So here we are

Icy rain today and just a dusting of snow. Not exactly a
pleasant start to the year

Another new year and nearly ten years since I began blogging. It has been an interesting time and I would never have thought we would be doing what we are doing now all those years ago. So much has happened and I have met so many people over that time. What a ride.

Our youngest grandson

This year we had our first family Christmas in a few years, where all our family got together. What used to be just five of us is now 12, since our three children now have children of their own. We set off to the UK on the 21st and were picked up from the airport by our youngest son. It is nice not to have to worry about transport these days. We were launched straight into a round of feasting with party number one at my son's partner's father's place. We met the sisters on that side of the family for the first time. It is a long time since we have been amidst so much present unwrapping, as we have never been big present givers at Christmas, so it was almost a bit overwhelming to see so much wrapping paper heading for the bin. Ian laughed later when he reminded our son how everyone used to carefully take off wrapping paper as it would be used in craft projects later in our house.

You can see why he gets so many comments on his hair.
Quite a head of hair for a seven week old

Needle felted pictures by Debbie Colby. I also bought a
tree brooch and some flowery ones for my daughter
and daughter-in-laws

During the year I had made contact with a lovely felting artist, Debbie Colby. I realised she lived close to my son and so we organised to meet up. I was always amazed at her work, I kind of felt she made the pictures that were in my head but I never really got a working image that I was happy with when I was doing my embroidery course though. Then again I had not heard of needle felting at that point and maybe I would have got a more satisfactory result if I had. I shall be getting my designs out again and having another go using some of the techniques that Debbie demonstrated for me. What I love is the thought of being able to use up some of the fabrics I have lying around that I sorted out into various colours the other week.

Our alpacas had visitors too and were well looked after while
we were away. Here the boys have been tempted outside in
the snow with some food.

I spent the afternoon showing our adopted granddaughter how to use her new toy sewing machine, that actually worked quite well. We made sacks for two of the Christmas presents, rather than using wrapping paper. I had already made some Japanese knot bags during the one free day I had during the week (must remember to wash the fabric first next time though, storing them had an adverse effect). We also had a go at making gluten free Latvian style Christmas biscuits or at least the dough. It was good fun to have a helper in the kitchen.

Not an alpaca insight

After our shopping expedition my leg was a bit stiff and so
my son lent me his roller to massage the back of my leg.
They laughed but at least it was a bit easier and now it is
almost back to normal

We ventured into Coventry where my son lives on the Saturday. It was not as busy as we were expecting, which was probably a good thing, considering we are not so used to crowds these days. My son's partner was hoping to take her daughter to see Santa but as we queued up we were told that unfortunately the grotto was closing as Santa had thrown up. Too many mince pies already I guess. Very sensibly the young lass decided it wasn't a proper Santa as Santa is never sick and so we toddled off to IKEA where apparently Santa was definitely residing. Ian and I didn't go up to see Santa as my leg was starting to ache by then, so we had a drink and I put my feet up, while we waited. We were also treated to a lovely meal in town.

Yes I was stood at the door of the greenhouse to take these.

Our son's cat. Surprised she is still friends with us as Ian
helped to de-flea her :D

Our son put in a special request for a Christmas breakfast of home-made croissants. It was a tradition in our house to eat those for Christmas and Easter breakfasts and it is nice that he remembers that. I taught our adopted granddaughter how to make them and got her to do all the hard work of rolling them out. Nothing like a little willing slave labour. It also kept her occupied whilst my son and partner went to prepare Christmas meal number two at one of her sister's homes on her mother's side this time. Gammon featured a lot in our meals over the last week! There were some hilarious games to watch in the evening, although I forgot to take photos during The Pooping the Potato Race. A classy game! Not!

