One of those days!

Ginger Tom

It's been one of those days and yet that's okay. It hasn't been a disaster, our animals are doing okay, no one is ill, it was just work. Online meetings are fantastic in one way, until they're not. They are a handy way of connecting with colleagues from around the world. I'm even trying to set up a meeting with someone in Brazil to tell my students about what is happening there. It might not happen, but just the sheer thought that it is possible is quite amazing really. This morning I was trying to use Microsoft Teams to check a connection today for a meeting tomorrow. I've used it before so it shouldn't have been an issue, but which account? Tried one, no, tried another, no. One account lets me access the EU based seminar, but I can't use it due to work not using Microsoft Teams, or something like that. The other one wasn't registered as an EU account, sigh! Anyway it's sorted. I'm just being added as a guest. It was just an hour of my life, that's all.....

Yay! Nearly all gone! (5th March)

Or maybe not! (7th March)

Nearly finished. Not so happy about the top
but we'll see what we can do. 

Brexit reared its ugly head again this week too. I got a text from my mobile phone company reminding me that calls to the UK are no longer at EU rates. Oh yes! I had forgotten. I phoned last month to a company to arrange for a delivery to my father for his birthday and over the weekend I had phoned my parents to sort out a present for one of the grandson's. Last month's calls were listed and it was rather more than my more local calls. The one to my parents was longer, so going to be a bit expensive. No I'm not very good at phone calls and really neither are they and that's why we hadn't realised before now. 

Turbjørn still wearing his coat. He's still loosing 
some weight but Ian and he have come to an 
arrangement at putting away time. He's not daft.
He comes alongside Ian while the others are all
racing into the alpaca house to get ready for
their trays to be put down for them to eat from.
Ian surreptitiously feeds Turbjørn a few mouthfuls
in peace without the competition from the rest.

Christmas trees are still being enjoyed, apart from
Freddie who has seen something.

Mind you, I only really use my mobile phone for the internet anyway, I hardly phone anyone and hardly anyone phones me, except in an emergency. A phone call can almost induce a momentary feeling of panic because of this. Not that I'm a panicky sort but just might need to steel myself to take the call. If someone from work phones, it is because there is an urgent request, we normally arrange a meeting to talk or email. So of course my phone had to go off during a meeting with an organisation this week, just as I was about to introduce myself. If it had been five minutes later it would have been fine. Oh well! No harm done, I guess.

Antonia is starting to look very fluffy.

They tried their best to eat all the snow, but they
weren't fast enough in the end.

Christmas trees are just so yummy

It is kind of weird though that due to the strange times we are in, I am more connected to people in different countries than I am to the people who live across the hallway of our apartment block. I've mentioned my chat to someone in Brazil, but also there have been chats with folks in Germany, Slovenia, Portugal, France, Belgium. I've been arranging a virtual visit with a university in the UK, chats with my daughter in Australia and so on, It is winter here though and so people do tend to hibernate anyway and the brief spring-like weather we had last week didn't last and now we are almost back to where we started, knee-deep in snow - well maybe that is a slight exaggeration but not far off. By the time people emerge from hibernation, we've usually made the move out to our land.

Amanda looks so weary. I hope she is going to 
be a good mum.

The sun looks so warm but do not be deceived

I know Ian is moaning about the return of the 
snow, but it is so pretty

The vaccine roll-out here in Latvia has been slow and I'm not quite sure what's behind it yet. I know there have been some difficulties with supply but I gather there is more to it than that. At least now they seem to be ramping up the vaccination rate from a pitiful number to something that is more reasonable, but still at this rate everyone will be needing further rounds of vaccinations before anything like herd immunity is possible. In Estonia they are seeing rapid rises in cases, but fortunately not many of my colleagues have been affected. I think one of the reasons is that the Rector of the university was once a veterinarian and he seems to have ensured that the university responds in a very fast and robust manner to keep infections down. Thank goodness.

There are some amazing ice structure

Just a frosted plant really

And it twinkles and shines

Hailstones across the snow looks like
a moonscape

So not much mulling went on this last week, too many meetings for that. Still there are times to plough on ahead and times to sit and take in the scenery. So I will leave you with a poem I wrote a while ago. I may have even posted it on here before but not for a while anyway.

Winter’s last stand

The swelling buds speak of times to come

Peeking out from their furry coats

The soft wind whispers, “Soon”

The love-struck birds chirp in echo, “Soon”

The warming rays embrace the earth and murmurs sleepily, “Soon”

Winter screams back “Never!”

