Oh, it's Tuesday!

Lolly

Are you confused by the days of the week too? Most of us are at this time of the year. I had fully intended to blog again this week on Monday night, like I used to, and completely forgot. I spent the evening revising some Latvian and writing an email to my Latvian teacher instead. All of which takes time. It was nine o'clock at night before I remembered.

A sun pillar. Apparently it means
it's cold.

UFO? No! Sure looks eerie
though

Last week I worked up until Thursday. I managed to get all the proofreading done and an invoice sent off before the deadline, along with my regular work completed. The money made will come in handy as a deposit on the car that I mentioned about the other week. I won't be looking forward to finding a space to park it though. There are so many cars around at this time of the year, more than in the summer. On Christmas Eve one of our neighbours rang the doorbell and complained that our car was parked in front of our apartment and I never cleaned the road of snow. I was really confused. I thought it was something to do with the fact they now had a baby (which I hadn't realised) and maybe it was difficult to get the baby in and out on the opposite side of the road. 

Brencis

Not sure that the lack of sow makes this look
any less weird. It looks more like the skeletal
remains of cabin than a hunting tower.

I was also confused because of being accused of never cleaning the snow. I certainly hadn't done it this winter due to working non-stop trying to get things done before the end of the year. I knew the neighbour upstairs always cleaned the road and he never complained. That day was the first time I had even seen the complaining neighbour's boyfriend actually cleaning any snow anyway. I did find out a few days later that the complaining neighbour's car is always left with a pile of snow around, because they had been quite awkward, so no one clears around their car. They don't actually clear the road, just enough to get themselves out and they were obviously disgruntled they had gone to all that effort and Ian had had the audacity to park in "their" spot because they had cleaned it. I did find out the neighbour upstairs is fine about cleaning the rest of the road as he likes to get out and do a bit of exercise. I helped him the other day as I wasn't working and he was very nice about it. He made sure I left the snow around the complaining neighbour's car though.

The snow has come and gone and come again
over the last week. The temperatures go up
to above freezing and rains and then drops and
snows. Still we did have a white Christmas, but
as a FB friend said, not quite sure if Bing really
knew what he was singing about when he sang, 
"I'm dreaming of a white Christmas".

Wintry scenes do have a striking beauty but it puts
stresses and strains on the the people and animals. 

Chanel

I spent Friday decorating the Christmas tree, that Ian had helped me set up the night before, and preparing food. I can never decide if we have a celebration meal on Christmas Eve, like our Latvian neighbours would be doing, or Christmas Day. In the end, we kind of did both. On Thursday evening we went to our goat farmer friend and she gifted us four goat legs, some wonderful aged pepper goat's cheese and some goat milk soap. I decided to first pressure cook the goat legs to make sure they were tender and then slow roast them in the slow cooker (also it meant I could fit the legs in the slow cooker, which they wouldn't quite do when fresh). 

A field of diamonds

Looking towards the neighbours

I cooked some kale, cabbage and leeks in white sauce to go with the meat. Normally I just do leeks in white sauce but certain little pussy cats kept trying to use that area for a toilet earlier in the year. It nearly drove me potty driving them off, but they still managed to dig up most of my leeks, so I only had about three left for Christmas dinner. That is why I had to eke the leeks out by using the kale and cabbage. It worked nicely anyway. We also had roast parsnips which we sprinkled with the pepper cheese, mashed potatoes and stuffing balls. I meant to make Yorkshire puddings too and forgot and then I forgot again the following night when I slow cooked a ham that I had prepared. Oh well! Maybe New Year's Eve instead?

People often ask he how the alpacas do in the snow.
Well? As you can see! Not so bothered. Deep cold
can be an issue, but a nice sunny day and they'll 
be outside.... sunbathing!

See!

Lolly is now adept at alpaca yoga.

The rest of the goat meat went either into a pie or in the freezer. Ian does like pies and it is a great way of making meat go much, much further. I put the rest of the veg in, added some onion and some dried mushrooms - which incidentally I found in a drawer that were leftover from the year before. I was worried we didn't have enough dried mushrooms this year, but apparently we have more than I thought. I only found them because I was looking for somewhere to put something away. I can't even remember what I was trying to tidy away in the excitement of finding a stash of stuff I had forgotten about. I'm not getting more forgetful, honest. I've always been forgetful about where I put stuff and constantly looking for things. I like things to have a place, I just never quite remember where all those places are. At least Ian has been enjoying the pie, as that's the nearest he gets to a Christmas present these days.

