Never boring

Freddie was brave enough to come up and sniff my hat
this week

Sitting around writing can get a bit samey and I certainly do a lot of that it would seem. This last week I have written an abstract for a conference that I might never get to go to due to funding issues. I have continued on the paper I am currently trying to finish off. I have written emails galore and got a good way on with an advertising brochure for our Latvian Alpaca Adventure #2 and now I am writing my blog! I did emerge out of the apartment though from time to time, first to Riga and then out to the land.

King or is it Queen of the castle?

Ian has cut a path so the alpacas have somewhere to walk.
They will walk through the snow but prefer not to and it
is a way of encouraging them to actually get out a bit

The first event of the week was an email sent from my university to say I have been de-matriculated, which sounds kind of painful. If I was sick I could get a doctor's note and I would still be a student, but it seems a bit odd to do that really. It does now mean I cannot access funds for travelling to conferences from the foundation that Estonian students can apply to, hence the funding issues above. Mind you, I never got any money last year either. I can still finish my PhD, that isn't a problem, as soon as I get all three papers published that is. I'm still waiting for paper 2 to be accepted. I should get to hear soon, I hope.

Our old oak tree, always looks its best in winter. It really
stands out then

Looks like Brencis is having a chat with Sofie our cat

There was one day I have a confession to make. Ian rang me from the land to say that there was someone on the way to the apartment to have a look at the issue with our regularly overflowing pipework at the other apartment. I wasn't dressed! I was about 10 minutes later though. I had to take the chap up to the apartment and show him where the problem was. Eventually he got the idea and he said he would go and find our neighbour upstairs and lend him the equipment needed to fix the problem, since the problem (or so I thought) was in his wood store, which is underneath our apartment. I was told by Ian that actually the problem is further underground than that, so hopefully they will sort it out though.

All the boys coming to see Sofie

Ice-skating anyone?

The most eclectic day of the week was Friday. I found out early last week there was an interesting (and free) planning conference in Riga, so I got the 6:40am bus on a cold and chilly morning. The night before I printed off some work to do on the way in, only forgetting it is dark till about 8am and only light enough on the bus to read by about 8:30am. Doh! I was at the stage where reading it on the computer was just not working and needed a paper copy to sort it out. Anyway all was not lost along the route I took a phone call regarding details about selling our apartment and then sent off some emails to chivvy the process along. It also meant I could look out of the window and I spotted three deer running across a field.

Icicles

I was too early for my appointment and so had
a wander around old town Riga. I love old
doors and so took a few pictures

By the time I get into Riga I'm ready to eat — why am I always hungry then? I think it has something to do with trying to eat breakfast too early and arriving not long after normal breakfast time. I would probably be better just having a drink and then having breakfast when I get there, assuming I have time of course. As the conference was mainly in Latvian and only switching to English in the afternoon I decided to see if I could fit in a trip to a shop we hope to visit in June on the holiday tour. The shop is called Hobby Wool and it is a wonderful Aladdin's cave of knitted and felted products and knitting kits. I managed to arrange an appointment with the owner and we sat and chatted about knitting and alpacas. We arranged that we shall have a cup of tea there and a talk from one of the staff about Latvian knitting, particularly their wonderful varied knitting patterns - over 5000 have been catalogued across the country.

The back entrance to Hobby Wool

A little sunshine and blue skies does you good

Did I mention I like old doorways? 

It was still a bit early once I finished there and so decided to walk to the University across the river, but of course it started snowing. Fortunately nothing dire but did end up a little damp on arrival. I should have found the cafe and got something to eat, but didn't as I thought surely they can't factor in a whole day without a lunch break - well the answer is yes they can and so I lasted until I got home mid-evening on biscuits, tea and coffee. It was a good job that I had that extra breakfast earlier.

I said it was chilly. The Daugava river and that is ice floating
down river. Rivers further inland are more iced up than this

A memorial to the barricades built to deter the Soviets
from taking back strategic places in Riga after they
declared independence

The trip was interesting and I met a chap there who now lives in the town where I took my driving test as a teenager in the UK. That's going back some years. He has been to Latvia many times though to study planning and it was interesting to hear he had similar perspectives to me on the way things are in Latvia. It was nice to hear, he also has been ongoing with his PhD over many years, in fact longer than I have apparently. We both love the country but also recognise the challenges.

I am informed (because I know nothing) that these are
Fiat 126s

A metal design on a building

I also got chatting with a lady who has a summer house nearby to us and she was telling me how she regularly comes into our village to buy cheese from the Saturday market. I laughed when she told me who she bought it from. Of course it was my good friend the goat farmer. She also was friends with her. Small world as they say!

