Spring? How did that happen?

The silver birch trees were bare when I left and now they are
green

I went up to Tartu this last week and when I left the trees were bare, when I came back many trees had popped their leaves and there was a green haze in the forest. On the Tuesday morning when I went to catch the 6:55am bus, it was freezing. The temperature was -3C and I had to wear a light winter coat. After about half an hour on the bus my feet were numb with cold and I was pulling the coat tightly around me. Shortly afterwards the bus stopped to pick up a group of students of varying ages. They mainly looked dressed for warmer weather. One young chap looked like he had literally rolled out of bed, put some clothes on and headed out of the door. His hair was tousled and he had that glazed look on his face that said he had not engaged fully with the world yet. Just behind him were two young chaps dressed in shorts and t-shirts. I know the sun was shining but really, it was not that warm.

Someone else doesn't look like a morning person. Although to
be hones this was the evening. It is a good job Josefs is going
to be sheared soon. He needs that hair out of his eyes. Tonight
he and Josefs went to join the big boys. There was much
moaning from Josefs.

Jakobs didn't moan so much about the move. We'll see
how he gets on tomorrow. He is so little unlike Josefs, who
is nearly as big as Freddie and George, despite being a year
younger.

The Cesis opera house

I got into Cesis and headed for my cheap and quiet working place for the next three hours. It is cheap enough for me to keep me supplied with tea or coffee and a light meal before heading for the train and quiet enough to work without interruptions. I also don't have to pay for the loo either, unlike in the train station. A bonus with a supply of tea. Around midday it was time to set off to catch the train and as I sat in the blazing sun on the station platform, I began to realise that perhaps the young chaps weren't that daft as I was boiling. Shorts didn't seem quite such a silly idea afterall.

The new section of the opera house. A
grand place for such a little town, but
well used even so.

A ring side seat to listen to the opera singer
practicisng 

Cesis centre

The sun shone nearly all week, just for a change (said with heavy sarcasm since we have hardly had any rain whatsoever during the whole of April). We did have one downpour while I was in Tartu and I nearly felt like going outside and dancing in the rain. I refrained as I would have had to sit in presentations with damp clothes as I hadn't even brought a coat with me that day. There was no forecast of rain so it was a bit of a shock. Unfortunately for Ian there were only a few small spots of rain on the land and not enough to give the grass a good soaking. Where the vegetation is finding the water is anyone's guess because surprisingly even the ground is starting to green up. Of course with the good weather I was working in an office, but I did get to see an enormous gaggle of geese fly over at one point. I feel sorry for you folks who have to work in an office normally. I was back to my normal pattern of work today, taking computer breaks by checking on our chickens to see if they have laid eggs. Just what the doctor ordered.

A Cesis rooftop

I love the shape of this one. It looks like a hat

A street in Cesis

Part of the castle walls in Cesis

I don't think this gives an idea of the scale of this monster,
but the building behind is a two storey gym

The week at the university coincided with an agricultural exhibition. The university I work for, used to be the agricultural college before becoming a university, which is why we have a veterinary, forestry and various agricultural departments. I don't think that the large agricultural equipment is the way to go to feed the world, but they are certainly amazing to see and the ones I did see are not the biggest either. It is no wonder the agricultural soils get compacted.

Just a little cab

But from this angle you get more of an idea of scale

Hello! Who are you? The two groups of girls have fences
next to each other for the first time. We wouldn't be
doing this if they were of the opposite sex, there would be
trouble.

Out on our land we do not get out on a frequent basis to socialise as there is so much to do, but this week I managed to spend just about every evening at one social event or another. As an introvert it is quite nice to just chill this evening. The first event was a barbecue with my departmental colleagues. I don't actually get to see them that often, even if I am up in Tartu because I am working in another building, so it was nice to meet up with them again in an informal setting.

Mari is fascinated by the other girls

Veronica is more interested in just eating grass

The next night I took my friend out to dinner as a thank you for doing lots of editing for me. The following evening was a little more stressful as I needed to network at an Estonian Sociology conference. Estonians are just as introverted as I am and so it took me a little while before finding someone who looked outgoing enough to be able to chat to. A friend of mine turned up eventually too. He is someone I had met at other meetings and we have a lot of research interests in common, so we were using the opportunity to catch up. He normally works in the UK so was an ideal opportunity. I only found out about the conference from him anyway. Lastly there was another barbecue to celebrate a friend's 65th birthday. So much for quiet night ins with my friend having a natter.