Our messy greenhouse in winter

Our Granddaughter opening her
presents

Before rolling into bed, or rather onto the couch, that night I finished off rolling out the croissants one more time and put them in the fridge to rise overnight. We were usually up early enough to put them in the oven in the morning, as we were still on Latvian time at that point. So Christmas morning we began with the unwrapping of presents before our croissants and had a more relaxed day with Christmas dinner in the evening. Yes more gammon!

Brother and sister

Boxing Day we went for lunch in small, quaint village of Knowle, but the restaurant that we planned to go to was not open. We wandered around a bit before I spotted a little Italian that seemed to be open. It looked shut at first but I realised it was actually the estate agents next door that was shut and the unobtrusive doorway to the Italian was on the other side. It turned out to be a delightful discovery with one of the nicest waiters I have known in a while. A family of older people also turned up and they were friendly too. They complimented our adopted granddaughter on her manners, all credit to her super mum. Our little grandson has also been the star wherever we went. His hair always gets comments. We finished off the day with more time spent in the kitchen (just to clarify, that is my son's kitchen not the Italian) cooking more biscuits to take to another family party the next day.

Me and all my grandchildren. I only got into the picture
as the grandson on my knee would not sit for the photo.

So onto the next Christmas meal at our daughter's house, or rather post-Christmas meal since it consisted of cold meat (yes you've guessed it, there was gammon again too) and various salads with a rather nice selection of desserts. It was also our youngest son's 28th birthday. Hard to think our youngest is creeping rather close to his 30s and our older two are already there. It doesn't seem that long ago since they were the same age as our grandchildren and yet in other ways it also seems eons ago. It was quite a gathering of the clan, as my other son and his family came up from the South and my parents joined us as well.

Our sheep, unlike the alpacas seem to have spent most of the
time outdoors in the rain today

It had been planned that our other son would collect one of us from our youngest's as there was not room in the car for both Ian and I and my youngest's son's family. I went in one car and Ian in the other and we set off in convoy. Only that part didn't go according to plan. We were separated early on at a junction and we got behind another car that looked the same as my youngest son's car. We followed for a little while before realising it was not the same car. Thank goodness for SatNavs on phones these days though as it meant we were quickly back on track and just phoned through to say, sorry we weren't following and we would meet at our daughter's. It turned out our route was the fastest as there was an accident along the route my youngest son took and we were there a good half hour before him. There was some teasing!

Our cats disgraced themselves. They got into the cabinet
where the food is, although I suspect it was the other one,
as that was her trick. The food was relocated to a drawer they
cannot get into

My youngest son went home with his family that evening and Ian and I stayed on at our daughter's along with our older son. In the morning Ian and I met up with Ian's old boss from his time of working in the hospital labs. As I mentioned back in mid-November I received an odd email telling us that his old boss was retiring and they were planning a party. It was odd in the fact the email came to me and not to Ian. Ian got in touch with his old boss and had a bit of an email exchange where he arranged the meeting at Chatsworth Farm Shop for breakfast. It was an amazing conversation of catching up on folks who Ian has worked with. Some sadly have died, many have retired and some still working at the hospital.

He wasn't going to let me get a picture of him, he kept
running to the back. 

Most of the time we didn't go out or do anything special but the children played together quite nicely, which is great. It was a good job they did too as the weather wasn't altogether pleasant and one of them in particular did not like the wet snow. There was one point when all the guys went out to get a tyre fixed as it kept going down on my son's car. It turned out there was a nail in it. When they got back, my daughter, my daughter-in-law and I went out for a coffee and we left the guys with the little ones. I was very proud of my husband, he instantly realised what I meant when I said we were going for a coffee and had no qualms about being left with the little ones. It seemed only fair!