Aggie being nosy

Chanel investigating Sofie. The reason Sofie is in so many
pictures is because she was following Ian around all over

After the meeting finished I walked back into Riga centre with the guy from the UK, so I could catch the bus and direct him in the direction he needed to go to meet up with someone later. I got to the bus station with three minutes to spare. The driver was an absolute treasure as he let me pay with a €50 note. I think he knows me and I the fact I haven't done that before. Most would not have accepted that at all. So on the way home on the bus I had a little catch up on FB as you do and I found out that my hubby’s highlight of the day is finally getting poo from one of our alpacas to test. Oh yes and I got an email to say my mammogram from the Monday was clear, so that’s okay. I don't have to wait in the freezing cold again until next year. The things you find out on a bus journey these days!

A little motherly advice?

They sure needed cutting and this is after 2 1/2 months

The weather was supposed to be nice but cold on Sunday, so I went with Ian to help him with cutting the alpaca's toe nails. What I hadn't realised was that there would be a bit of a wind and a northerly one at that, so it wasn't just cold, it was freezing. Still the weather wasn't that bad and the sun did briefly appear. I also applied lots of wonder oil on different animals as it looks like the girls are struggling a bit with the mites. I suspect it is because it hasn't been cold enough to kill off the little critters. Hopefully this week it will. We also gave them all top ups with Vitamin D. I also cleaned out the chickens and was rewarded with an egg left in an accessible position by the chickens that usually lay their eggs on the far side of the ark and in a position I wouldn't be able to reach.

This is the look I usually get from Aggie. She doesn't like
me really! 😁 Can't think why! 

Alpacas often have such smiley faces. Here's our George

The little alpacas are growing up and Freddie now has his own bowl of food each evening. George still won't touch the grain though. George will eat the squash that Ian cuts up, but Freddie won't. I suggested that maybe if he mixed the two together, then they might start eating both. No! Freddie ate all his grain and left the squash and George ate all his squash and left the grain. Pah! Well that didn't work.

Hello

A small rural station on my travels back from Tartu

I find as I travel about it often doesn't hurt to say "Hello! Where are you from?" especially if someone has an English accent and it is somewhere unusual where you wouldn't necessarily expect an English person. I was sitting in the university café in Tartu when I thought I heard the strains of English floating over towards me. It was hard to tell as the gentleman had his back to me and he was an older gentleman, so not very clear, plus my hearing is not great. Eventually he stood up and turned towards me and spoke more clearly to a young man and so I ventured to ask him where he was from. He replied with the uncertain voice of someone who clearly has trouble with the question of, "Where are you from?"something I can relate to and he told me "England." I replied with a smile, "Oh you can be more specific than that. Where exactly?" "The Lake District!" he answered. We chatted on a little more and I explained that I often had travelled up to the Lake District when I was younger to see my godmother, who lived on a sheep farm there.  He asked what her name was and at first I had to think hard, she was always just Aunty Betty to me and I rarely referred to her by her surname, but it came back to me eventually. It turns out he knew her. How amazing is that? Just before we parted company he asked me to send him an email when I was up in Tartu in February, as his wife would love to meet me. "Let's get together and have a cup of tea or a beer" he said. How English!

They are renovating Cesis station. I often see this station
on my travels, because it is also the bus station, so I either
pass by it track side or catch the bus on the other side of the
building. I was thrown this week when I got there and
found the building shut, as I normally buy my ticket there.
Fortunately they have opened a little ticket office nearby.
It should look much nicer when it is finished, it was a bit
gruesome and uninviting on the inside before.

Sorry about the glare and the mucky windows, but just
a typical scene on my journey

So from that little anecdote you can guess I was up in Tartu again this week. I had travelled up for a doctoral seminar with my fellow colleagues from the department. It was very interesting and very encouraging. My supervisor kept pointing out how my knowledge and research would be quite useful to the guy doing the presentation. I was quite surprised how he kept working that in. Afterwards we went through an email that I sent him with a short summary of what I plan to talk about for a conference in April and was rather surprised again to hear him enthusing over a paragraph I had written about how sustainable education needs to have trust, collaboration and a good state of mental health to be effective. To make changes often requires a level of self-esteem that is willing to take risks and unfortunately self-esteem is lacking in Latvia, particularly in the rural areas. People do not often trust each other and therefore unwilling to collaborate, but this also is linked to the way people feel about themselves. I wasn't expecting such a positive reception to what I had written, particularly as the day prior to the email, I had no idea what I would write and then following a bit of a brainwave I threw some thoughts together and emailed those to him. Maybe, just maybe things are coming together a bit in my head!

Another typical sight along the track. Not sure what this
container would be carrying, but many similar ones would
be carrying oil from Russia.

