Normality restored

Winter wonderland

Just kidding! Normality! What's that? Having said that, it has been a quieter week. There was a trip to pick up some roofing sheets to get ready for putting the caravan outside but under permanent shelters as soon as the weather improves - although that will not be any time soon by the look of it, but it could be when I go away, so it is best to be prepared. Another reason for the trip was also because the horse box needed to go for it's technical (trailers also need to have roadworthiness tests here), so it was just a matter of going from the testing station to the builder's merchant close by. It therefore saved a journey another day.

Lots of paths need to be kept clear by Ian. I don't get out so
often as writing on the computer in temperatures of just above
zero is not too much fun. 

I love the laciness of the trees 

Having said that, some like to sit outside in it. 

We were a bit worried about the brakes on the horse box because they have been freezing up. We now leave the horse box parked without the brakes on, to stop them freezing onto the wheels - a problem we had last year. This time though we were worried that they would freeze in the off position and not stop the box during the test. We were relieved that it wasn't a problem at the test station and it passed all the tests. The problem was when we got to the builder's merchant. As we got out of the car there was a strong smell of rubber and the wheel was quite hot. In doing the test on the brakes, they had frozen on. Fortunately the heat unfroze them and on the way back it wasn't a problem. Mind you Ian stopped several times to check.

Our wood pile and hay stack are disappearing in the snow

Narnia?

You can see the sore patch under Aggie's chin that needs the
magic cream. At least the lump now seems to have
disappeared from last year's issue with the tooth abscess

I've had to go out to the land twice this week to apply the magic cream to the girls. The milder weather seems to have resulted in an early onset of the mite issues that we get plagued with from time to time. The magic cream is just comfrey and plantain infused olive oil with a few essential oils in it and that seems to do the trick. The girls loved it on the first day as the cream was still warm from having beeswax added that morning. You could almost hear them go "Hmmmmmm! Arrrrrhhhh!" I think they may have been a bit disappointed the next time it was applied, as it was much colder.

Freddie smiling

We had blue skies and sunshine too, just not on the day that
I was out on the land of course

Ieva Prane's workshop

My next trip was to our Latvian felter on the outskirts of Riga to discuss a project for the next felting course in June. It is exciting to see what she is planning and we discussed how she can best use her skills to encourage people to develop their design work. We didn't manage to finish the article but at least we got a feel for the project and the potential it has, so I am looking forward to seeing the finished product and to see what it looks like on. On the way back to pick Ian up from the caravan where I had left him at lunchtime I saw a racoon dog and a deer on the road not far from our land.

Our project with an alpaca fleece fringe

I love the colour of this little oak tree that has clung to its
leaves all

It is a good job the snow isn't as high as it was about 8 years
ago, our sign would have disappeared too

Much of the week I have continued with my writing. I actually feel like I am seeing the end of the tunnel and it shouldn't take much more to actually get them finished, which is a rather nice feeling. I am still waiting for a reply to the last one I submitted and will probably hear in the next week or two. My supervisor and I have even started to discuss when I defend my PhD, although I do have to get some sort of conclusion to these papers first though. Preliminarily though we are talking about a pre-defence in September. This is the time when the glitches in the thesis should be ironed out and is the hardest part. Then it goes in for a period of a re-write and hopefully defended in November. If all goes well on the day I get my doctorate. Well that's the plan! Let's see first how things progress - as the Seto people in Estonia say.

There's a pond in there somewhere 

Eyre out and about in the snow

Brencis spent sometime reflecting on his own this week. He
must have had a fight with Tellus before Ian arrived to let
them out.

One of the nice things about our life at the moment is the access to good food. We know where the majority of our food comes from, since we have watched it grow. I have even started off onions and peppers to get a head start in the spring. The onions should be fairly hardy but the pepper just seem to take too long to come to maturity and so starting them early might help and we will keep them inside for as long as possible. We did try overwintering some but not sure if they have enjoyed the cool conditions in our other apartment.

Preparation for next year's tasty Latvian potatoes. I am
always so sad as I pile the potatoes onto Ian's plate and
then put a small amount on mine. I do love Latvian potatoes

One day our evening meal consisted of our own lamb, dried rhubarb, dried tomatoes, dried chanterelles, herbs, beans, peas, onions in a nice rich stew, all from our land. You might wonder at the dried rhubarb but it adds a tang a bit like adding lemon to a meal and cheaper as it means we don't have to buy lemons. Another day we had a go with Rocky Mountain Oysters - I will let you google that one, but suffice to say they were surprisingly tasty. I have also started making our own chocolate bars. In essence they are really more like a very rich cocoa butter icing I suppose, but it hits the spot, is cheaper than a bar of dark chocolate and we don't have as much problems getting the ingredients as we do trying to get dark chocolate in our village.

