Oh the birds and the bees

If only you could smell them.

I find myself this morning sitting in our summer house on the finest of August mornings,

an absolutely cloudless sky, checking the thermometer which is just by my shoulder and in deep shade I see it reads 25c.

The common blue.

A red admiral.

Peacock butterfly.

Our neighbours today are harvesting their potatoes and have just returned with a trailer load, one of many I suspect. Potato picking is very much a family activity involving everybody from the youngest to the most senior members. Children have to play their part as well (but maybe just scrabbling around in the dirt is more fun for them than the hours of back bending toil is for the adults.

The ground where we grew our potatoes was so poor that we never really managed to grow anything much bigger than a golf ball, and taking into account all the hours of labour that went into the whole process, not to mention walking the rows collecting colorado beetles by the dozen, we now would pay a few Euros and buy from friends or neighbours. This has given us more time to devote to the garden surrounding the house and this is a constant source of pleasure.

Mrs Chomdley clematis, she never
fails to impress.

Oh the buzzing of the bees

A rare sight, golden orioles tend to hide in the woods. 

 Every day there is something happening maybe it's a new bird come to visit, flowers coming into bloom or just the butterflies settling on the brightest blooms. The bees on the lavender have fascinated me, the lightest of insects landing on a bloom and bending it to the ground or swinging in the breeze and not taking any notice, so intent collecting all the goodness the plant has to offer. With so many simple pleasures time just slips away just watching, yes that sums it up “just watching”. A friend sitting in the garden one day last week said “ To me this is just paradise”.

Just a very few of our marigolds

The wheel came from Lithuania and the brugmaia from
the national botanical gardens.

Pansies from a local market

I guess this year has been a year of appreciating many of the simple things, we so often take for granted. Oh yes the hard work has to be put in if you want to reap the benefit. In the spring we asked friends who were about to visit if they would bring us some flower seeds, marigolds in particular, this they kindly did and in due course I sowed them. The packet said they would grow 20-30 cm high, after a while making a little growth I planted them out not expecting to much. How wrong can one be 
they are exceptional growing 
far in excess of the packet description and our garden is filled with large patches of the brightest colours from an almost lemon yellow through shades of orange right down to a deep burnt orange. Every other day I take a bucket and walk round dead heading, finish up with it almost full of spent blooms and hundreds more to come.

Gazanias from our daughter, just starting to bloom

A few more marigolds

Our daughter sent us some Gazania seed which are now in flower and just loving the hot sunshine

Roses are another plant that has done well this year, in fact just about everything has done really well. But I will let you be the judge of that when you see the pictures.

Phlox, delphiniums,day lilies,hostas and a whole lot more.

Somewhere to sit and just watch

Our new letter box .

A BUSY WEEKEND.

We get very excited here when spring comes, every day we see migrating birds returning to their summer home and new life returns to what for the last  five months has looked like a barren landscape, dotted about are snowdrops, crocus and small iris reticulata showing up as bright splashes of colour in peoples otherwise dull gardens.

Snowdrops

Iris

  So far we have Starlings, blackbirds siskin,wagtails, redstarts and linnets even a solitary robin, not to mention two fat pigeons who landed on our front lawn the other day. Speaking of which reminds me of my mum when ever she heard a pigeon calling would always say it was saying "My toe bleeds Betty, my toe bleeds Betty". Try it next time you hear one the words fit a real treat.  For those of you who have not experienced the long winter nights and oh so short days, it is a joy to feel the warmth returning to the sun as it climbs higher into the sky each day.
April 1st we saw our first storks and no it wasn't an April fools trick, this year there seem to be many more crane's about

 and the geese are quite phenomenal, one day there were literally thousands flying over the village.It certainly is a time of hope, expectation and new beginings.

Just a few of the geese

there were thousands, eyes turned skywards and
jaws dropped as they all flew over.

Speaking of which Easter is a time of such anticipation, and I guess while some if not many children in England will still be munching their way through mountains of chocolate eggs, many of the children over here will never have heard of a Cadbury's cream egg let alone the scores of different flavours and fillings many manufactures produce and sell (one report I read says some 80 million were sold in the UK this year)
Easter eggs are treated quite differently by both young and old here,with children dyeing hen's eggs.
Maundy Thursday found us in school at 8.30am in the children's kitchen joining with different classes and some pensioner friends dipping wet eggs in Greki (buckwheat) or small seeds,tying leaves of different sizes and an assortment items around them and then wrapping them with cloth, then binding them with cotton thread ready to

Preparing of the eggs 

All done ( well some of them)

On to boil 15 minutes and don't take the lid off!!!! 