Graffti in Tartu

A mural in Tartu. They have quite a few murals on
the sides of buildings

Dry and dusty already. We expect the road to be like this in
the middle of summer

There was a bit of a panic for Ian midweek. He even phoned me, he was that worried about Mr. P. He rang to let me know he had called the vet out as he seemed to be laboured in his breathing. We are thinking he might have hayfever. He seems to react to dusty hay more than the others and the trees are certainly starting to spread their pollen about. The vet gave him steroid and anti-histamine injections and tonight he just seems to have hiccups and not too bad with his breathing.

The caravan needs a wash, but it is out in its usual spot

At least these ones seem happy enough. They have got the
hang of feeding time.

We had chicks hatch this week too but disastrously one group got overheated and died. If they had been outside of the greenhouse they would have died of cold as there has been a chill wind, but unfortunately the greenhouse obviously got too warm for new chicks and Ian had been busy working at the camp. The older ones were fine. At least we have nine that seem to be quite healthy. We had the normal one with a gammy leg that eventually died, they rarely survive and one just died for seemingly no reason. Not a good result from this hatch really as 25 eggs were set. Maybe some of the eggs were too cold to start off with. We'll only set some more away if someone else wants a batch as we probably have enough for now. We have enough to replace any hens that we might need to.

Poor Chanel is already attracting the flies

If you look carefully on this photo, you will
see tracks up the middle. Someone has
been driving across our land. Not good

Freddie looking rather grown up these days

George still looks a bit of a scamp though

The green haze

The untidy post-winter Greenhouse. I think I have quite a bit
of tidying to do.

Now I can grow my own alpacas!
A surprise present from a friend
that I got for my birthday but only
arrived whilst in Tartu

At first I thought this was my
present from my daughter

but inside was a pebble picture

All these cards arrived while I was away. The disadvantage
of having a birthday over the long Easter weekend

Puddles and squashes

Autumn begins

I forgot to mention last week, the storks have gone! We saw some circling around on a Sunday a couple of weeks ago and then we saw just a few after that - the stragglers. Definitely all gone now though (well that's what we thought until we saw one very lonesome looking stork on the way into Riga). With the exit of the storks, the trees have taken their cue and decided it's autumn and autumn colours are beginning to tinge the countryside. We even had our first proper rainfall in a few weeks, enough to actually wet the ground. We badly, badly need the rain as our ponds are almost down to a puddle. I have never seen them so low, even in the last hot dry summer three years ago, which is bad news as we still have the greenhouse to water and now have to think about bringing in water for the animals as there hasn't been enough rainwater collected off our caravan and the pond water is too low to give them that. At least the cooler days means they don't need quite so much water and there is lots of moisture on the grass first thing in the morning. That is something that has really surprised us this year, that despite the lack of rain, there is so much dew that the grass is actually growing quite well.

One of our pond puddles

We managed to collect the most important crop of the year in this week, our potatoes. As usual the potatoes were grown on two separate crops, one had a good amount of potatoes but a lot of blighted ones too, one had lots of small potatoes but some of the plants were still green too. We decided to only lift half of those and see if leaving it till later would mean a bigger crop. Not sure if maybe the different variety we bought in this year was just a later maturing crop or it was due to the place they were planted and the type of year we've had. Oh well! As a gardener you are always living and learning and there is always next year. At least this year we have more potatoes than last year, that's a blessing as we are not planning lots of trips away, well Ian isn't.

Well I'm okay now! 

Another surprising thing this year, we saw a  squirrel. A very skinny looking brown/red squirrel. We didn't get a good look at it as it was while we were driving along and it very nearly ran out in front of us. Now that would have been just typical if the first time we see a squirrel in this country we ran over it, but fortunately it took a double take and decided to scamper back into the woods. We feel sure it has heard there are hazelnuts on our land. That's another first too, we haven't seen those around our place, hazels yes but none with the nuts on. I have some sad news too this week. We lost six chicks in all, to whatever ailed them last week. Not exactly very good at all, but at least the rest have perked up and looking pretty good now. Even the big chickens are looking much better after their bout of illness, not related to the chicks, but some mould in the buckwheat made them wheezy. Just one hen is still causing us some concern, but they are starting to roam around again and it probably won't be long before they are all being a nuisance again.

Gaining trust!

I have been rushing to get some work done this week for my paid employment before the start of the new university semester. I have taken a step back in my job and I will no longer moderate the student cafe that I have been doing for the last 9 years, a younger lass is taking that bit on. It means I don't have to be online all the time, which makes it easier when I am jetting off here there and everywhere. I also felt I was getting too old for chit chat with teenagers all the time. I love talking to teenagers, but not for a job any more. I'm still around for trouble shooting and I have some bible studies to do. There is still some details to work out as to what else I do, but it will be nice to make a change.

