Ugggh!

One of our summer visitors.

Shall we say the weather today was not the best. I heard the wind and the rain start about 2am in the morning. It has just about stopped now and it is after 8pm. Most of the time it was heavy sleety snow. I even had to move some snow to get into the greenhouse to feed the chickens tonight. Not because we had a large accumulation of the horrible wet stuff, but because I use the north-facing door to get in and that has been the direction it has blown from most of the day. 

Two tone alpacas!


Now he is supposed to be two tone, but the damp
weather made it more obvious.

Yes that is snow on the bank there 
and it isn't even our village where
the grass was mostly covered in
the white stuff.

We went for a trip out to see some alpacas and llamas to cut their fighting teeth this morning. Many fields on the way were substantially flooded and the rivers were running high with water as a brown as a Yorkshire cup of tea - in other words they look well stewed. The alpacas and llamas were a tad wet but not too bad considering the weather. It's always a worry when we go to somewhere the first time, what will be the conditions and will they be able to catch the animals. Fortunately in this case there were enough helpers on hand and the jobs themselves were relatively easy - at least with three reasonably hefty guys to help keep the llamas still. 

A strange abstract piece of work?

Nope! Just the cat hiding on my heated box of 
seeds. Hmmph!

Silla with a rather damp and mucky hair do. 

They will be aiming to shear their own alpacas and so we suggested they come and see how we do ours. We have enough to do with the current customers we have and the tight window we have to shear, so we are more than happy for people to learn how to do it for themselves. They seemed quite happy about that, so with any luck that means a few willing extra pair of hands on shearing day. We already have one couple who will be coming to help us. It's not the case of the more the merrier, in fact that could be the more the more stressful, but when they know how to handle animals it usually works out okay. 

Has Vanessa been having a disagreement with
someone? The droopy lip suggests she has been
spitting. 

Sometimes, you just have to have a good scratch.

Lawnmowers in action. I like these self-
propelled lawnmowers, much easier. Well,
I would say that. I don't have to move the 
fences.

It was nice to be able to call in at the bakery on the way back to our caravan and pick up some hot food to eat too, so we didn't have much to prepare to eat. We must have got a bit cold this morning and maybe disturbed by the noise of the wind and rain in the night, because as  soon as we had eaten and warmed up, we both fell asleep. Not something we do in the middle of the day on a regular basis. I spent the rest of the day on the computer, even though I'm on holiday from work, but it has meant that I've managed to do some sorting out that I've just not had chance to do. I've had a desk-tidy up folder for ages when the clutter on my desktop got too much and so I just shunted it into a file to sort out later. Well it's gone now and that makes me feel like I've done a good spring clean. Not bad when there was no chance of getting in the garden due to the weather.

Amanda looking quite rotund and very tired. Not
long now to go.

The three amigos 

Another bad hair day

Even though I've been on the computer for half the day, I haven't really been on the internet much. Our internet generally suffers when it is a holiday in Latvia and bad weather doesn't help at all. Facebook in particular is far too slow when the internet gets lousy, so I haven't been on all day. Pretty unusual for me, I do like to keep up with everyone's news and so tend to spend too long on it. It just shows though what an utter drain on energy Facebook is when it takes so long to load. 

Love the angle, makes Ilvija and Mari look like their having a kiss.

A layer of mucky fleece but then nice and clean.
Phew! Not long to go now before shearing time.

Lecturing 2021 style. My 
backdrop was a field of alpacas
though.

I gave a lecture to a German university this week. I was given permission to be controversial, so I threw a few comments in to get students thinking. I also outlined some of the problems that farmers face at certain times of the year, when the job can be so draining. I gave an example of us at haymaking time when the clouds are rolling in and we have to load up the hay. A time when we might be barely talking to each other because we are both irritable, tired, dusty and hungry. Those times when there is no clocking off at 5pm because you work till you're finished. It wasn't to make us look good, because our days are not all like that, but I wanted them to understand how advising farmers to diversify makes a mockery of what they do in those busy periods. If their income is not enough, then it is because they are not receiving the benefits they should for the hours they work and the system is broken. 

A little daffodil. They are still hanging on in there.
I thought we might have a mass of them by now,
but the wild boar thought they were tasty a while ago.

And what else does the modern lecturer do? Feeds
the chickens of course. They are still in the greenhouse.
I was tempted to get the arks outside but the cold 
forecast put me off and I'm pleased we didn't.