Covering the earth once more 

In a blanket of white.

But already his power is spent

He recedes

Thrashing into the waters of the raging river.

Losing his grip on the earth once more

Spring rises drowsily from her long sleep

Then racing with abandon

Lights the ground with a creeping verdant layer

Trees rush to embrace the warmth

Bursting with wavering branches, unfurling flags of the brightest green

Eager to pronounce the coming season.

Spring has come!

Soon!

Not quite the smooth snowy landscape of before

These two are fastened into the box to eat their
food. It used to be to stop them from snaffling 
Eyre's food but since Eyre is gone it is more to
stop them following Ian up to the alpaca houses
while he's trying to put the alpacas away at night.

A bit weird with all those little hailstones on the
snow

It was a bit vicious in the wind.

Autumn rains

Hello! Can I help you?

We thought we had finished shearing in June, but we had a late request. Unfortunately they had a bit of a long wait, as we were waiting to hear from the vet about an x-ray for Turbjørn. We had hoped the vet would come at the beginning of August but we finally got a message to say it will be this next week. Poor guy. He's still eating and getting about but he's still not right. It will be good to get some answers as to what the problem is.

Turbjørn and his twisted neck

Aggie with her bandage. She and her stablemates were all kept in
 and so were the boys so that Herk and Aggie don't get their bandages
wet. They were finally let out this evening for a few hours after it
finished raining and only in the paddock where the grass is short.

A sunset that promised rain

It's a shame the shearing wasn't the week before as the weather was much drier. We planned to shear on the driest day forecast and we planned to turn up early as there was still rain forecast for the afternoon. Pah! It was a lovely drive there but as soon as we arrived we noticed the clouds on the horizon. Not being from around there we weren't sure how long the rain would hold off or whether it would come at all. Our host assured us it wasn't due to rain, so we set up and started on the first animal. We were just over half way through when the rain started. 

My sister posted pictures of the Duddon valley
which we used to visit as kids. Heather always
reminds me of the Lake District and so I was
pleased to find some growing on our land. It's
probably taken advantage of the increased light
after trees were cut down. I think I might have to 
relocate some to my garden.

George, you are not supposed to be eating through the fence!

Our host immediately organised some of the kids to hold umbrellas over the equipment while she held one over Ian as he sheared. Let's just say, it wasn't a pleasant experience and a good job that Ian doesn't take long and can speed up significantly when he has to. I felt sorry for one young lass as she was standing out in the rain until it was suggested she could fit under the umbrella too, so there she was a rather wet young lass, crouched under the umbrella protecting the equipment. As soon as we had released the alpaca we rushed to get everything under cover. Unfortunately we got rather wet in the process and a bit chilled and we still had two alpacas to go. 

Veronica at the front, our old lady, who should know better and
Mari, George's mother, both eating through the fence. Okay
so this is partly because they weren't let out of the paddock into
the long grass because of Aggie. No wonder the wire on the 
fence is stretched.

Silla looking a little damp.

We dried off as much as we could but our floor coverings were too wet to do much about. Our host managed to find some old plastic and carpet though for the dusty old barn floor that we had decamped to. As we got ready to start shearing the other two, the rain eased off and the sun came out. Heh ho! At least the animals wouldn't get wet getting them from the barn where they were to the barn where we were working. The last two animals were not as much of a problem. I forgot to mention that the first one was also a squealer, a wee-er and dribbled green spit everywhere. 

Nasturtiums in a pot outside our greenhouse.

Eggs in the incubator. I nearly created a disaster this week
when I accidentally unplugged the incubator overnight, 
however, it looks like it might be okay according to my
research. I hope so! Time will tell. These are in the
greenhouse where the cats keep unwanted critters away.

We rounded off the shearing with a good lunch and lots of chat. I at least had dry clothes to change into, but Ian didn't. He did get lent a jacket to put on though. Note to self: Always take a change of clothes and ahem, include underwear. Enough said! The trip back was mainly in the sunshine too, although we could see the dark clouds to the north of us as we headed that way. The rest of the week was pretty much the same, sunshine and showers on most days. 

Sedums relocated to my garden from the field before they get eaten

You can see Herk's bandage. At least he doesn't seem to be 
able to scratch these off but sometimes they do roll down a
bit. I also suspect that one of the types of plasters maybe
irritating his skin. Sigh! The original wound healed well, 
but now another section is raw. 