Morning mist

There has been frustrations galore this week. I had to redo a proposal for a doctoral seminar. Basically it means writing a piece that they think is acceptable to be discussed amongst my peers, well I made a complete hash of it. I hadn't been able to get hold of my supervisors (holiday time) until this week to get it amended and so I had to redo it all before Friday. I got something together anyway that was acceptable, but it was just a hassle I could do without. Deep joy! I wouldn't mind but I made some terribly basic mistakes, the sort of mistake that had my kids done it when doing home-ed I would have asked them if they had actually read what they were meant to do. I think my mind is still too distracted and I need to de-clutter it sometime. At least I don't feel so tired as I did about three weeks ago, the iron tablets seem to be having an effect. Going up and down the stairs doesn't seem such a hassle either now.

Horsetails looking bejewelled in the dew. Pity we don't
actually want horsetails in our field but they look pretty

At least I managed to get a poster printed on time. I have to take that with me to a course I am attending in France this week. I was so pleased that they were able to do it and have it delivered to the apartment by Friday. I was even more pleased when I saw the van roll up outside the house, I could have kissed the guy, but I don't think he would have appreciated it. I even have business cards now, the poster and cards are all designed by my youngest son. He can do the work a lot faster with the software that he has than I can. The problem with the poster though is that firstly it didn't come in a cardboard tube, just thin card surround it and bubble wrap and secondly it will only go in one of our large cases and not wrapped in the card or bubble wrap. I have wrapped the poster around certain items of underwear and put a large towel on top of my clothes and under the poster. The bubble wrap was then put across the top of it. Hopefully that will stop it from getting crushed and I just hope I don't get stopped to open my case.

Another beautiful summer's day in the nearest big town to
us.

We have made some progress on the house. We now have our address and we went to the notary to sort out a contract with the owner of the land, to get a lease. Only the owner of the land is in Canada and we have power of attorney for her. This meant that one of us represented the owner and one of us represented us. So Ian is leasing the land from me in effect and he has to pay me 10 Lats (£12) a year (I won't spend it all at once, honest). We had an issue at first as the notary would not handle the writing of the contract, as we don't speak Latvian, but she said we could write out a contract between us ourselves using an online template and she could notarise it (legalise it), as long as we had a translator present. Off we went to the architects office and the architect wrote out the contract, she also managed to get a translator - an English teacher from one of the local schools. A very nice fellow indeed. Needless to say we now have his number in case we need his services again and I'm sure we will. He nearly didn't take any payment either as he said the architect had done most of the work, we still gave him a token payment anyway.

Nice and clean and don't the squashes look nice on the
windowsill

I spent Sunday cleaning though. We have visitors today and our apartments needed floors washing. The problem with summer is there is not that much time to do it and so it needed to be done. It wasn't just the floors though, there were squashes that needed a wash and laying out, onions needed outer skins taking off and soil removing before putting neatly into some baskets. All jobs that have sat there for a couple of weeks. We have over 100 squashes now, to last us through to next year. They are not just for us but also the animals. I like squash because you just plant them, they may take a bit of time to really get into their stride but then they just sprawl over the place and take care of themselves by smothering everything in their path. The squash just then need cutting off the plant, curing the outer skins so they are nice and hard and then leaving until winter time. Some squash last just up to Christmas, some into the new year and some we have this year, should last through until this time next year if we wanted to. They are great winter food and when they do start to go off they can be made into preserves or frozen at a time of the year when there isn't that much to do and it isn't that much of a problem to have the oven/cooker/fire on all day. Easy! This year it will be even easier as the animals will be getting the majority of them. Even if we are a fan of the squashes we grow, we can't really eat that many of them.

Close up on the bedroom windowsill

Bedroom 2

Kitchen windowsill

Living room windowsill. Do you think anyone will notice
that we use this apartment as a storage place too?

See you hardly notice them

Not so sure where these will go though! 

It's a hard life

There is definitely no blog next week. As I said I am swanning off to the South of France, ten days up in the mountains. Life's tough heh!

Say hello, say goodbye

This is where we stayed! You can see it in through
the trees! Really you can if you look hard. I
said it was a leafy town

I wrote most of my blog whilst sat in a house in Tartu, Estonia although by the time you read this blog I will  be back home. I was staying in a house, that was the only registered guest house in Tartu during the Soviet era, not that it is a guest house now, it is a family home. I found out that Tartu was a city that could not be visited by just anybody, as it was in a restricted military zone and so all the pretty, leafy streets of this rather interesting place would have been unseen by many. It is really weird to be walking round streets that kind of look similar to Danish, Swedish or Latvian city streets and yet hardly able to read a word of the signs or menus outside the cafes. I feel my brain trying to process the language but not making it. The streets were so similar to Copenhagen at times and the shops in Tartu that we got quite nostalgic about our time when we lived there.