We've had some lovely days too, just a bit cold.

One student asked how they could support farmers to be more efficient and I challenged the student on whether that was a good thing to do because efficiency is a rather difficult term for someone facing the challenges of climate change. To be sustainable and resilient might not mean becoming more efficient. What is efficient in a factory or a laboratory is not necessarily efficient in the field. It is not necessarily efficient to plant four crops, but if one fails then there is always the other three to fall back on. It is efficient to plant up one large field with one crop because it doesn't require a multitude of machinery, but then that might not be sustainable or resilient, particularly in a bad summer weather-wise. I certainly enjoyed the challenge of the presentation and I look forward to hearing the feedback from the students.

Chanel looks very proud of her grass balancing trick

Turbjørn is at least eating well. He is still struggling
a bit though and some days are better than others.

It is amazing how similar these two are in 
colour. They have the same father, Tellus, but 
George on the left has a white and brown mother,
Mari and Freddie has a dark brown mother,
Chanel.

I also finished my own seminars this week. My students still have an essay to hand in, but there are no more whole class meetings. It was a good job it wasn't today, as I think I would have had to cancel it. I think I will miss them. It was only a short course, but I've enjoyed hearing the progress they've made in their ideas and it was great to hear how they are thinking about including people, even children, in future planning. If that is the route they take then that is something to be optimistic about. 

Josefs is a lazy one, can't even be bothered to stand
to eat. Don't worry, there's nothing wrong with him.
He can run around and leap about when he wants to.

Not as clever as his brother George, but still quite
a bright spark is Jakobs.

You can see the alpacas share our
challenges! Don't worry, they are
just sunbathing.

On the farm itself we've had a few challenges of our own. One day I went to our fridge that we keep in the barn to find that a mouse had obviously been in it and left a few calling cards. Ian had even put wire over the back to stop them getting in, but it wasn't sufficient. We think it might have hurt itself on the wire as there were also a few spots of blood. Well the fridge has been fixed now and Ian has managed to work out a way of attaching a piece of metal over the only possible place it could have got in. It was a bit tricky and it is into the foam insulation, so we hope it holds enough to deter a mouse.

Poor Aggie. Her nose is sore. I will be giving her
another course of cream to ease it. We do it for 
three days then stop because she gets so fed up
with it and gets awkward. More stress won't help.

Mr. P tucking into the grass too. He's much 
better. He was staring longingly at the girls today.

Mr. P has been having antibiotics and steroid injections most mornings but at least his breathing seems to have improved. We think it might be an environmental allergy of some kind as Ian realised he asked our vet out to listen to him this time last year. We knew it was a regular thing but hadn't realised it was tied to a particular time of the year. It's a good job that Ian is very methodical in his approach to note taking - unlike me!

Some glorious days indeed.

Aggie is looking huge. 

It hasn't been a bad week, weather-wise up until today as Ian's managed to get quite a bit done around the place. He got the back hoe on the tractor and dug out the old remains of electric poles that are always an issue at haymaking time; he's filled in pig damage on our neighbour's land where we also cut hay. he's also expanded the pond on the other side of our oak hill and dug out the drainage ditches to help drain the field better - not that it worked this time but it was an exceptionally large amount of water in a very short period of time and all our other ponds are overflowing.

Josefs is an inquisitive chap.

Silla was the bravest and went into the field first.
Mari and Aggie were having a sniff to see who
she was before Silla decided to make a rapid exit.

The grass is still growing slowly as the days have still been a bit cool and so the animals have needed to be moved fairly regularly. They started to eat through the fences rather too quickly - even though they have plenty of hay they could eat instead. Ian ended up having to sort out the charger units as they seemed to be not working well enough. So they are cleaned up and working now. Ian also took the opportunity of letting the two groups of girls mingle together. This will help us later on in the year when the youngsters need to be separated from their mums. It means we can create a new herd with less stress. We'll see how that works obviously later on. 

The rest of Vanessa's group starting to investigate
the field where Aggie's group were.

Aggie's group investigating Vanessa's paddock

They have better trees to scratch through.

All together now. They are still not quite acting 
as one group, so still easy to separate. 

So on this rather blustery wet day, when it still cannot quite make up it's mind whether it's spring or winter that is about it for life in our little rural place. 

