Bits and bobs

The red leaves are from a plant that has
survived very well in its winter fir coat.
In Latvian it is called Bruklenes and
cowberry or mountain bilberry in English
and will produce small red edible berries.

I am a bit worried about Ian, I have been for about a month now. He is whistling a lot and making optimistic remarks, now anyone would think I should be glad about this, but it is unnerving really. I married Ian for his sense of humour, but that doesn't mean he is optimistic by nature - I'm just not used to it. Mind you the fiasco of buying a pressure washer to wash the car and tractor equipment after use, helped to return things back to normal, as we were sent away with the wrong pressure gun for the one we bought - not a happy bunny, especially when the shop is 30 miles away. The good news is that we didn't have any difficulty changing the offending item for the correct one, well once I used my well worn phrase "Vai jums runat anglu valoda?" I am not entirely sure if that is correct but it usually gets the desired response of someone who speaks English. 

Coltsfoot - spring is here and the first of a succession of
yellow spring flowers

There are further signs of Spring this week, the communal heating is now off (no half measures now), snow is just confined to a few places and I don't see Ian for most of the day as he toddles off, with a cheery wave. The standard morning joke is, "have a nice day at the office dear" as turns to go, carrying his two battered blue bags of stuff and wearing his battered red coat and yellow wellies, they would die of shock if he ever turned up to an office dressed like that. I also unwrapped the bushes from their winter fir coats at the weekend, and the fir is all shredded and put down as a mulch for our blueberries that like acidic conditions. I even got a tad sunburnt, as I really should have been wearing a hat, but it is only April for goodness sake. Although most places are drying out, the road at the bottom of our ski hill is still in a very bad state. Fortunately our friends haven't got stuck this week, but a grader that came to sort out the road got stuck and made it worse, plus a logging truck got stuck by their pond up to its axles (like one of these, link). Fortunately we didn't get asked to pull any of them out as it needed a big John Deere to do that, actually it didn't need just one tractor, as it needed another tractor to pull out the John Deere which also managed to get stuck and then two of them to pull out the truck. What a performance! What a mess!

I knitted this for our newest neighbour and even got to give
her a cuddle, she is soooo cute. Her brother who is normally
so shy was easily bought with some chocolate eggs and was
quite friendly when we went round, normally he hides behind
his mother's legs

The picture is not so good but this is
one of the buttons on the cardi

Two weeks ago I mentioned that the headteacher had asked if we could go into school to help out with the conversational English, I actually ended up in school quite a bit this week. Both Ian and I went to help with the class, as planned, and then I found out that a whole load of dignitaries and business folks were coming into the class to observe an English class being taught de Bono's methods of creative thinking (lateral thinking) which I thought would be fun to see, so invited myself along. I went along to that and then sat through a meeting in Latvian with the teachers where the visitors were trying to convince the teachers of the merits of creative thinking in schools and businesses. I didn't understand a great deal of the meeting but I could observe the reactions of the teachers, who didn't seem that convinced at times, but they listened politely enough. The headteacher has been explaining the problems of the Latvian education system which is still trying to shake off its Soviet roots and the consequences are a lack of initiative and lateral thinking which is quite necessary in business, I also added there doesn't seem to be much in the way of analytical skills - which I can understand wouldn't be a particularly favourite subject within a Soviet education system. One of the teachers there was a lady who taught us some Latvian over a year ago and she was really sweet, she doesn't speak much English but she made sure I sat next to her and we chatted a bit afterwards and she was thrilled to hear the news of our children who had got married in the year since we last chatted. Anyone fluent in English and Latvian would have laughed at our conversation with gesticulations and half butchered sentences, but it made sense to us.