I love the snowy scenes of winter

Unusually for me, I went out for two evenings that I was in Tartu. The first night was to a sort of Thanksgiving party with just desserts available. There seemed to be every imaginable type there and it was hard making a decision, but I managed to restrict myself to only four. I hasten to add, that was four small portions. The next night was to a ladies evening, where pedicures and manicures were on offer. Ian said I should have a video taken of the pedicure, as he was sure it would go viral. I assured him, I was NOT going to have anyone anywhere near my feet - he knows how ticklish I am. In the end we didn't have pedicures or manicures, we ate tacos and sat around and chatted, well the three older ones sat around and chatted, the younger ladies headed to the sauna.

Winter wonderland

Turbjørn looking comfortable in the cold with his woolly
coat on.

Ian of course was back on the "ranch" taking care of our animals. He emailed me one day and mentioned Sofie had gone missing. Our errant cat returned after a day though, but then took off on another day. She has been known to take off for a week at a time, just never when it is this cold (10F/ -12C). We gave up worrying about her taking off when she seemed to do that on a regular basis, but this time we were concerned, since it was out of character for this time of year. Anyway, you will be glad to know she is back with us again and none the worse for wear.

I don't think the chickens would think it was such a winter
wonderland. They are all huddled in the doorway of the
chicken house and don't wander quite so much these days

The ponds are well and truly frozen

We've been looking back over past Decembers to see what they were like. It seems that we have had snow on the ground in early December on all but one year, but what we can't remember is it being this cold so early. It has never got above freezing for about a week now and not just that, but well below freezing. Even with the hint of sun today, it didn't get above freezing in the greenhouse. The advantage of that is the wild boar cannot dig very much and so we haven't had a lot of damage done this year. They have been rooting around under the oak trees for acorns this week and turned over quite a few leaves. It looks bad from a distance, but when you get up close it is possible to see that nothing is deep and it is only churned up leaves and snow, which might help it all rot down quicker in the spring. If this turns out to be a tough year weather-wise, then the wild boar will be suffering a lot due to the disease that is still spreading around and the fact they are not supposed to be fed to curb the numbers. It could see a very sharp drop in numbers, but then again this is supposed to be one of the furtherest reaches of their range, they are not supposed to be prevalent in places where there can be deep snow. They wouldn't survive in such numbers if it wasn't for the feeding.

More winter sunshine

Sheep shelter completed

A grateful recipient

This one loves a nose rub

Last but not least, a little competition.
Who? Where? Why? Any guesses?

Spring? No not yet!

Our neighbours horse drawn hay rake, still where it was left
waiting to rake up hay before the weather changed last year

I'm not very good at anniversaries and birthdays and that sort of thing. Facebook kind of helps by reminding me when it is someone's birthday but that is a bit late if I actually wanted to send anything. And anniversaries are only remembered if I set them as alerts on my computer. Well I missed one anniversary last week. Ian remembered it on the day, but I forgot to comment on it in the blog. And the anniversary? It is on the 4th March 4 years that we arrived in Latvia to live. It's hard to believe that four years have flown by, but what a lot has happened in between times. We now manage a piece of land, two of our children are married, I am in my final year of a Master's course and we still haven't learnt much Latvian. We have made some lovely friends and are thoroughly enjoying being here, even if at times we still wonder what on earth we are doing here.

It was still deep on Friday

I did think of updating last week's post, but didn't think it was worth it as there was something else I had forgotten too. At the drumming concert we went to last week, we were sat on a table with another couple and fortunately the guy sitting there could speak English, it turns out he knew rather a lot of people we knew, in fact one of our good friends who is the reason we are even here in Latvia has stayed at his house quite a few times. Small world as they say. It was funny to start talking about someone and go "Oh yes! We know them too." He is a pastor of a church in Riga and as one young man went past he said, "that's our church's youth pastor." The brain cell started whirring into action and I thought "I know that face," sure enough I did, another person we both knew. The young man had been in the Netherlands translating for a team of Latvians that I had travelled with to a conference and Ian and I met him at another friend's wedding. It is strange to meet someone and know so many of the people he knew and yet we hadn't met, or not that I can remember anyway.

And yes, Ian was still shovelling snow this last week. Mind
you this was to clear the road to get the horse box down

This week has seen some glorious days and I had been stuck in a lot of the week writing up. One day I was looking at the weather forecast and I realised that Friday was going to be another glorious day but the weekend looked poxy as we say. The forecast was for warmer temperatures and a mixture of snow and sleet, so rather than miss the good weather, I declared that Friday was the new Saturday and took the day off. I'm so glad I did as that meant that I could enjoy the sunshine and walk around in the snow for what will probably be the last truly glorious wintry day of the year. I would have enjoyed it even more if I hadn't slipped on a sloping path that had iced over so hard that even my Yaktrax wouldn't grip. I ended up on my knees having twisted my ankle and there was no way I could get up easily without help and so my gallant hero, Ian, leapt to my assistance, that's twice this winter he has been my Sir Galahad. Makes a change from being laughed at anyway. Fortunately my ankle wasn't that bad and I could still sit in the greenhouse (20C that day) and sip coffee. We even managed to get the horse box into the barn, which meant Ian reversing it by car all the way down a hill with a sharp turn at the bottom and I kind of directing, well saying "stop, stop" and waving frantically every now and again when it was obvious that the trailer was not going in the direction that it should do or a bit too close to the barn door.

