Whirling, dancing diamonds

Ice crystal tree in the morning sun

It sounds so pretty to say it: the scene outside our window this morning was a whirling, dancing shower of diamonds, sparkling in the early morning sun and it looked amazing too, but - and there had to be a but didn't there - it meant it was chilly and windy, with the wind sending the fine, dry powdery snow careering off the rooftops. The low evening sun now gives a warm glow to the snow but the temperature is dropping rapidly with the sinking sun, already it is -12C out on our balcony and the sun has not even set yet. Meanwhile in England, apparently in some places the shops are empty of teacakes, here life goes on, although the workmen might not be working outside if it drops too low and the children might get to stay home from school.

Snow blind

Cabinet regulations stipulate that children up to the age of 12 years should not attend an educational establishment if the temperature is lower than -20C degrees and children from the age of 13 when the air temperature is lower than -25C degrees. (LSM: Big freeze ahead for Latvia)

Pine trees in the snow

Pathways cut for the girls to get out and about in

I went out to the land with Ian once this week, but he brought me back straight after I had helped him sort out the girls. I had made up some dry shampoo to dust on their fleeces where they had got oily from previous treatments. They needed their fleeces as fluffy as possible to prepare for the drop in temperatures. I put just a bit of cream on Chanel, but didn't want to use too much, otherwise she might end up worse in this cold weather. At least the cold might kill any mites off, or at least put them into hibernation for a bit.

But do they go outside? Ian made this new feeder to entice
them out, but someone worked out, they don't need to go out

Mari's fleece from last year, that Ian is busy preparing to spin

It was a bit too cold to sit in the caravan and work, it's not so bad if you are more active, but I needed to write, which is why Ian brought me back. Instead I went to our other apartment, which I have done a couple of times this week, to light the fire. This is partly out of necessity and partly because our neighbour below is doing some renovations. I half wonder if he knows we are going and is getting some renovations done to get back at us for those early years when we did a lot of renovations. It mustn't have been much fun for him at times. Having said that, I don't think he is really the revengeful sort of person and is probably just getting on with his own much needed work.

Icicles

Freddie hiding

I got the last of my papers written to a point where it now needs input from my supervisor and I got the brochure finished for the Latvian Alpaca Adventure (you can see that here). I even got a couple of outlines for abstracts for a conference done. So all in all not a bad week from the writing point of view. I am now at the frustrating point where I am waiting for replies. I can of course get on with writing my thesis, but it feels a bit pointless until I know for sure the direction I can take it, as the thesis is entirely based on my published works and to do that they need publishing, or at least to a point where they are accepted by the academic journals.

I love the different layers in this photo, with the most frosted
at the back

Untouched snow - until you look closely that is and see the
trail of footprints

With a bit of time on my hands, I got another cupboard sorted out. I even emptied out a few clothes from my wardrobe to make room for a hanging shelf to organise the space better for when we have less room. Now of course all the extra stuff is sitting in the hallway waiting for a new home. The more I sort, the more cluttered the place seems to get. I did find a nice pair of boots though, I think the reason they were put to the back of the cupboard is that they let in water, so I will take them with me to the UK to get them fixed. I know it seems a bit of a trek and there are places here in Latvia, but not in the same village, so not so easy as popping them in my suitcase - I might need them after all.

Natural lacework

This will be the last winter we see this scene, as this is from
the apartment we have sold

Time on my hands also means more time to do some thinking, it feels like a long time since I have had time to let my mind wander. Mind you at the moment it seems to be wandering onto the practical aspects of moving into an even smaller place and trying to figure out such things as how to fit our things in and what do we really need. The kitchen is narrower in the other apartment and has less workspace, so we could do with something to take the place of our table, that will not fit in. We will need it eventually, so don't want to get rid of it - so that is another problem in itself. The solution in the kitchen is probably a mobile kitchen island with a drop leaf on it, but that will need constructing from something and I don't think we have anything suitable to construct it out of - or have we?

This will be the view from my office window

A view of the skiers too on the cross country ski trail

My faith took a hammering last year. It was nothing I can put my finger on, but only to be expected at some time. I remember reading a few times about the dark night of the soul, when God seems so far away and was considered part of the Christian journey. I felt at times like I was barely hanging on by my fingertips and that is not a comfortable feeling. I wouldn't say that everything is right yet, but I have the feeling of walking out on a day when you know the winter is on its way out, the signs are rising, the sun returning, but life is still buried in its winter sleep. Something is stirring. So I hold on and keep plodding on, trying to figure out my place in the world.

Winter is so beautiful when the sun is out, that there are just so many photo opportunities

A view from our smaller apartment

Love the atmosphere of this photo, but shows
one of the issues we may have of parking

Frozen in time

I think they may have some help keeping this
driveway clear

Eating, eating, eating! You can see Chanel all covered
in frost

Brencis meditating on life

Mr. Herkules is looking particularly sprightly these days

Sunbathing as you do

Mr. P does photograph much easier in the winter. Look
at the red highlights he has

Now where am I?