Mr. P is much easier to photograph these days

 Low fat, low calorie Ice-cream! Yum

I suppose I should add that all this good food has not done me so much good over the last year and some of my weight has crept back on. To be fair it tends to leap on when I go away and not drop off afterwards so readily, especially in the winter months when I am much less active - fear of ice does curtail activity to some extent. It has now got to the stage where it seems to be interfering with blood sugar levels again, so the weight has to come off and I need to sort out those things that affect the levels the most and cut down on them. Heh ho! Still at least I have more idea than I did when I first started measuring the sugar levels, what does and doesn't affect them. Dark chocolate is still okay - in moderation of course, okay in a loooot of moderation!

A bit of a wobbly start to the first skiing session of the
season

That's better on a roll now

You may have heard of slow food! Or slow fashion maybe!
Well this is slow skiing aka Nordic skiing with Grandma Oh Oh!

Reflecting

Our land is on the flight path for quite a few flights. Ian
follows them on a flight tracker to see where they are
going.

Well we are back in Latvia after spending time in the UK for Ian's mother's funeral. It did feel a little surreal at times, firstly we stayed in his mother's house and of course she was not there. It was a sad occasion, but everyone was really happy to meet together. I think every member of the family almost felt guilty for enjoying the time we spent together, as everyone pretty much made a weekend of it. I think part of the reason for that was that her death was not unexpected, she had been ill for so many years and she seemed tired before Christmas. In some ways it was a relief to see her go and not suffer any more. I think we all dreaded a time when she wouldn't be able to cope on her own at home. She was adamant she was not going into a home and the thought of having to make that decision would have been immensely hard on the family, especially those living close by. So going after just a brief stay in hospital seemed the kindest way to go for her.

Grandma Lolly at our daughter's wedding

Grandma Lolly in her younger days

The funeral was a fitting tribute to the feisty little lady. She had planned much of it herself and all was paid for. That made the planning much easier on Ian's brother and testament to her thoughtfulness on such issues. Her two eldest granddaughters read a eulogy with a great deal of love and warmth and her youngest granddaughter, our daughter, sang Amazing Grace beautifully in her own distinctive style. One of Ian's school friends turned up for the funeral unexpectedly. He had read the obituary on my blog and checked out the details so he could be there. All three of us were amused that he had been mistaken for one of the undertakers by a family member and became a bit of a running joke through our catching up conversation.

It has been sunny here for the last two days and Sofie has
been lapping up the sun in the sunniest spots in the
greenhouse

Hard to believe that this morning it was -18C outside but
the temperatures in the greenhouse have been going up
during the day. Could Spring be on its way so soon?

Green in the UK when we left and definitely still white here

Funerals do have a tendency to make you reflect on life and the meaning of it. One reflection was how things have changed since Ian's father died eight years ago (not nine like I mentioned before - not that anyone is counting really). The same two granddaughters read the eulogy then and our daughter sang at that funeral too, but a few spouses had been added along the way and the number of little family members had grown. All of our children were single at their Grandad's funeral and now all of them have spouses and children in tow and our children weren't the only ones. When we went to the wake after the funeral each of the brothers had a big round table with their families around them, there was no fitting around one table, it was physically impossible. Seeing all my own family sitting there, really brought home to me how much our own family has grown.

Our two little grandchildren choosing their evening meal
(Photo courtesy of our son)

The remnants of the ice from the greenhouse broken up
and showered on the path by Ian's hard work and then
the snowblower

One family member lamented that the matriarch had gone now and wondered if we would all fracture into separate entities. After all when we go to England our primary focus will be our own children and grandchildren and that was expected of us and not said in a begrudging way. It doesn't help that Ian's family live so far north and our family is scattered around the UK. I'm sure we will be able to work something out, maybe holidays with family up in the North East would be the answer. Only time will tell though and it will take commitment on all sides to keep in touch.

We visited my mother and father too. This is a view from
their window - they had a bit of snow as well (Photo
courtesy of our son)

Deep tractor tracks to deliver hay to the animals

One of the things that struck Ian was how a connection with part of his past has gone. He can't ask his Mam if she remembers an incident and when we were looking through the photographs there were so many who he didn't know. It made us realise how important it is to document things so the information is not lost. We would hope to scan in photos and make comments on them, so that our own children will know who the people are and know part of their own history. As our son-in-law commented it will be nice to have the photos on the computer and they would take up less room than the bags upon bags of photos and mementoes. Having said that, there is also something special about holding history in your hands.

Grandad Ronnie and Grandma Lolly on their
wedding day

Berry bushes just poking through the snow

One of the sad things was parting with so many things that reminded us of Mam and Dad. There was only so much we could take back with us, such as some of the special gifts we had given them from our trips or just the little things that reminded us of them. We don't want to clutter our own home with too much stuff, just for the sake of it, after all that would just be a headache for our own children too one day. In one drawer was a whole load of tablecloths and napkins, so reminiscent of my own grandmothers, the difference was that I remember my grandmothers actually making those items and I had no idea if Ian's mother had sown or crocheted any of those things or if they were made by family members. Since I have a draw full of those things I didn't really feel I should take any of these, but I was so pleased to find a friend of ours who lives nearby to Ian's family who was able to take them for her own photographic projects and to share with other creative types. That seems a very fitting use for them.

