Gone! At last!

They may have got a little damp in the rain.
They look like they are on a mission though.

There are somethings I wish could be said had gone at last, but I can't and I'm sure you will guess to what I'm referring - namely a horrendous situation in another former Soviet country. What I can say though is that the snow has finally gone. There was still a bit in the forest and bits in the fields that face north until a few days ago, but now it has melted in the rain for sure. It feels really weird seeing the land re-emerge from under its white blanket after so long. Even after so many years of watching the snow come in the winter and leave in spring it still feels like rediscovering old friends... and foes! The land has many areas covered with molehills and vole and mouse runs who have obviously been having riotous parties under the snow cover during the winter. The voles and the mice have been making their runs between the snow and the soil and so there are many tracks running across the fields, along my herb beds, along the paths of my vegetable garden and probably along the vegetable beds. 

15th April

17th April. So close! Nearly gone!

 

25th April. Gone! And now it's wet.

Weird lighting effects from the setting sun

With all the open runs it is no wonder that Ginger Tom has been out and about and getting rather rounded in the process. Obviously he's well fed on mice. Rocket Ron, however, is all skin and bone. Ian took him to the vets last week as he just seemed to keep losing weight. Not sure yet what the problem was, but with another round of different worming treatment, probiotics and vitamins, he seems to be turning around and filling out. Perhaps it was all the Jerusalem Artichokes he was eating! He kept helping himself to the bag that was meant for the chickens through the winter. Or maybe just too lazy to go and get mice in the snow. He seems to have rectified that though now and also been tucking in. He very proudly showed a mouse off to me last week. Not quite the vegetarian cat we were beginning to think he was.

More weird effects. They look like ghostly trees

I think this is the handicraft output from a potter
wasp. Aptly named if it is. Pity the pots are so
small.

The other aspect about spring that is a bit annoying is that the animals all go daft, especially the boys. In the last couple of weeks we've had to separate the young cockerels after they were harassing the females too much (and some people think that they could all live together as one happy family!!!!) and the most dominant cockerel started knocking seven skittles out of the other two, going for their combs and jumping on the back of one as if to mate with it but more aggressively than with the females. The two less dominant ones are now in a bachelor pad waiting for an appointment with the freezer and the atmosphere in the arks is more peaceful. The alpaca boys are not so easy to deal with, the young ones have started fighting again. Freddie is the worst offender, the gentle, timid one! Unfortunately for him, his fleece isn't so good and so he's got an appointment with the vet this week. Hopefully the small operation will calm his hormones down and we will have the sweet Freddie back.

Sweet little Freddie. His squealing isn't so sweet
though

The storks haven't been to our fields much but
we've had our annual visit from a pair of ducks.
They never stop long as the pond is too small to 
support a nesting pair - they would be easy 
prey for a fox.

The fence posts

We've had rain, for much of Sunday, but that's okay as after the snow went, the ground started to get quite hard and the usual worries started about a drought. It is often dry at about this time of the year and makes putting in seeds a nightmare. I try not to water, but sometimes needs must. I prefer it if nature does the job for me. The ground was at least just about hard enough for Ian to get a delivery of fence posts in preparation for creating a fence for the girls. We hope that will stop the boys from getting in and having a repeat of last years escapades. We also want to extend where the girls can graze. We daren't let them out over the hill where we can't see them unless it is fenced in. It desperately needs grazing over there to keep the diversity of the plants. Sometimes we don't get the chance to cut that side and so to have them graze it instead will help. 

Last year's wasps' nest. Ian took it
off the side of the barn so that we
don't have any more wasps nesting
in it.

My birthday cake

Ian also got a welder and has been teaching himself to weld using YouTube videos. In fact he got more presents than I did on my birthday. I did get a cake though, that my daughter ordered. It's great that she can order at our local bakery even if she is half way around the world and very nice it is too. We are still wading our way through it. 

Our summer cabin will be where the sticks are. 
Those sticks had snow about 3/4 of the way up them.
That was a lot of snow.

Scruffy kid!

Unusually my birthday was a very sunny day and so I took the opportunity of flexible working to take the day off and plant potatoes. It was nice to be outside and the work isn't too hard with the manured raised beds that Ian creates over winter. Saturday was nice too until it started to cloud over in the evening and so I also cleared out one of the chicken arks, threw some parsnips, beetroot and marigold seeds in and started the process of clearing the winter debris off my flower and herb beds. I wasn't confident any of the seeds are viable so just decided to mix them in and rake the ground over before giving it a thin covering of hay to keep the moisture in and stop the seedlings when they germinate from getting bashed about. 