It's September tomorrow - how did that happen? It only seemed like a few days ago when we were looking at the calendar and thinking, goodness me it's August already. Another year flying by at tremendous speed. I seem to have spent quite a bit of time this last week sorting out the alpacas with skin issues. The flies have been awful. We were hoping the cooler weather would reduce them, but no such luck. The rain has also meant damp bandages and that is not helping, as it means more regular changes are needed. What they really need is some fresh air and for them to dry out - they would heal much better. But fresh air means they are being eaten alive by the flies, so they need covering and so it goes on. At least Freddie is finally bandage free and the flies haven't bothered him any more. One down, two to go.

Clouds after the rain

The marigolds look so pretty in the rain

The large tomato Ian photographed last week
finally ripened and yes, that is correct 741g

I have been interspersing academic work this week with gardening jobs and food processing for winter. I now have quite a few jars of boiled down tomato sauce and bottles of cucumbers. I also have dug up some potatoes. There were quite a few blighted ones, but there were also a lot that were perfectly fine and so we have one wheelbarrow full of potatoes from just the one row. Only another five long rows and seven short ones to go. 

Tomato sauce sterilising and soup cooking in the slow cooker

There are some full grown carrots in there, somewhere and
there are some seedling ones too. At least the hemp is gone
now and hanging up to dry.

Our red apple tree is now producing green apples. We think
the deer damage has killed the graft and this is from the
rootstock. 

We certainly live in strange times and one thing I cannot quite get used to is being told to do my research on a particular topic where I've disagreed with someone. Not just once but several times. It is quite bizarre as research is what I do. It's my job, it's my hobby. I had to stop using Google to do research on the internet because it couldn't cope with the diverse research I do. The algorithms were trying to be too clever and second guess what I wanted to know. It's not very helpful! I use DuckDuckGo now. The reason I don't need to have something second guess me is that I'm quite capable of inputting the keywords needed to get the information I want. Sometimes it needs a bit of tweaking, but I can find out information quite fast. I've spent the last 12 years doing it. I'm a scientist, but I'm also aware that scientists are biased to some degree. I'm a scientist who likes facts, but I also know those facts are set in a specific context and forms only one side of a story. Science is messy, full of uncertainties, is constantly evolving, revising itself as more knowledge is found. 

A Jerusalem artichoke flower

A bedraggled and battered garden after the rains. The Jersualem
artichokes at the back and marshmallow at the front.

The chickens safe but still pestered by the eagle

Does this mean that scientists cannot be trusted? Not at all, they are mostly working to the best they can with the current knowledge. It makes me cringe when people say, "Look at the facts!" or "We go by what science says," sometimes without really understanding the science behind those facts. Sometimes scientists need more humility and be able to say, "This is what we think according to the facts we have at the moment," but often people just need to know that science cannot say this will happen with 100% certainty. My first degree was in Pharmacology and Chemistry and people often wonder why medicines have such a long list of side-effects. The answer is that each person is unique and responds differently to the medicine. Mainly they will see a benefit in taking the medicine, but if not, then it could be any combination of effects, but usually they are minimal. In other words the manufacturer cannot guarantee with 100% what the result will be, although there are standards set to make sure that most of the time they do.

Ian says this looks like a pacman convention

Ian has been making progress on the little shed, in between
the rain. 

The same goes for vaccines. On the whole, most people will not experience many problems, some will experience minor ones and much more rarely some may have a severe reaction. However, getting sick with the disease a vaccine could prevent, is more risky. Injections are not fun and taking kids to be "stabbed" can feel traumatic. I had one that would go as white as a sheet every time and one that had to go with his dad because he wouldn't let the nurse near. What I do know though is that I was protecting my kids from something worse. It was a risk, but the risks from not doing it were greater. I do not want to return to the Victorian times when death and disease were constantly at the door. Over use of antibiotics and under use of vaccines could send us back to those times and not something I want to see. Healthy food and healthy environments will get us so far, but sometimes we need some extra help to stay healthy and I for one am glad we have modern medicines and scientists who are trying to improve what we know.

Some different mushrooms

A strange name for a strange fungi, Common Fibre Vase. They
look like someone has done a distressed finish on some wooden
flowers.

A rather large boletes mushroom

A cute mushroom, Winter Russula. Not one we eat.

Coral mushrooms

A trip up to the squashes

A meandering pathway

Squash plants growing on manure heaps

The winter squashes are growing well

Unfortunately the snails are proliferating in the wet weather.
I have been collecting them and feeding them to the chickens