There and back again

The stream is melting and water
beginning to flow off the land into it

I am back to lectures this week and fortunately it is my last compulsory course. It is funny that the lecturer comes from Boulder, Colorado just 55 miles away from where I used to live in Fort Collins in the US, he even sounds like one of my friends from there. He managed to make part of the lecture entertaining by getting us to devise a rapid experiment to practice setting and testing a hypothesis. I felt it was a little basic, but at least we didn't have to sit for two hours and it made the point pretty well. In fact I think, with a longer time frame, it would work very well with even high school students, at least with a bit more support along the way in setting up the test hypothesis. We had to devise an experiment and hypothesis in 15 minutes, so no Einstein type of experiments here. One young chap came up with the idea of testing if it was quicker to go downstairs than to go up the stairs. So for the next half an hour five of us sauntered up and down four flights of stairs, we walked normally up and downstairs and then lastly we took the stairs at speed; only I had to repeat two of the experiments because on one I had managed to turn off my stopwatch and on the second a woman beat me to the door which ruined the experiment and being the conscientious sort, I repeated it. And the result of our experiment? It is quicker to go down the stairs in sauntering and normal mode, but in a rush it is quicker to go up than down! You can draw your own conclusions on that one.

Our winter barley is looking a little worse for the wear after
the winter. Not sure if it will survive or not due to the freeze
without much snow cover and now being swamped

These three are in bad books, they have been escaping, after
discovering finally the electric fence wasn't actually
switched on due to the cold. It is ON now though.
Downright ungrateful if you ask me, after all that effort of
making their pen better by covering all the poo with straw

The week didn't go quite to plan though, as there was a miscommunication with the mapping training I wanted to do - this is not a compulsory course, but one I feel will be useful to my research. I got to the computer room on Tuesday afternoon just as four people were finishing off some maps and no teacher. Apparently it was dropped on for that period because the week before only one person turned up. That means I have had to travel up to Tartu on Sunday again to do the course on Monday morning. At least it is only three or four sessions, although at the rate I'm going it will be more as I learn how to use a dratted Windows computer and mouse. Even failed on turning it on, but that is partly because I have never used a computer with a separate screen before and a long time since I have used a mouse and not a trackpad! Rather basic I know. I'll get there though and I'm sure I will speed up. It only took me for the polygon I was drawing, to disappear on me three times, before I found out the shortcut to extend a drawing, so I didn't have to keep getting nearly to the end of my drawing and then it disappear, I could part draw it, save it and then extend it!

Snowdrop showing her portly belly. She has been a little
uncomfortable this week and Ian was wondering if the
baby has been moving around a bit. Seeing the size of her
makes us wonder how our little Alicia managed to carry
Benedikts without showing that much. 

Electric in the barn, finally

I had a pleasant surprise when I got on the bus to travel up to Tartu at the unearthly hour of 7am (okay it is not really that unearthly, except it was a Sunday) my neighbour was driving. I have been travelling on buses from the company he drives for, for over six months now and never met him once. I told him I had a two and a half hour stop before I caught the next bus and so when we got to the end and I was preparing to get off, he told he I didn't have to, as he wasn't going on the next leg of his travels for a half and hour. At least sitting on the bus was warmer than sitting in the un-refurbished station of Cesis. He also told me about a cafe nearby which was open on Sundays, so when he had to go I trotted across the train tracks (as you do here) and headed for the supermarket that I hadn't realised was a supermarket. I also found out they had free toilets and the cafe was quiet, so I managed to get some work done, really pleased about that. I was also grateful as well that the snow, that was coming down quite heavily when we set off, fizzled out to rain and then stopped by the time we got to Cesis. I had had visions of me turning up in Tartu either freezing to death or looking like a snowman and fortunately neither was the case.

And now we have light

And chainsaws have new shelves
because the electric cable runs up
behind them

I have lots of work to do this week and it wasn't helped by a trip to the big town to try and sort out the paperwork on our greenhouse. We mistimed that badly as we arrived 20 minutes before the office was due to close and so she was not best pleased, so much so that she said we needed all sorts of stamps, codes and signatures that actually were there, but she hadn't looked properly. We got sent back to our local office and fortunately when we got back to that office, the guy was just heading out the door as there wasn't much to do and he was less bothered about having to go back. He was bothered though by what he was supposed to do and in the end rang up the lady in the big town and basically asked "what on earth do you really want, it looks fine to me." He added the code that was needed to the front page of our paperwork, so she won't miss it this time, added a stamp and signature and a few scribbles, just for the sake of it I think and we should be okay to get the greenhouse paperwork sorted next time we go back to the big town- more fuel and more time! Arrrggh! This time, mark my words, there will be no prevaricating, she will get it sorted, of that I am sure, otherwise she will be dealing with a very disgruntled foreigner and she won't like that. At least to compensate I managed to do quite a bit of reading on the buses, as I travelled and in the cafe. It did make me realise though why a tablet computer is useful, a laptop on a full bus is a bit of a squish with bags.