The cockerels in this ark are still not
crowing. Looks like it could be anytime
soon though

It was a bit like Christmas before we set off to the UK, as Ian got a microscope. We were panicking as it arrived the afternoon before we left. He had ordered other parts for his parasitology testing kit to arrive in the UK as it was cheaper, but the microscope would have been more difficult to bring back. There wasn't much time to have a look and play, but it was enough to find out that the eye piece camera was not working on our Macs, even with a Windows adaptation. Ian popped the camera into his luggage and we took it along for our son-in-law to have a look at. Eventually it was decided that we could take another laptop back with us that would work with the camera. I think it is the first laptop we have owned that is not a Mac. We had been falling out of love with Apple just lately and so not too traumatised, except for trying to get it in and out of my rucksack at the airport - small and lightweight it is not, but it works and that is all that matters.

This chap maybe the smallest cockerel but he is definitely
crowing and harassing the females

The next day our daughter and son-in-law left their oldest two with our son and daughter-in-law while they drove us back to our youngest's home. I still had another sewing project to do with our adopted granddaughter on the present I had given her. The present was simple enough, a Japanese knot bag pattern that I had printed out with a piece of dyed woollen blanket and some felt and buttons for flowers. Rather than expect her Mum to help her though, I said I would help her make it before I left. So in the time between visiting her Dad and going to the pantomime we made the bag on my Granddaughter's new sewing machine. It was a nice way to finish off a family Christmas.

Well it was dark and miserable, so lots of chicken photos

So on the last day of the year we headed home. Unfortunately Ian was not so well and we had to dose him up before the plane travel. I had got a sore throat from the kids over a 24 hour period but had recovered by the time we set off,  Ian though seems to have come down with something more. At least the staff at Manchester airport were incredibly friendly, even in security. I have never had a pat down done by such a pleasant member of staff. One of the staff also carried my tray to a table rather than leave me to it. Their approach, I felt, really kept things moving along and left us feeling well cared for rather than traumatised going through security. Not that we have ever been thoroughly traumatised, but it often feels like an ordeal rather than something that just has to be gone through. We also got chatting to a guy on a sandwich counter - mind you I think he was perhaps a little bored, but it filled in time.

Our Grandson is not the only one with a quirky hair do

Hoping to have eggs from these soon

So after a busy Christmas we headed for bed. I did get up in the night when the fireworks started, as I knew they would be loud. I also made the porridge for the morning as we hadn't done it earlier. When all was quiet it was time to head back to bed. We woke up late but it was so dark and miserable, it didn't really matter that much we were late for letting the animals out. They hardly went out anyway during the day. They seem to have developed an aversion to the white stuff that we had on the ground again.

The herb bed and vegetable garden. Needless to say I didn't
bother trying to dig carrots or leeks today

So that just leaves me to say, I hope you all had a Happy Christmas, whether it was as busy as ours this year or more like some of our previous ones where we took things easy. I also wish you all the best for the New Year. May your year ahead be filled with precious moments.

Here comes summer

You can see how much greener the grass is. This rainbow
is the lowest rainbow I have ever seen out on the land

 Summer’s here! The caravan is out of the greenhouse, the chickens in the arks are out too, the swallows are back and so are the cuckoos and the weather is forecast to rain! About right then!

Ian out working well into the evening. He is using the
spring tyne to break up the land for rotavating. These
areas are still too wet for the rotavator and so he needs them
to dry out a bit and this should help break it up and take
out any big stones or large chunks of grass.

The days are getting longer and today we were outside working until gone 7pm. I managed to get quite a few different seeds in and vegetable beds mulched up in preparation for the rain. I even lightly mulched the seed beds so they don’t all wash out again. There are still plenty of seeds to go in and some to start off next week, but it has been a good start. I have been potting up tomato plants too. They are only small and certainly not the size of the ones we saw in the Spring Market today that was taking place in our village. There are definitely some advantages to heated greenhouses or lots of windowsill space. Still the ones I have started will be ready in time to go in the greenhouse when the time is right for transplanting. There is not much use in getting them in too early, as a late spate of cold weather can kill the lot, even in the greenhouse.

