SPRING and AUTUMN

Well here we are the 1st of March. February came and went in a sort of white blur, temperatures have risen to a comfortable +1-2c when the sun isn't out and a little higher when it is. Spring is in the air judging by the way our cockerels are acting yippee!!!!!  Perhaps we might get some eggs from our hens,for the last twelve weeks we have fed and watered them and the payment we have had could be counted on the fingers of one hand. 

Valerie has on several occasions gone in the hen house calling "chicken chasseur" and "cock au vin" but it just fell on deaf ears, perhaps if we show them the film "chicken run" it might have the desired effect.Watch this space for further reports. [Alright I know this isn't a winter picture but it's a nice one]   





We had a phone call from our friend Egil the other day, asking if he could bring the man who owns "the dry house" [large barn] to meet us as he had heard we were living in Stelpe and would like to ask our opinion on some things. OK! lets see what he wants. He has a new house in the village which can be let as a holiday rent,and also how could he develop an income from the wool of a flock of sheep he keeps as a hobby. He was a very interesting gentleman and shared some stories of his life in Soviet times [my goodness what sheltered lives we led in England] He stayed for two hours and so now we have to get our thinking caps on. If anyone wants a holiday in rural Latvia just let us know and we can sign you up.

The highlight of our week was meeting friends in Bauska for a meal in the Aveni restaurant [Aveni is Latvian for raspberry] gave a bit of a novel twist to eating out, I can assure you no "raspberries" were blown. Oh yes if you find yourself in Bauska we recommend it as a good place to eat [check it out on www.aveni.lv] but don't go on a Friday unless you like line dancing and country music.

                                          
We had a lovely meal together celebrating Kathleen's birthday, caught up on all the news and before we knew it over four hours had flown by,we parted with a promise they would pop in on their way home to show us plans for a new house they plan to build this year. Our journey home,was interesting to say the least, some twenty five kilometers on a road that was like driving on a skating rink!!!
Kathleen and Ian arrived next morning and we did a bit more catching up!! well one thing led to another and so they stayed the night, leaving mid day Sunday with a three hour journey ahead of them, we had an email later that day to say they had arrived home safely.Thanks K&I for a great time.
 This left the afternoon free for us to visit Egil, Sandra and family across the river.As the crow flies they are no more than 200 meters away,it is always good to spend time with them,we have learned that just being together is a real blessing,sharing day to day things, but walking there yesterday caused us some funny moments as the snow has a firm top to it and can give way when you put your weight on it, causing one to walk like someone under the "influence", lurching from side to side, and falling over,Valerie has become quite an expert at this [falling over in the snow that is] as previous pictures have shown.  

 The blog title this week  is "Spring and Autumn" well just along the lane is a pussy willow tree and as you can see it's beginning to bud, I know it's just a small thing but believe you me when you have had three months of snow even the smallest of sign of spring is real good. Now March is here we can start looking for the storks to return, you can be sure the first ones we see will be reported in the blog.
The autumn part of the title refers to our evening at the raspberry restaurant, the reason we were there was to celebrate a  birthday, so the four of us are what is supposedly called the autumn years of life, Pah, rubbish,tosh!!!!! life still continues to be an adventure, everyday some thing happens to surprise us. Thank goodness God doesn't write us off when we reach our "autumn years"