Winter sun. Autumn is over and the leaves have just about
all gone now

Oh yes! I remember now, I'm in Tartu again. I've been up to Tallinn this week via Riga, so I have been doing the rounds. This last week started off okay on our land but with the first snow forecast for mid-week, it meant we needed to carry on with our winter preparations in earnest. The wind was bitter at times but more importantly it was dry, so it was the perfect opportunity to clear out the alpaca houses. First I had to go back to our apartment to collect the milk so I started off processing more apples that I had collected. I cut some up into big chunks and added apple sauce for apple pies, I got so far and had to stop to head back and help Ian clear out the boys place, before going back to finish off the job. While I was finishing off processing the apples I also made a lamb steak pie and apple crumble and Ian prepared the veg out on the land. So between us we managed to make a decent meal before it got too dark to cook in our greenhouse kitchen. Well it worked!

The morning sun with the morning star above the stable

A back lit Freddie. Such a wonderful golden glow though

The next day we cleared out the girls place in the morning, I was surprised it didn't take so long. In the afternoon I dug up more carrots and Ian put up plastic over gaps around doors in the greenhouse as the skies grew darker. I had just about got enough carrots for one box in layers of sawdust for storage when the first snowflakes began falling. I had to go back to our apartment and get my long coat for the journey the following day, so took the carrots to put in our basement. I had been debating which coat to take and the cold weather decided for me. I needed a very warm coat that covered my legs for the cold bus in the early morning.

George and Mari sat together. How sweet!

George looks more like he's laughing here though

Overnight it snowed, but it also rained and so the roads were covered in a thick layer of slush. I was going to wear my winter ankle boots but decided that snow boots made more sense, although I haven't needed them since and had to carry them around with me on my travels. Oh the joys of winter travel! Once again I was travelling in the dark to Riga on an early bus. It is not my favourite time to travel but it was the latest bus I could take to be up in Tallinn for the start of the European Christian Youth Parliament where I was leading a session. There are four buses a day from our village 4:40, 5:40, 6:40 and 14:40. Not much of a choice really. Still better than many isolated places in the UK.

Frederiks and Chanel together too. Usually the boys spend
a lot of time together though

Aggie. She spat at me before we left as I put cream on her
foot. I was going to take the hat I was wearing at the time,
but after she spat at me I changed my mind. I didn't want
to be sat on the bus smelling of alpaca spit. Some gratitude
though!

The journey was pretty uneventful and I was collected at the bus stop by the organiser. It is not a big event as it is fairly new and developing but it is exciting to be a part of passing on knowledge and encouraging younger people to explore the reasons why as Christians we have a mandate to care for the environment and what the churches can actively do. It is frustrating when the church neglects its role to steward the land and all in my group were convinced that people need to touch, feel and see the natural environment more, not just for the health benefits but also to understand many of the stories and pictures that are conveyed within the Bible.

Frederiks

Sofie keeping warm on top of the slow cooker

In my group one participant was doing a Masters in sustainability another was doing a Masters in governance and the other was taking a sabbatical after around 17 years in Bosnia-Herzogovenia as a missionary. At the end they presented our thoughts on how churches could be more intentional in sourcing and even producing good food. We also looked at ways of connecting urban churches with rural churches to support them but also to help in understanding the needs of rural communities better. With better connections and good coordination it would be possible for urban members to practically support the rural communities from time to time too. We felt that this connection would help urban people understand the process of food production and encourage networks to improve the food available to their own members and the wider community. These linkages could act as hubs, especially in places where access to good food was more difficult.

Caravan in the greenhouse again, but probably for the last time

Adapting one of the chicken arks so that the small ones
from our newest batch of chickens can be separated. There
are too many now in the ark of chicks and they are getting too
big. The cockerel who was bullied by the older hens earlier
on in the year has now been put back in with them and he
stood up for himself. Obviously matured in the meantime

I wasn't just talking about the environment, there was plenty of time for lots of other conversations, some quite deep. It is a while since I have had the opportunity to challenge and be challenged by the opinions of others and that is often a healthy thing. It must have also been enough of a challenge that I slept well despite being in a dorm with five others - not something I do often. The conference also wound down slowly as people left to catch buses and planes home, which added to the relaxed atmosphere of the conference. On the Sunday morning those who remained reflected on the previous days' events. We then prayed for the younger participants before some of them drifted off to go and explore Tallinn, leaving some of us older ones to a time of quiet. Around 4pm I was driven to my bus to make my way to Tartu. For the first time ever as far as I can remember I was collected by car in Tartu. I was met the first time by my friend when I arrived for my course nearly five years ago. but we walked to her house. This time though I am staying with another friend in her new apartment.

