TWO OUTINGS AND A WINDOW Part one

This year our involvement with school has changed a little, we still take two classes for English but instead of trying to engage 6--7 year old children, we now have English conversation lessons with class's 8 and 9  { 14--16 year old students} and these are very rewarding times whilst being a bit more of a challenge, and I take my hat off to the teachers of Stelpe Pamatskola who rise to the challenge with very little financial reward.
So it is always great to spend time with them when they have an outing, and this year was no different. Class nine teacher is responsible for the itinerary and we set off about 07.30 heading across to the other side of the Dalgava river. We were heading for The Kalsnavas Arboretum, having visited one or two arboretums here in Latvia and having spent many years in the garden centre world back in the UK I was looking forward this part of the trip.I certainly was not disappointed. Set in 99 hectares of rolling hillside there are over 2500 different species of trees and shrubs and the largest collection of paeony's and lilac in Latvia.

Latvia's National Forest

Beautiful autumn colour

Conifer's of all shades 

The lily pond

                                                                                                                                                               This is a wonderful place to wander in peace and enjoy the beauty of nature, but time as always beat us and we had to move on , we had just enough time to stop at a plant nursery nearby where I was like a kid in a sweet shop I could have spent a fortune but restricted myself to buying two small shrubs and a conifer, these are now in our borders at No 13. A return trip is most defiantly on in the spring

Just a small part of the plant nursery

Having filled the coach luggage space with trees and shrubs we climbed aboard and set off for our next destination. The largest rabbit farm in Latvia! who knows what we shall find there.

A hat! no I'm a Coypu

Now one has to understand that directions to a place of interest here might not come up to UK standards,however with a good coach driver, places of the beaten track can usually be found on the first, second,third or even the fourth attempt and many interesting sights can be seen in the process and this was no exception as we pulled up at what appeared to be the rabbit farm there were small wooden houses in fenced fields with small brown animals running and hopping about. The entire coachload of passengers spilled off peered over the fence to see the bunnies, only to be stared back at by several of these animals. It would seem we had arrived not at the rabbit farm but at a Coypu farm.
Although the demand for fur has dropped  there is still a market in these parts for real fur hats.

Oh aren't they cute

A rabbits nest, I'm not kidding

After another two attempts to find the farm we were looking for we arrived at the correct location and began the tour, which I am pleased was restricted to seeing different breeds of rabbits ,chicken and various other domestic animals.







Fortunately we were only invited to view the bunnies that were part of the tourist display.
The nearest we came to rabbit farming was one of the end products which was for sale.
Wait for it -------- yes and I jest not Rabbit Sausages, and before you ask no we were not even tempted to buy a pack. Rabbit sausages that's just too weird!!







One little piggy went to market
This one stayed at home, she was having an identity crises and wasn't sure if she was a pig or a sheep.
Ahhhhhh poor thing.

Now who's a pretty girl

The very simple alter

Soon it was time to board the coach once more for a short journey for the next part of our day out.This was to be a concert in the Lutheran church at Berzaune which has been renovated in the last couple of years. As with most of the Lutheran church's we have been in the interior was as you can see from the picture very mmmmmm! white, however the first three rows of very comfortable theatre style with tip up seats which were quickly occupied and seeing a guitar on the chair at the front we sat back waiting for the concert to begin.Because of the venue a hush came over the group as a strange sound came wafting over our heads as the artist started playing the organ and singing what I can only describe as something from the 16th century or simply weird, everyone was confused and my personal feeling was Oh no I hope we haven't  got to sit through 30--40 minutes of
this!!!! but after about 10 minutes it stopped and the performance moved to the front of us and we were entertained by the artist and at times his daughter,this was by far the better part of the whole event.

The entertainer and his daughter

The high point of the whole concert was when one member of our party forgot that we were in tip-up seats and decided to get a little more comfortable and ended up almost sitting on the floor as her chair almost collapsed on her, this was greeted with grins, smiles and giggles[and two certain people had a job to contain their laughter,one being my wife!!!] but all seemed to go unnoticed by the performer {thank goodness}

Berzaune Lutheran Church

By the time the concert was finished we were all ready for some lunch, so back to the coach, we traveled just a short distance to a water mill which  now houses a restaurant and rooms which can be used for wedding receptions and party's. The weather throughout the morning had not been great so we were happy to move into the warm dining room which had been prepared for us, made even all the more inviting by the smell of home cooked food.and we were not disappointed,,,,

No complaints here

Well it was serve yourself

On a large table there was a serve yourself buffet , with fried chicken and pork several different types of salad, white and black bread, pasta and more, just as soon as one plate was empty it was replaced with another,with home made fruit juice and mousse and fruit syrup to finish our meal and in danger of falling asleep in the warm surroundings we donned our coats and went to explore.                                                                                                                  






As I mentioned this place was an old water mill and as we looked round there were signs that at one time it would have been a very busy place. Now however it was more a curious mix of ancient and modern. In one room people were getting ready for a wedding to held the next day,
another held an interesting collection of household memorabilia and just around the corner  in the depths of the mill well I guess there was just about something of everything from an old flat iron to an early electric typewriter, lamps,shells {of the military kind} spanners, garden tools the list would go on and on, it was a veritable Aladdin's cave.

Something of everything

Not a space anywhere

An early Remington???

At this sign we got out!!!!!!!                  

When we saw the skull sign we decided that some fresh air was the order of the day so we decided the have a wander round the outside of the mill and see what interesting things we could find,

 Here again we were not disappointed as someone had put the unusual on display there were horse drawn sleigh's and carriages along side some motor cars and cycles and a small garden tractor

Heath Robinson would have been proud of this one!!

bit of a bone shaker I think

    Household names pop up everywhere        

                                           

As we visit different place's and see the way people here take the unusual and make something useful we try and see if we would be able to adapt their idea's and use them in our own garden and Valerie suggested that if we are unable to sell our Golf we might use it in the same manner as here. {she never did like that car)

Unfortunately our day out was almost at an end and so with a quick detour via Madonna and a Rimi supermarket we headed for home, looking forward to our next outing which would be with a group of keen gardeners from Vecumnieki and we would be going  abroad !!
SO WATCH THIS SPACE!!!!!!