LIFE CAN BE VERY SWEET

First things first. How many nuts does a mouse store for winter??? I'm sure that you all want to know who won the competition !!!! No???-------- Because of the lack of entry's the competition was declared null and void. Sorry to disappoint you all, but for the two of you who did respond the answer is 548, yep I counted every one that little cache held that many hazelnuts.
                                                                                                                    
Tis finished !!!  the showers done ,,,looks good and  thanks to our local motor mechanic  [ he really is]   who made our custom built shower curtain rail,,now all tried and tested   and I can report ,it all works very well,    ,we are now thinking of selling tickets and having conducted tours,      Our friend Barbara sent us some bluebell bulbs{12 for which we are very grateful } the other day and we are carefully planing where to put them,, would they be good in the orchard ? or better under the Hazel nut trees ?and then again maybe under the apple trees in the front lawn decisions decisions, oh dear, my head  hurts better have a lie down.

Say it with flowers

There are not many things {apart from family} we miss about England but a good tasty Cheddar cheese and bluebell woods would probably come pretty near the top of the list if we had to make one. Another thing in Barbara's parcel was indeed a block of welsh cheddar, and !!! Oh  boy !!!   did it taste good,!!!!     Under the cheese and bluebells was a copy of the Daily Mail, , another thing we don't really miss  ,, all the depressing news in it,,,

Made it to the frontpage of the local paper

If you remember in last weeks blog I mentioned ' The official envelope' well as mentioned we were invited to the Independence Day celebration and it went like this----
We arrived at about ten to seven thinking we would be OK for a seat only to find the hall packed solid with more people arriving by the Minute, it seemed all the seats were taken so it was standing room only, great ,!! but these concerts only last about two hours so we should be fine. The frustrating bit was that as more folk came in it seemed they wanted to get a better view and just stood in front of us,being reserved English gentle folk ,of course ,,,,we did the right thing and took a step backwards only to allow more people to push in front.We were just resigning ourselves to hearing and not seeing it all,,, when the principal of Stelpe school came pushing through the crowd ,,,,grabbed Valerie's hand and said you come with me. No! no! no!, we are OK here,,,,  but she insisted we follow her. Now have you ever had that feeling that everybody is watching you ,,well we did at that moment, she took us right up to near the front of the hall and in her best principals voice said 'you sit here'  {and don't move}

Our award which now sits proudly in our sitting room

yes teacher Dagmara. and so we sat, had a smashing view of the entertainment which started with a choir of youngsters who's age must have ranged from 7 to 16 they sang a couple of songs and then the leader of Vecumnieku novada {district} with his second in command ,presented certificates,and bouquets to various members of the community ,, this was followed by Vecumnieki choir 'Via Stella' who sung a cappella. This was then followed by more awards, the two choirs then joined and sang again, and then left the hall. By this time the temperature in the hall had risen to just a bit above comfortable,, then came a  third set of awards, we now found out why we had been taken from the back of the hall ,to sit near the front, our names were read out,and we had also been given a certificate and a beautiful bouqet,  in the Latvian colours     and  friends from the village came forward and added  more gifts of flowers to our arms which were already filled ,,,,,, it was a most moving experience as there must have been 300 people present. To have been chosen by people in the village, and shown the appreciation of the whole area, is quite a humbling thing. The wording on the certificate goes something like this,----
 Honorary certificate, for patronage and selfless involvement of public life by promoting rural life in the Stelpe parish.

home made gift box's

peppermint creams and coconut ice

The time for Christmas celebrations is almost upon us once again and our calendar is getting quite full, we kick off with the pensioners party on the 3rd and we are preparing small gifts for everyone this year the Stelpe Kitchen is making peppermint creams dipped in dark chocolate and vanilla and chocolate coconut ice tastefully presented in gift box's and all home made. We did make fudge but it was so good we ate it all.

English Liquorice allsorts made in Holland!!!!

One great find we made this week when shopping in Bauska, we now have a shop that sells everything from Q tips to W D 40, bicycle's to toilet rolls, yes and now liquorice allsorts, {made in the Netherlands} Is nothing made in England anymore??????

Not quite Basset's but very acceptable,,, Sunday Club,, well,!!  it  should  at 10.30  but it seem that however hard we try to impress this on the children's minds we make no impression at all, last week at 9.15 there was a knock on the door and when opened  a little girl of seven called Viktoria greeted me with a very wide smile and 'good morning Roger Sunday club'?? perhaps next time she will get the time right.  we have no club this week, due to our second 'Kids church' on friday, 
So we see our days are made up of precious moments which make life sweet , maybe they contain a lot of sugar or maybe they are just as this weeks blog show being appreciated for just doing what we consider ordinary day to day things. Life here in Stelpe continues to be good.