WELL IT CAN'T BE BUSY ALL THE TIME.

On the border

Hi there to all my devoted followers {all four of you}well after all it's quality not quantity that counts isn't it? It has been a very quiet fortnight since I last wrote, no concerts,parties or gatherings of any other nature, The highlight of the last few days has been the visit of a dear friend Barbara,here we see her doing the tourist bit, with one foot in Latvia and the other in Lithuania, the Lithuanian border is just 20 minutes away from us and it's always a fun thing  standing in two countries at the same time. It was Barbara's first time in Latvia so we wanted to show her as much of the countryside as possible and Wednesday found us up early and heading for Varakalne to visit our friends Kathleen and Ian.  We woke to a cold frosty morning with quite a thick mist but the sun was trying to burn it off.{strange term to use as a mist is fine water and you can't burn water,probably we should say the sun was trying to evaporate the mist} anyway in places the sun had been successful and we were rewarded with the most wonderful views of the Daugava river and countryside where the mist lingered in the hollows between the hills. Ian is working to make a small farm of their plot                                                  

The Daugava it really is a beautiful river

He has sheep goats and turkeys one of which is destined for our table at Christmas,we always look forward to visiting them and see what progress has been made, the only downside is that they live 190 kilometres away. A good time was had by all and and our visit was over all to soon, and we had to make our way home, now the last time we made the journey we were rewarded by the sight of an elk in the forest, so telling Barbara to keep her eyes  peeled and she might just be lucky to see some Latvian wildlife, half way home we came upon a fox just strolling across the road,he stopped, looked at us as if to say, what you doing here!!,then calmly walked off into the trees. Then almost home we saw the  tail end of two deer, better that we saw them at a distance, as we have had our brush's with large animals when traveling, first time when a group of wild pigs ran in front of us, the grand daddy of them all ran straight into the front wing of the Mazda and we sent him bowling down the road only to watch as he jumped to his feet and made a hasty exit into the woods. The second was a deer which again ran right in front of us and made a mess of our bumper. she must have had a bit of a head ache,
So many times when we have visitors we find that they just want to relax and rest in the peace and quiet of our home,we are so blest that they feel able to slow down and recharge their batteries so to speak. With all the busyness of life we can offer a complete change.So apart from a visit to Bauska and lunch at the Raspberry restaurant we spent time playing games reading and just catching up on all the news.{as you will gather, lots of talking went on over the week.
    We have now lived here for three and a half years,and if asked what have we learned in that time, I guess it could be summed up like this. We don't need a telly in every room,we are grateful for all the blessings God gives us,to take one day at a time, to expect the unexpected and appreciate those around us.

Apple blossom in spring

Iris in summer

  OK enough of being philosophical, back to the nitty gritty of day to day life, the mundane,the sweeping of leaves or the washing of clothes, the what shall we have for dinner or tea, you see we can't be partying and gallivanting about all the time, we still have chores to do,chickens to feed and the dog to walk.









What have these two pictures got to do with being busy, absolutely nothing at all but I like them and hope you do to,

Just one thing before I go, to those of you who read this I really appreciate you taking the time to see what I ramble on about, but please please leave a comment to let me know you've visited my blog. 



PS.Oh yes I almost forgot We have another concert to go to on Tuesday  'Erni Haase and Signature Sound' in the Rigas Kongresu nams {Congress Hall} Now how could that have slipped my mind!!!!!! check them out on Youtube, there grrrreat as Tony the Tiger would say.
Will let you know how we get on.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

GETTING THINGS DONE

Well it's official now, the cold weather is here, this morning when I opened the curtains the lawn was white, I know when reading friends postings on FB that some of you have already had icy windscreens and snow is forecast for later in the month, but here in Stelpe we don;t want any of  it thank you very much. Anyway can't do much about the weather can we?, so if you can't beat it join it so I did, put me vest on, trouble was with the work we did today I was over heating {was going to say sweating like a pig, but some wise ---- will tell me pigs don't sweat}
When ever we have started doing something in the house, half way through we say we should have taken a picture of what it was like before and the what it's like when finished, well have I got news for you!! two things no three things we have before and after pictures, for you.

Once  this chest held a young girls hopes and dreams

                                                                                                                                                                    Our  very good friends Kathleen and Ian, when they moved to their small farm found  amongst the things left by the previous owner this chest, sadly in need of some TLC. Here in Latvia these chests are much sought after, there origin dates back to the last century and were called Hope chests, we were able to find out more about them on our visit to Jelgava.