Obviously a trend

17th April and still some snow in the forest.

One of the nice things about gardening is having time to think and I've been mulling over the responses of the European heads of government to the war in Ukraine. I don't envy them on the one hand, but I know there are some of them who have got to swallow their fear of economic impacts and ditch the oil and gas. It will harm the economy but so will the continued addiction to oil and gas. Globally we have waited too long and now we need a rapid change away from oil and gas for the sake of Ukraine, for the sake of our children and the planet on which we live. Will that harm the economy? Probably! But how it is done affects the long-term effects. We can pull together, we can cooperate and support each other, we can grow food wherever we can - if we can do it in a war, we can do it in peacetime (whatever that is). In many ways it is part of a war effort, a war against greed, a war against authoritarian governments and a war against the harm to our children's future. So let's get digging for victory - victory of peace.

Ian gets his second hand t-shirts from his son, not
quite sure what the World's Strongest 'Oys are but
it makes us giggle. I have cropped the picture as
Ian shut his eyes when the flash went off and he 
looked rather dopey in the process. Nothing personal
really!

Yup! Ian's boots. This was an accident with my
phone camera but I thought it was funny how the
cats were sat there looking out as if they couldn't
quite believe the snow had gone too. They've been
going daft as well and running around fighting.

A doctored image of me holding a mushroom. We 
used it on a promotional picture as a background
for a seminar. 

Show and Tell

We've been watching the rain clouds a lot just
lately

Well it is two weeks since I last blogged and a lot has happened and not much has happened. It's rained a lot, that is for sure. Yesterday (Sunday) I worked as there were students who needed an English check before they submit their theses this Tuesday, but that was okay as it rained for most of the day and so not much else to do in a caravan. Even the greenhouse is showery in that kind of weather as the moisture collects on the plastic and then flaps down in the wind, sending a fine drizzle onto anything below. We make sure that anything that needs protecting from rain is under a table these days. 

One of our visitors this week. Fortunately he and
his Mrs. decided it is not a good place to raise
ducklings and went somewhere else. The pond is 
not reliably full enough to make sure they would be safe
from Mrs. Fox who is somewhere nearby. Another 
visitor was a hare that I stood and watched as it
made its way across our field. I couldn't believe that
it couldn't see me in my bright red coat, but I was
standing very, very still with a watering can in one
hand, hardly daring to breathe while I watched.

More rain on the way, fortunately not much
today though.

The rain started late at night and then carried on until well into the afternoon. It was also pretty heavy at times. We could hear the rain on the greenhouse plastic and then a steady and irritating drip onto the caravan. Yes the caravan is still inside the greenhouse, even though it is near the end of May. The weather has been that cool it is better off inside the greenhouse. I think there's only been one uncomfortable night so far this year. when the temperature was too hot to sleep well. The weather forecast though did promise us that the weather would be better next week. We'll see, but then again the Ieva or bird cherry tree has nearly finished flowering and they do say that it is often cold when the Ieva flowers.

Someone has a sunny smile anyway

Lockdown haircut

Although it's been cold we have been shearing all over Latvia. We still have Estonia to do thought. The problem with shearing in Estonia is that there are still restrictions on travel across the border, so that does not make our job any easier. To get a test we would have to travel to the big town about 45km away just before we head north. Theoretically we should then self-isolate - but we cannot do that when we have our own animals to take care of. Once we have our second vaccination, this should help, but then some of our animals are due to give birth. 

Poor Mr. Tubjørn, he has bad days...

And he has good days. The yellow around his 
eyes is from eating dandelions or lying around
on a field of dandelions. As you can see it is 
definitely dandelion season.

 

Jakobs always looks a bit of a rascal and that's 
probably because he is. He's always up for a
play fight and being the smallest, usually comes
off the worse. 

Fortunately the weather cooperated reasonably okay for us while shearing. When we had to shear outside it was dry and on the other days we had shelter. In fact at one place they have had a new garage built last year, that meant we could shear inside for the first time Normally it has been really hot and we sheared outside in the heat. We were always worried about cooking the alpacas on the shearing mats. It was a good job they did have the new shelter, as it did rain. They also had a new metal construction for the llamas and so Ian was able to shear them standing up. A steep learning curve but better than trying to pin them down, one year a llama went unshorn because he couldn't be restrained. The construction was too big for the alpacas though, so they were restrained on the floor as usual.

