Is the water off?

5am this morning

"Oh yes!" I said. "I turned the mains off after I had used the water every time." Well I did, except for the last time before leaving the apartment. It was the apartment that we have been moving stuff into and nearly finished doing with the help of some young guys from the nearby sheep farm. All the big stuff is in there now and it is just bits and pieces left to move. We got an urgent phone call one day and texts to say we had a waterfall at the apartment and the people upstairs who manage the place had turned off the water to the whole apartment block. Oh dear! Not again. We rushed back and sure enough water had been spraying out from what had been a minor drip up until then. The new valve that had replaced the one that had cracked had now itself failed.

Turbjørn enjoying the sun now that he no longer has so much
fleece.

Fortunately we have a wet and dry vacuum cleaner and we started the mopping up process. Ian had to go back out to the land to get the dehumidifier and that is now on underneath the sink to try and dry that out. We were also fortunate that the dripping down into the basement area missed the electrics but it did leave a pool of water underneath the freezers. One of the freezers had only just been put in recently but thankfully it was empty and so could be moved easily, making vacuuming up the pools easier. We will have to move the dehumidifier down there soon as it also dripped onto our neighbour's wood pile too. Sigh!

Looking like ET

I'm glad that the rest of the week was not as exciting as that. Gradually the garden is getting sorted, but we are now at the stage of needing some rain, as plants are starting to struggle and seeds not germinating. If we weren't trying to farm or garden then the weather would have been described as glorious. We are now both suntanned again and it isn't rust like last year. Not so great is that the early good weather has also brought out the biting insects. Gardening in the evening at this time of the year is usually quite pleasant, but this time the mosquitoes and midges are already out.

A bit of brotherly advice after the shearing last week. It's
okay, you will get over it

El stupido the sheep was stupid again and again and again. About the only thing she has learnt to do is to stand still while she is being released from the fence. She still hasn't got into her head that she is not a lamb any more and she has a whole load of fleece that wraps itself around the fence wire, making it very difficult to get her head out again. We went away shearing for a day and we suspect she had been stuck in the fence a while by the time we got back because there was a lot of trampled poo on the floor and she now has a mucky backside. One day she managed to get her head stuck three times. She is definitely destined for a rendezvous with the freezer.  Ian has moved their electric fence, which seems to have stopped her for a little while. It is not that she didn't have grass to eat, just not quite to her liking, obviously.

George's haircut looks much better now that Ian gave him an
additional trim. At least he can see better now.

We started on the shearing at other places now. We were near Riga for one group and Estonia today. Ian got to shear his first lama. He was asked if he would so it and he said he would give it a go. We wouldn't have done it if it had just been the two of us, as lamas are much bigger and stronger than alpacas. The two guys who were helping us were quick learners and despite the language barrier worked well with us. That shearing session was also a first for being watched in the process by a peacock and some emus. The emus didn't seem that bothered but the peacock watched for most of the time. I'm glad he wasn't very vocal though, as they are definitely noisy creatures.

George looks quite the elegant young man now

One lady came to visit from another mini-zoo and asked if he would do her alpacas and lamas too. We said we would do the lama at this zoo first before making a decision on that. We now have some criteria to work with and the first is that for alpacas we need one extra person to help, if they want us to do it alone then we would charge extra as it takes more time to clear the fleece away. For lamas there needs to be two extra people to pin the lama down or a very compliant lama and we are not taking any chances on people saying it is compliant. They get the lama to lie down, or we don't do it! Simple!

This photo was taken just over a month ago and so no grass.
Quite a difference now where the grass is growing well.
Eyre or Flossie as she often gets called was the one that
woke us up this morning. Earlier on this week I saw her
stalking something by the pond. Next I heard a splash and
one wet pussy cat scrambling out. Ian had just strimmed the
edge and she obviously found out the hard way where it was. 