We also have running water. Unfortunately
this isn't a permanent feature

Full ponds again

There is a worrying rise of anti-immigrant sentiments across Europe at the moment. I'm an immigrant! I also don't speak the language of the country I live in, or at least not fluently enough to hold a conversation! Two criteria that should mean I'm ostracised, which thankfully I'm not. It is easy to make immigrants a scapegoat. It is easy to blame them for all the violence and crime without looking at the reasons. That is not to say that those who partake in violence are justified in what they do, but some of them are desperate, some of them have been brought up badly, some of them reflect the society that they immersed in, let's face it residents are sometimes no angels either and their behaviour can lead to retaliation too. It won't do any good to point fingers and throw verbal stones. We have to start looking at fairness and justice, both in the countries we live and the countries where the immigrants come from. Sometimes it is economics that make them move, but why? What part has our European nations had in creating the problems? Our corporations are bad enough in our own countries, you don't need to look far to see the lack of taxes paid and diabolical wages whilst they doing nothing to address this state of affairs. How much worse do you think they will be outside of Europe where the restrictions are not the same? Our European history has created unnatural divisions of nations all over the world, our past has not dealt kindly with the nations on other continents and left a legacy of what? Some good and a lot of bad? Can I suggest before reposting news stories that put immigrants in a bad light that we think carefully what it says about us as people? Are we scapegoating by reposting them on our facebook profiles and the like? I shall not get down off my soapbox.

Estelle looking rather mucky, because she has been rolling
in the mud. Goodness only knows what her fleece will be
like to clean after shearing. Hard to think that this time
next year, she will hopefully be pregnant. 

On another note, the EU have introduced one of their not so helpful laws (some of their introductions are I think fair, and some aren't) they are set to lower the limit for benzopyrenes in foods, which sounds good since it is considered a pollutant and carcinogenic, however it is not good news for small local smokeries, using traditional techniques that abound here in Latvia. Smoked food is not eaten in large quantities, but then again they are eaten by children, so there is a dilemma. Cigarettes also contain benzopyrenes but that just means that adults are allowed to kill themselves with the effects of the pollutants. The other sources though are gas roasted meats, over-fried foods and the bbq. The black parts being the worse. Some of our friends were thinking of selling smoked food and so are not happy with the new law. I have done a little research and found an article that says marinating food and adding herbs for their antioxidant properties maybe helpful and so hopefully that might be a solution and make the food healthier into the bargain. I do hope so!

And because I don't know where else to put this, our hens have finally started laying again! Yay! Fresh eggs.

Washing day?

Just curious. Turbjorn came up closer, but kept backing off
when I got the camera up to take a photo. Obviously
camera shy

Washing day? Well you will have to stick with me to the bitter end to find that out. If you have been following along with the blog, you will know that last week the lecturer didn't turn up for the first lecture of the week. There was no phone call and our administrator couldn't even contact her. Well on the Tuesday she did appear with what seemed like some lame excuse of "unforeseen circumstances." Makes you wonder what unforeseen circumstances stopped her from even picking up the phone to say, "Sorry can't make it." It certainly doesn't help a lecturer to develop rapport with the class, but she did make an excellent study for my teaching course. I think I spent more time analysing what she was doing and trying to achieve than actually listening to what she had to say, as well as amusing myself by watching the other students reactions. One student is five months pregnant and as time to eat came and went, you could see her tolerance levels were dropping and more and more food was emerging from her bag. The teacher didn't take the hint though. Unfortunately she seemed to be making just about every mistake in the book. She paced around the floor, didn't make eye contact and after spending ages explaining someone's theory, she told us that she didn't agree with it anyway. So what was the point in that!