A funny face from our grandson

Ian had a good time away. He was rather surprised to see our youngest at the airport, he hadn’t been expecting him. Ian picked up a car and found he had been given a very good upgrade. He had booked a small car and instead got a bigger car with bells and whistles, fortunately it was also a diesel and best of all it even had a sat nav. He was so pleased about that, as he doesn’t think he could have found the farm where he was doing the alpaca shearing course without it. Ian and our youngest both went down to our middle child’s place as Ian was staying there overnight, so he could see the newest addition to the family. Lucky person! He also got fish and chips in the evening and had sausage and bacon butties for brunch. A real britfest there.

The newest addition to our family

As promised, some pictures from the conference I was at
last week. This shows the tables set for the dinner - doesn't
it look posh?

Ian also went to see a lady who I got to know via her blog, she makes the most wonderful pieces of artwork, so full of vibrant colour and she spins. Not only does she spin she knows how to spin alpaca wool. It turns out she only lives around the corner from our son and his family and so was an ideal opportunity to meet up. Ian took her some of our alpaca wool and had a quick lesson in how to spin. Apparently he has the right technique and should be able to get the hang of it. Now all he needs is a spinning wheel.

The submarine that we sat near for dinner
at Seaplane Harbour Museum

This caught my friend and I by surprise.
Before we realised what we were doing, we
 found ourselves going up a very steep incline
and then we had to make our way down it.  I think
if we had realised how steep it was going to be
we would have found the alternative route around
the place.

This is the contraption we were climbing. Not quite sure what
it is, apart from a steep bridge that is quite slippy to climb

He then went onto stay with a friend of ours who we also got to know through this blog. She came out to stay with us a few years ago and we had a great time. She lived closer to the place where Ian was taking the course. At one point I asked her if she could pass a message onto Ian via facebook and found out that they had done a LOT of talking. Once you get Ian started, you can’t shut him up (hehe we’re as bad as each other).

Lunchtime for me. Squash, nettles, chilli and peppers

Ian was delighted to get the chance to shear about 5 alpacas. It certainly took him a lot less time than he has taken to do ours, 20 minutes as opposed to two hours. He also found out the best way to secure the animals and so he is now trying to source some pulleys that they normally use on yachts, so he can create a similar set up. He found out how to cut teeth using a special machine, only we can't now find the machine. Their's is about 10 years old and is an attachment that can be used on various machines. It seems that the only gadget is the one that Ian found on the internet and costs hundreds of dollars and yes is American, so would need to be run through a transformer.

The barley has finally sprouted

While Ian was away I asked him what I should do with the alpaca boys as Herkules was up to his usual trick of eating through the fence. Ian said not to worry, he will move the electric fence when he gets back. The next morning I sat down for a cup of coffee whilst watching the alpacas, when I noticed that dear old Herkules had got out. The problem is that he got out in a way that I didn't think he would find his way back in so easily. So I thought I had better encourage him back in. I made the mistake though of not first fastening the other two into the paddock and Herkules was not cooperating, he rather liked the very green grass he was eating. Before I had a chance to react, Turbjørn nipped through the spot which I had opened up to let Herkules back in. He is the most awkward of our alpacas to cooperate. He is very bright and very nervy too and not as easy to con into doing anything. To cap it all Tellus got out as well.

One of the gooseberries we purchased
today from the Spring Market

All three out now meant that herd mentality would kick in and they could just drift off, eating as they go. I tried to encourage them in but realised it wasn't working, they were too interested in the grass they weren't even interested in the grain. I left them to it for a while, no point in spooking them. I went and got some hay to part fill up their feeder and took some to the sheep who also needed moving and so needed the hay to eat. I didn't want them out, that would have been a disaster. Next I played the gently as we go game, making sure they didn't head off in the wrong direction and just gradually manoeuvring them back in. One by one I got them all into the paddock area. Next I decided to move the electric fence so that they wouldn't think of escaping again. By the time I had finished that it was lunchtime and my morning had disappeared.