We had to set off early to be up in Estonia today. I managed to set the alarm but forgot to change the time on the device to match Latvian summer time, it was still on GMT (Oh yes! I'm doing well this week). Our alarm instead was one of the cats having an altercation with something. She was still on edge when we left this morning and kept looking into the forest, it was probably just another cat though. The deer were also up and about this morning and seemed quite suicidal. One deer couldn't make up its mind which way to go and in the end headed towards a neighbours fence and then seemed to get tangled up in it (not just sheep then!). We reversed back up to see what had happened to it and to my amazement it untangled itself and made its way through the wire in the fence. I know the deer are pretty skinny but it was quite amazing to see what size of gap it could actually get through.

Out in the field enjoying the grass and these two younger
ones have been doing nothing but eat. We think they are
growing fast too. 

Alpaca shearing this year has been fairly uneventful. We didn't get lost (okay minor detours due to some issues with Google, but nothing serious) and the shears worked well, especially some new combs that Ian has started using. We had two groups to get through and in both groups there was a spitty animal, but once down they were fine. The weather was also nice and all in all it is just a pleasant day out for us that Ian gets paid for, so win-win situation. We even get fed too and get to talk about one of our favourite topics (well actually it is Ian's all time favourite topic) - alpacas! One of these days we might get some photos of the action.

Brencis complet with go faster stripes

We don't get much traffic past our place, but one day I looked up and a rather sporty car was travelling ver slowly along the road. It also had numbers stuck to it like in a car race. Ian was strimming (yes the grass cutting season has also begun) so I had to get his attention by which time the car had driven past, but next a whole group went by, Ferraris and Porchés. All were travelling very slowly, trying to prevent their very costly cars hitting the bumps and pot holes along our dirt road. I mean, who brings a low slung, sporty car like that along our way and not just one but lots of them.

Mr. P does like a roll in the dustiest places.

I still continue to work on my research paper and I'm now also trying to write a research proposal for a three month contract in Finland. It fits in nicely with my overall work and is paid, so that is always a bonus. Whether they think it would fit in with what they are doing remains to be seen. Hopefully I have enough experience to bridge the gap between the arts and sociological research. I'm also working on the felting workshops we are holding and working out what to do with those and sort out advertising. Not much on my plate then!

Surprise

On my chilly walk to the other apartment. I love the
reeds in the frozen pond though. 

It has been a week full of surprises. Most of them pleasant ones. The first was not though. We went up to our other apartment to heat it, so we don't have frozen pipes and to have a bath while we were up there. At one point the people upstairs must also have been having a bath and let the water out. We heard it gurgling through the pipes and it didn't sound good. I went into the kitchen to find that there was water gushing out of an outlet pipe. Sigh! I quickly got the wet and dry vacuum out and started to suck the water up. Fortunately not much, but still more water seeping into the floor probably on top of those other occasions when we've had a leak at that apartment. It would probably have gurgled up into the bath if we hadn't already had the plug in and water in the bath. We know where the problem is because there have been previous problems with the outlet pipe and so we will call a local company, who hopefully have the right kind of equipment to unblock the pipe.

The sky was glorious though. Winter sky at its best. 

At least the rest of the week was much more pleasant. First of all we got a call and an invite to dinner. It was much appreciated as the call came before I had thought about what we were going to eat. It makes a nice change not to have to think about it. I do all the cooking in our house and Ian washes up - I sometimes make that a difficult job for him. Hahaha! Ian got out of washing up too as they have a dishwasher, so a win all round. I did take a cake but I needed to bake as Ian has now recovered his appetite since we are no longer the house of plague.

As Ian wasn't out on the land today, I had to dig out some
photos from another week. This is Lady V about to eat the
snow

Another plus is our friend's house is warmer than our apartment has been all week. It would seem that the new company does not seem much better than the old one. We are back to temperatures around 16C on normal days like last winter even though it hasn't been too bad up until recently, more like 17-18C. The school apparently wasn't warm enough after the holidays either. Not a good reflection on our local government - again. I was doing a lot of typing one day and so sitting around and suddenly felt rather chilly. The cold had been creeping up on me and when I looked at the thermometer it was reading 14C. No wonder it was a bit chilly for sitting around in.

Not a very good picture, as the barn was rather
dark and the kids wouldn't stay still.

