.
Sun on snow

Cattails 

Vanessa in another of her contemplative moods

The snow is creeping up the greenhouse. Fortunately
it has melted next to the plastic so not leaning on
the plastic.

Much higher and it will be more like a rather large 
igloo.

Monday 10 January 2022

A really boring post!

Not much to do here! 

I had a brief Latvian lesson recently and I had to recall what I did over Christmas. Not a lot really. I then had to tell my teacher what I would be doing for New Year's Eve.... errr not a lot really. I'm being rather boring. We didn't plan on staying up as Ian had to be up early to see to the animals. I had some work to do between Christmas and New Year and so I didn't get the chance to do much sewing, which is what I planned, although I did finish off a pair of trousers. So all in all.... not a lot, apart from making a nice meal... but I forgot to make the Yorkshire puddings again. 

Lolly is now being halter-trained and doing
well. She was even outside for a walk today.
Well someone finds the process amusing.
Winter days are for hibernation but it doesn't
mean they are not glorious at times.

We are not into giving presents to each other these days. Too much hassle I guess and I hate the idea of buying something for myself just for Christmas. I could never see the point of that. We have what we need anyway. I did finally get a present to open though. My daughter ordered lots of lovely spices and some peaceful tea. It works too! The tea I mean. It seemed to stop my head from spinning from one subject to another to let me sleep well and through the night. I might be rather boring and not doing a lot outwardly, but in my head it's a different matter. Some of our grandkids struggle with paying attention and I realised that perhaps it was my fault. I'm not hyperactive, in the slightest but in my head - well that's another matter entirely. 

So bright and sparkly
The boys are in a sparkly shower too

Normally someone with ADD can struggle to concentrate at school, but I didn't. I was hyper-focussed and this probably had a bit to do with a hearing problem that meant I needed to sit at the front of a class. There is nothing like putting a super shy kid at the front to ensure their concentration. It was hard work though as there was no way I was going to embarrass myself by not knowing the answer. I have also come to realise that my brain works super hard to fill in gaps, so if I didn't hear everything, it was not too much of a problem - well normally. It has also trained my brain to fill in gaps, which is kind of useful for a researcher who specialises in being a generalist. It does mean I have to work pretty hard to stay on task though. Stubbornness helps there!

More trees with a golden glow
Lolly again, coming out to see Ian. Have you 
got food?

Another difference for me is that most kids with ADD find reading hard, but I could lose myself in a book. I could speed read and that gave me plenty of time to have another story going on in my head at the same time. I would read the words and my head would be somewhere else. There were times of course when I would read a paragraph and get to the end and realise my brain hadn't engaged with the text at all and I would have to read it again, but sometimes I could do the two things at once. Sometimes my brain was just filling in the scene and so I could really visualise what was going on in the story. There were some stories I could not read though because of that. Too scary!

Still being bottle fed. It's been a long journey.
I never tire of this view of our land. The same and
yet different every time.
And frosted trees are always beautiful

I think it also explains why I don't find travelling that bad, as it means I can just look out of the window and let my mind wander where it likes. I'm not having to constantly pull it back on track (fortunately not many of my travels meant I had to pay attention to the stops where I needed to get off). The downside to an ADD like brain is too many ideas and too many half finished projects. I finish what I have to, but that's sometimes about it. The thought of starting a project can also be a bit overwhelming as I have to clear the clutter, physically and in my head, to get going. Another technique I realised I employ is to challenge myself so I don't get bored. Once the boredom sets in, I lose interest, so if it's important then I have to find the challenge in what I'm doing. It helps though that I find so much to be super interesting or maybe that's a disadvantage. Not sure how many papers I have downloaded for reading later, or how often I get side tracked by one more really interesting line of enquiry. There's a whole world to explore and learn and.....one more rabbit trail, one more rabbit hole .... and where did the time go?

Same view, different day and different time
of the day.
Aggie in contemplative mood, while chomping
away on the hay.

One place where I do struggle is learning Latvian. I'm trying to slow down to notice the details, but my brain is trying to race ahead. It is coming along but oh so slowly. The problem with Latvian is that the endings give you a clue to the context. I'm pretty good at spotting the root of the words, but I have to slow down and sometimes squint at the screen to see the difference. There is not much difference between an "i" and an "ī" (a long "i"), a "l" and a "ļ" or a "n" and a "ņ", but those little characters can make a difference in meaning. You would want to make sure you get the difference right between kazas and kāzas, the first being goats and the second wedding. My Latvian teacher has been known to laugh a little occasionally at one or two of the mistakes I made. She doesn't laugh at me often and she's pretty gentle with me generally. 

Chanel in contemplative mood too. Ian is experimenting
with a different holding technique. It seems to be
working and she seems a bit calmer these days.
Now all we have to do is stop her from sitting
down so we can put cream on those dreadfully scaly
legs of hers.
Ilvija and Chanel are still close. We wonder
how this will work when Ilvija has a baby.

It took me a few attempts to write a sentence about our unwelcome little visitor to the house, that appears every morning about 10:15 or so - although not today. I've named it Ronald. Not quite sure why, as I am endeavouring to find ways to dispatch it. One morning I saw it three times, always going in one direction. Or was it three mice? I only ever see one. There is no point leaping up to see if I can somehow corner it as there are just too many places for it to disappear. It must be immune to the poison, as we do leave that in the apartment due to us being away. I don't like to use such stuff, but the thought of it eating it's way through the wiring and causing damage to our neighbour's property is enough for me to take proactive action and normally that's enough to sort the problem.

Chanel's multi-coloured fleece. Over the summer
we sprayed her with oil that had cloves and garlic
in. It seemed to help the skin and keep the mites
under control. The problem is that now the winter
is here, it seems to have not helped the fleece.
She has been dusted with potato starch to absorb the
oil, but also with turmeric, garlic and clove powder
to repel any mites. Gradually it is absorbing the oil
but also the sweat. Most of the alpacas are no
where near as sweaty as Chanel is. It might be
part of her problem with the mites.
Josefs has been eating the snow

I've tried setting traps but it is such a little thing it just says, "Thank you very much for the tasty.... Christmas cake, fat, crumbs" or whatever else I've used to try and get it to stay long enough to trigger the trap. I don't like using traps either as we have had to dispatch a mouse before now that was caught in a trap and wasn't killed instantly. I know there are supposedly humane traps, but is it any more humane to capture a mouse and dump it in the open countryside in a place it doesn't know in the middle of winter? It might sound humane to relocate an animal but they suffer stress through being introduced to a strange environment. Yes! I've read the studies on that too and their survival rate is not great. So the battle continues of one human vs a teeny, tiny little mouse. We might have to call in reinforcements, namely Rocket Ron and Ginger Tom. Not sure what they will make of being in the apartment for a day. We'll see!

Another sign that Lolly is growing up is that she
is eating from a tray. We are pleased as it means
she is getting the minerals and vitamins that alpacas
need. Karla will be getting hers from her mother
still. 
They remind me of teasels, but they are not. They are
bee balm covered in snow.

Yes more snowy pictures.

It has been a long process to get to the stage where
Ian can feed Turbjørn by hand. We've had Turbjørn
10 years in July of this year and he only started
eating from Ian's hand last year.

No problems with these two eating from anyone's
hands, although they are not happy about sharing 
really.

Please Sir! Can I have some more?

Amanda is a cute alpaca. Hopefully she will have
another cute baby this year.

More snow!

Antonia eating the snow. 

Jakob's with his brown tash and swept back 
hairstyle. 

And we finish with George, Jakob's half brother
who always seems to have a smile for everyone.