On my journey up to Tallinn from
Riga. There was no snow in
Riga by the time I got there though.

In Salacgrīva 

My friend's new apartment is close to the city centre but it overlooks gardens with apple trees and a run for chickens - although they didn't appear on this rather dreary day, the snow having just about gone. It is also surprisingly quiet and so it feels restful enough to recover from the busyness of the conference and also get some writing done - well I got a presentation finished and tomorrow I start writing properly. I WILL finish it! I hope!

A tundra like look from the bus

Getting thicker as we travelled northwards

A reasonable layer now. 

This is the old wall in an annex of the Estonian
Parliament building where we had our
first meeting

So close!

You can tell we are heading into summer with where the sun
sets. So different to mid winter. This was also taken after
the light snow shower and after 9pm. Not a sky promising
good weather tomorrow.

I was going to tell you how the weather has got warmer and winter seems to have gone, but oh no! The temperature dropped again today with a bitterly cold northerly wind and it keeps trying to snow. Fortunately nothing serious (except as I am writing and big flakes start to come down), but it sure is not pleasant. Such a shame as I was out in the sunshine yesterday preparing more vegetable beds. At least I managed to weed and water the cabbages, Brussel sprouts, mizuna, beetroot and poppy seeds that have all sprouted under fleece. I also wrapped them up with some mulch too, so that will have helped in this cold wind. It will stop them from getting quite so hammered by the fleece as the fleece is just laid on top and is not over a framework. Ian also ploughed a small patch that we are going to plant up with buckwheat and squashes, which at least do not have to go in just yet anyway.

Sunrise on a cold and frosty morning at 5:37am - yes Ian was
up early

An early rise means the animals are allowed out early too

At least this week we have sorted out a few things. Firstly the debt we allegedly owed to what was the heating and water company and is now just the water company. It all goes back a loooooooong way, when they were not supplying adequate heat and we argued with them and then refused to pay for the heating part or rather lack of heating. As I mentioned the last week, the new director promised to have a look at it and we now have a reasonable reduction in the amount owed. I am not quibbling over the amount, as he did explain the difference in calculations and where I would not agree with how it was done, it is what it is, as a friend of ours would say.

We don't get out to this bit of the land very often. This is the
old ski hill with the rest of our land over the road on the left
hand side and one of our neighbour's to the right. 

Signs of spring! Really! Lesser Celandine I think

The other bit sorted was the application for farm payments. We have about 13 hectares total, but about 3 hectares is forest and some of the land has been taken over by trees and would not be allowed under the payments. We also decided not to add in another section that would have been complicated to put on the map, maybe another year, but not this one. We won't be retiring on the amount, that is for sure as it only amounts to about 5 hectares and EU farm payments in Latvia are some of the lowest in the EU, but at least it will pay for the summer diesel for the haymaking.

These little daffodils have hung in after being uprooted by
the wild boar. I expected a whole clump of them by now

An early morning visitor to the land. We also had the previous
owner out to the land today with his son. A nice surprise

One thing we didn't manage to sort out was getting an authorised receipt book. To collect money from visitors we are supposed to have an official receipt book that has a stamp on it from the tax office. For that we have to drive 45km just to get the stamp and for them to register the book, that you can buy in an ordinary bookstore, on their system. There is no way of doing this locally and I wonder how some people manage, although I can guess. Unfortunately we arrived on the wrong day. Not only do we have to drive all that way, we also can only go on a Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays and we went on Wednesday of course, silly us! In this day and age, there should be a way of registering a book online or locally at least, such as at the local council offices. Anyway the lady at the tax office spoke very slowly after several requests to do so and then took us to the door to show us the days the tax office dealt with registering receipt books. At least that was clear now.

Our old oak tree with moss growing on a branch in the morning
sunlight

Mr. P

Fortunately it wasn't the only thing we went to do, we also went to have a look at a builder's merchant we had been told about. It was in a small village near to the big town, in an out of the way place and not the sort of thing you would find by accident easily. Not exactly on a main road and yet the stock looked good. We ordered some more fencing and then returned on Saturday with the trailer to get the fencing and roofing panels for a new alpaca house and to replace the roof on the boys place. The boy's roof is deteriorating badly and so we are just replacing it with a metal one. At least it will last. The owner was quite a character. He didn't speak more than a few words of English but we managed and he just rattled away in Latvian.