We had to go and update the details for our farm, which a friend of ours does online. When we got to their house they were eating and since we hadn't eaten yet they quickly got out some more plates and we joined them for food. Two meals out in one week. It is so nice to be well enough to visit friends. It would be nice to be able to update the details ourselves but the website is not particularly user friendly even for Latvians. It's a good excuse for a visit anyway and we had plenty of time to chat, until it was time for our friend to go and see to her goats. They are starting to pop at quite a rate again and I think about 2/3rds of the pregnant goats have given birth so far, which I seem to remember was over 40 kids. Phew!

Here the kids are jostling for a place on a
cardboard box. These are all the bottle fed
ones

The next surprise was kind of mind-blowing. I was invited to a meeting in Riga about hosting refugees. I was asked if I would share my brief experience. I hummed and I hawed about it. In the end I thought I was being stupid; just because I was tired, just because I'd been ill, just because it was winter and would mean either an early bus ride in or taking the car and leaving Ian without transport out on the land was not sufficient excuse. It just did not compare to the refugees' often perilous journeys to get to Latvia. I decided I really should go and Ian felt I should too. The next decision was whether to take the bus or car. What decided me was kind of selfish, I took the car as it meant I didn't have to get up so early.

Chanel and Freddie sunbathing next to the alpaca house

To continue a rather bizarre chain of events, at Christmas time my mother had given me some beads to give to a refugee family who were earning a living making jewellery. I asked the family what time they went to church to see if I could arrange a time to pass these beads on. I thought it might clash with the other meeting that I had now decided to go to and was happening at another church, elsewhere in Riga. As it turned out, they would be having coffee before their meeting and it was perfect timing for me to still get to the other meeting. So I arranged to go there first, have a coffee and meet with the couple who ran the church who were British but I hadn't met them before and then make tracks to the other meeting. As I was having my coffee a young American couple were chatting to the the husband about refugees.

Mr. B. It makes us realise how big he is after seeing another
herd of alpacas today. He would tower above them

It turned out they worked with refugees in Texas and had come across to help friends make their own connections with the refugees here in Latvia. It hadn't turned out the way they had hoped as their friends had backed away from the initiatives as they felt it was too hard to help them here in Latvia. People generally have a very negative reaction to refugees for many reasons, mostly out of fear but also historical reasons from Soviet times. The young couple therefore had come to the church I was visiting briefly after finding out the church had had some connections with refugees in the past. They had come to see if they could finally get the kind of connections where they could help out and be of use. The pastor was telling them they didn't really have much contact these days when I chipped in. I told the couple that I was heading to a meeting that afternoon and they would be welcome to join me. I thought the meeting would have the kinds of connections they were after.

Herkules with fully fleeced ears. It is so nice to see this after
all his health issues a few years ago.

So how bizarre is that? This was their last ditch attempt at making the connections they had come all the way from America to make and I just happened to be dropping off a bag of beads to a Syrian jeweller and had the car to take them to a meeting. If that wasn't bizarre enough, I thought I actually recognised the young chap from America. I asked him if he had been to Latvia before and he had. He had lived over here for about six years. I asked him if he had been to our village before (bearing in mind we are about 100km outside of Riga in the middle of nowhere) and he had. It turns out we had met before about 12-13 years ago and he had even worked with one of our sons on the camp next to our land. We met him when we were still only visiting Latvia and hadn't yet moved here, in fact we were still living in Denmark at the time.

Herkules almost looks like he's smiling here too. Such
bright eyes as well.

The refugee meeting itself went fine and we were all able to make connections that should enable us to help more refugees in the future. I returned back home in a bit of a mind-blown daze after dropping the young couple off in town. Just one more bizarre fact, the young American couple are expecting a baby around the same time that our son, who he worked with and his wife are expecting their third. Ian and I ended up eating at the local bakery, as I wanted to process what had happened rather than having to think about what to cook. Well one excuse is as good as another and our bakery does make rather nice cakes.