Investigating the snow.

Jakobs outside eating the snow

I had intended to do my usual Christmas trip out to see the alpacas, but there wasn't much point. It snowed quite heavily on Christmas Eve and so Ian spent Christmas day snowploughing the pathways and he did it again on Sunday, and again on Monday. Today is my second day out on the land this week though. Today Ian helped some neighbours collect a cow from the Daugavpils area, a trip of about 2 1/2 hours each direction. He wasn't be able to feed Lolly and do all the other jobs around the farm that need doing in the morning, so I'm standing in for him. 

Ian had spent quite a bit of time clearing the
paths on Christmas Day. Then it snowed!
You can just about see where he had been. The 
tracks are down the side so he doesn't trample
the path and make it more difficult to clear the 
proper path.

All cleared again. Although it almost looks the
same, I never get tired of seeing the snowy pictures.
Not sure Ian is as happy. He agrees it's beautiful 
but the extra tasks get old quickly.

Freddie eating the snow outside.

I was standing in for him on Wednesday of last week too. Ian was on his laptop first thing in the morning and after putting it down to get ready to go out, it switched itself off. When he tried to switch it back on, it only showed a grey screen. He managed to get hold of the computer technician and arranged to take it in. He had to come back to the apartment to pick me up first though so I could feed Lolly while he was away and put the animals away. I had a meeting that couldn't be rearranged and so I managed the first half hour, went to put the animals away and came back to my meeting. Again, it is good to have understanding colleagues. I think most people these days get the need to do something at home during online meetings, whether it is take kids to school, sort a child out or in my case, put animals away.

Accumulating against the greenhouse

Looking at the snow from inside the greenhouse.
Not sure how much will disappear over the
New Year weekend as it is forecast to warm up
for a few days before getting cold again.

I bet my Christmas tree is bigger
than your's! Mind you, this one
is a tad bit taller than the one we 
have inside the apartment.

He seemed to take a long time in Riga, but he said the traffic and roads were horrid. The roads were in a better state here in our rural municipality. Apparently the roads in Riga were not cleared and were full of slush, which is about the worst type to drive in, especially in heavy traffic. He also hit rush hour on the way back to compound the problem. At least the computer problem was fixable. They checked it over, gave it a clean and adjusted the connector to the battery. The battery connector was the problem and nothing more. So €25 and the diesel to get into Riga seemed cheap compared to the deposit on my car disappearing.

Looking towards the more pristine side of the
land

A rosie glow as the sunrises

Ian had to clear a path down to the barn.

More rosie glows

Normally an untidy spot but now covered in a 
blanket of snow.

A nice wide pathway so Ian can
drive on and get nearer to the
caravan in the greenhouse

The view from the boys paddock

You can see the pile of manure that Ian is building
on the left for planting our potatoes into in spring

The haystack. Hope that new cover
works.

Outside our apartment. There is a road over there
in front of the bushes.

So here we are

Icy rain today and just a dusting of snow. Not exactly a
pleasant start to the year

Another new year and nearly ten years since I began blogging. It has been an interesting time and I would never have thought we would be doing what we are doing now all those years ago. So much has happened and I have met so many people over that time. What a ride.

Our youngest grandson

This year we had our first family Christmas in a few years, where all our family got together. What used to be just five of us is now 12, since our three children now have children of their own. We set off to the UK on the 21st and were picked up from the airport by our youngest son. It is nice not to have to worry about transport these days. We were launched straight into a round of feasting with party number one at my son's partner's father's place. We met the sisters on that side of the family for the first time. It is a long time since we have been amidst so much present unwrapping, as we have never been big present givers at Christmas, so it was almost a bit overwhelming to see so much wrapping paper heading for the bin. Ian laughed later when he reminded our son how everyone used to carefully take off wrapping paper as it would be used in craft projects later in our house.

You can see why he gets so many comments on his hair.
Quite a head of hair for a seven week old

Needle felted pictures by Debbie Colby. I also bought a
tree brooch and some flowery ones for my daughter
and daughter-in-laws

During the year I had made contact with a lovely felting artist, Debbie Colby. I realised she lived close to my son and so we organised to meet up. I was always amazed at her work, I kind of felt she made the pictures that were in my head but I never really got a working image that I was happy with when I was doing my embroidery course though. Then again I had not heard of needle felting at that point and maybe I would have got a more satisfactory result if I had. I shall be getting my designs out again and having another go using some of the techniques that Debbie demonstrated for me. What I love is the thought of being able to use up some of the fabrics I have lying around that I sorted out into various colours the other week.