Red currants. Might not look much now
but hopefully they will grow. We also
bought male and female sea buckthorn,
quince and potatoes for planting.

It wouldn't have been so bad, but I had two deadlines for papers to be submitted by the following day and I had hoped to get them done that day before I went to collect Ian from the airport at night. Amazingly I actually got them both finished and submitted, even though one needed checking over by a colleague and I needed permission from a couple of photographers to use their photographs for the other one. Sometimes things do come together after all. At least it meant that I only had to do some quick checking of one of my student's work the next day, which meant that Ian and I could actually spend time chatting and pottering about on the land. I have enjoyed a whole long holiday weekend doing the gardening, either at our other flat or out on the land. It was wonderful not to have to do too much in the way of thinking beyond digging up weeds and planting seeds.

The result of my work in the orchard plot vegetable garden.
At least half the plot now looks nice and neat. Still have the
bottom half to work on yet.

Ian did get the sheep moved finally. Far, far away - well over the hill really. The grass is definitely good on that side and he doesn't have to listen to their very loud baaing. I am sure they are the loudest sheep ever and very demanding at times. We think that they have helped to improve the grass a lot on that side through their manuring and eating down of some of the weeds. That means we have another area of good hay now. Ian went to check on them on the way home one night. He stopped the car by the side of the road and went towards them, they panicked and jumped the fence and ran up the hill. Ian is not sure if coming from that angle spooked them or if it was the reflective, light, green stripes on his new coat. Anyway he had to get back in the car, go back to the greenhouse where grain is stored and entice them back into their electric fenced areas. Fortunately these days they do follow him when he has food and they were quite content to go back, where they have since stayed.

From somewhere

A frosty morning in Tartu

What a week! Now let me get this straight, I'm in Estonia, it's 8:33pm at night on a Monday and therefore blog night. Right I think I have that all in order now. Can you tell it's been one of those weeks? It started off on Tuesday with one of those freezing cold days where the wind blows through you, just perfect for a train journey that didn't go completely to plan. I have two wonderful conductors to thank for making sure I got to my destination of Riga, otherwise I am not sure if I would have. One young man collected the train fare, but he didn't seem very confident with me, yet very chatty to all the other passengers, later I found out why. Just before I got to the station Valmeira in the north of Latvia, he came up with another conductor who spoke English and he told me that the train was stopping and we would have to take the bus for four stops. All well and good, but it wasn't immediately obvious which bus, that was because we ended up waiting about 20 minutes in the freezing cold for it to arrive. When I realised that it wasn't coming immediately a minor panic set in as I was meant to be meeting with someone. The nice young chap helped me work out what time I would arrive and I contacted the anthropologist I was meant to be meeting to make sure he knew I would possibly be late. The conductor chappy also made sure I was off the bus and back onto the train and alls well that ends well on that one, apart from being made to wait again in the cold before they let us, including the conductors, on the train. I was freezing by the time I got to Riga.

A beautiful but unwanted guest to our land. Stories abound
of these little fellas getting into chicken houses and causing
mayhem as they go into a frenzy and kill every sleeping
chicken in the hen house. This one will not be
causing mayhem

The meeting with the anthropologist went really well. It was nice to be able to talk about my observations of Latvian life and hear some extra pieces of information that made so much sense. It was also nice to hear it from someone who was firstly Latvian but also used to deeply observing his own culture. That's not to say I go around minutely observing my friends and neighbours you understand, it is just observations from trying to make our way around in a different culture to the one we grew up in. It is also the sort of observations made in trying to work out plans for ways forward in our community. We have both, observed the tendency amongst the authorities and NGOs to call something participatory, when all it is doing is ticking boxes for consultation with "the public" in a very loose sense of the word. I am glad we both agree that something has to improve for people to be given a genuine say in what is developed in this country of Latvia. I will see where this link takes me and I am pleased to have someone to contact to be able to ask questions when I am puzzled about something or need confirmation. Certainly worth having to catch the later bus for.

