How Romantic!

Josefs

This will be two weeks rolled into one. Not because there wasn't much happening, but I shall condense it for you.

The week before last I was busy trying to get as much work academic work done as possible, as we were heading over to the UK for 10 days. Ian had a lot to do too. There was still snow to clear so paths were visible, there was hay to put in the alpaca houses, poo to clear and so on. All regular chores or work for us now. We also went around to one of the neighbouring farms to talk about their garden, as Ian is going to work for them part time for six months. That will help with our income in preparation for Brexit.

A beautiful winter's day

The snow piled up before we left to make way for
somewhere to park a car

Finally we were as ready as we could be and after letting the alpacas out on a beautiful sunny Valentine's day we set off on our travels. It would have been a glorious journey but I was still working on a paper so I didn't see much of the scenery. We got to the airport in plenty of time for our flight and in true Valentine style we got to sit at opposite ends of the plane due to Ryanair's ridiculous random seat allocation policy that they now have. There is no way we are going to put an extra 4€ into their pocket just to ensure we can sit together when it is not beyond them to alter their algorithms to allow groups to sit together. I had reconciled myself to flying with Ryanair again after they changed their policies to treat customers better, but they are proving that leopards do not change their spots so easily and are slipping again in my already low estimation of them. The problem is that from Riga to the north of England there isn't much choice.

Spring coming early. These buds are likely to get frosted, they
usually do if they start too early.

Almost two!

Anyway we arrived to see our daughter with two of our grandsons. One went all shy and hid behind his Mum and the other was having a paddy on the floor. Little ones are such fun. We were given two cards that were made that morning and the youngest recovered from his paddy enough for us to head for the car. The older one decided that Granda was the best and held his hand and insisted on sitting next to him in the car. We were only staying at my daughter's overnight as we headed off to Scotland the next day for a week's holiday with the family.

Snack time on a walk

And our other greeter

Off on a Zog hunt

Not a bad little abode! No we weren't staying here, this is
Kielder castle

The place we were staying in was an old farm cottage with plenty of room. We stayed in the maid's room at the back of the house and the family had the two big bedrooms in the main section of the house. It was really well equipped and even though the weather was not great we didn't get cabin fever because there were enough rooms and corridors to keep the children active. (Link to the place where we stayed)

Following the Zog trail

Sneaky shot by Ian

There were enough dry days or dry enough days to go on a forest walk nearby and a Zog and Gruffalo trail a little further away. There were also two wet walks. One wet walk was for the youngest to splash in puddles while the older two went swimming; he needed a good long sleep to recover his good humour - well as much good humour that a nearly two can muster. He could go from laughing to an all out paddy in seconds but he could also chatter away quite well, despite is young years. He's still lovely though and can give great hugs. The other wet walk was to a nearby cafe for some fresh air. The older two played together nicely and much time was spent reading books, colouring pictures, making paper airplanes (or adults making the elaborate planes and the kids flying them) and occasionally tearing around the house chasing each other. I wouldn't say it was a relaxing time exactly, but it was time well spent with the kids.

And we're off!

Well sometimes! Carrying hay bales builds up the muscles for
such a job as this.

We found a Gruffalo

 We finished the holiday off with a trip to one of Ian's brothers. It was quite a family reunion as both brothers were there with their wives, some of their grandchildren and one of our nieces. Later one of our son's and his family turned up to add to the mayhem. They had been on holiday at my daughter's since it is a very scenic part of the country and they were just about close enough for a day visit. Much reminiscing and catching up went on before we headed back to my daughter's with my son's family. We were relegated to the lounge since all the bedrooms were taken, but that was fine with us.

And a fox in the deep, dark wood

Learning to ride a bike

The next day the whole of our once little family assembled with the arrival of my youngest son, his family and my parents. That was a total of 10 adults and 8 children. Quite a group. Once again there was more chatting, more eating and more playing with children or rather holding various conversations with them as they milled around and on the whole getting along. Amidst the family gathering a rather wide hedge was removed from the garden. Not quite sure how many were working and how many supervising though. My daughter-in-law, my mother and I took the kids to the park at one point so they could play out, away from the chainsaws. That wasn't without incident though as my little grandson managed to fall between a gap in a climbing frame hitting his head on a pole on the way down, so he was returned to Mum with a rather nice purple egg on his head. Fortunately he wasn't too traumatised as he was up and scrambling around on the climbing frame within minutes after a cuddle.

Well someone's nailed it!

You are supposed to be asleep little man!