Our alpacas had visitors too and were well looked after while
we were away. Here the boys have been tempted outside in
the snow with some food.

I spent the afternoon showing our adopted granddaughter how to use her new toy sewing machine, that actually worked quite well. We made sacks for two of the Christmas presents, rather than using wrapping paper. I had already made some Japanese knot bags during the one free day I had during the week (must remember to wash the fabric first next time though, storing them had an adverse effect). We also had a go at making gluten free Latvian style Christmas biscuits or at least the dough. It was good fun to have a helper in the kitchen.

Not an alpaca insight

After our shopping expedition my leg was a bit stiff and so
my son lent me his roller to massage the back of my leg.
They laughed but at least it was a bit easier and now it is
almost back to normal

We ventured into Coventry where my son lives on the Saturday. It was not as busy as we were expecting, which was probably a good thing, considering we are not so used to crowds these days. My son's partner was hoping to take her daughter to see Santa but as we queued up we were told that unfortunately the grotto was closing as Santa had thrown up. Too many mince pies already I guess. Very sensibly the young lass decided it wasn't a proper Santa as Santa is never sick and so we toddled off to IKEA where apparently Santa was definitely residing. Ian and I didn't go up to see Santa as my leg was starting to ache by then, so we had a drink and I put my feet up, while we waited. We were also treated to a lovely meal in town.

Yes I was stood at the door of the greenhouse to take these.

Our son's cat. Surprised she is still friends with us as Ian
helped to de-flea her :D

Our son put in a special request for a Christmas breakfast of home-made croissants. It was a tradition in our house to eat those for Christmas and Easter breakfasts and it is nice that he remembers that. I taught our adopted granddaughter how to make them and got her to do all the hard work of rolling them out. Nothing like a little willing slave labour. It also kept her occupied whilst my son and partner went to prepare Christmas meal number two at one of her sister's homes on her mother's side this time. Gammon featured a lot in our meals over the last week! There were some hilarious games to watch in the evening, although I forgot to take photos during The Pooping the Potato Race. A classy game! Not!

Our messy greenhouse in winter

Our Granddaughter opening her
presents

Before rolling into bed, or rather onto the couch, that night I finished off rolling out the croissants one more time and put them in the fridge to rise overnight. We were usually up early enough to put them in the oven in the morning, as we were still on Latvian time at that point. So Christmas morning we began with the unwrapping of presents before our croissants and had a more relaxed day with Christmas dinner in the evening. Yes more gammon!

Brother and sister

Boxing Day we went for lunch in small, quaint village of Knowle, but the restaurant that we planned to go to was not open. We wandered around a bit before I spotted a little Italian that seemed to be open. It looked shut at first but I realised it was actually the estate agents next door that was shut and the unobtrusive doorway to the Italian was on the other side. It turned out to be a delightful discovery with one of the nicest waiters I have known in a while. A family of older people also turned up and they were friendly too. They complimented our adopted granddaughter on her manners, all credit to her super mum. Our little grandson has also been the star wherever we went. His hair always gets comments. We finished off the day with more time spent in the kitchen (just to clarify, that is my son's kitchen not the Italian) cooking more biscuits to take to another family party the next day.

Me and all my grandchildren. I only got into the picture
as the grandson on my knee would not sit for the photo.

So onto the next Christmas meal at our daughter's house, or rather post-Christmas meal since it consisted of cold meat (yes you've guessed it, there was gammon again too) and various salads with a rather nice selection of desserts. It was also our youngest son's 28th birthday. Hard to think our youngest is creeping rather close to his 30s and our older two are already there. It doesn't seem that long ago since they were the same age as our grandchildren and yet in other ways it also seems eons ago. It was quite a gathering of the clan, as my other son and his family came up from the South and my parents joined us as well.

Our sheep, unlike the alpacas seem to have spent most of the
time outdoors in the rain today

It had been planned that our other son would collect one of us from our youngest's as there was not room in the car for both Ian and I and my youngest's son's family. I went in one car and Ian in the other and we set off in convoy. Only that part didn't go according to plan. We were separated early on at a junction and we got behind another car that looked the same as my youngest son's car. We followed for a little while before realising it was not the same car. Thank goodness for SatNavs on phones these days though as it meant we were quickly back on track and just phoned through to say, sorry we weren't following and we would meet at our daughter's. It turned out our route was the fastest as there was an accident along the route my youngest son took and we were there a good half hour before him. There was some teasing!