Three happy grandchildren. It was about the closest we got
to all looking in the right kind of direction with a smile

You may have guessed this wasn't a usual Estonia-Latvia backwards and forwards type of week, I have also fitted in a visit to the UK too accompanied by my lovely hubby. Only he wasn't very lovely this morning as I woke him too early. He was tired bless him, and we just arrived back from the UK yesterday (oh yes we missed THE storm) and so while it meant we actually got to lie in an extra hour yesterday and so 4:30am didn't seem quite as bad as it could have been, it did mean by the time we got back home we were not bouncing around and for probably the first time in our married life, he did not change the clocks before we went to bed, hence me being up too early. It was really 5:30am and not 6:30am like I thought. Heh ho! We'll live. The reason for visiting the UK was a chance over the course of the weekend to meet the family, our kids, their spouses, their children, my parents, my sister and her family. It was a bit of a take over, we took over a house, took over a cafe, took over a park (okay not really a took over as there was plenty of room) and took over a pub. I guess that's what happens when families expand. It was sad it couldn't be longer and I hope we can have some more times when we can meet, but for this season we take the opportunities as they arise, no matter how short.

Café takeover. We squeezed in, just with all the strollers

One of the things about travelling is you begin to realise how important toilets are. Not a delicate subject I know, but you know this is the stuff of life. Tartu train station in Estonia has toilets that are immaculate, up-to-date (apart from having to chuck your loo paper in a bin -trash can- rather than down the loo due to the inefficient drain systems) and they are free. Riga train station in Latvia has a lady who collects your 20 santims and next to her on a stick is a toilet roll from which you take your toilet paper before heading to the loo. The toilets are clean and yes you have to put the paper in a bin and not put it down the loo again, but why can't they trust you with a toilet roll? How much would it cost them to put loo roll holders in each toilet? Rome has a problem with the drains too and so despite the fact that Rome airport has modern looking toilet facilities that are regularly cleaned, the smell is awful - at least it was in the middle of summer when I was there. Modern and clean looking toilets with access to loo paper, preferably free so you don't get caught short without enough change says a lot about a place I feel. It reflects well and reduces stress. It made a difference today to visit a nice little cafe whilst driving back up North to Estonia which had lovely toilets. I badly needed a coffee to stay awake and the fresh out of the oven biezpiena cake (sort of like a cottage cheese cake) was wonderful, a log fire and clean toilets too - what more could you ask for?

The park takeover, yes they are all our kids and families,
well some of them anyway. I didn't manage to get
a picture of the pub takeover, I was too busy stuffing myself. 

Our animals played up for us, both before and after we went away. They seem just like children when the babysitter is about to arrive, making life difficult for the parents. Before we left, the boys escaped their fence and took a lot of rounding up and persuading to go in their shed and the girls were difficult too. The day we came back, the chicks didn't all go in without a bit of persuasion, the girls led us a merry dance around the paddock before we got them cornered and leashed up to lead them in and two of the big chickens got left out for the night as they weren't cooperating either. The boys had to be persuaded again to go in. Apparently tonight though, all but our cockerel were well behaved. From now on our cockerel shall be named chicken stew, his days are numbered. Think we've worked out why one of our chickens is missing this week and it doesn't bode well. Ian was working in the barn threshing buckwheat, which our chickens adore, when suddenly the chickens hurtled into the barn. Ian stood up to shoo them away, thinking they were after the grain when he realised that there was a bird of prey chasing them and got within a metre of one of them. Fortunately the bird saw Ian and executed an about turn and headed away, meanwhile our chickens went very quiet. We do wonder if that is the reason for the disappearance as they chickens have seemed a little subdued just lately.

