Finally!

The scenery is stunning in winter when the sun
comes out and sparkles like so many diamonds
strewn carelessly across the landscape.

I've been looking at all this lovely snow and wishing I could go skiing. The problem is that out on the land it has been too cold to spend long in the caravan. Neither do we like running the car backwards and forwards as it is using fuel for little reason, as well as being more wear and tear on the car. The caravan is alright for short breaks like Ian does during the day, but not for sitting and working on a computer all day, so I stay at the apartment. The other issue is that out on the land there are very few flat areas to ski on and I'm a little wobbly on the hilly bits. I usually fall over at some point. I have only hurt myself badly once before but not something I would want to repeat and risk needing a trip to the hospital and tying up precious hospital resources in these times. Well it all got a bit too much and I decided to swallow my pride of looking an idiot out on the ski tracks that are right outside our apartment and I asked Ian to bring my skis and boots back. 

We've had a few frosty mornings
this week as the weather has warmed
up a bit to all of -10C during the day

I can only tell this is Chanel these days because 
of her curly mop. Ilvija is so like her mother it is
easy to confuse them. If Ilvija was to go curly too
on top then we would be in trouble, the only way
we would know the difference is Chanel is the 
spitty one. 

This afternoon about lunchtime the sun came out and glinted on the snow. I got my skis, gave them a quick wax, put on ski pants and a winter ski jacket and headed out. I didn't head for the nearest bit of the ski track as it is a bit hilly for me, but walked down the road to the flat section. There were only two other people skiing - another lady who was doing Nordic skiing the same as I do and a chap who was doing skate-skiing, which is faster and harder to do. I managed about three rounds of the track in half an hour, so not too bad - it was bigger than I thought. The chap who was skate-skiing passed me about four or five times, but I just kept plodding on. At least I didn't embarrass myself by falling over and I got a reasonably good work out. Hopefully I can do the same tomorrow.

There are plenty of icicles hanging
off the roofs

Ginger Tom out for a walk in the sunshine

This week we haven't had any major disasters either. We did lose one of the chicks, but to be honest they have done remarkably well as we haven't had any losses up till now. It's sad but a factor we live with when raising chicks. At least all the rest seem to have coped with the cold night time temperatures and will be reasonably warm when they all huddle together in their box at night and snuggled in the hay. Daytime temperatures in the little greenhouse have been very good and even the kittens go and spend the day in there. They have a bit of a warm up in the caravan in the morning and then follow Ian to the greenhouse when he goes to check on the chickens to see if the hens have laid any eggs and give them some extra feed. The kittens then stay there until it's time for them to be fed at night. 

Rocket Ron sunning himself in the
greenhouse

Well the snow is cold! So a perch on 
a large wellie is a good place to be

Hard to believe it is so cold with the light
from the sun glowing on the snow

My phone went off tonight but I couldn't work out why it was ringing, Eventually I worked out it was my son ringing on WhatsApp. You can tell I don't often get phone calls on that then. In fact there was a brief bit of concern as to why he was ringing anyway, was there a problem? Did he need something? Nope! He'd just rung to chat. Awwww! It's a long time since someone just rang to have a chat. So we had a bit of a chat about this and that and finished off with a general video chat with the whole family. I love that one of my granddaughters wants to be either a doctor, a palaeontologist or an astronaut. Brilliant! I look forward to seeing her adventures on the road to where she wants to go. My grandson wants to design lego so I guess he'll have fun doing that. The little one is not so sure yet. 

It's been cold enough for Ian to be wearing his
mega-mittens - two sets at the same time.

Frosted oak leaves

Latvia was a poster child for handling the Corona virus in spring of 2020 but unfortunately it has really struggled to get it under control this time around. Gradually, gradually though the numbers are coming down and in our area we are the only region with no current recorded cases whatsoever. I'm glad they got the blip that occurred a few weeks ago here under control, just a shame that hasn't happened across the country. 

I'm not coming out until spring!

George likes to be out though at times

So apart from work, not much as been happening and that's the way I like it at the moment. I said I would take a few weeks of boring. I have been preparing for a course that starts this week and did have a minor panic this afternoon when students finally told me they couldn't access the course notes. They found out last week but didn't tell me. At least that is sorted, thank goodness. I've also been continuing with my Latvian lessons and in preparation for eventually taking the naturalisation exam I've been learning the Latvian anthem that I have to know perfectly. It's not long or hard, so every morning I've been singing it. It makes me giggle to think of doing this, I would never dream of singing the British national anthem every morning. 

So when is the warmer weather coming?

And the tastiest piece of hay is where?

One lesson last week I taught my Latvian teacher a new Latvian word. I told her the Latvian word for parsnip that we have grown in our garden. It's not a regular vegetable to grow in Latvia due to being a long season vegetable and so not one she had grown up with. In return, a Latvian friend of mine taught me a new English word, squinch! I thought it was a spelling mistake but it turns out it is really a word. In fact it has several meanings, as a noun it means "a straight or arched structure across an interior angle of a square tower to carry a superstructure such as a dome." I thought she had meant squint which has a similar meaning to the verb squinch, which means "to tense up the muscles of (one's eyes or face)". Funny what you learn about in your own language from those for who it is a second language. 