Our cats disgraced themselves. They got into the cabinet
where the food is, although I suspect it was the other one,
as that was her trick. The food was relocated to a drawer they
cannot get into

My youngest son went home with his family that evening and Ian and I stayed on at our daughter's along with our older son. In the morning Ian and I met up with Ian's old boss from his time of working in the hospital labs. As I mentioned back in mid-November I received an odd email telling us that his old boss was retiring and they were planning a party. It was odd in the fact the email came to me and not to Ian. Ian got in touch with his old boss and had a bit of an email exchange where he arranged the meeting at Chatsworth Farm Shop for breakfast. It was an amazing conversation of catching up on folks who Ian has worked with. Some sadly have died, many have retired and some still working at the hospital.

He wasn't going to let me get a picture of him, he kept
running to the back. 

Most of the time we didn't go out or do anything special but the children played together quite nicely, which is great. It was a good job they did too as the weather wasn't altogether pleasant and one of them in particular did not like the wet snow. There was one point when all the guys went out to get a tyre fixed as it kept going down on my son's car. It turned out there was a nail in it. When they got back, my daughter, my daughter-in-law and I went out for a coffee and we left the guys with the little ones. I was very proud of my husband, he instantly realised what I meant when I said we were going for a coffee and had no qualms about being left with the little ones. It seemed only fair!

The cockerels in this ark are still not
crowing. Looks like it could be anytime
soon though

It was a bit like Christmas before we set off to the UK, as Ian got a microscope. We were panicking as it arrived the afternoon before we left. He had ordered other parts for his parasitology testing kit to arrive in the UK as it was cheaper, but the microscope would have been more difficult to bring back. There wasn't much time to have a look and play, but it was enough to find out that the eye piece camera was not working on our Macs, even with a Windows adaptation. Ian popped the camera into his luggage and we took it along for our son-in-law to have a look at. Eventually it was decided that we could take another laptop back with us that would work with the camera. I think it is the first laptop we have owned that is not a Mac. We had been falling out of love with Apple just lately and so not too traumatised, except for trying to get it in and out of my rucksack at the airport - small and lightweight it is not, but it works and that is all that matters.

This chap maybe the smallest cockerel but he is definitely
crowing and harassing the females

The next day our daughter and son-in-law left their oldest two with our son and daughter-in-law while they drove us back to our youngest's home. I still had another sewing project to do with our adopted granddaughter on the present I had given her. The present was simple enough, a Japanese knot bag pattern that I had printed out with a piece of dyed woollen blanket and some felt and buttons for flowers. Rather than expect her Mum to help her though, I said I would help her make it before I left. So in the time between visiting her Dad and going to the pantomime we made the bag on my Granddaughter's new sewing machine. It was a nice way to finish off a family Christmas.

Well it was dark and miserable, so lots of chicken photos

So on the last day of the year we headed home. Unfortunately Ian was not so well and we had to dose him up before the plane travel. I had got a sore throat from the kids over a 24 hour period but had recovered by the time we set off,  Ian though seems to have come down with something more. At least the staff at Manchester airport were incredibly friendly, even in security. I have never had a pat down done by such a pleasant member of staff. One of the staff also carried my tray to a table rather than leave me to it. Their approach, I felt, really kept things moving along and left us feeling well cared for rather than traumatised going through security. Not that we have ever been thoroughly traumatised, but it often feels like an ordeal rather than something that just has to be gone through. We also got chatting to a guy on a sandwich counter - mind you I think he was perhaps a little bored, but it filled in time.

Our Grandson is not the only one with a quirky hair do

Hoping to have eggs from these soon

So after a busy Christmas we headed for bed. I did get up in the night when the fireworks started, as I knew they would be loud. I also made the porridge for the morning as we hadn't done it earlier. When all was quiet it was time to head back to bed. We woke up late but it was so dark and miserable, it didn't really matter that much we were late for letting the animals out. They hardly went out anyway during the day. They seem to have developed an aversion to the white stuff that we had on the ground again.

The herb bed and vegetable garden. Needless to say I didn't
bother trying to dig carrots or leeks today

So that just leaves me to say, I hope you all had a Happy Christmas, whether it was as busy as ours this year or more like some of our previous ones where we took things easy. I also wish you all the best for the New Year. May your year ahead be filled with precious moments.