Downsized polytunnel! Not as big as last year heh! Since we
still haven't got a replacement we thought we would buy a
temporary construction since they were on special offer. Later
on it will be put inside the larger construction for added
protection of the tenderest plants and to extend our season
further

One of the days in school I took in a copy of some ideas I have been jotting down for possible areas for development and I was going to chat about them with the headmistress. I have no idea whether any have been tried or whether others have thought about them, but they struck me as possibilities whilst reading through studies and examples of development in other areas. The headmistress was very pleased with them and asked if she could take them along to a development meeting she had been invited too, which I was more than happy for her to do. She is going to get one of the students to translate it too. Will be interesting to see what comes out of that. Not sure what else I released this week, but a chance comment I made to the headmistress has increased my faith to expect something to change "I see a lot of potential here, and there has to be a way to make it work" I said and I really believe that. It doesn't look much written down, but on the day I sensed that if there is God in Heaven, which I believe, then there must be a way of making his creation work well or at least better than it does now. I think she was surprised that I can see potential here in rural Latvia, not many do, unless it is timber companies of course and they are not much help to the local economy at the moment.

We have ponds again

I have had a few occasions to skip around the room this week (well maybe not literally but metaphorically anyway), one is that our house sale is still progressing - hallelujah (okay a cautious hallelujah as I have known house sales stall before now) and the other is the fact I managed to get an appointment for the fourth of my five days of placement I need for a unit of my course. Just got to squeeze one more in before the end of May with enough time to write a report and I shall be ecstatic. I have been trying to get this pulled together since September. That means that tomorrow morning at an unearthly hour we are heading into Riga, again. Ian will sort out the car for a service and pick up the repaired computers while I head to the ministry of agriculture building for my meeting. Which reminds me, I haven't been keeping you up-to-date on the computer saga. If you remember (well possibly if you have been following me long enough) our computers both died, MacBook pros too! They were bought within a month of each other and died within five months of each other, one just being under three years old. We were told in October it was the motherboard that had died and was so costly that it was cheaper for me to buy a MacBook (not a pro) in England with my student discount than to have the other one repaired. Well apparently the company who did the evaluation of the problem were not doing their job properly as there is a known issue with graphics cards that can affect motherboards and they should have contacted Apple. When the next computer died Ian contacted Apple care - or equivalent as we live in Latvia which doesn't have the full services, and the guy was very helpful. One computer was repaired within the week, even though it was sent to Lithuania first, the other however had a screen issue, a dvd player issue as well as the logic board issue. Unfortunately sorting out the second computer was a little more complicated for some reason, it didn't help that the guy from Apple also had a motorbike accident in the meantime which meant he didn't get back to Ian as promptly as he would have done normally (why do things get complicated for the most obscure of reasons?). Anyway both computers are now repaired and for a lot less than it would have cost if we had had to pay for all the repairs ourself and means that we now have a spare laptop which will be our media centre as Ian's very ancientPowerbook (over 8 years old now) from when he was working for the Danish company is dying slowly and that is the one we use to play the internet radio on. So there will be no more tutting and sighing from across the room as the ancient beast takes sooooo long to load, so I'm told. 

More evidence of winter visitors. We
think they are mole tunnels and there
are lots of them, all over the place. At
least they help with drainage, I guess

On a completely random note a thought came to mind this week and has been bouncing around my head - must be pretty empty for it to bounce so much but in the words of one of my sons my antennae is up (makes us sound a right batty lot, well you're probably not far wrong if you have come to that conclusion). I was thinking and praying about our house sale and looking forward to it going through and then really sensed that it didn't really matter one way or another because God has his plans which will be fulfilled, he is not relying on our house sale to go through and the phrase that came to mind was "Wait and see what the Lord will do" - no idea what he will do but looking forward to what will open up, looking forward to seeing the plans he has for us.

Ian's latest construction, a wood store. The roof is made from
lino we took up from our apartment floor. He assures me it is
very robust as he can swing from it.

These car tyres were lying by the side of the road and just what
Ian was looking for to help with chopping wood. He had heard
about the idea of using a tyre to reduce time chopping as they
stop the wood flying off, saving time retrieving them. Here
is a link on Youtube showing the technique

Everywhere is a mess right now, with small piles of earth left
from moving snow, large piles of earth from the barn
project and gouges in the soil from a tractor. Our
nice flat slope is now well rutted - not Ian's doing! I keep
feeling like I should be apologising to the land as it seems such a
shame. Next weekendI shall be out with the rake to level off
what I can by way of an apology. 