The following morning with a slightly reduced number milling around, a fence was put up in place of the hedge. This brightened up the dining room considerably, as the hedge absorbed so much light and the fence reflected the light much better. After a fish and chip lunch it was time for us to head off home and with the final goodbyes, our daughter and her youngest took us back to the airport. We still weren't sat next to each other on this flight, but at least we weren't at opposite ends of the plane. Ian ended up sat next to a lady who had a cuddly alpaca toy with her and so within about five minutes he was showing her videos of our little alpacas play fighting. I also had an interesting chat with the lady next to me, who was married to a Brit and had just been for an early visit to her son and grandchildren before Brexit happens. She usually visits at Easter time but didn't want to risk not seeing them if the planes weren't operating. We rolled back into our home just before 2am the following morning Latvian time and my throat was beginning to tell me that once again the grandkids had passed some bugs onto me. Bless 'em!

Will you lot sit still!

Okay are all in the picture? Check! All smiling? Near enough!
Our eight grandchildren

Such style!

It was nice to come back to a home that wasn't absolutely freezing. Our neighbour had heated the apartment for us so it took the chill off. At least it meant that I didn't have to light the fire straight away in the morning. It's good to have good neighbours.

Ian digging out roots. 

A little leverage was needed for some

Where have you been?

Cat alert!

George looking cute and cuddly

Where've you been?

Grass!!!!

Amanda looking cute

The snow has dropped somewhat

Who are you?

Well Aggie knows who it is! She came running up to Ian
when he let them out in the morning

Gosh we actually have a pond

Make that two ponds

And a hint of more grass here too. So will spring arrive early
or not?

Visiting

No not an alpaca. My youngest grandchild giving me a
shower

This will be rather a short post this week, especially as I haven't got any pictures from Ian. I left him at the village bus station, as I headed into Riga for an early morning flight on the Wednesday. I have to confess I'm in disgrace for my farewell, or rather lack of it. We had been busy all morning and I literally had about half an hour to pack for a three week trip and shower at the apartment before setting off for the bus. I was a tad flustered because I had left some stuff in the caravan I intended to take with me. To add insult to injury there were some young guys sat in the seats I would normally sit in and I hadn't realised he was waiting to wave me off. Whoops! I only realised when I saw him wending his way over to the other side of the road. In my defence he normally sits in the car and rarely gets out when I head off, although it is usually for a shorter trip.

The older of the two granddaughters with her lovely curly
hair. This was taken by my grandson

My trip is to see family and a two day seminar later on in the month. At the moment I'm having fun visiting my son and his family in the South of England. As usual I have picked up a cold from nature's little petri dishes, aka the grandchildren, but fortunately nothing serious this time around.

So here are some of the highlights.

I was shown how to jump on the trampoline by my five year old grandson and I accomplished a bounce down onto my behind to a stand up position without killing myself in the process. He was very proud of me.

No not a selfie, but again taken by my grandson

I have accompanied my daughter-in-law to school drop offs and pick ups (not all of them as I had a slow start to the morning this morning due to my cold - lots of sympathy please! Sniffle! Sniffle! Okay not too much just a bit will do) and been to toddlers with her and the youngest two

Our meal that we made along with the story cook book we
used

I looked after the oldest two grandchildren while Mum and Dad had a night away to celebrate their anniversary. The children were very good, especially as I don't get to see them very often. We decided what to cook for our evening meal from a story cook book and then went shopping for the ingredients we needed. I did foul up a bit by buying frozen pastry and forgetting how long it takes to defrost, so we ate cakes we made first. I haven't bought that stuff in years. I was told after the event that there should be some non-frozen pastry too. Well you learn something new everyday. I was surprised at what you can buy in the supermarkets these days. It is hard to believe that people actually buy ready-made bread and butter pudding. Why, when it is so easy?

I had my first G&T tonight. My kids are leading me astray.

Asleep again

My youngest granddaughter keeps falling asleep on me. Not sure why but kind of cute.

I have read books to the grandchildren and been read to by the oldest.

I've also been learning some Makaton (sign language), as my granddaughter is struggling to speak clearly due to a problem with her hearing. We still chat along though and I can sympathise. I have never really had good hearing myself and with a cold I'm even worse. I usually need to see someone's face to be sure what they are saying at the best of times.

Still blowing bubbles

We Skyped Ian today too so our young grandson can see the alpaca he adopted. He calls Brencis, his alpaca. Freddie was much more inquisitive though. Our grandson wanted to see the chickens too and was amazed to see how many we have. He couldn't quite understand why we don't have chicks at this time of the year though.

A cheeky grin

While on Skype I found out that Ian has got on with quite a few jobs. There is a new door on our root cellar that fits better. There is a new training pen ready to halter train the cria in the winter. He's also sorted out a fence for the boys to give them new grass to eat as they have eaten the field right down now. In other words I think he gets on far better without me being around and getting chatting.

Grandkids galore

Ian is still sending me alpaca pictures and so I can
keep in touch with what is happening back at home.
Here the girls and the youngsters are all outside
enjoying the sun - or probably shut out so they go
outside

This week has revolved around the grandchildren mainly. The first part of the week revolved around school times. I went with my son's partner to take my granddaughter to school and to collect her most days. I got to see her at Mass at the Catholic church linked to the school one afternoon as her class took part in the re-telling of the Easter story. She played one of the soldiers who arrested Jesus. I also went to the Star of the Week Awards at the school. It was lovely to hear her being awarded the Science Star, especially in recognition of her enthusiasm and obvious knowledge gleaned from outside school. She has such a natural curiosity that it is easy to chatter about science when we meet. I have a science background and our family also used to talk about science subjects at the evening meal at times and it is nice to see some of that has rubbed off.