The full discription of the dowry chest

                                                                                In the tower we visited there was a chest on display and a discription, although called a dowry chest, the more popular name is a Hope Chest. the picture tells the official version of there use.

Now a blanket/ bedding chest

After some hard work

 Now I freely admit that I am not a carpenter and Mr Long the woodwork teacher at Uckfield Secondry School would {if he were alive today} totaly agree with me. But I am quite proud of the restored chest that we now have sitting at the top of our stairs, the perfectionists among you could find fault with it, but do I care? not a bit.                    

                                                                                                                                                                         So thats the first before and after, the second is the site of the old sauna Oh yes we used to have a sauna complete with the river at the back to jump into when cooked to a turn. Sadly the roof was falling in so it had to be pulled down, thats the published reason for demolition, unfortunatly we had to make umteen frogs homeless three families of mice, and countless spiders and creepy crawlies were without somewhere to hide.

Before

The wood was recycled to make our sittingroom fireplace,the washing line repairs and our outdoor eating deck,oh yes and also the boiler, it kept the house nice and warm on several days last winter. We did finish up with quite an untidy area at the bottom of the field and so we set to work to clean it up .

After

  For those of you who know this site you will appreciate just how I felt having wheelbarrowed all of the roofing up the hill and round to the back of the barn.
I did have some help doing this work Valerie did sterling work raking the ground,stacking bricks and generaly trying to supervise me. We were both cream crackered at the end of the day I can tell you.
PS if anyone wants a job the bricks have got to be brought up as well.

Before

Now for number three the new fence, yep we have a new picket fence across the front of 13 Upes Iela, thanks must go to Mark J and to Valerie again, without their help it would have taken much longer to erect trying to hold a pencil, drill, screw, spacer block and screwdriver whilst holding a pail in place is not a one man job

After                       

To appreciate it in is full glory one must see it in the flesh,  length of fencing aprox 100ft total cost of materials 50Lats a real bargain.

Edward hard at work

 Great job don't think I could do it with a spade and fork

 I cannot lay claim to the change in our field  as Edward ploughed the the veg plot today, yesterday I spent time muck spreading, I cleared the compost heap and if smell is anything to go by we should have taters as big as footballs next year, the ground looks great all the weeds and rubish turned under for the winter                        


                                                                                                         
     So all in all we've had a good week,Now ' all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy' or so the saying goes, and this week has not been all work, Last Friday we met up with friends from England for coffee in Bauska, they were on there way to Riga and other parts of Latvia, for ten days.
     Also we went with a group of local folk to a concert in Ieceva, Harijs Ozols and Santa Zapacka  they were excelent and a good time was had by all, you can check them out on youtube, but to be fair it doesn't do them justice. Oh yes the cost of an hour and a halfs entertainment just 3 lats, not bad eh? So are we dull ? no not a bit, life is good and everyday we count our blessings, and look forward to the next episode of our adventure.
    Well thats all for this week folks,look forward to catching up with you next time
PS Your comments are always welcome

LIGHTS!! CAMERA!! ACTION!!!

A visit to film studios was all part of this week action!

Hi there readers,well whats new from Upes Iela this week?
We were asked back to school to take class's 1 and 2 on Monday this lesson is just for 40minutes not so long, but believe me long enough to try and hold the attention of 11 yep just 11 children aged 4--6 years old, the little rascals ran us ragged, dashing to the loo every few minutes {the girls only, must be something in the female genes} Now we have learned how to say sit down and also be quiet in Latvian but it must have lacked something in pronunciation because when we tried it, it had no effect whatsoever. and we finished the lesson saying never again.!!!!
Now believe me we love these kids and they are a great each and every one of them the emphasis being on the each one but not all together. So on Wednesday when we had to do it all again you can imagine our relief when we found the children all sitting at their desks being addressed by the school principal. We don't know what she said but the children were just the opposite of Mondays fiasco.
          
                                                                                                                            

 On Friday we were invited out for the day
with the teachers who were visiting the
home of Latvias film industry near
Tukums. Oh yes Latvia has a film
industry that is alive and well. We were interested
to see what was on the cards, perhaps we may
rub shoulders with super stars who knows
anything is possible. May be get to dress up and be a film star for the day. Move over Leonardo, I've arrived.                                                                  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
                                                                                   

The deserted streets of Riga circa 1919

The film set mock up river Daugava in the first world war

Yep this is really my new truck with built in air con!!!!