Updated - the old computer was actually a Powerbook and not a MacBook Pro - hand slapped now for making such a mistake. 
For all of those who thought I had completely lost it, apologies for the ramble on the last photo - you were all too polite to mention my incoherent ramble. Must try and make more time to proof read my blog before posting :oD

Strong? Who me?

This is a picture I drew many years ago at a
time when I was not feeling strong at all.
That's like me at the front but I do realise
there is someone looking out for me and
backing me all the way

Twice this week someone has commented that they thought I was a strong person, not true! Really! I know I do bounce quite easily though, as I am an optimist by nature, I do look for the positive signs to tell me that all is not really lost. The ongoing relationship problems of a family member and some other news that can't really be shared in an open forum like this, certainly has knocked me though and I am getting rather tired of our house not selling yet, so happy is not a description I could use this week, nor have I felt particularly strong but I can sense that I am on the up when the fields of snow didn't just seem to sparkle with diamonds today, they looked like 30 carat diamonds not your measly one carat jobs. Snow sparkling like diamonds always reminds me of the richness of a life lived on the edge, a life that money cannot buy and it invigorates me every time and reminds me of the care of my Father in Heaven that created such richness. Also a friend and colleague posted a message which included the phrase "Carpe Diem" - seize the day, which doesn't mean be eternally busy but to seize the opportunities that come your way and I feel that we have done that and I feel that should continue to mark us as a couple - so I am seizing the day and let that drip into my soul to encourage me for the journey ahead.

My interpretation of the tearing of the
temple curtain

My eternal optimism fuels my studies too, if I didn't think that something could be done to turn around this trajectory we are on, one where we show no consideration for the poor and continue to trash the planet expecting our children to clean up, or our grandchildren or even worse not actually expecting anything and giving no thought at all to the future of this planet, then I wouldn't be doing the course I am (Managing Sustainable Rural Development, in case you don't know). I do believe there is a possibility of turning around the fortunes of people out in rural areas, so that they once again feel they can earn a respectable living from the land they love. I also believe that it is possible to turn around the degradation we see of the landscape and so stories like the one from Planet Earth, where organic waste can turn polluted soil into a rich varied habitat and lock up or deal with the poisons, really encourages me. It is incredible that the waste we discard has the potential to create such life all due to the microorganisms it contains. I feel that life can be like that too, some things we think are waste in our lives can actually have the potential for so much growth and redemption. So my prayer this week is that all the dross and waste will indeed by redeemed into something that creates life.

A butterfly in the hand, symbolises holding onto hope for me

This land of Latvia certainly needs a lot of redemption and there are plenty of statistics out this week to prove it for instance there are over 170,000 needy people in Latvia, and that is needy as described by Latvian standards not UK standards. 170,000 doesn't sound like a lot in some ways but it is 7% (1 in 14) of the population and it is 170,000 real people. Last year the Latvian Government spent 89.7m LVLs on a social network for the needy - amazingly, less than the banks earned in profits last year. Doesn't seem right does it, when the minimum subsistence level is greater than the money given to the poor? The figures for the Minimum subistance level released this week came to 171.41LVLs for a months worth of essential shopping, interesting isn't it when the social scheme gives people a basic minimum wage of 100 LVLs a month - makes you wonder what people feed off? Fresh air?

Ian and my favourite embroidery that I have
done. The original photo that inspired this
was taken in our garden in Denmark

The Latvians do not use up as many resources as many of us in Europe, obviously they can't afford it, and so the thought of electricity rises seemed scandalous, until I realised that actually it wasn't going to affect many people at all. In reality it is our electrical usage that seems scandalous in comparison. We had always prided ourselves on our low usage of electricity but I was obviously comparing myself in the wrong direction. The electric tariffs will only increase once 1200KW/hrs of electricity has been consumed and this means that for just under half of Latvian households there will be no change in the costs of electric and for another 30% there will be a one Lat difference or less per month. Our consumption of around 300 KW/hours per month means that we are in the top 24% of customers and therefore we are one of households paying more for our electric. It really shocked me to think I use more electric than about 75% of the population of Latvia and not only that but I was using over 3 times the amount as some do. I think we need to look at our usage once again and make some changes. So what's your electric consumption in one month?