Ian has another order for handspun yarn, so he's in
the process of cleaning Chanel's.


It ta
kes a lot of time but it's lovely when it is done.
The fleece here is a bit dusty but it will be fine
once washed. It also has a slight purple tinge to
it. Not sure if it is the light or what, but it is 
interesting.

Mr. Tellus, the old man now but suave as ever.

The Internet has been really bad, especially after a rainstorm the other week. I complained to the company and it did improve to some extent, but when I pushed them a bit they said there was nothing they could do about it. Funny how it can change a bit but not enough to get a steady access. We use our mobiles and we have anything from 0.2 to 17Mbps. Not helpful when I work so much online, as do so many others obviously. Whine, whine, whine, but I was there first! I will talk to someone higher up at some stage and find out what their strategy is for the future in the rural areas of Latvia, i.e. the majority of Latvia. Our access is not bad compared to other places around the country, so I don't know how other's manage. 

Oh to be that flexible!

Sorry but I think that's just lazy
to eat while lying around on the
floor.

I was a bit worried about the internet access when I couldn't even do a Zoom call with video with just my Latvian teacher. Neither I nor my teacher had our video on that day. I usually have mine switched off due to the access issues but it is very bad when she has to switch her's off too. Fortunately it had improved enough to do an online presentation for a conference organised by a Lithuanian university. It is the first time I've done a presentation for a conference since the pandemic started. Then I was literally zooming around Europe nearly 18 months ago and now all the zooming I do is online. It worked anyway. I even did a "Show and Tell".

Brencis always looks content with life.

We have had some gorgeous sunsets too.

We were discussing food and where we get our food from in a workshop for the conference. In principle the other participants understand about eating home produce but in practice many do not and so it was just easier to take my computer outside, switch on my camera and take them on a quick tour of the garden. They also got to see the alpacas but not up close as it started to rain. That isn't something that is so easy to do in a face-to-face conference. 

I have a garden in there somewhere. Honest! 
Fortunately Ian managed to find it or at least
strim around the beds.

Amidst the sadness there was also the joy of
remembering a life well lived.

Sadly this week we had to say goodbye to a friend of our's. We've never been to a Latvian funeral but I guessed there would be flowers, at least I remembered at 3am on the morning before. I ended up sending an email to another friend to ask about the protocol for flowers. He kindly got some for us and brought them to the farm, he also explained what to expect and the order that things would happen in. I'm glad he did. Although it didn't happen quite the same because of Covid restrictions, at least we kind of knew what to expect. It was a moving time and the weather was kind to us all. The sun shone through the trees and warmed us through. Goodbye dear friend!

Ian found my veg beds. The peas are growing 
anyway. I also planted some broad bean plants
so at least it is possible to see something is
growing. Next I will need supports for all
the plants.

Today I finally managed to get some time in the garden, but first we had to go to the Immigration Office in the big town. We thought we were just going to pick up our ID cards. We didn't realise that we should also have our passports with us. I fortunately had mine with me but Ian didn't, so he has to go back tomorrow. I thought the whole point of an ID card is that it is an ID, or am I missing something? I handed in my old ID so not quite sure why they needed our passports too. They already have a copy of them anyway from previous trips. They also looked at our passports when we went the first time to apply for the new card. Sigh! 

I lost count of the number of storks we saw on the
way back from the big town. Ian had to slow 
down for one, to give it time to get some height
as it tried to fly off. 

Sunbathing at last! Not that the alpacas really like
sunbathing a lot at this time of the year, they do 
after they are sheared.

Normally by now we have the tomatoes in the greenhouse, but the chickens are still in there and even if they weren't the tomato plants are still rather small. It's just not been hot enough to make them grow much. I even started them off with heat and had bottles of water to retain the heat of the day through the night. I haven't lost any to frosts this year, but neither have they exactly rocketed away. The weather hasn't stopped the weeds though. All the moisture has meant they've grown but all the moisture falling from the sky has meant that Ian hasn't been able to get out very regularly to strim them. At least today he managed to sort them out and I can find my veg beds again.

The rain in Spain falls mainly where?