The unwrapping 

So simple

be put into a large pan of water and onion skins where they would be boiled for 15 minutes with the lid on. I went to lift the lid once before time and was told in no uncertain terms, DON'T !!! take the lid off. The different classes came and went and we must have dyed enough eggs to supply the whole of Stelpe.
After lunch we had prepared an Easter egg hunt with a difference, around the school grounds we had put 20 posters  of eggs all with different colour combinations on them and it was the job of the children to find them and fill the answers in on a sheet of paper, it all went as near as planned (they couldn't find two and we couldn't remember where we had put them) but it was great fun anyway and everyone finished up with a lollipop for their efforts.
The day was not finished as we all set off to visit a neighbour for tea and biscuits  where we took the opportunity to make small crosses out of   the wood I had from pruning an apple tree. Eight hours later we arrived home a little frazzled around the edges but content with our efforts.
Good Friday ( Quiet Friday as it is known here) found us visiting a friend who has s small church in Riga where we joined him and his family with other members of the church for a service revolving round the events leading up to the crucifixion of Jesus. None of the razzmatazz that is so often found in modern churches today but a time to reflect upon the suffering and price that was paid for our salvation.
Saturday came and went, time spent in the garden and whilst the weather was good there was such a cold wind it at times was unpleasant to be out. One thing I have learnt is that no matter how eager one is to get on with all that needs to be done outside in the garden is, you can't hurry nature she will be ready when she wants to be.
Easter day arrived full of promise and we had promised to support our friends who had prepared an  Easter concert in a small Lutheran church in a nearby village (Stelpe doesn't have a church)

Valle Lutheran church, very simple but peaceful

A time to reflect

and celebrate

 and then it was back to the school where we boarded a coach which took dancers and performers to three locations for easter celebrations finishing up with hot drinks and nibbles.

Easter bunnies and chicken.

With lots of dancing

With all of the comings and goings over the Easter weekend, Easter Monday found us tired but very happy to have been part of all that went on.

A TRIP TO THE MARKET

Before Christmas some friends asked Valerie and myself if we would like to join them on a trip to the market. not the central market in Riga ( which is a must do on the visitors first visit to Latvia)  This would be a trip to Kaziuko muge or to you and me Saint Casimir's Fair, held on the first weekend of March. ( wear warm clothes as it might be cold) in Vilnius Lithuania 

Well we are game for anything new so we signed up and looked forward to the trip, the eagerly awaited day arrived and found us on the road at seven o'clock heading for Bauska where we would join our fellow travelers, The day started off dull with a dark gray clouds and chilly to say the least. It is 226 km from Bauska to Vilnius  but the coach was nice and warm as we settled in for the two and a half to three hour journey.

Valerie had cooked some cornish pasties  for a snack on the coach, we had a supply of coconut buns plus a flask of coffee, things were definitely on the up. 

Heading across the border into Lithuania.

Leaving Latvia behind we watched the countryside slip by, had we not seen the old border post one could not tell where one country ended and another began. The road we would be travelling is known as "the via Baltica" and is fast and in many places stretches far into the distance as straight as a die.

 However upon reaching Vilnius we hit the traffic and ground to a much slower pace, traffic lights keeping us moving us past high rise office blocks ,posh new car showrooms and shopping malls and new building work on one side of the road whilst on the other were the high rise apartment blocks so familiar in countries that were part of the old Soviet system.

High rise housing.

Barclay's Bank , Lithuania branch.

Our driver took us round modern roads and down into the old town which runs alongside of the Neris river and dropped us off at the edge of the market where we would have six hours to while away our time. As it was by this time the sun was occasionally breaking through the clouds and turning the day much brighter. 

The bell tower

The market is inspired by the awakening of nature in the Spring , spreads out  from the cathedral square which is dominated by a tall white bell tower which tolls out every fifteen minutes. We arranged to meet our friends later to find somewhere to have lunch and so we parted and we went off to explore.

Just some of the crowd

To say the market was busy is somewhat of an understatement the place was heaving with visitors. Undaunted we headed of along a street,  lined both sides of the road with stalls selling 

just about every type of craft you could imagine, wood carving,weaving, pottery  homemade knitwear, ceramics of every shape and size, food stalls selling all manner of bread and cakes

We sampled some fresh mini doughnuts covered in powdered sugar  ( delicious) 

Mini doughnuts

Bacon and sausages abounded filling the air with a mixture of sweet and savoury smells.  Hand made BBQ's , metal sculptures, bird boxes , you name it it was there. On one corner there were what looked like steam engines, on closer inspection they were contraptions for heating wine on a large scale. 

Hot wine being prepared

In almost every  spare space there were buskers or traditional groups singing songs. All around people people were buying "verbos" ( Easter Palms) They are made of colourful dried wild flowers and herbs tied around a stick.

It was impossible to walk side by side so we trailed behind one another, up and down the stalls,  sometimes stopping to examine some item or another, sometimes being forced to stop as the person in front just decided to stop!!! oh how I hate that. 

There were families with prams and pushchairs, dogs on leads , small children , young and old all out for the day,tourists  taking  pictures  everyone having a great (if somewhat frustrating ) time.

Mid day there was a parade through the town  with St Casimir leading the way.

