It's not long now!!

Disaster struck the other day when I went to fed the birds, as I brushed the snow from the table it gave a small creak and proceeded to topple over, oh no  !!!   it had rotted through the post at ground level, still it had lasted 7 years, so it was down to the workshop  ,bit of sawing ,bit of nailing and now my mark 2 table now has taken it's place.

The days are definitely getting longer, and Spring is not far off. At the moment the sun is blazing through the window as I write this, but not for long as clouds as black as your hat are fast approaching. 1-2-3 and its gone, just like that.

Catkins on one of our nut trees

We have had a somewhat strange winter with snow coming late in fact just after Christmas and not lasting very long, just as we thought it had all gone it was back just in time for a visit from our granddaughter and her boyfriend.[Mike's first visit to Latvia,]They arrived on Monday so on Tuesday we introduced them to cooking at school

  We made rock cakes with a much younger class [ 10 of them],the cakes turned out very well. What I found rewarding is although we have had very little to do with this particular class, that they were very quiet to start with as we progressed more and more of them used what English they knew becoming more and more comfortable with us, using our names and asking questions, they left the lesson excitedly chatting and clutching bags of cakes. We thought this would be a one off lesson, but it seems it maybe more a permanent part of our week. Watch this space.

 We managed a trip to  the forest.

A walk in the forest, it looks almost like summer

Bauska castle looking great, with our two lovely visitors.

Bauska  for some shopping and of course a visit to the castle,,,,,the day they returned to the UK we visited Riga ,parking in the Lido and having coffee and then taking a trip on the tram to see the sights, though many of the trams are quite old they work well and provide an easy way to move round the city,  this is so much easier than

 driving,  and trying to find parking space. Our visit included the central market, the freedom monument, and  Bremen Town Musicians, unfortunately the weather wouldn't play ball and turned quite unpleasant so after a coffee and cake  in Stockman,  it was back on the tram ,,,after a meal in one of the Lido restaurants, we headed to the airport, to wave them off. Why is it that when you have so many plans and things to  do time just slips through your fingers, never mind it was so lovely to see them both,

As for life in Upes Iela as the snow disappears for the second time I took a quick walk round the garden with the camera and yes good things are beginning to happen. 

Our first spring flowers

The sun when it does break through the clouds has a surprising amount of warmth in it, snowdrops are up and showing colour, also some of the early flowering plants we planted last Autumn look as if we may see some flowers soon. The small iris reticulata are up and when I moved some protective fir branches there were signs of growth on the pasque flower.

With the promise of more to come

Iris peeping through

The snow has gone from under one of our apple trees and it is amazing just how busy the woodpeckers have been, we have watched them disappearing into the snow flicking it to the left and right in search of hazelnuts which by the start of winter had disappeared under the grass, finding them and flying into the tree and cracking the shell and enjoying the fruits of their labour.

I wonder they don't have a head ache
after cracking so many nuts.

Well so much for the snow disappearing, this morning we woke to find the ground covered once more under a couple of inches of snow. It's a case of two steps forward and one back at the moment. The highlight of the morning though must be looking from our bedroom window and watching four deer make their way across the field opposite, unfortunately the light was poor so I was unable to capture them on camera,
Oh well onwards and upwards, we have now prepared the ingredients for cooking with the children at school, today we plan to make more rock cakes.[different children this time].

Sometimes we are asked how far north we are so I did a little checking and on a latitude of 56 we are close to being level with Ben Nevis in Scotland.

PS. what a surprise when letting the chickens out this morning to find not 1-2-3 but four eggs awaiting collection, 

Thank you girls

 You see Spring is just around the

corner.