OF VINES,TULIPS AND FAIRY TALES

It wasn't the earliest of starts, in fact it was quite civilised for excursions from Stelpe. We boarded the coach after it had delivered the schoolchildren all excited and ready for their day, (well some were)

We were off for the day in Tervetes novad visiting a young man who has a business growing grapes, and then a visit to someone who grows tulips, this would be followed by pusdienas (lunch) and then a short distance down the road to the main destination of our trip The Tervete Nature Park.

After what seemed to be the wettest September in memory we had enjoyed two days of wonderful warm sunny weather and this morning didn't disappoint, it was glorious and as we travelled we watched farmers

out in there fields cultivating and sowing next years harvest. In one field we watched huge machines applying a liquid fertilizer, covering wide swaths of land in a single pass, such a long long way from childhood days when the local farmer would drive through our village towing his muck spreader and filling the air with a distinctly agricultural aroma.

Three large poly tunnels held 100 nes in each.

Trained along wires the vines were above head height.

Large sweet juicy grapes tasting  nothing like shop bought ones. 

Anyway I digress Tervete novad (parish) is about 100 km from Stelpe so just a short trip for us today.

Our first stop was to visit Edgars Zihmanis who has planted some 800 vines outside for vine production and 300 inside three large poly tunnels and these were the vines we had come to see. With varieties from Ukraine, Russia and the U S A, he has selected varieties that will withstand Latvias cold winters with temperatures down to -25 -27C.

At the end of our tour there was a tasting session and believe you me there is nothing quite like a freshly picked juicy grape.

Like so many old buildings here, neglect and lack of funds
has caused  a multitude of problems for those
wanting to restore them  to their former glory.

Valerie took  a shine to this pup

While dad looked on.

Please take me home.

Settling back on the coach we headed for our next call the tulip grower ,here we could buy bulbs ready for next spring flowering, and after some confusion as to whether we should turn left or right we turned left only to find it should have been right, never mind we arrived and disembarked, The man whose business we had come to visit was waiting for us and we heard about his plans for the area, and the business he had. I'm afraid that when we went into his garden we discovered that his dog had had a litter of eight pups and these were the main attraction for many of us, Valerie took great delight in cuddling one pup and was most put out when I said no we can't have one. Mother was a German Shepherd and father looked like Bernese Mountain Dog, well he was certainly the size of a mountain!!

My dining companions.

Our lunchtime venue

Meat, mashed potato two different salads and sauce.

By golly it was good, very tasty.

Finally it was dinner time and we were to eat at the Agrofirma Tervete Ednica, a fairly new café which served an extremely good value for money meal.and very tasty too, excellent service and brilliant price , under 4 euros, for main,course pudding and drink [juice ].  

Our last stop was the Tervete Nature Park some 400 hectares of forest with paths down which one can wander and find giant mushrooms, fairytale caricatures, small homes for folk who live in this magical forest, there are play areas for children and grown-ups, tea rooms for those who just want to wander and enjoy the magnificent trees some up to 40m tall. If you want there is an observation tower which is 39m high and you can look out above the trees over the surrounding countryside. We had a guide with us as we set off and he told us many stories of the folk who lived there. The prerequisite though was that you must believe in fairy tales or you would see nothing at all. The two hours spent there was just not long enough and it is now on our list of places to take friends when they visit us.there is also a land train if you so wish, which some of us took advantage of a ride back up the hill, 

The bridge to take us from the carpark into the
Tervete Nature Park, so much safer than crossing the road. 

Along our way were rather nice places to sit and ponder a while.

How about rabbits this big?

I think Valerie would like one of these for
our garden!!

Just keep caterpillars this size off my plants. 

Practicing being a garden gnome (suites me I don't think)

Des Res in need of some upgrading.

No2 Fairy walk ready to move in to.

This witch was great she fed us with chocolate covered rasons.

Didn't like the size of the spiders though.

Part of the adventure playground, and as responsible adults
of course we had to try it out. Didn't we?,

Sadly our day was drawing to a close and we had to head back towards Stelpe after another great day out with our friends.

Where did summer go. Was it something that I said?