Unfortunately the train windows are tinted and so not easy
to get a good photo, but the fields still look rather parched

Spain is suffering from a drought, as could be seen from the parched fields on the way to my next destination in Spain. I was heading northwest over the mountains to the coastal region of Asturias. As the train traversed the mountains through numerous tunnels there were glimpses of the first snows on the mountain tops. Yes! Snow in Spain. As the train emerged on the other side, green fields greeted the passengers and overcast skies. The scene reminded me of the steep valleys of parts of Derbyshire, only the hills were even steeper. There were hedgerows and trees everywhere. A rather different scene to the dry plains of Spain. So the rain in Spain does not fall mainly on the plain, or so it seems.

Waiting for the local train at a tiny station just after the mountains

On the way to Gijón. Those clouds sure looked ominous

It was dark when we arrived in the train station in Gijón and we those heading to the conference had to wait for the bus, which irritatingly wasn't arriving until the next train load had arrived. I would have caught a later train if I had known or made sure of alternative transport arrangement. We did arrive an hour late though, so the wait didn't seem quite so bad as it could have been. I'm not sure what the problem was but the train arrived late in Madrid and then we had to transfer to a smaller, local train closer to our destination. There were a few people in the train station who seemed to be wandering around and one lady in particular looked like she might be heading to the same place. It turns out she was from mid-Wales, and yes heading in the same direction. We decided to wait in the cafe and got to know each other over a cup of coffee.

It stopped raining!

A little sunshine before the field trips

Eventually the bus arrived and the next load of train travellers arrived and off we went set to Candás, a small seaside town. I showed the driver where my hotel was, but he didn't seem to know it. That was a good start. He dropped some off at hotels along the way and then the rest of us were to get off in the centre of Candás. Most hotels were in the very centre. Mine was a 14 minute walk. No problem - at least not normally. On this particular day though, it was. By the time we arrived it was bucketing it down. There wasn't time to fasten up, just walk. Fortunately it wasn't too cold, but my GPS wasn't working very well and so I just had to walk and hope I was heading in the right direction, until it picked up a good signal. I knew it was straight up. I saw a couple of my Latvian friends sheltering and said hello before trudging on again.

Well this looks promising doesn't it? Hahaha

First stop, one of the many kiwi farms. Kiwi plants grow for
20 years and do not produce much for the first five years, so
they graft a new plant in on the 16th year and cut out the old
plant in the 20th year. Neat! The rootstock stays the same,
so an ecologically sound fruit to eat, with no till.

I managed to find my way to the hotel, but the guy who happened to be stood in the doorway told me to go across the road. There was what looked like a pub, apparently it was connected with the hotel. In I walked, sopping wet and signed in for my key. In my hotel room, I changed into my pyjamas and decided I would forgo the evening activities because I had no intentions of getting wet again. I hung up my coat to drip in the bathroom and spread out my wet clothes. I even had to empty my suitcase as water had got in a bit through the zip and the stuff in my rucksack was damp. I looked for information for the Wifi, for details of breakfast, well anything really. Nothing! Not one sheet of paper. Sigh! At least the room was clean and dry, if a little musty smelling and the bed was comfy.

The fruit is ready in November for six months, so we were just a
tad early for the first kiwis of the year. Although they do have
a variety that are ready in October only we didn't get to taste
them. 

Looks like a huge construction project. I'm guessing a new
road

In the light the next morning it was easy to see that the place was definitely green, also many of the inhabitants carried stout brollies and had good waterproof coats on. Could this be a clue to the climatic conditions? Yes! It was! It rained every day. It was a lovely place, with lots of little coffee shops, but it was wet. Instead of wearing my good clothes, like I normally do at conferences, I wore my new, waterproof hiking boots all the time, except for the dinner when I put my good shoes on. I might have got wet, but my feet were always warm and dry. I didn't bother changing out of my warm clothes either. One lady kindly allowed me to stop in her nearby hotel room on the night of the dinner, so I didn't have to walk back to my hotel room in the rain. Getting wet once a day was enough. Funnily enough, there was a brolly in the welcome pack. I wonder why? Mine did get broken as I put it in one of the handy bins by the door for wet umbrellas. I also managed to lose it somewhere.

We decided to eat lunch inside. This is a fishing lake

And here is a fish sculpture

Once I had adjusted to the fact I was going to get wet and not see the sun after all, I relaxed. It was a fairly easy conference to meet people to talk to, some academic conferences can just be hard work. On the first morning coffee break, a lady put her hand on my back and asked me how I'd slept last night. Just as I was beginning to wonder at the strange greeting, she gasped and apologised. I wasn't who she thought I was. That was funny! She recovered quickly and asked me where I was from and we had a great conversation. There is even a remote possibility of a piece of research out of it, so happy to be the subject of a mistaken identity.