St Casimir leading the parade

We met up with our friends and found a pancake house, and thought it would be a good place to eat, and it was, they did an excellent chicken and chips with a green salad and whiskey sauce, followed buy apple cinnamon pancakes, washed down with a Lithuanian beer for 12.50 euros. Our waitress was a lovely girl called Gabriella, and couldn't have looked after us better.

Refreshed and re energised we emerged ready to face the crowds again. Passing one stall of dark ceramics, hanging at the back of the stall were some water colour paintings, two of which took our fancy straight away, standing to one side of the stall was the artist and when we decided to buy not one but two of his  paintings we really made his day. ( I now have two frames to make which should be fun). 

Valerie's  choice

and mine

Our next purchase was some unsmoked bacon ( we have just had bacon sandwiches for dinner) believe me it is the best we have tasted, and no chemicals added! Visiting a small stall with ceramic animals we found one that will do just nicely as a late christmas gift for friends who are coming to visit later in the Spring.

By five o'clock we were bushed and the sun 

had disappeared so we went to the park ,

 

where we found a seat and waited for the bus to collect us and bring us home.

The journey home seemed to fly by and by nine pm we were back in Bauska I had parked the car just four meters from the bus stop which was great no more walking, we fell into our seats and and were home before the coach reached Riga.

What a day, good company, new sights sounds and tastes, in fact a good time was had by all.

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.

Hi I won't keep you long.

Sitting at our dining room table writing this blog and seeing just how cold it looks outside I am grateful for all the hard work I put in during the spring and summer months, sawing splitting and storing logs in preparation for days just like this.Whilst our central heating system may look and be a little (well in fact a lot) old fashioned with steel pipes and finned sections in place of radiators, it works!  The temperature today has dipped to -10c altho we have at some time reached -27c which is fine as long as there is no wind. We are often asked how do we manage when it is so cold, The answer is simple put  an extra layer on and take a little longer to get ready before going out, long johns may be the answer of the day and make sure your tucked in, I despair of the fashion where there is a large gap between the top of the bottom and the bottom of the top I'm sure you get my drift.

Down our way.

But back to the view from our window, everything is coated on three sides in a heavy frost and this has come from the east as the western side of most things is less white, the sky is dull grey which makes everything a tad boring. But and it's a big but when the sun comes out everything and I mean everything is transformed the snow sparkles as if someone has scattered diamonds all over the place, the air takes on a magic all of it's own and the most minute particles of moisture freeze and glitter as they drift by. Thats when winter is at it's best in Latvia,  the snow is dry and brushes off clothes the air freezes the hairs up your nose and it's amazing.

It's amazing what a bit of sunshine will do

I am sure those of us who have flown have all wondered at the sight when on a dull dismal rainy day we have left the depressing sight behind and soared up up and away into the clear sunshine with everything taking on a new appearance. what were dark clouds are now  rolling hills of the white cotton wool etc.
Anyway to move on, the boiler is full,the pipes are hot, paths cleared and the birds ( chicken and wild) are fed and watered, so it's time to catch up here on "tales from"
The only thing of note that has happened since I wrote last, has been the pensioners party. 26 pensioners and several friends gathered for an afternoon of fun and entertainment including games, dancing and an accordion band (pensioners themselves) who had travelled 140 kilometers to play for us. Starting at 12 o 'clock we finally left the school hall at just  after 6pm.

All the way from Saldus (140 km)
just to play for us.

When it comes to games we are not big party game players so we just say sorry we don't understand and can sit on the sidelines and watch the antics as things unfold which is just fine. When it comes to dancing  well thats another matter, I have two left feet and no sense of rhythm but that's no excuse  one is pulled onto the dance floor any protest falls on deaf ears.especially when it's an "everyone on your feet type "
We can not refuse, to do so would be rude and so we join the chain and wizz round the floor arms stretched wide in and out over and under in one confusing mass, finishing up out of breath laughing at others smiling and applauding each other. Then falling back into our seats only for the music to start and we do it all over again.

All ready , let the party begin .

Well it's Sunday morning now and our door is open for Sunday club, something we have had for the last seven years, sadly as the children grow and leave the village for secondary school and dare I say it some of the first children to come  are now married and have their own children, maybe the next generation of Sunday club children who knows.
Back to this morning and with the snow falling we have just one faithful young girl, Vivita who has been coming since she was 5 years old, her english is good and being here gives her the opportunity to use it.  While I write this she is in the kitchen with Valerie cooking something, I think it may be cream horns, Whatever it is it smells good and I know it will taste good.

Making cream horns

Over the years we have found that food whether it be at home with children or pensioners or school cooking with different classes, eating a bring and share lunch with friends,or just the sharing of home baking with neighbours barriers are broken down despite language differences. Like a ripple in a pond who knows just where our actions will lead.

Yes they are good.

Having cooked the cream horns some were taken home for mum dad and the family. we'll find out later what they thought of them.