House in Tartu

Not quite on the subject of animals or families but certainly something to do with the land we manage, we declined some bags of chemical fertiliser. We were offered several large bags of the fertiliser and we had to weigh up the pros and cons of whether to use them or not. A one off application, probably wouldn't do a huge amount of harm, but we decided that the possible risk to the soil organisms and the possibility it might just fertilise the weeds instead of the grass meant we decided against it. We'll stick to rotating our animals around more instead. We just have to work out how to do that and teach them to follow Ian to new pastures. May take time but I think we are getting there.

Down under

Singapore airport

Well to continue on from last week's blog, I am now sitting in Australia typing up the blog. My very quick update to say the blog would be late because I was travelling was sent from Singapore, our stopover to Perth. We have never been to Singapore and didn't get to see much of it at all, or many people come to that as the airport was rather quiet. The view from the airplane showed a very green land with lots of flowers, rather different from the cold Spring we had just left in the UK. It was sad to say goodbye to our new grandson and his parents, but exciting in another way as we were about to see our daughter, her husband and their even newer baby. Our daughter was fortunately discharged from hospital in plenty of time to meet us at the airport and so we got to see the new baby straight away.

Picnic in the park. Yes no blue skies but I think I still
caught the sun a little

We haven't done a great deal here in Australia for several reasons, firstly tiredness of course, secondly our daughter is not up to long trips out just yet and mainly because the whole purpose of our visit was to visit our little Aussie grandchild. One of our daughter's friends came to visit, someone who we got to know quite well from our last visit as we stayed in her house and our daughter's wedding was held there, so it was nice to meet up again. Whilst she was here she called Ian a "baby whisperer" which sounds very apt, as he is still showing his flair for being able to get little ones off to sleep. We have though visited a glorified car boot sale place or in this case called a community market, as our daughter wanted some metal art that costs a fortune in boutique kinds of places, but was more reasonable in this particular market, we have walked to the shops - a feat in itself with a new buggy, they just don't handle the same way they used to  and we had a picnic in the park today. Not the sort of thing that we could do in Latvia and was even a tad too cold in England, but despite sliding into autumn in the land down under we are in shorts and t-shirts and revelling the sight of green grass.

The picture you were waiting for, our little granddaughter.

There is one visit I would rather have not have made this week and that is to the dentist. My teeth felt fine when in Latvia, but whether it is the travel or the change in diet they started to ache in the UK and by the time we got to Australia I was starting to have some real problems. Our daughter and her husband haven't had the chance or necessity to find a good dentist yet and so I ended up scouting one out for them that had been recommended. An honour I assure you I would rather have not undertaken on their behalf. It would appear that one of the nerves in my tooth was dying and an infection setting in, so an x-ray, a new filling, some digging around in nerve canals and antibiotic paste and you can tell the dollars were adding up. Let us say it cost a tad bit more than it would have done in Latvia and was only a temporary fix until I get back home for the works - aren't I looking forward to that!!!!!!! I will have to let you know next week if it was a success as my tooth still aches and I went and got the antibiotics that   the dentist gave me on prescription today, as it is still not settled yet.

Not something you see every day in Latvia

I have to say I am a little tired of being sick now, it seems to be one thing after another. My arm is still not 100%, although much better than it was last week. I have been threatened with the doctors when I get back, unless my arm is up to lugging bales of hay around. Typically of course I very, very rarely get stopped in security and yet with my sore arm I did, not once but twice. Each time I had to explain I couldn't hold my arm up properly as it was sore, especially problematic in an all body scanner where you are supposed to assume a pose with feet wide apart and hands above your head. Fortunately the lady security officers in both cases, were very sympathetic and gentle, in fact I think they were a little scared of injuring me further, which I found mildly amusing. In the end I did work out that even though my shoes appeared to have very little metal in them, there must have been more sewn into them and so on the third trip through a security scan I took them off. I shall have to remember that on future occasions, as I am likely to be travelling a little more often in the next few years.