Tellus in contemplative mood, chewing a piece of grass

Today's adventure was off to a place quite close to somewhere I know quite well. I have visited the little village of Kaldabruņa a few times to meet with an organisation there who are doing fantastic development work with the local people. It turns out that a couple have bought a house and some alpacas quite close to there and so we went to pay them a visit. Any excuse for Ian to talk alpacas really, even if it is quite a trek to get there at this time of year. I heard about this couple from two different sources, there was a lady who had visited recently who had met one of them on a veterinary course for small agricultural animals and then through a friend of a friend of theirs who have three alpacas. I found out about the three alpacas and their owner from the couple who are buying our apartment. Are you still following all this? Life never ceases to amaze me at times with type of networks you can make when you are open to making new contacts.

Sunbathing

After a chilly chat in the barn looking at the alpacas we were warmly welcomed into the home for home-made pizza and apple strudel. Every time my plate was empty the mother of the family put more on my plate, so I was well fed, but Ian talked so much he didn't get to eat as much. The mother commented that Ian's eyes were shining when he was talking about the alpacas and I had to laugh. It sure is a topic close to his heart.

Turbjørn in contemplative mood too. Having alpacas was
not on the horizon for us ten years back. 

And to cap a week of surprises, it is a surprise I am still blogging after 10 years. My first blog was the 18th January 2008 and I started it as we were preparing to move to Latvia. My blog sure documents how much can change in a decade! All three of our children have either got married or got partners and now had their own children. So our family of five is now a family of fifteen and soon to be sixteen. We have gone from one apartment when we moved here to two apartments, 13ha of land, eleven alpacas, three sheep, two cats and 25 chickens. We have got to know people from so many different places in that time too, including people in Estonia on alpaca farms and in Tartu where I am attempting to finish off my PhD. What a journey it has been and little did I realise when I named the blog a Journey to Somewhere, quite what a journey it would be. I wonder what the next ten years will bring?

Goodbye! Hello!

Mari getting in the Christmas spirit and eating the Christmas
tree. Actually once the grass starts to go, Ian usually gives the
alpacas a Christmas tree to eat for the vitamins. They grow
like weeds on our land.

Winter returned. It is bitterly cold due to the northerly wind we have at the moment. We did see the sun today, but we didn't really feel the benefit. It didn't even warm the greenhouse through so much. The thermometer on the car said -4C or even -5C at times and that was during the middle of the day. Not too bad normally but I think the real feel was much colder. I think I'm also missing the 9kg of weight I lost this last year. The insulation was good for something. I think I might need to invest in some more thermals. I was able to manage before with layers before but this year I seem to be feeling the cold much more. It makes a change, cold didn't used to bother me so much. Must be my age. Heh ho!

Yes it has been wet too! They stayed out all day in it too, silly
birds. They are now tucked up in an ark in the greenhouse now
though. One of the groups of chickens we have started laying,
but then seemed to stop. We now think they were actually
eating the eggs. Anyway rather than feeding non-producing
hens over winter we have culled them and so made room
indoors for these ones. We know at least two of these are
laying on a regular basis. Another reason for moving them
indoors is that yesterday Ian heard a commotion from the chickens
and when he went outside he saw a fox rather too close to the
chickens. We know it would be back again and so it was important
not to give it the chance to take a chicken.

Ian had problems getting his camera to focus this day, because
it was so dark. I like the soft focus though of Aggie. She looks
so sweet here.

I have tried to get things done this week again, but everything seems to be taking too long. I was relieved that one paper for an academic journal I was supposed to finish for the 1st January has been put back to the 1st of March. Whilst I may have got something together by this time, it would not have been enough time for my co-author to go through it properly. I still aim to get it done by then so he has plenty of time though. Unfortunately I also got the news this week that my other paper had been rejected. The reviews were helpful and it isn't the end of the world because this is quite normal in the academic world, but it means back to the beginning again. I wouldn't mind so much but it took too long to get the response. It should have been six weeks but it was more like twelve, as they were waiting for the third review. The worst part is deciding, which academic journal to submit it to the next time around. Heh ho again!

She isn't always so sweet and here she is sending a warning
to Chanel to stay out of the way

Veronica also enjoying the Christmas tree

Just in case you think it is all bad news this week, there is some positive news. Ian had to go back to the doctor again to see if he still needs another operation. He had an operation in February but the doctor was not happy with the results in April. He wasn't sure that the technique he used had worked, although Ian in himself was feeling much better, especially now he doesn't have to look for a loo all the time when we are travelling. Anyway the outlook was improved this time around, although he still has an extra sac on his bladder. The final decision will be based on some blood and urine tests. If they come back okay then he can go back in a years time and just keep the situation monitored.