Valerie on the porch of our new house

A real Russian steam train

This was the view we had from our coach we never had time to get closer as we had to move on to our next location, Jaunkoku Pils for lunch.

 The Jaunmoku Pils [palace] a grand hunting lodge built in 1901 for a George Armitstead he was mayor of Riga and a British citizen who helped construct the sewer,water and electric systems in Riga. he also built the first tram line, maybe even the bit we saw in Cinevilla. Any way be that as it may we were ready for something to eat and sat down in a very nice room to enjoy chicken in a lemon sauce with grilled potatoes and salad followed by pancakes with jam and chocolate syrup,not bad for just 4 lats. On our table we were joined by two of the school dinner ladies and when asked for their opinion of the food they said it's not as good as ours!! and gave it 5 out of ten.
The rest of the day was spent visiting Tukums and places of interest in the area including a display of straw animals and small human characters, fruit nurseries and one place of a very dubious nature!!! so no pictures were taken, but all in all a very good day out.
I was determined that if the weather allowed me on Saturday I would get the last cut of the lawn done and thankfully it was fine so for at least a few months the mower can be put away and the lawn rake take over as Autumn passes through and the leaves have to be gathered up,there is always something to do well at least until the snow arrives.

                            

'THAT WAS THE WEEK THAT WAS'

Hi there, well another week has flown by, I don't know how many of you will remember the title of this weeks report from Stelpe, but boy has it been a busy week.
It all started last Monday, well it would wouldn't it. Having made the decision to buy a second car, Gaston our local autoservice man told me that our new purchase would be ready Monday afternoon and the man I was to buy it from would pick me up between 4 and 5pm and we would go to Riga to do the paperwork hand over the cash and the car would be mine, no sending off paperwork to the DVLA no just get the Technical test [MOT] change the car passport [log book] to my name  and away you go, sounds simple don't it? and it is if everyone spoke the same language [ English would be the best] ha ha not a chance.
I was busy in the garden,doing things one does, at about 11am when Uris rolls up and says 'we go Riga now' ok grabbing a quick change of clothes I was in the car in under 5minutes and away we went, There was no point in asking why the change of time, that would have got to involved so just go with the flow. Stopping on the way in Vecumnieki to pick up Uris wife off we went,and to cut a long story short we got the test, changed the passport, sorted new insurance had something to eat while wating for it all to be done, paid the cash and were home in about 3 hours and with only a handfull of english words spoken. And that was Monday.

 

Not the newest model but with our roads !!!!!!

Tuesday started early we were going for an excursion with the Stelpe pensioners,where? well there were references of Nunneries, towers, orchid collections and nurseries oh yes and the all important stop for shopping on the way home.
Be at the school for 9am we were told and being good time keepers unlike some who come to mind you know who you are!!! we  were at school at 8.45am well the bus turned up at 9.30, but the driver had to do the school run first so it should have been be at school for 9 ish.within a short time what promised to be a nice warm sunny day turned into a dull rainy one, still never mind we were having a day out so who cares if it rains a bit.

Welcome to St Trinity Sergijs

Ladies A drink from this well will keep you young and beautiful

First stop was the Nunnery yep not a convent a Nunnery, down some small forest track we went to a small car park and a very imposing wall and gateway. The words of one of the first men I worked with came to mind ' These walls are not to keep you in they are to keep the rif raf out'
.








I guess because it was wet and dull we didn't see the best side of the nunnery, It is part of the Russian Orthodox Church,with a great deal of  ceremony and order chanting and incense burning, not my cup of tea at all.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     We boarded the coach heading for Jelgava and a restored tower which promised wonderful,  views over the town.

The tower of St Trinity church

everyone made it to the top, I think Valerie is holding on for dear life

Jelgava is the fourth largest town in Latvia 90% of which was bombed in the second world war check it out on Wickapaidea it will tell you more than I can, but our visit was to the tower which has just been opened to the public. It stands 50.17 meters high and is all that is left of the church after Soviet army soldiers blasted it in 1954 and left only the tower for military needs. It has 9 floors and the top is a glass pyramid from where on a clear day wonderful views can be seen.Jelgava has made an effort here as all the information was translated into English [good for them] the only downside of a very interesting visit was the Latvian guide we had she spoke to Valerie in Latvian and when Valerie told her she was English the guide totally blanked her and turned her back and started talking to someone else [will they never learn.]

winter apples and not a Cox's Orange Pippin in sight

Varieties of apples we have never heard off.