The grey skies may seem familiar but the
trees somehow do not

The hoover duck, it just seemed to go around as if it was
hoovering up any little tasty treats, rather like our cat

I love visiting our children now that they are adults and seeing what kind of people they have grown into. I am very proud of their thoughtfulness and the conscious decisions they make around what and where they spend their money. Maybe something rubbed off on them, or maybe I can't take any credit for it, but it blesses me anyway. Both our children use local businesses to buy their fruit and veg rather than the local supermarkets by preference, which I find very encouraging. Our son and his wife in the UK use a local greengrocer - such a rarity these days, and my daughter uses a local delivery service. Both are finding the benefits of using these more personal services, getting to know the folks or just enjoying the fresher produce and variety.

This week back home, our alpacas with their other little
helper. I think the weather is a little different to here

The snow melting and the lake filling in. At
least it is going.

Cuddles

Our little helper in the snow that has fallen
since we left Latvia

Last week was a little fraught, trying to get ready whilst still not quite so well. I had hoped to get my uni work done before going away, but that wasn't going to happen, I just couldn't manage getting all our stuff washed, the house clean and be coherent enough to work my way through my assignments. Ian had also hoped to get a lot of preparation work done on the land to make sure we didn't get flooding whilst away, but that needed some snow to start melting and there wasn't much of that happening, in fact he was even on yet more snow clearing duty just before we went after another snow fall. When we left to travel to England on the Wednesday it was -18C - rather cold for March, even in Latvia. Our neighbour from our apartment block is looking after things while we are away and sent pictures of even more snow since we have gone. Apparently her son was going to clean the snow away, bless him, that would be a lot of cleaning if he managed it and he's only little - my little helper in the summer for those who remember those posts.

Pops in his favourite pose

England was warmer, but not as much as we would have thought. Although it was cold in Latvia, it is often without the stiff breeze that you get near the coast in England. Our leggings went back on and the fleeces dug back out as it tried to snow, fortunately it didn't succeed in doing more than producing a few flakes in the breeze. Our welcome from our son, his wife and new baby was warm though. It has been a pleasure to see our son enjoying fatherhood and working well with the baby. None of this hands off or awkwardness that you sometimes see in new fathers. Ian hasn't lost the knack of getting babies off to sleep though. The little one had been ill the week before and so was a little more grizzly at times and Pops, as Ian is called, was able to get him off to sleep. As the week went on, the little one got better and we could see his smiley little character come through more and more - yes we are quite smitten and yes we got plenty of cuddles.

After the Thanksgiving, four generations!

My parents came down for the weekend too as there was a Thanksgiving for our son's little one, so we went out for walks, ate out quite a bit and generally enjoyed the company. We went out to a lovely fish restaurant and Ian and I shared a meze fish meal - well it saved us having to decide which fish we wanted to eat. We do like fish and it is not something we can easily obtain in our rural village in Latvia, unless we take up fishing ourselves. On one of our walks we found a little craft fair, which wasn't brilliant, apart from one stall which had novel gift items. There were cup cake baby socks and baby items put together in such a way it looked like a pram - very ingenious, maybe more expensive than buying just a pair of socks and a couple of mini silicone rubber cupcake cases, but so interesting and different they made a lovely little gift for grandchild number two.

Arundel castle

It was a sign of the times that our new granddaughter was announced to us via email on our son's smartphone while we were out and about, but the announcement was almost instantaneous. Despite the fact our daughter was in Australia and we were in the UK, we were able to keep up-to-date with the labour, or unfortunately, the lack of labour and the resulting c-section. We were able to send comments and encouragements along the way and when she was bored in hospital waiting for the her baby to put in an appearance we were able to email back and forth. Makes quite a difference to the times when someone might be aware that a family member was going into hospital but you then had to wait until after the birth and dad had got sent home to find out what happened. Amazing what differences new technologies can make.

A little different from Latvia, still cold though

By the way, sorry for the delay in updating the blog but all will be revealed next week