Ian's franken-scrubber. For those who have followed
the blog for a while, they will know what I mean by
"franken". Ian has cobbled together many an item
we use on our land. This scrubbing brush is affixed
to a hoe - we won't be doing much hoeing in the next
few months and so it is doing double duty to get the
well walls clean. It is still filling up quite a bit and is
looking a bit murky with silt. Hopefully this will help

Turbjørn winking

Our bath got fixed as well and so we had the first bath of the winter season. The fix looks a little industrial, but it works and that at the moment is what matters. We can sort out the appearance later when Ian is sure the fix has worked and won't start leaking again. Nearly every heating season seems to bring leaks of some description. Whether it is from our neighbours upstairs or our own fittings failing. They are just not fit for the job, which is extremely annoying. Having just read the most heart-rending tweet from Aleppo though, I think I will stick to just being extremely grateful we have running water of any kind.

Meanwhile his brother is looking all mysterious

Is it a shadow, or is it Mr. P? 

We also now have got ourselves sorted for uploading information online for our animals. It has taken a bit of time to get this sorted, but at least it is done now. It means we can just go to one of our friends' houses and sort out the details at their home, so we can be sure we are doing everything properly. At least in that respect it feels that little by little we are getting sorted.

Mr. P was difficult to photograph this week in the dim days.

Brencis being as daft as the chickens and staying out in the rain

Plans have also come together for a trip to a Swedish University. That has been about two years in the planning. Finally I now have the funding and the Professor hosting me has the time. I had a Skype call with him the other day to put together a programme for the week and it looks great, with plenty of different people to see who he thinks might be of interest. What was also lovely is I feel like I will be well looked after. He was concerned about the time of the year and the cold, would I be prepared? Of course I'm feeling the cold a bit more at the moment, but I do know how to go prepared, so not a problem. After 13 years of cold winters, it is not as much of a surprise as it once was and I take extra care when travelling to make sure I have enough layers, even if that means looking like Michellin man.

Everywhere was looking really wet, but now we have a thin
cover of snow again and the ground is beginning to freeze

Really wet! And those toe nails are getting ready for cutting
again

I had a great day travelling to see some of my favourite people in a little place called Kaldabruņa. They run an organisation called Ūdenszīmes, or water lily and I am always inspired by their work in developing the small village. They have such big hearts for the people around them and such creative ideas to take the village forward. I needed to interview them for some more information for the paper I am currently writing and once again they allowed me to come and ask questions. I have invited them to come to our village and talk to the people we know who have a heart to see our village develop, I am sure they will be very encouraging and helpful to them. Now we just have to pray the weather cooperates as January can bring lovely crisp days or be a nightmare of icy roads. I also came away with a small ornament they gave me for our Christmas tree and three wooden brooches for the felted scarves. The wood is taken from small branches with the bark taken off and polished, all very distinctive.

A bleak day. Today there was a hint of pink with the grey. It
reminded me of Botswana agate or pink abalone. Rather specific
you might think, but my parents sold gemstone jewellery for years
and I started off helping them at agricultural shows and then in the
shop.

It might have been grey but I still think the photos are
interesting. By the way they are Ian's photos not mine

Another plus this week is that I finally got started on making a felt scarf. There is a bit of a problem with felting the fleece from our Mr. P and to some extent with Chanel, their fleece maybe better for spinning, but we don't know yet until Ian gets going on that. At the moment he is concentrating on the superfine fleece of Brencis with the hope we get a scarf made for someone. Mari's fleece though has so much crimp in it that it does felt well. I used that as a base and that helped. I wet felted the main scarf and next I shall run it through the felting machine that someone gave me to see if that helps. I'm not happy with the design yet and need to work on it some more, but at least I have started, which is good. If I can get into the routine of making them, then that will help.