An international gathering from, Latvia, Norway, Ukraine
and the UK. The venue 13 Upes Iela

Those of you who know me will understand that when the grass starts to 
grow in spring and the plants start to wake up ,our garden tends to take over and sitting and trying to write this blog tends to take second place, or even third or fourth place.

There always has to be time for friends to visit, days away, and on the very rare occasion even a night away but all of these come with some cost. Unfortunately weeds and grass do not seem to understand the concept of a day of rest.

The joy of having a garden though is sharing it with friends and no matter what. quoting an old English song “Everything stops for tea” so the door is always open, PG tips ready and there is usually some cake or scones in the cupboard waiting to be eaten so if you have a bit of time to spare friends are always welcome.

The reason I am here now trying to put some thoughts into a blog is Spring and Summer have come and almost gone and we are sort of in between seasons. One day wet (which it is today) one day dull and dreary another warm and the next cold!! (to the point of putting the heating on).

Some bright spark once said “summer should get a speeding ticket” it travels so fast!!

Anyway that be it as it may, we all have to accept Autumn is on it's way some trees are beginning to turn red and the birch trees are showing yellow. I really like the way they seem to have tear drops of yellow leaves amongst the green almost as if they were sad at the passing of summer.

I mentioned earlier that there had been those days away, and I have endeavoured to cover them with albums of pictures on Facebook, one picture being worth a thousand words, and it's much quicker than writing a blog. ( If you are not a friend on FB send me a request and then you can catch up.)

Meanwhile here is a short account of the occasional day off and happenings in Stelpe we have had in picture form,

 (APRIL) Anna and Olivia, helping us at school cooking with the children

Olivia getting some cooking tips from Nanny.

In return a new hairstyle for Nanny.

(April)Our two large trees that had to be felled.

Our neighbour Janis making a start.

TIMBER!!!!!

A job well done. It's great to have good neighbours.

(May) My own humble effort at tree felling,
(Now  you see them)

Now you don't

( May) Our son Mark helping Dad with some barn repairs.

June found us in Lithuania at Kurija  Nerija National Park.
Looking towards Russia.

Sand dunes right on the Russian border.

All together now, a life on the ocean waves.

A little about our boat trip.

On the shore line, just hope the tide doesn't rse to much.

We had a day out in Lithuania with friends from
Vecumnieki, where everything is big!!
From cookng pots

to ants

Snakes

Even the mosquitoes. 

As we left after a long day we stopped for one
last look over the countryside from this 100mtr
viewing high platform.

A few days latter found us heading out again,
this time to Kolka, which is where the
Baltic sea joins the Gulf of Riga.
This is a local fishermans boat.

Lunch in  a fishermans home.

Heading for  Cape Kolka

I'm Glad I never brought my swimming trunks.

A proud moment for grandparents, when we attended Katies
graduation in Winchester Cathedral in July  

Spring is just around the corner

One of the biggest problems I face during the long winter days is finding things to keep occupied, once the snow arrives and winter has really arrived,with the house up together what can one do? One can read, troll the internet, go to Facebook and see what others are doing, watch TV, check out ebay or Amazon to see if there is anything you want or need to buy, But after three months of snow one begins to go stir crazy . Unless you have lived through a northern winter believe me you don't know what it's like.

The snow is snowing,

At least all of the gardens look the same

 It is beautiful, everything covered in a layer of pristine white snow, The air crisp and clean which is just lovely for the first few days and then reality sets in.

One nights snow and there will be more on the way.

Don't get me wrong I do love it, but just imagine a diet of cream cakes, Ok for one or two days  but after that what one wouldn't give for a cheese and pickle sandwich  I am sure you get my drift.





I have  not been completely unproductive though, and have made several plant supports for sweet peas,  roses and various other plants that need to be kept safe from some of the strong winds we can sometimes get. Another project was at the request of Valerie, we have some very nice pieces of wooden furniture, and although we can buy
Aerosol cans of polish in the shops, she wanted
some old fashioned Lavender scented Beeswax
you know the kind our mums used back
in the day when we were kids, so unable to find any in the shops or online the only solution to the problem was to make some. Ingredients needed where beeswax,( this meant a trip to the forest where a bee keeper had agreed to sell us some) white spirit and lavender oil. Put the three together and low and behold Lavender scented beeswax furniture polish, works wonderfully well and fills the house with the memories of home when I was a young boy.