The snow covered mountains in the distance

Next stop a pellet factory. We thought
we were going to see small rural
businesses but we ended up at this place.
Quite fascinating and a local company,
but not many jobs because it was mainly
automated. No pictures were allowed at
the coffee roasting factory we went to.

I also had many a cup of coffee or tea paid for by someone, which was rather nice. One guy inadvertently ordered over the top of us in a cafe. He had stood behind us and had managed to catch the eye of the lady serving. The lady, who I was with, a rather lovely Irish lady, and I were a bit shocked. We sort of let him know what he had done and in return he bought our drinks. We assured him, he could butt in any time he liked after that.

A bit hard to see due to the dim light! Did I mention it rained
a lot? This is a fancy construction but many homes had
something similar. I think it is a place to keep the winter
feed dry and off the floor. These constructions were all on
pillars with a good airflow underneath.

Spanish bagpipes. This was taken on my
phone but it has a very painterly quality
I think. 

When the conference had ended I went for a walk with another lady who was not dashing off. It had stopped raining and so an ideal time to explore, or so we thought. We got about half way around a promenade and then it started to rain. We found a coffee shop and the waitress took our cups around the corner to a place where we could watch the sea out of the scenic window. It was the best place to be as it poured once again. The lady I was with paid for the tea. Finally it stopped and we decided to venture out. Half way around, it started to rain again, so we just headed for the next coffee shop. I fully intended to pay this time, but the chap in the coffee shop she knew and who we spent sometime chatting with before leaving paid for ours too. It was turning out to be a cheap trip from that point of view. Someone even paid for my meal in the evening. Every little helps as they say!

Will we make it back before the rain? Nope!

In the few days I was in Asturias, it snowed up in
the mountains. Taken from the train.

The one aspect of this European Rural Parliament that I found useful was the lack of presentations that happens at academic conferences and more time for discussions. It's great that young academics get the chance to present what they are doing and it does generate some interest from time to time, but there just isn't enough time to fit in some good discussions. I guess it is because the Parliament approach is more focussed on outcomes and not on research. There was one group, however, that are trying to put a research section together because there still is a need for research. Evidence is still needed - and yes, I am going to get involved in the research section, I've already been in discussions but at the end of the day, there still needs to be money allocated. That is easier though when there is a definite call for it and willing academics from multiple countries. We'll see though.

Sunshine! Yay! My friends on
the beach, five minutes away from
their house

These oranges were wonderful, fresh
from the tree

With the conference over, it was time to head right the way across Spain to see some more friends. From the northwest coast to Valencia, just north of my friends it was 8 hours. Another lady was also travelling back from the conference and when we got to Valencia she made sure I knew where I was going and so I managed to get the next train down to my friends. The weather was drier in their place and I woke in the morning to see the numerous orange trees in their garden. Not many were ripe, but enough to have a few oranges and I also got a good dose of sunshine. They were pretty busy but we managed to have some good conversations on life before I headed back to Ian in the gloom of Latvian late autumn. I took some oranges back, it was the best I could do.

A garden of oranges

My knowledge of plants in Spain is limited, so I have no
idea what this is, but it's a gorgeous colour

So I've been back nearly a week now and I haven't seen the sunshine since leaving Spain. At least it has more or less stopped raining and the ground is drying slightly. It is also relatively warm for this time of the year here. I've dug up some Jerusalem artichokes and put a good load of manure on them. I've been working on my thesis and the EU project, I've been to town to sign papers and show my documents to the accountants, had a meal at a friends house and tried to catch up with bits and bobs of things that needed doing like marking students' work. I even made soup for some visitors because they were coming to talk about alpacas and I figured that everyone would need warming up as I know how Ian likes to talk.

Oranges ripening

Another garden of oranges

And of course there has to be palm trees

Kind of quiet around here

Date palms

Obviously the time of the year to visit to get the beach to
yourself

The sea was rough though for the Mediterranean. Sometimes
it's as still as a lake appparently.

Yes it was warm too and I had my good shoes on, which I
didn't want to ruin in the sand.

A long time since I've been on the beach 

Spain! White buildings and cables everywhere

Tiles on walls

A decorative mosaic on an artist's workshop