So wet that the ponds overflowed, the well filled at quite a rate
and our temporary lake is back 

At least Sofie wasn't struggling to find water to drink

Enjoying some sunbathing

Chanel

Home alone

The dahlias have been wonderful this year. I only have red
ones unfortunately, but they are a very nice one to have
survived two years in our cellar

I was going to do wonders this last week while Ian was away, but it was not to be. The cold I had at the beginning of the week hung around for most of it, it wasn't much, but enough to make me feel muddle headed as I mentioned last week. I did manage to get the dratted paper resent after a very kind friend of mine had proofread it for me. So at least that was one thing out of the way. I would have been better to call it quits and go outside into the garden but I tried to get more work done on paper two instead and so didn't accomplish much.

A full basket of green tomatoes, some
 of whichwill go towards green tomato
chutney, as my stocks are low. A small
bowl for the chickens, a tray of
cucamelon tubers which will be
replanted next year. One third
of a basket of nearly ripe or ripe
tomatoes. 

I did have spurts of getting things done and so an asparagus bed was prepped, and some sawdust laid down on a path. Some pathetic parsnips were dug up, I cut down some mustard and cress that had gone to seed, put tomatoes and cucamelons in the freezer and picked the rest of the short beans. Today I pulled up the tomatoes, another of those markers in our year. It means that the greenhouse can be prepared for the chickens to come in and then the caravan moved in too. It is perhaps a good job as I noticed the geese are flying south now, well south-ish and that is usually a sign the weather will turn soon.

Starting to look empty now. The "weeds"
to the left are sheep sorrel and so are
never got rid of totally. They are some
times some of the first green shoots of the
year and are nice and tasty.

Geese heading south

First frost of the season

We also had the first frost of the year. It is a good job I felt it turning cold and covered peppers and autumn raspberries. The forecast was not for frosts, but being a little higher than the nearest large town for which the forecast is given, it is normal for our temperatures to be at least a degree or two lower, so I was prepared. One night in the caravan the temperature was 3C, a tad chilly, but at least the heater can quickly warm the place through, without even having to get out from under the nice warm duvet. Hot flushes also have their uses sometimes.

The spaghetti squash succumbed to the frost. At least we
actually did get some squashes of these two plants, even
though it didn't look like we would have any sometimes
due to our cool nights over summer

A little mouldy heart on a bean pod

I actually stayed out every night in the caravan, as it was easier to nip back to our village and pick up the milk that is delivered twice a week and then do jobs like the washing and picking beans at our allotment plot, before heading back to the land to put animals away. I haven't even been to the shop all week, as I don't get through as much bread as Ian does and I baked a couple of small batches of buns, which was enough for me.

Much of the week it has been lovely
weather and our grapes have been
ripening nicely

The only day it rained, of course, was on the day I was home
and wanted to do the washing. In the end I put some of it up
in the greenhouse

It was a good job I spent much of the time out in the caravan, as our neighbour has a problem with water leaking into his house every time we are there. We know he had a problem earlier this year, but it was decided that actually it was water from the roof. This week he turned up with his son, who spoke very good English and I showed him our pipes. He could see that there is no way the water was actually leaking from our pipes, we would be the first to know, as it would come into our home before leaking through the floor. Even the sewage pipe area is dry. The fact is though, that every time I went home, to have a shower, do the washing and wash up - he got a leak. Finally it was decided that the leak was in the main stack pipe between our place and his and so not our problem exactly. Hope he finds the source of it soon, I feel guilty now if we go and use the water.

Brencis behaved for me though

Although the alpacas started out being well behaved, it didn't last. Aggie escaped twice and I had to resort to putting the electric on for the fence. Normally they don't need it, but an occasional reminder is necessary. In fact the boys also had to have a reminder too, well Mr. Herk who likes to eat over the fence needed a reminder. The girls have been fairly well behaved about going in, only Veronica, who really does not like me (as I usually mean something nasty is about to happen like injections or treatment of some kind) was a little reluctant one particular night to go away, but she soon made her way into the alpaca house when she realised that I was going to move her out of the field. The boys, however....... they got worse and worse at coming in. The first time they misbehaved, it was just a matter of moving them into the paddock area and then they went in, the next night took two attempts and on the night I had to go and collect Ian, Mr. Tellus was nearly locked out all night. I decided to make one more attempt, because I had heard dogs in the forest earlier on in the day and so I knew he had to go away. The little tinkers though, have been as good as gold for Ian since he got back.