The deer must be getting hungry now as they are beginning
to make their way into the gardens

Okay a bit back to front this week but I have stopped pontificating now, so what has been happening? Well it has been very cold and beautifully sunny all week again and forecast for much the same for the next few days which means temperatures around minus 21C in the mornings and lower. One of the biggest problems at this temperature is getting cars started and ours has been reluctant to get going, and takes ages to defrost but since it has been sunny we start the car and park up around the corner and let the sun do a bit of the work for us. Unfortunately for some of our neighbours coaxing the car into life has been a bit more of a problem and so we have twice had to get the faithful old tow rope out and lend a hand. In one case it meant quite a few of our neighbours could all get to the shops instead of having to walk in the cold, I think they were rather grateful.

I admit it, I am untidy with papers, books and embroidery
scattered all over the sofa

On one day this week we noticed a lot of people milling about and a lot of cars which is unusual for this area, unless something is going on. We managed to work it out when we spotted the local hearse amongst the crowds, aka a bright red minibus; not the sombre black estate car for folks around here. We felt very sorry for the folks gathered as we knew they were in for a long cold day as people were spilling out of the chapel into the open air due to lack of space for the funeral service and at -12C it isn't pleasant to be standing around, mind you from all accounts it is not much warmer inside the chapel at this time of year either. The service is not the end of it, as people will gather at the graveside too and speak some words of how much the person meant to them, and if there is a lot of people that is a long time spent out in the cold, only warmed by the vodka that sometimes flows at these things.

Much tidier with our new acquisition. A rather neat set of
shelves with a cloth basket at the top - perfect for my
embroidery

We have also been progressing ever so well with getting our other flat finished. We laid a laminate floor for the hallway and were really pleased with it and pleased with the fact there was so little waste but we needed something to edge the floor with and tootled out to look for some beading, just regular beading nothing fancy. Well there was some beading in one of the shops but not the right sort, it was too small for the gap. Oh well! Next job! We then progressed to laying the laminate flooring in the living room and it was looking good, we were on a roll but... for some unknown reason we hadn't bought enough boxes we were three pieces short of finishing when we ran out. The problem is that we bought the laminate flooring on a trip into Riga and we didn't really want to go all the way back there. We gambled instead on there being the same flooring at a nearer store, only 45 mins away instead of an hour and half away and fortunately the gamble paid off and they had the right flooring with the same code, so we bought the extra sheets and another 11 boxes so we can do another two rooms with it. Sorted! Well I hope so as long as I have done my sums right this time. Can't believe we ran out, it's not like me, must be losing the plot. As we were carefully loading the car to try and make sure the weight was in the centre of the car, so we didn't destabilise the car in the icy conditions, a guy kept trying to attract our attention and eventually tried to talk to us, unfortunately he couldn't speak English and we had no idea what he was after, or if he was just trying to be friendly which happens sometimes. Only when we finished loading up the car did I suddenly realise that the guy was actually hoping we would give him a tow to start his car, as it was only then that I noticed he kept walking around a car with a tow rope all ready on the front. Doh! Our Latvian does need to improve. Just as I realised though someone else agreed to tow his car, so we thought he could share in the towing ministry and let him get on with it. Well you have to share the blessings don't you!

The temperature in our kitchen on Tuesday morning (11.7C),
 it has got better every day since. Not so sure about the
outside temperature though - that's the bottom reading and
that is minus 23C.

Update on our heating: I didn't need to go and do a sit down protest at the local heating company we have actually had reasonable heat this week - wonder if the boss reads my blog? Somehow doubt it! Our kitchen has gradually warmed up over the last week which has been wonderful and now I can sit in the living room with just the addition of a quilt on my legs.