And Mr. B looking very fluffy

How does she manage to do that when she is so pregnant?
She is due in a couple of weeks

I said last week that we had a cancellation for our felting course, but we are relieved that we have got another lady to fill the place. So we are back on track now. The pieces for that are starting to come together now. It was all decided on before Christmas, but of course we have to double check that everything is in order and transport booked. Our biggest worry at the moment is the weather. It has been so cold that shearing is later than anticipated. We had hoped to have that done at the beginning of the month, but it looks like it is going to be the end of the month instead and does not leave me much time to test the fleece samples before the course. We still have some fleece left from previous years so that will help at least. The wonderful thing about our greenhouse though, is that although it might feel like Christmas outside, at least inside it is nice and warm. The good news is that we also have a booking for all three days on the August course too.

Getting big. 

The girls enjoying the sunshine in the cool morning. They
did struggle a bit on the warmest day and sat inside then,
but on the cooler sunny days they sunbathe. I half expect a
worried passer by to call in and tell us our animals are sick,
but no, they really do like a sunabathe

A gorgeous day when spring felt like it had arrived, even the
trees were coming into leaf

Talking of the greenhouse, we have had an unwelcome visitor, another cat. I had a bowl of uncooked sourdough mix left out on the side in our greenhouse kitchen which it ate. Eeew! Hope it had a poorly tummy after that lot. We decided to block off the hole where it was getting in, which meant our cats were either in or out. If they wanted shelter they had to go down to the barn. The problem is that one of our cats worked out a way to get in. We had no idea where and one day we decided to find out as she was just on the outside. We rattled some food in a pot and sure enough she revealed how she was getting in - through a hole in the plastic. Not a good idea. Normally they go under the framework of the greenhouse, which is fine, but through the plastic is a definite no, no! Especially when a certain little cat is still getting on the roof from time to time and putting holes in the roof plastic.

Lady V is starting to show her age, we really hope she is
pregnant before retiring her. 

Doing some gardening

I have been continuing to work on an article for a journal and at least I am making progress, even if it meant printing out all the interviews on a ream of paper in small print to sort it out. At least it feels like I am getting some sort of structure worked out to categorise it and I might even be able to use the material for another paper that will be in progress later on. Even if I can only work on it for an hour before having to take a break and do some gardening. I saw today on Facebook that the National Geographic has an article on the customs and traditions of one of the places I am working on in Estonia along with its troubled history as a tribe divided by a modern day border (you can see the article here). It was funny to see the faces of people I have heard about through the interviews gathered by the students who have been helping me.  One annoying problem I have had this year is having funding turned down twice for a conference in July. It is only on every other year and it is a relatively important one too. I'm not happy. It will go in for a third attempt this next month, but I have to think about booking flights etc. to get there and there is still a risk I won't get the funding.

Savouring every blade

There is some grass there, honest! 

While I was getting on with the writing, Ian had the harder job of clearing out alpaca houses. He did the girl's alpaca house on is own but he had help for the boys'. The young lad who came to help us had cerebral palsy, which made helping a bit of a challenge but he was willing and between him and Ian they worked out a system to do the work. They also fixed the boys fence, as that is definitely a two person job. We will definitely be happy to have him back and help, but we will have to work on how that will be a good experience for him and manageable.

Having a chase

Ian re-baling hay

One really big issue we had was the hay for bedding. Ian decided to break open one of the hay bales we bought but it was hardly usable at all. They obviously had the same problem we had with bales that were baled in September and hadn't been dried properly due to the weather. Out of three big bales of hay he managed to put bedding down in the boys' alpaca houses and re-baled four bales into the more manageable small bales we normally use. He didn't want to use the hay in the girls' because of them being pregnant and due relatively soon. We usually layer the hay over time and only clear out twice a year. We would have expected to use one bale for both houses and they normally take three or four bales each, which means that 3/4 of the bales were lost to mould.

Blow dried hair

Someone found a cool place to sleep

One other important job was to get some sorting out done in our apartments, ready for summer visitors. It has meant doing some rearranging and now all Ian's tools are in one place and he brought out his shelving and fixed them up in the barn. He has also been doing some sorting out in the barn as so much stuff is piled in that it is difficult to get to it and so doesn't get used properly. It also needed a bit of rearranging to get the fridge in that lives in the barn in the summer months. It wasn't really needed until this week as the barn was quite cold enough for food and we had a big box to store it in.

I love the clouds on this breezy but sunny
day

The sheep were finally let on the grass this week too. Ian seems to spend a lot of the week moving fences at the moment because he cannot leave the alpacas on for long before they have eaten what is there and we were hesitant to let the sheep out as they eat twice as much. They needed grass though but you wouldn't think they appreciated this when they come to the gate in the evening and stand there baaing away for grain. Our chickens probably need grass too, but they are on lock down still due to the threat of avian flu- although we do notice quite a few people disregarding the rules, which to be honest is probably healthier for the chickens. It is a bit like cooping everyone up in an office during flu season when it would be healthier to get some fresh air and some good food. It is probably why the chickens are getting picky with what they eat. It has been cool enough to keep them in the greenhouse - just, but they are getting fresh food for health reasons.