The ruined cathedral in Tartu. Quite a
magnificent set of ruins and people were
playing boules around the perimeter

It is odd how we came to be in Tartu. Firstly the reason I was there was to talk about doing a PhD, something that a friend of ours suggested to me as he teaches in Tartu university. Nothing odd about that, apart from our friendship sprang from doing an internet search on papers written about Latvia, Latvian people and the countryside, of which there are precious few of them. These particular papers had been written by someone with a very English sounding name and so I hunted around to find out more about the author and contacted him - hence our friendship began with him and his wife. The place where we stayed also came about through the internet and an offer of meeting up whilst in Tartu which, turned into an offer of a room overnight. The offer of a room, sure made our stay easier to organise and it was nice to meet a new face. I prayed all morning whilst touring Tartu that I would be able to connect with the right people and that certainly happened. I am happy to say that I now have someone who is willing and able to supervise my PhD and the Specialist in Doctoral Studies is happy to help me gain admission to the university. Now all I have to do is write a good proposal for the area I wish to study and a research plan. It feels very surreal to have got this far.

Our poorly broiler chicken sat in its box

I mentioned last week that we brought home one of our chickens and I thought we would be off to the vets, but by the morning the bird was looking a little perkier and he was packed off and sent back to the ark. It's a good job we didn't try to go to the vets anyway as she was away and the other vet in the village doesn't speak English. All the birds in the one ark were definitely under the weather, lethargic and depressed. and before the week was out we brought another two birds home to be taken care of. We think it was a virus or something like that or maybe just the wrong food in that ark but at least after a couple of days most of them had perked up. Having chickens at home makes us realise that they really are smelly creatures, not good housepets at all. Let us say it is a good job we have tile floors! One of the chickens that was brought home was the female broiler chicken and despite her big size we suspect that she is bottom of the pecking order and maybe not getting enough food as the others grow and take precedence and this didn't help her to throw off the virus/ food bug/whatever. As I write this blog she is sat in the greenhouse in a special box all on her own, hopefully building up strength as she doesn't have to fight for her food.

More ruins, this time at our friends land and a picture specially
taken for a fellow blogger Diane, who is building an amazing
eco house that you can see here

Some of these stones had drill holes in them
the holes are drilled and either explosive added
or water. If water is added the stones are then
set on a fire to heat it to steam that cracks open
the stones. Quite amazing the power of water

A model of the old bridge in Tartu

We met with the young couple again that we saw last Monday and they took us for a tour of their land and heard more of their plans and talked and talked and did I say talk? As if that was not enough we also bumped into them the next day at the hotel and talked and talked and errr talked again. Ideas and possibilities floated back and forth and still we have no idea where this will lead. Progress comes though as people dream and try to live their dreams. Okay there is also hard work and graft to make dreams become reality but without the dream how do you go forward?

Modern Tartu by the river. It was rather dull but at least
it didn't rain until we were inside

We've eaten out a lot this week, which at least means I haven't had to cook much, which is always nice. It is even nicer when there is good company to share it with and the company this week has been a mixture of old and new friends, hence the title "Say hello, say goodbye" as we have been doing a lot of that this week. One American family who came to visit for three months has been the catalyst for many a meal we've had just lately and it has been lovely to share with them and the new people they have introduced us to. One meal we were at we chatted so long it started to get dark and by the time we got to the land we needed the headlights to put away the alpacas again but they weren't playing ball that night, of course they were letting us know they weren't impressed at being put away in the dark yet again. They have also escaped from their temporary enclosure yet again, but fortunately they usually don't go far, although obviously the grass is greener on the other side. I did say that they don't usually go far but the fact is that two of them were away up to our oak hill one day, which is stretching it a bit. We think we have them sorted now though as we have added another layer of wire to the fence, but lower down than you would expect as it means they can't eat underneath the fence. We'll see how that works for now. Our friend was saying that it's the autumn, she doesn't know what gets into the animals, but it seems to make them into escape artists. She used to look after sheep and they would stay quite content in the fields all summer but as soon as autumn started to set in they had a great urge to find pastures new and now her goats are trying the same thing.

This street really reminded us of Copenhagen
with the style of houses and the cafe
culture

We have quite a dilemma now that we have animals. There are difficulties emerging of when to put them away. Too early and it is not fair on the animals, too late and our evening meal is extremely late, especially if I have been out on the land. Do we cook out there? If we do the caravan cooker needs replacing. Do we build a house? That is expensive and where would we build it? Do we stay put in the flat and just try and work a way around it? Decisions decisions. Looks like next year will have some changes in it, but what? We don't know yet! We will have all winter to talk about that I think, well in between writing my proposal that is!