CATCHING UP PART 2

Well now where was I, ah yes telling you all the exciting things that have happened over the past couple of months.The memory ain't what it used to be! Sights, sounds and smells bring childhood memories back in full technicolour as if it were yesterday,but what I did yesterday is anyone's guess, now where was I, yep got it back to the beginning  In April, I had agreed a price and ordered 15 cubic meters of fire wood and the first load arrived, Jaseps arrived with a new {to him} timber trailer complete with extending arm grab and unloaded the first 3 cube

The first of five loads

This was the first of five loads, all placed neatly along side our barn, so much better than last year when it was just tipped in a great big heap. One different thing here is all trailers have to be tested and registered and have their own number plate, so if you have a tractor and trailer but the trailer's not registered legally you can't take it on the road.

Look no hands

                                                                                 

Talking tractor's sorry ladies, whilst visiting our friends nursery { More of that later}I found the tractor of my dreams. Now the Latvian for 'I want' is 'es gribu' So  es gribu one of these,it's a motor block complete with trailer and seat,a state of the art machine

My dream machine

Only trouble is when it comes to making a choice between one of these or a ride on mower, I'm afraid the mower would have to come first darn it!!!
Also Valerie could use the mower, but can't see her driving one of these.

Well now onwards and upwards well up to the bird box's at least, since we moved in I have taken the opportunity to put several box's around and we now have Pied Flycatchers, House Martins,Swallows Swifts, Starlings, House Sparrows and Blue Tits nesting that we know of, if I could find them, I know there would be Wagtails,Great Tits and several more varieties nesting in the hedges and apple trees. But the opportunistic prize has to go to the Blue Tits.  Among the fire wood I found an old woodpeckers nest so cut it out and thought it would make an ideal nest box for putting in one of the trees, I showed it to Valerie and left it by our fire pit fully intending to find a spot the next day.

 Next morning however when I pulled the curtains low and behold it was being investigated by a Blue Tit which duly took up residence and a pair have raised a family.

For those of you who like craft markets, let me tell you about the one we visited in Riga in the open air museum early in June, http://www.brivdabasmuzejs.lv check it out. Now the craft fair is all about Latvian made craft, {not one bit of tat from the far east} Its a wonderful celebration of all things Latvian from hand woven place mats, lace making, basket work, wood carving, pottery the list goes on and on, food stalls selling hot soup to soured cabbage, with not a burger stand in sight all at very reasonable prices. It would be easy to feed a family of four with a hot meal cooked for you while you wait, for much less than a tenner

Home made pickles

Hot soup

Pottery of all shapes and colours

Hand knitted hats

A rocker for the garden

Beautiful hand woven craft

A stone and iron rooster, heaven only knows how much it weighed

Wonderful hand made modern day hope chest's

A rocker for the sun lounge?

What a day, so much to see, all set in the trees, plus you get to look round the museum. That took care of Saturday.
This same weekend we had a children's festival on the Sunday, Then on the Monday a trip to Cesis, Sigulda and a zoo with {exotic animals} but more of that in Part three.

TIME FOR CATCH UP AT UPES IELA

Gosh!! I have just looked to see when I last published my blog and found to my shame it was the 8th of April,so I guess I had better bring you up to date with life here in Upes Iela. 'Don't time fly when your having fun'?? So here is a quick look at what has been going on


Going way back then to April it was out with the old and in with the new, for those of you who have visited us {shame on the rest of you} you may recall the grand curving shower cubicle in the bathroom, I had been having trouble with it leaking round the tray so it was decided to rip it out and start afresh with a walk in no frills one.The first job when the old shower was out was to chop a hole in the floor for the drain, now our floor is concrete and about 14 inches thick with reinforcing, so choosing my spot I started first with a small drill and then one 22mm diameter and about 18 inches long and wouldn't you know 'sod's law kicked in and I found that

The finished  shower

 the reinforcing rods came right in the middle of the hole, once they were out of the way it was plain sailing,
 waterproof lining up the wall waterproof cement on the floor with mosaic tiles and waterproof grout, I am proud of the results.Now we can walk in and out with no problems.

The first storks arrived in April and so we knew spring wasn't far away along with them came the cranes and geese.The weather however didn't play ball with us and on several occasions we found it so hot one day and  the next day found it necessary to put the central heating on,                

State of the art rail transport.

 The highlight of April though must go to the sighting of 'The train!!!!!!' a few kilometres away we have a small train track which appears to go from nowhere to nowhere, the track is as straight as a fiddlers elbow and as level as a switch back ride at the fair, and the only way we know it is used is when we see the wheel marks when it has crossed  the road and in four years we had seen the train only twice. When we approached the crossing  one day in April low and behold there it was coming down the track,it was one of the few times we had a camera in the car so we were able to record the occasion if for nothing else to prove to ourselves that the STOP sign is there for a purpose after all we wouldn't want to get caught on an un maned rail crossing.


Moving swiftly on,during the long dark days of winter we often thought that a jigsaw puzzle would be a good way of whiling away a few hours and had asked for one to be sent over from England,and so we received a very nice puzzle of tigers which rather took over our dining table for several weeks but with a great deal of determination we completed it minus one half piece which had been chewed by one of our sons dogs.

Taking over the table

The finished puzzle

Strange thing happen over here sometimes and one day we woke up and found that our car had been covered with a fine green yes green dust.which we discovered was pollen blowing from the silver birch trees and we watched it in clouds carried on the wind. People in Moscow were surprised by it as well and thought it may be some radio active fall out from somewhere { hope not!!!!! Moscow's only 350/60 km from us here}

Green dust everywhere

Sunday club is still going strong, and thanks to some friends in England who sent us a wonderful box of goodies we had a great time one Sunday decorating tee shirts and and another making a 'Thank you banner'

This make's it all worth while

All their own work

 We had been sent these things on a lorry along with some things for the pensioners collected by the lady who first introduced me to Latvia.

So happy with gifts from England

The scotch eggs

More gifts

Our times with the pensioners is always one of
interest and every time we meet we introduce them to different food from England last month it was 'Scotch eggs' and  it was interesting to watch every body's reaction, first a good look then a smell then cut open and finally a taste,after which much discussion takes place and in every case they have found our cooking to be 'very tasty We finished up by giving the things we had received, a sewing machine,kettle, blankets,a music centre,mugs and lots of other things.

Four teenage girls from school asked if they could come and learn how to make a cake, the results were wonderful six chocolate and orange cakes{with chocolate icing} one each to take home. one for their school teacher and of course one for us,mmm!!! very tasty.

Look what we have made!!!!!!!

Yes and when they had done they washed up put away and swept the floor,

To be continued