Narnia?

Ice encrusted spruce

The bottom part of the fence has disappeared

A snowy roof for our sign

It's a good job we have a 4x4

Larry the Lada is not going anywhere these days

A frosted orchard

A sample of Ilvija's fleece to test how well it felts.
It is not as silky as her father's fortunately but not
sure if it will felt completely, it still has a bit of
movement in it. I even put it in Ian's trouser pocket
and stuck it in the wash and it didn't shrink in the 
wash.

I think Mr. P has been having a snow
wash. Well it is supposed to be good
for cleaning blankets I guess.

Another week gone. Really?

The snow has built up over the week

So where has this week gone? Time is slipping by. The days are getting longer and Ian is coming home later, little by little. Over the dark winter days, we've enjoyed stopping for coffee when he comes home but today will be the last time we enjoy a coffee together until spring, as it is now too late in the day. Instead we are now ready to eat when he gets back. Spring is still a long way off and so we cannot even begin to think about heading back to the caravan yet. Cooking, washing up and water are all the issues over winter, especially as the temperatures at the weekend are forecast to dip back down to around -18C. 

Yumm! Ice cream

More ice-cream

That's better says Brencis

There's a wood pile

So winter activities continue. The snow apocalypse didn't quite materialise last week. When Ian woke up on the Tuesday morning we'd had about 10cm of snow. A lot to some people perhaps but for us is not really much at all. The snow has accumulated though over the week and we now have about 40cm with more forecast overnight. That should be it for accumulations for at least a week, but it won't be going anywhere fast as it will be too cold for that. At least the sun has made a welcome appearance, which is always good for everybody's mood.

Silla just likes to sit out in the snow. She just likes
to sit outside, no matter what the weather.

We've had frosty scenes

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I've started standing up to work on my computer. I had a change of scenery this week as I found out that the window ledge in the front room is also the right height to work at. It is much more interesting than looking at a tiled kitchen wall. Some of my neighbours even gave me a cheery wave as I was working. I also half watched two of the kids that live around here build two snowmen, one enormous one and one smaller one with a spruce branch hair do. They looked like they had a lot of fun, as did the couple who stopped to take a picture of the finished snowmen. I am now regretting not nipping out to take my own picture as they are now covered in a layer of snow.

The pond is frozen

Tracks in the snow

On Saturday there was more fresh snow and so I went out to make a contribution to the snow clearing around the back of our apartment. One of our neighbours joined in and we had a short conversation. Nothing particularly noteworthy normally but in these times it is. Here people tend to hibernate anyway and so it is rare to spend more than a few seconds uttering a greeting before scurrying back inside. The morning was glorious though with the sun glinting on the snow and the job so easy as it was like shovelling icing sugar it was so fine and powdery. Not as much of a workout as I was expecting.

Mari looking wistful

Some days it's more black and white and
sometimes the colours glow

After the snow clearing I started hunting through my accumulated dressmaking patterns. I found the perfect style, only to find that the paper pattern was missing. Not to worry, I did find a pattern for some posh bib overalls where I could just use the trouser section. I had dyed some fabric that would make a nice pair of trousers the week before, but wanted to use any excess fabric to make more patches for the patchwork dresses I am making for my granddaughters. So I needed to know how much fabric that would take. I cut the fabric out and tacked it together - perfect! Only there wasn't that much fabric left over to make many patches as the fabric piece was only just big enough for the trousers. Oh well! 

The colours in this makes me smile

Someone else likes the snow

The next step was to continue working out which patches to use and where on the dresses. I had to lay the patches out on the kitchen floor as we don't have a lot of space - good job we are not in the caravan then! The first row takes 9-10 10cm patches, so that's easy. The next row 1.5x as many. By the time I was down to the 5th row, the rows were right across the floor in two rows. One dress is a rainbow coloured one, one is mainly blue and one is mainly purple. That is a lot of blue and purple patches. I will still have to dye some more fabric to finish off the purple one. Even adding a few splashes of colour didn't work. Not that I'm complaining. I just love dyeing fabrics. 

Toe nail cutting will be needed soon

Hellooooo.....

Ian continues on with his winter spinning. He has carded all of Silla's fleece and it is stacked in a fluffy pile in the living room. He's done a lot more spinning this year, but there still won't be that much for sale as it is already spoken for. Our living room looks more like a workshop than a living room, with the carded fleece, spinning wheels, boxes of uncarded fleece and the patches that I've sewn together draped over an ironing board. Keeps us busy anyway.

Ginger Tom just glows

So not much has changed and for that we are grateful. No accidents, no sad departures, and most of the computer issues have settled down. Maybe a bit boring, but much more peaceful.

Snow slipping off the roof

Snow on the fence

The oak leaves are still clinging to some of the oaks

Plants in the garden become quite sculptural in
the snow

Another glowing day

Hay stacks not tents

I love the patterns on the greenhouse

This stuff is cold

Snow patrol

This is a bit deeper than I thought

Icicles on the greenhouse

The snowmen from behind with a gorgeous sunset