Ian has made new latches for the gates. Better than blue
string anyway that freezes to the gatepost

Occasionally the students, yes that included me, would just start discussing something that they felt was important, without any prompting from the lecturer or it might have been just to amuse ourselves and to stop us falling asleep (I'm not sure if one student did fall asleep and that's not easy in a class of about 12). It showed that as scientists and researchers we wanted to discuss the topic of the philosophy of science, but I just don't think the lecturer gave us much space to really unpack what we had read. It was almost as if the outdated theories were more important than engaging with modern thinking and the connection to scientists today. Scientists do have to grapple with the philosophy and to some extent, a lot of my work is challenging the way scientists and experts think in relation to "ordinary people" and to their pet subjects. Just because you are an expert in the field, doesn't make you the font of ALL knowledge, just your area. Likewise a farmer knows his fields - literally and better than an expert. Both can learn from each other  (I know, I know I said something like that last week and maybe the week before. Pet rant I suppose). At least that point came out quite well in the discussions.

We still call the one in the middle spuggy, because she
looked like a sparrow when she was born. 

Our next lecturer, turned up a few minutes late and was very apologetic. After the performance of the first lecturer on the subject we were ready to forgive just a few minutes. This lecturer though seemed in contrast, as timid as a mouse and she tried so hard to do all the right things, but it didn't quite work, as she still talked too long. I really felt like telling her that a few weeks with our lecturer in higher education teaching would work really well for her. At least she gave us more time to unpack what she said and again we enjoyed the time to discuss. I suppose it did help that she wasn't trying to cram two days worth of lectures into one day, like the other lecturer. 

I don't think this is meant to be an art
installation, but I thought it had an
artistic quality

I have also been analysing my classmates on the higher education course and their 15 minute lecture practice, but we were supposed to be doing that, so that's okay. I was quite pleased in a group analysis that one of the students commented on my practice about two weeks ago and said he enjoyed the activity, so that one will stay on any course I do. There were quite a few things we learnt from each other, such as looking at the students - seems obvious but it is easy to forget when trying to think about how to put a point across well. Being enthusiastic can help enormously, even a less than perfect presentation can be lifted by at least conveying enthusiasm for the subject. Ending on a high is also a good one. The last presentation, the lady struggled in what to convey in just 15 mins, but she finished by letting us play with paints and a chinese calligraphy brush - this was such a change from all other lectures that it meant we actually quite enjoyed her presentation and it was a good way to end our mini series of lectures. Another student was a good story teller and this meant that she could get away with more time spent talking than the rest of us. That makes the point that we should play to our strengths and we don't all have to teach the same way. 

The pond filled to overflowing with the snow melt from last
week. Quite a difference to earlier on this year, when it
was just one deep hole in the middle

It wasn't all lectures last week, just nearly all week; I also took my host, who has been letting me stay at her place during my time in Tartu, out for a meal, as a way of saying thank you and as a little Christmas gift. Since my host resides in Tartu, I left it up to her to choose where we go, although I do confess to admitting that we couldn't go anywhere swanky, but she knew that anyway. Still the meal was very nice, we went to Crepp, which is a pancake restaurant, not that either of us had pancakes though I had smoked fish pasta salad in a creamy sauce, followed by crème brulée and my host had warm chicken liver salad followed by the same dessert. With coffee and a pot of tea for me it came to about €22, so not bad for a city. I do think that Tartu is a very pretty city to visit and as it is not very large at all, it feels very intimate. They have decorated it beautifully for Christmas and every turn of a corner presents a different view of Christmas lights. Although my trips up here have finished this week I shall be back again and the next time will be February for GIS training. GIS is a type of mapping programme that gives rich information in map form – well that's the blurb anyway.

Ian feeding the boys

Now you hear a lot about my trips up and down to Tartu, but what about Ian? Especially now the winter is set in. A typical day for Ian starts around 8:30am ish when he gets to the land and he starts by turning on the radiator to warm the caravan through, before letting the animals out. Having electricity out to the land, is making a big difference for him. Our chickens that are in the greenhouse are in three arks and they get let out in rotation, one set per day to have a run around the whole of the greenhouse. This is a bit of extra exercise for them, but also means they can eat any greenery left, grubs if they find them and do a bit of manuring in the process. The morning is rounded off by different jobs on different days and varies with the needs of the day.