Horse box safely ensconced in the barn. It is now easier
for Ian to change the brakes and the wheel bearings
even if the weather changes.

I've changed my homepage on my internet browser this week, not momentous news I know. I like the range of articles in the Guardian, especially as they have a section on development, but I hate the language. It is almost as if they seek out uses of the "f" word. A report on the protest in Russia, seemed to single out any badges or banners which had on the "f" word to report and that was the final straw. The "f" word for me does still have a shock value, but not to many people around me, they think it is normal part of the language and indeed it is for some, but that does not mean that it should be bandied around in the English press. Now if all the banners had the "f" word in the protest I would have seen that a fit place to report it, but not the odd one or two and I am sure that the Russians have more in their vocabulary to express their protests and if they had then what were they? So it is back to the BBC for me, a bit staid and not as interesting at times, but at least the language isn't as bad.

Our kittens have grown but are still cute. Sophie has found
her voice just lately, driven us barmy today but we think
the dehumidifier is unsettling her, but we need it on because
someone didn't use the litter tray again!!!!!!

It has been a week of computers, partly as I am deep into writing up my thesis now that I have finished the research phase and also because I updated Microsoft as well this week from a very, very, very old version (in computer terms that is i.e. 2001). It was so old that it wouldn't update automatically and so all my settings were lost - that wasn't the real problem though, the problem came on updating the email client that proceeded to delete messages off the server, ones I had kept for ages. I wouldn't mind but I have done that before when changing email clients for work from Thunderbird that got corrupted and wouldn't update to Mail. It is something to do with the difference between IMAP and POP accounts - I don't know, but what I do know is I am not keen of what happened to my emails. I am a hoarder I know, but in some cases I was keeping them for reference. Fortunately really important ones were downloaded and kept separate but general emails were not and now I have lost a huge chunk of my past. It made me feel very grumpy.

In pensive mood here, but occasionally still shows herself
to be the livewire she was as a kitten

I am beginning to wonder if God is saying something through this though, there is something about hoarding that keeps hold of "things" as security and my security should not be in things, or emails but in God alone. I wonder what else I need to let go of? I had seen so many posts on hoarding, the good and the bad aspects of hoarding. It is good that we don't throw away jars, because it means I can process so much of produce from the year to eat over the winter. Hardly a day goes by when we don't tuck into some of the food prepared over the summer, and jars were handy the other week when we found maggots in the plastic packets (still finding the odd one, but I think we have got the infestation under control now). But how much other stuff do I keep that I should let go of, or is it more a state of mind that hoards, that I should let go of? This was on my mind when someone posted a link to a song called Pioneer by Rick Pino on YouTube (thanks Paul). Not quite sure how all the pictures relate to the song, but the lyrics were what caught my attention. "You travel light and you travel alone," well I don't travel alone as I travel with Ian, but travel light? Perhaps, in some ways, but I'm a hoarder and along the way I have accumulated stuff. A hoarder cannot be a pioneer, a pioneer cannot be a hoarder - too much baggage to take with you.

Leduspuķes or literally translated as ice flowers on the
greenhouse plastic

Rick Pino - Pioneer

Pioneer, Pioneer
Keep pressing onwards beyond your fears
And only your Father goes before you, to your own frontier
You're a Pioneer

Uncharted wilderness stretches before you
And you thrive on going where no one has gone
Still it gets lonely when darkness rears
So sing by the fire until the dawn

You travel light and you travel alone
And when you arrive nobody knows
But your Father in heaven, He is glad you can go
Cause those who come after you will need the road

And what you have done, others will do
Bigger and better and faster than you
But you can't look back, you gotta keep on pressing through
There's a wilderness pathway and it's calling you

Calling you, calling you
Keep pressing onwards beyond your fears

And only your Father goes before you, to your own frontier
You're a Pioneer

Hoarding? Getting a little crowded in the greenhouse just lately

So what do I let go of? Where do I go with this? I don't know, I just know the season is about to change as I finish this phase of studying and move on. I don't think it is moving countries, but just into the next season of life. It excites me that others will follow, but do things better, faster and bigger than I will, and so I am happy to tread the road for others if that is what is needed. Well I guess I had better press on.

Hard to believe that these will be uncovered soon. Once
the snow goes and the fence re-electrified then the wraps
will be off.

(I'll also post a poem from years ago (see I said I was a hoarder) of the questions that occurred to me as I thought about the pioneers who forged a route across America, when I gazed across the landscape from what was then home in Colorado)