He was very interested in my camera

The one that got away. She can sure fly far when she needs
to. This chicken is a bit of a loner, she always has been. She
is also an intelligent bird, which is not always a good thing,
as that means she can be difficult to catch by us. She is the
last remaining chicken from the ark she lives in,
occasionally she will join the others in the chicken house
but more often than not, she prefers her own space and
walking with the alpaca girls.

Sergeant Wilson, our cockerel had another go at me during the week, but since then I haven't had a problem. It might have been partly down to the fact that I saved the chickens from another fox attack. I heard the commotion and ran down to find out what the matter was. I saw flying chickens and the chicken we call, Big bird, running; behind her was what looked like a youngish fox. Fortunately the fox turned tail and ran off. I counted all the chickens and none were missing so I then put them away or at least tried to. Most of them went away no problem, but the younger brown chicken was not going anywhere near the forest, which is where their accommodation is. I ended up catching her in a fishing net and then hurling her into the chicken house (that actually sounds worse than it was, but I had to be quick so the others did not get out and she flew down to the floor with the others).

Ripe carrot seed

Autumnal blackberry leaves

Granda and Granddaughter enjoying a meal out

Ian had a lovely time in the UK with the grandchildren. They are both happy, smiley children, especially for Granda. He also helped to plasterboard the new house that my son-in-law and daughter are renovating. He did come back with a wish list though of a laser level and an electric, compound mitre saw. He was enthusing about how much easier the jobs are with them. Just hope they come in useful for building our house and not just the new alpaca houses though.

Our youngest grandchild. Such a happy smiley little chap
and looks like Ian when he was a baby apparently

Our little granddaughter in pensive mood

Don't go Granda!

Some of Ian's shopping

Ian also had a trip up to Northumberland to see his brothers and their families. The brothers actually had a chance to have a really good chat together on their own. Not sure when that last happened. They had seen each other when Ian travelled up to see his mother, but rarely did he see them together and even rarer to be on their own. Another day trip was to see some alpacas and the timing couldn't have been better, because they are having an auction of some of their stock in about eight weeks time and so quite happy to sell us some at a lower price than normal. They are converting to a mini-zoo and so need room for other animals. Of course there are details that are needed to be sorted and a new alpaca house to build.

The sheep needed moving when Ian got back, but at least
they stayed inside the fence while he was away. The only
incident we had was when we tried to pen them in before
moving. One of them stuck its head through the poultry
netting and got itself stuck, not just once but twice. 

Ghostly apparitions in the greenhouse. Grapes, peppers,
chillies and basil all wrapped up against the coming cold
night.

The news this week has been far from cheery. It does not fill me with a lot of enthusiasm to hear that Latvia has been declared one of the least welcoming for the Syrian refugees and it is quite worrying if that turned into something more about foreigners in general. It is so easy to feel despondent with it all, but then I read an article about someone who took a bike ride around what used to be the Berlin wall, something that didn't seem possible just 25 years ago.

The paved path sliced through the dense forest with an unseasonably cool summer wind bringing goose bumps to our skin. “Hard to believe this was once one of the most militarised borders in the world, right?” Möllering asked.
He was right. I couldn’t imagine pedalling the Pakistan-India border where they take pride in their militarisation with daily rituals between the two armies; nor could I fathom going for a two-wheeled jaunt through the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea. It all seems like a complete impossibility – just as it would have to any Berliner if you suggested cycling the Berlin Wall 25 years ago.

The impossible is now possible and that gives me hope. What can seem like an impossible situation of war and mayhem, can seemingly overnight be over. People can rise up and show care and compassion as if from nowhere.  Dictatorships can fall. I very much pray that there will be a revolution, but a peaceful one. I very much hope that people can join hands together against seemingly impossible odds and overcome the oppressor, much like in the Baltic Way 26 years ago.