The snow is taking time to go on our land but also
coming and going

I love this picture of a cattail
seed head from our pond

We also got an invite one evening to my son's partner's father's house for an evening meal. He asked what we wanted to eat and I suggested something Chilean, since he is from Chile and I have never eaten Chilean food before (well if you discount the vegetables that originally come from that area of the world). We had Empanadas to start with, which are pastry filled with meat, cheese or mussels. Ours were filled with meat or cheese and had raisins and olives in, amongst other ingredients and they were tasty. It was an eclectic meal with pork and chicken in a mango sauce, plenty of veg and ice-cream and apple strudel to finish with. So around the world in one meal I think.

The snow always goes quickest off our south facing
ski hill

Still plenty of ice around 

My granddaughter and I made a chocolate fudge type thing, similar to what I have been making at home for us. She even liked the dark chocolate taste. It didn't turn out quite the same, but I think that was because the cocoa was slightly different. It still tasted good anyway. We enjoy making things together, so we experimented in making a scratch card where you put black paint on top of wax crayons. I'm not sure yet how that turned out as it needed a lot of layers of paint to cover the wax crayons and it wasn't dry before I left.

Every year our ponds goes through a phase of looking
like an agate when the snow begins to melt

Sofie looks a little windswept

On our last day, the weather was not so good and I had to do some work on the academic paper. As I mentioned last week it had to be handed in by the end of the month, so I had been taking bits of time to work on it then send it on to others to work on it too. Anyway I finished in enough time to go out and we went to a soft play area for lunch and to let my granddaughter run around. At one point I had her racing against time to see how fast she could complete a route through the play area and back. She managed to get under a minute on her last go.

Enjoying a good scratch on a spruce tree

Freddie is starting to look quite big now

On the Saturday my son and his family and I went up to my daughter's for my second granddaughter's birthday party. She will be five soon but her party was at the weekend for friends and family. I did take a pause mid-afternoon to finish off my contribution to the paper during the middle of the party, but since it was from the afternoon and into the evening, it wasn't too long a time away. I did help the littlies to make bracelets and necklaces from beads and elastic though.

Turbjørn eating hay

Enjoying a snack break on our walk. This is the
granddaughter whose birthday will be soon with her
cat ear headband she got at her party.

Sunday was a slow start to the day after the slightly hectic party day and in the afternoon we took advantage of the lack of rain to go for a walk. I should have taken some pictures of the paths though, as in places they were a little deep in mud. One point would have made a great picture as my son-in-law was perched on a rock holding the gate open while my daughter tried to navigate the buggy through a rather deep puddle with baby still on board. Not sure if he was awake at that point or not. I could only observe while holding the hands of the other two to make sure they didn't slither their way down the muddy rocks. Another point to take a picture was probably the one of me leaping a large puddle as there was no way around it and I was the only one without proper waterproof hiking boots or wellies on - they did all stop to watch my performance though. I am glad to say I did not disgrace myself by falling over or into the puddle, as everyone was probably hoping.

Tellus

Snow this morning in the UK

Today we woke up to snow but still needed to get out a bit for some fresh air. We took a walk into the town to get a few things and noted the lack of stallholders on the market. Only one had bothered to turn up and there were not many folks about. Even Costa was shut. We trudged back but had some wailing from the granddaughter who wanted to hold Daddy's hand and not mine and then claimed she couldn't take her wet boots and socks off. I did explain that if I took them off there would be time spent in the bedroom to calm down and so my next few minutes were spent waiting for calm outside the bedroom door. Lol that does bring back some memories.

The view from our walk

A bit of a misty picture but it is of a group of trees in the
middle of the picture that I know very well but from a
different vantage point. These trees can also be seen from
a cafe we used to visit often when we lived in the UK

It wasn't all bad though, while Mummy and Daddy went out, Grandma Oh Oh was left in charge (that's me, just in case you don't know). The little one was in bed anyway and I played with the older two. We played at picnics, dominoes, fire rescues (pretend I hasten to add), clearing up playdoh from earlier (when I made a green dragon wth yellow fins on the back, purple arms and pink eyes - I know how to have fun) and then we were just about to have hot cross buns and grapes when Mummy and Daddy returned. So I am surviving well, no colds or coughs picked up from any of them and also I am getting plenty of cuddles, especially from the youngest grandson. Still waiting for news though of the next one to be born - it had better arrive before I leave the UK.

Is Aggie laughing because I'm away? Whatever,
I think the windswept look deserves a suitable
caption