Friends and neighbours

    To all of those avid readers of my blog,sorry for the delay in posting this weeks edition.

     We received a visit from a neighbour the other evening, Kristina came bearing a special invitation to a Valentines celebration at the school, would we please come. In her words "It will be a very beautiful" but then to her everything is "VERY BEAUTIFUL" and it did turn out just that way.

    If we were to come, please could we pick up some pensioners from the post office and shop on our way [ they sell pensioners by the kilo over here] oh yes, and please be at the school for 6pm.

It's never a problem to collect our pensioner friends as they are always ready and waiting. With five ladies plus Valerie on board we duly arrived in the midst of quite  heavy snow, but the  school was warm and inviting, we put our coats in the cloakroom, found seats in the hall,and waited in anticipation.


   A group of young ladies had come from Skaistkalne to sing and recite poetry to us, from Stelpe we had a group of ladies line dancing, several singers and a violin solo,and some of the young people from the school presented a short play.


In between some items, presentations were made to different people in the audience,this was the pattern for the evening
   Valerie and I sat there, not understanding a great deal of what was being said, but the entertainment was great, so we enjoyed it. Our friend Egil, was called to introduce the next award winner, you can imagine our surprise when he started speaking in English and called us up to the front, we did as we were asked and found ourselves being given a certificate and a decorated goblet
Egil said more but this time in Latvian and then the school director Dagmara said something!! [about us] Somewhat bewildered we sat down and asked each other " what is it all about"? After it was all over there was a group photo taken.

I then took the pensioner ladies home with strict instructions to return quickly.When I got back I found that a lovely meal had been prepared for all of those who had recieved certificates.The reason for the certificates and gifts was we had all been chosen as "good neighbours to the village". It was a very humbling time, to think the village had selected us.


We are so grateful to those who have sent gifts and money to help us meet the needs of those people in the village who are having such a hard time at the moment. The certificate should have your names on it as well as ours, as without your help we couldn't do what we do.






This week we met a young mum trying to bring her three young children up on just under £30 a month. Desperatly in need of help, financial and practical. We were able to give her some money,and then we came home, collected duvets and pillows and took them to her and we still have enough bedding for our family and friends when they come.
   God provides more than we need at times,so we can share it with those less fortunate than ourselves.


Saturday saw our son Mark and his family arrive [with lots of goodies] real cheddar cheese, proper English bacon, brown sauce, custard powder and oxo's plus other bits!!!
We all had chance to relax and enjoy time together, we were able to get to Bauska castle and had great fun sliding down the slopes on a sheet of plastic.We also enjoyed a lovely walk in the forest, hard going as the snow was way over our knees.Katie and Shelly made snow angels, and Valerie just fell over!!!! We did have sunshine, snow and a great time.


When family an friends visit their departure always leaves a bit of a gap, but Hey!!!! what do you know,? last night friends sent us an emailto ask --"Can we come and visit AGAIN " in March [their third time in six months] No problem !! book the flights and come on over.

Simple things

We are told by Latvian friends that this is the hardest winter for seven years, but it is a good one because it should kill off lots of nasty little bugs and flies, so it's an ill wind that blows nobody any good{John Heywood 1497-1580} that's the clever bit for this week.

As you will tell from the contents of the blog this week,not a lot has happened, we still have loads of snow, but we thought we would take Lilya out,as we had sunshine, didn't get too far, as short legs and deep snow don't really go well together {dog-wise} plus it's really difficult to walk and keep your balance as when you take a step, sometimes you sink further than you expect, then "whoops" down you go {well one of us did} 

We have had a cold east wind cutting across the plot,if someone could tell Russia to shut the gate, it might be a bit more comfortable, the only purpose it seems to serve, is to fill with drifting snow, paths that I have already cleared!!!
The wind also seems to find the smallest gaps to blow through,so I spent two days sticking slabs of polystyrene to the sitting room wall, and then papering the wall and ceiling, so Valerie could paint it.the colour is a kind of "bitsa" you know !! a bit of this and a bit of that, add a dash of white to soften it, we think it looks fine so that's all that matters. {and it's much warmer too!!!} 


At Sunday club this week the children spent time making things from gifts that Con Brio choir brought over with them last July. One of these things was a bag of small hollow beads which when put on a base board can be made into shapes and patterns, for two hours the children worked and created some wonderful items, with not a Wii,ipod, Nintendo or the suchlike in sight,and not a cross word between them.{ I guess what you don't have you don't miss}
;Sandris, as you can see, made a fire truck and a man, he has a great deal of patience and determination. All of the children come up with brilliant designs.The only comment the children made was that they had had enough of the snow and were looking forward to spring{and so are we}

One of the first things I did when we moved to Upes Iela was to build a bird table I put it just a few feet from the house and as we sit at the kitchen worktop we can look out and watch the birds as they come and feed on the bits and pieces we put out for them. It has been an endless source of entertainment as we have watched great tits,sparrows,nuthatches, and woodpeckers come and feed




Just this week while these cheeky sparrows were busy eating breadcrumbs the thought crossed my mind just how fragile their lives must be with all the snow about, If we didn't feed them where would they get their food from? Yet God tells us that he cares for them tiny insignificant creatures, the bible says you could "buy two for a farthing"
         So How much more does He care for us!!!!
One day this week I visite Dzedra one of the Stelpe pensioners who lives way out of the village and took her a little food for the week, she talks, I talk, she laughs and I laugh she doesn't understand English and I don't understand her Latvian but we spend some precious moments together and then I leave,and she is happy that someone has visited. 

Just a quick trip to the shop's

When we found we were low on milk,bread,and a few other things this morning, we decided that a quick trip to our nearest town was called for. Bauska is about 25km away and boasts of both a Rimi and a Maxima supermarket, and they both share the same car park. Great! we won't be long,the roads will be clear and we haven't had much snow overnight,lets go.
This is all subject to the car starting of course, it's been a bit iffy of late and forward planing has been needed just to get it out of the barn, first I have to unwrap the engine removing a sleeping bag,pieces of polystyrene etc (with temperatures of -29--30c) these are essential. I next have to put the small electric fan heater close to the fuel pump, switch on and cover it all up again for about 2 hours. Then the car might decide with a bit of a struggle start
Fortunately this morning it was warmer only -9c and so no problems and off we went.
   The first challenge when driving in what turned out to be almost whiteout conditions is finding the road, you know it's there but where are the edges!!!! There are no kerbs or pavements to keep you on course,and when coming to a junction, fortunately there are some road signs which give a few clues as to where the road is.
Anyway, shopping done do we go to the small hardware store in Ieceva, or home?  it was unanimous HOME and a cuppa, mind you with only two in the car it wasn't a hard choice to make.
A  journey that would normally take us  two hours  had now stretched to three, and we still had the trip home, oh well, such is life! and we only have ourselves to worry about.


Everything went fine, snow had started to drift across the road, but we could still see, well, almost see the way I was reminded of the verse in the bible "we walk by faith not by sight" and driving today fits quite well in this situation.                                                                               We finally arrived home  to find our milk lady delivering our farm fresh pinta.                             
  

 
  The only problem we had was getting back up our own drive,and I had to dig snow out from under the car, eventually with wheels spinning we made it. Then indoors for a cup of tea and a piece of apple and ginger cake.(home made of course)