Grandad time (Photo courtesy of our son)

Looks like Aggie is communing with the chicken. Wonder
what they are saying?

There were also reflections on what happens when we go! Our family will not only have our funeral to deal with, it is likely to be in a foreign place with foreign laws to deal with. What will happen to the alpacas? Will we still have them by then? Would they still want the land we are so passionately connected to? Would it pass into the family or be sold off? What would our legacy be? Would our grandchildren be saying kind things about us or will we hardly know them? So many things to think about, but at least as we processed these thoughts we got plenty of time to watch and cuddle our grandchildren. Mind you, I am not sure I want to sing "Row, row, row the boat, gently down the stream, if you see a crocodile don't forget to scream" and various other versions for at least a little while. I was our little granddaughter's in-car entertainment for many an hour.

Thar's snow on them thar hills. Actually there was snow in
the garden too

Diamond encrusted trees

We stayed for part of the time at our daughter's new house. It was really weird to be in a town in Derbyshire that we knew so well and now our daughter is actually living there. We have walked the streets of this town so many times and then walked back to our car and driven home in years past, this time we just walked up the hill to her house. On the night we arrived our daughter invited some old friends of ours to a meal on the night, it was lovely to hear their plans for the future and talk about where we are at. We also tried to visit a cafe that we had been to more times than I can remember and was one of the treat places for our kids too. We didn't take them to McDonalds or places like that, we took them to little cafes in Derbyshire mainly, where we would have cakes and drinks. We didn't often have meals out, as we couldn't afford them very often and I wasn't going to take them somewhere to eat junk food. Unfortunately Caudwell's Mill in Rowsley was as popular as ever and we couldn't get a seat and a certain little lady wanted some lunch. It was only afterwards that I remembered, if we were going to eat there, we went a tad before 12pm to get a seat. Still we ended up at another little cafe, The Eating house, Calver, that we have also been to before and the cakes were super and came with a little bowl of fruit too. I am sure it made the great wedge of cake healthy.

Our little grandson

Animal tracks and chicken tracks

There were a few irritating thing that happened before we left for the UK, one was the U-bend on our sink coming apart. It does do this from time to time due to the pipe leading to the tap that is extendable interfering with the outlet pipe somehow. That meant a flooded kitchen unit that needed emptying and leaving to dry while we were away. Ian has now tied up the pipe to try and stop it happening again. Another and rather more serious problem was the hand brake on the car freezing again and now the hand brake doesn't really work. The brakes aren't that good too and so it was a little worrying heading into Riga. Ian fortunately tends to use engine breaking rather than the brake pedals, especially on the ice, but they are still useful. He tried to fix them today, but it was -18C and the barn doors won't open enough to get the car in, so he had to try and bleed them on a bit of a slant.

Daddy time

More crazy patterns on the greenhouse

Another irritation was getting our clocks wrong. On the day of the funeral we needed to get up early and so I set the alarm on my ipad to get up at 7am. We thought we would be up early anyway, but just in case I set the alarm. Hmmph! When travelling one should make sure that all clocks are changed on all relevant items or at least take the time difference into account. Latvia is two hours ahead of the UK and so we actually woke up at 5am and by the time I realised my mistake it was too late. Ian rubbed it in! The next day, we had kind of come to and I asked what time it was? Ian said 7:20am but it wasn't. In the dark he cannot see so well without his glasses at that distance and it actually was only 6:20am. What a pair we make!

One of Ian's family holidays, this one to Ostend, with his
father, mother, godfather and his godfather's wife.
His father isn't in this picture - long story.

Caption time! 

We went to an alpaca farm while we were up in the North East. We were intrigued how they had managed to go from a few alpacas to over 100 and wondered what were the issues when scaling up. She said up to 25 was as much work as 3 or thereabouts, but above that was rather different. That probably explains why quite a few have about 25 and only a few are much bigger than that. We would probably aim to have around 25 and then see where we go. We think our land could support that many, but above that we would have to buy in hay or rent land. A lot of money had been poured into that venture too and that is something we can't do now, but at least it has given us some ideas, so watch this space.

This is Ian's father in his later years

Snowdrop in meditative mood and sat next to her daughter.
They don't often sit next to each other these days.

Our animals were in good hands while we were away and have not misbehaved since we got back either - remarkably! We did get an early phone call while we were away though as our youngest alpaca didn't eat her food that morning. Our friend looking after the animals knows herd animals very well and knows that when a herd animal goes off their food it can be serious very quickly and so he was obviously worried. Fortunately we guessed the reason might actually be the trace of spit from her mother in the bowl. Snowdrop is our alpaca that is likely to spit and has been known to spit in everyone else's bowl and then none of the others will eat, she then goes and polishes off all the food. She is much better now than she used to be, but still! Anyway later on in the day the little one was fine.

Playing nicely at my parent's house

So there is the ramble through the last two weeks and now we are kind of back to normal, with me finishing off some work for the blessed paper I have been writing for years (well it feels like that) and some work for my online job and Ian back out on the land, shifting snow, poo and hay.