Made it past the girls

Around midday he goes to feed the animals. Now that it is getting colder he is supplementing their feed of hay, with sheep concentrate and vegetables for most of the animals and some extra layers pellets for the chickens. Now you have to try and picture the scene, as Ian carries 7 trays, two bowls of sheep concentrate, plus one bowl with some veg and some chicken feed in a screwtop jar (I think with more animals this might have to change a little, as the tower of trays might make it difficult to balance). His first task is to throw some feed into the chicken hutch to distract the chickens whilst he feeds the male alpacas. This gives him the opportunity to watch the animals and get a feel for how they are doing, as well as helping them to get more and more used to him.

Enjoying the extra treats

The next stage of the process is more complicated. Two of the new chickens that we took down to the big hen hut have taken up residence in the new alpaca house with the ladies and they have a tendency to wander around under Ian's feet while he tries to carry the trays to the girls. A couple of the ladies, also try to get ahead of the game by getting into the feed before he has had a chance to distribute them, so he tries to shield the trays from the onslaught of the girls, meanwhile trying not to trip up over the chickens. He then throws the chicken feed to distract the two pests and then puts out the trays for the girls to feed from. Again he is watching their condition and just getting acquainted with them. More important for these, since they are the ones that he will have to interact with more when they are having babies. Next are the sheep. At some stage there is also the bashing of the pond to clear the ice to get some clean water for the animals. Then done! Till evening when the process is repeated, but this time the trays are put in the alpaca houses.

One of the pests, before disappearing under the alpaca

This week we lost two more chickens, two of the four we took down to the big hutch. Unfortunately one succumbed to the cold, but it was a fairly small one and the other just went missing. Of the other two, one relocated to the other alpaca house and Ian took the other one up when he (?) was looking rather cold and lonely. We found out how they are going missing this week. Ian and I were just preparing to go and dig up some carrots and things and headed out of the greenhouse, when there was quite a commotion amongst the chickens and our alpacas were charging around the paddock. It was difficult to know what was going on at first, but then we realised that one of the birds flying around, was not a chicken but a hawk. It was actually flying around the chicken hutch and the alpacas were spooked by the squawking and went charging out of the way. Hmmph! So much for the theory of them keeping the chickens safe. Ian half wonders if the male alpacas are quite glad that the chickens are disappearing, as they seem less tolerant of them than the girls do. We thought that the hawk was catching the chickens out in the open when they went wandering, we didn't realise that the hawk might actually get so close, especially with the alpacas in there.

Alicia being inquisitive with the one of the chickens

The sheep's turn

From time to time I comment on other blogs and occasionally someone will respond to the comment and post something on my blog. This week has been particularly encouraging, as I have a new blog follower and what is amazing is that she has some fascinating insights into the area we live in , as some of her family lived close by for a number of years. It has really brought home to me though how complicated family relationships can be in Latvia, even more complicated than I already knew to be the case. You have to imagine the turmoil of rival nations fighting each other across the Latvian landscape and different sides taking different members of the family as they found them, brother could end up fighting against brother. Some families were forced into exile in Siberia and some families were torn apart when trying to escape the Soviet advance. As you can guess you have a recipe for a nation in trauma. Whilst it maybe time to move on, as one Latvian commented to me fairly recently, sometimes these things need to be looked at, to come out into the open. Not hidden away to be brooded upon and in the process affecting the future generations. Other European countries, also need to understand the repercussions of these actions, especially as it makes sense of the lack of trust in the nation. Trust doesn't just happen, it has to be worked on and is too easily broken. At least it adds more to the picture of Latvian history on a personal level that I hadn't thought about. Bit by bit I get more of the jigsaw, as I listen and read.

Another piece of felt I have made, with some knitting yarn
that opens up to a net texture felted into it. Any ideas for
uses? It is about 20cm squarish

Piece number two. This has different fabrics felted into it.
Some have sequins on. There is also some woollen
knitting yarn and some yarn that looks a bit like a shiny
ladder. I think I should have photographed the constituent
parts too

A final thing to finish on, that is rather amusing and cannot go without mention (otherwise I will never hear the last of it from dearly beloved). One of my neighbours came ringing on the doorbell yesterday, I couldn't quite understand what she was telling me, but it involved people and trousers. I had to phone a friend to find out what she was trying to say, as she was quite determined I know what she was going on about. Turns out I had left some washing on the line, not only just left it on the line, but it had been there a month. I had wondered where my trousers were and we should have guessed the washing was ours, as the other piece I had left on the line was a bright orange polo shirt which could only be Ian's. I guess that proves it has been rather a busy month and I haven't been around much in the light.