Beeswax furniture polish, 

But hey there is light at the end of the tunnel, it's the 2nd of March and fingers crossed it's gone, the snow that is, the sun is rising higher in the sky and getting  some warmth with it and the days are getting longer.
 I know things are improving as we are now getting more varieties of birds to our table, we have had Great tits, blue tits, house sparrows, nuthatch, greenfinches and lesser spotted woodpeckers.and today to our surprise a merlin was sat on it.(most likely waiting for his lunch)


 Today has probably been one of the warmest we have woken up to and as Spring approaches I decided to take my camera and go for a walk around our little village to give you an idea of what life is like as we awake from our long partial hibernation.
Stelpe may not be the center of the universe but it is our home and we love it.

The village we call home

On leaving home I decided to see what state the river was in and headed towards the little bridge

As you can see  the water is very high.

So here are some pictures I took my first are of our main road. which is interesting to say the least.

The delight's of country roads

 As winter leaves us  we are left with a surface which is somewhere between corrugated iron and soft putty. This then develops into  a choice of dust (if it's dry) or bog (if it's wet)







My attention then turned to my stomach and  thought maybe a nice sweet to suck while I walked would help me focus on the job in hand, Our local shop was on my way so I popped in to make my selection                                                                      
I have called it an emporium not because it's large

The Stelpe emporium

 but for the wide range of goods there on offer, There is all manner of smoked meat, sausage, cheese and dairy products, bread and cakes, drinks both soft and alcoholic, frozen veg etc etc the list goes on. oh yes and of course sweets of which I made my selection and was served by a very pleasant lady. I wished her "visu labu" (goodbye) and  continued my walk.

Think of this as your old corner shop and you will
have some idea of  what it is like.
Sadly a disappearing part of english life

What a joy it is to be served by someone
with a smile on there face.

Where to next? On our last trip to Vecumnieki ( our nearest large village with a supermarket) we had noticed that a small wood was being felled so I was interested to see how far they had progressed and as it was not far down the road that would be my next port of call. Keeping well away from the road edge and thus avoiding being sprayed with the mud soup that n places covered the surface I was surprised when a people carrier pulled up and before anyone could ask me anything I said do you speak english? Yes yes yes came the answer and a gentleman asked if I knew where Stelpe Water was as they were looking for the bore hole that used to supply the said business.  was pleased to be able to give them the directions they needed. They were somewhat taken aback to find an English man walking along a country road and so our conversation turned to one  of what, why, when and where.

turned out the passenger in the car was Latvian, who had gone abroad to Australia when he was a young lad and was now back visiting  "SOS Children's Village's International "  of which there is one in Bauska. Surprising who you meet along the road!

Anyway back to my walk, I heard in the distance the sound of a chainsaw so knew there were men at work in the wood.

Felling a small patch of woodland.

A lovely slow means of transport, with a very low
impact on the environment.

As I stood and watched the men at work a real slice of rural life came along a lady who had been to our local grain store, (a granary from back in the days of collective farming ) with her horse and cart. They certainly were not responsible for the state of the road. We passed the time of day and  saw her later in my walk around the village.

A short distance from where the men were clearing the wood is a cemetery and  so  decided that I would have a wander along to it. The place is called "Stengu Kapi" Latvian cemeteries are usually found in a wooded area with graves set out neatly and kept in  good order, many graves will have a small bench where relatives can sit in a peaceful setting. In the spring this cemetery lily of the valley growing in profusion  everywhere. the scent of the flowers filling the air.

It was here that I found the lady who had driven by me on her horse and cart, she had tied the horse to a tree and was quietly going about tidying  what must have been a family plot.

Although a cold day there was a peaceful air about
the place.

 My walk around our village almost over I decided to return home by a different route and passed by the granary I mentioned earlier, it's a very interesting building. One  would like to explore in some detail.

If you look carefully you will see the ever
watchful guard dog.

The only thing left to complete a lovely walk was a cup of tea and a slice of cake, both of which were readily available at 13 Upes Iela

PS. Just as we thought everything was turning to spring, we are back to everywhere white again and snow is falling even as  type this!