Mud, mud, glorious mud

Spring has arrived out on our land in Latvia

The weather hasn't been much better this week, but we still got out and about. My daughter and I have been to Costa coffee a few times because my daughter prefers their coffee and she and a friend often meet up there with their kids. I'm just happy to tag along. It works well with the older ones colouring and the younger ones confined to a corner playing and at least it is out of the house for an hour or two.

Morning coffee spot for Ian. I hope I don't miss all
the good weather though

All the migrant birds have been returning. Ian even
saw four storks on the day our newest granddaughter
was born

There were dry evenings and so my daughter and her husband went for a couple of evening bike rides while I babysat. They came back rather covered. They may as well take advantage of me being around though. Mind you, I did end up on sentry duty on the door of the boys bedroom as they weren't exactly getting the idea of what sleep was for that night. Still been there, done that and got the t-shirt, so I didn't really mind too much. It's a phase!

Freddie

The new baby with proud older brother and sister

We were beginning to wonder what was going to be the best way for me to get to my son's for the third and final week, as my daughter didn't want to take a long ride down if my son's newest baby hadn't arrived, however, the baby finally decided to make an appearance on the Wednesday. It was very exciting to be able to say hello via Skype to my eighth grandchild and in plenty of time for me to see her. I love that her name also means resurrection or miracle.

At least the drainage is still working
to clear away the melted snow by
the side of the greenhouse

A bit dark but my granndaughter is blowing out the candle
on her birthday dessert.

It was my granddaughter's birthday at the end of the week and I had put together a little bag making kit from some of my fabric stash so I could make it with her. We spent one afternoon having fun sewing. I'm not sure she was that bothered about the bag in the end, but she enjoyed the process. It was lovely to be able to carry on a tradition, as my grandmother was one of those who taught me to sew when I was young.

Another sign of spring - deep ruts

And muddy driveways. We obviously still need to
work on the drainage here

Stomping in mud puddles

One of the joys of little children is their ability to find fun in a muddy woodland walk. It was a relatively nice day (one of the few) when my daughter, her friend and all their children went for a walk around a reservoir. Those children managed to jump in just about every puddle along the route, they found it hilarious and were soaked by the time we got back to the car. Near the end of the walk was a steep hill and the kids enjoyed rolling down, well the oldest rolled down but the younger ones only really managed to roll in circles.

There has also been some spring snow showers too
out on our land

The little one I rescued in his all-in-one

There was one point where one of the little ones was rolling round in circles when the oldest was coming down the hill rather rapidly towards him. I played my role of Supergran and swung into action by hoisting the little one out of the way by the back of his all-in-one suit. I always knew that swinging hay bales around would come in useful sometime.

A lovely spring day and the alpacas are getting the freedom of eating out in the fields

Young alpacas love to roll in the grass too

On my last full day we went to a soft play area in a sports centre. I was impressed with the chap who was supervising. He trundled the kids around on a snake for most of the two hours and played basketball with them, although he did have to spend a while trying to extract an over large ball that got stuck in the net. It was lovely at the end as shook all their hands as they left and thanked them for coming. He obviously had a big heart for kids and keeping them active. We finished the day with a family birthday pizza party. The kids were truly amazing, especially the two year old who managed to hold it together despite a lack of sleep and a lot of running around all day. I was half expecting a melt-down but he didn't.

The girls' field doesn't get as much sun as the boys
one does

Another spring returnee

Eventually it was time to leave and so we set off early on the Saturday morning to my son's house. On the way down we stopped off at a pub for lunch run by my son-in-law's older brother. We had a lovely meal but the best part was observing the conversation between my two year old grandson and my son-in-law's brother. He's been a bar tender for many years and he just went with the flow of the little chap's conversation. It was a classic and I was in stitches listening to them.

The girls' field may not get as much sun, but they still
find the bits of green grass

Our cats have been joining Ian on early morning
walks while I'm away. I think I am going to have
some major time change adjustments when I get back.
Apparently all the cockerels are crowing at 5:30am

After a long drive we made it to my son's house and I got to meet my eighth grandchild for the first time. It was lovely having a chaotic afternoon with six of my grandchildren and their parents, but sadly I had to say goodbye to my daughter and her family as they travelled back home. So now I am on the south coast getting to spend time with another set of grandchildren and helping mum with the new baby. I even took all the little ones to the park today for a bit of fresh air including the baby- another muddy place but fortunately for me, we managed to avoid the worst of the mud this time around. I think there will be enough washing to do this week somehow.

Eyre enjoying the sunshine on top of the cupboards
in the greenhouse

It wasn't me! Mari stood on the remains of the hay

Brencis

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