After a quick lunch  in a shopping centre it was off to the next port of call a fruit nursery in Dobele some 25 or so kilometres away. This reminded me of my early days working at a nursery in Berkshire. The staff were knowledgeable about the trees that were grown and as a bonus they spoke a little English, a brief look round the stock for sale and then a short ride to see the trees as they would be when fruiting. We needed no fruit trees as we have 18 apples in our orchard but it was a useful visit as we were able to identify varieties we have. But hey ho no time to hang around we must be off to the next port of call. Orchids!!!!!

An impressive sign  lets hope it lives up to expectations.

Now who lives in a house like this,lets go through the keyhole

A few kilometres from Dobele we took a turning and soon were back on dirt roads, some 5-6 kilometres further we saw some shetland ponies in a field and pulled up in front of a large orange house and were greeted by the owner of the orchid collection we had come to see, the only glasshouse in use we could see was no bigger than 18x10 feet that is, if that housed his collection how would we all  get in, no problem there as the orchids were in the house [in the glass covered balcony above the steps.]
Every time one enters a Latvian home there is all ways something new to see!!!  entering the house we followed the man  up a curving staircase and were met by the smell.!!                                                                                                                                                     'wet dog mixed with horse.  Not at all plesant,

At the top we found a room with,

Beautiful but not a hint of a smell

collections of shells animal skins a wild boar skin on the floor pictures made from butterfly wings and much much more. But still no orchids, all squashing into the next room we finally came to? no not the orchids but!!! the source of the smell!!!  being the gentleman that I am I stood back to allow my dear wife to get a better view of the exotic flowers on show, but all she came face to face with was a moderately large python being thrust towards her, she was out of there faster than a rat up a drain pipe, only to be met by a lady nursing a large Iguana in her arms.An exceedingly fast exit was made I can assure you.
Of the orchids we had come to see? well there were perhaps four in bloom ,the picture on the right was the most impressive.Apparently the man had spent some time in the jungles of South America hence his love for the exotic reptiles and plants. Several of the ladies by now had had there fill of the exotic and we settled down on the coach to wait for the next leg of our journey, this was back on more familiar ground, Bauska and shopping. nothing can shock us there.
We needed to pick up a few bit and pieces as tomorrow we were due to entertain a group of people from Serbia, Latvia and yes the UK with an english tea no less.
Wednesday morning what do we need for an english tea? thats right scones and strawberry jam,victoria sponge, and of course real english tea, while there are many different blends of tea in the shops from Earl Grey to english breakfast there is nothing to match PG Tips,Typhoo, Tetley or even Asda's own brand,so with scones and cakes baking we had better make sure our tea bags are up to scratch. We weren't sure quite what to expect from these visitors.but when they arrived we discovered they were on a cultural exchange and wanted to see the real Latvia. once all 18 were settled in our sitting room the questions came. Why are you here?, when did you come?,what did you come for? what do you miss most? one after the other the questions came, and it would seem as if we have acheved some sort of celebrity status as one of the Latvian visitors told us even the British Embassy staff talk about us, which must be due to our visit to the embassy a couple of months ago.English pensioners retiring to Latvia do seem a bit thin on the ground.
It was a real pleasure to welcome the English contingent who had come from Somerset  and some were from Frome no less one of the ladies had even visited the church we used to attend in Trowbridge, what a small world we live in.
With tea laid we all soon were chatting away like long lost friends, and the comment one person made summed it all up for us ,'You know she said we really feel at home here' and with that comment she started the washing up, and another made more tea for everyone.It's so good to know people feel relaxed enough to do these things in our home. All to soon they had to be on there way, armed with two bags of goodies for the bus driver they had a three hour journey to their next port of call.
What was left well not a lot, the scones all went and so did the cake,must be something to do with the 'Stelpe Kitchen'
It was a great success and we have now made some more international friends.
Thursday and Friday we spent relaxing in the sun reading and generaly doing nothing. Well I think we deserved it don't you?