On the way to Latvia

It's been a while since I wrote about this trip me and vineta are doing, many many things have happened so far. Firstly we drove across Europe from Rossendale to Gailīši ,we stopped on the way many times in Hannover, Berlin and a small village in Poland called Burakowskie. We spent a night in Vilnius and two in Berlin with our friend Dalia. We could have stayed for the rest of our lives in Burakowskie it was so lovely there staying with a beautiful family and chopping wood! It really helped us to recharge our batteries making the next two days driving a breeze. 

When we arrived in Naujene on the way to Gailīši we recharged once again with Vineta's family and slept deeply in the warmth of the family home before being flung into this reality check of living in a dark near 200 year old Latvian farmhouse ! Bonus points go to the incredible wood burning range made by RSM in Riga that provides heating as well as cooking facilities in cold weather. Thankfully that works perfectly! Water is a slightly more difficult situation with the well possibly broken and definitely looking murky. You really realise how much you rely on clean water out of the tap when you don't have it readily available. 

The one thing that we realised both me and vineta is that we are both immensely happy when we are outside in the garden! We have been using new words that most people won't have a clue about. The beds we have created in the garden so far are called Hugelkultur beds, supposedly the ultimate raised bed ! Vineta has been thinking lots about some thing called Effective Microganisms or E M for short. George the dog also prefers to be outside in the sunshine (or snow) just like we do and he started to sulk when we spent roughly an hour making lunch inside the house. Our next plan is to live as much time outside in the garden and get on with making more of these hugelkultur beds as well as putting into action other permaculture ideas so we can eat well this summer! George is exhausted and in need of a good rest after the stress of all the animals on the property that he felt he should defend us from ! We guess that there are probably moose and wild boar roaming the territory but we have only seen the destruction not the animal itself. The call of the moose is very low and quite beautiful. 

Much more to come as we tackle hopefully the last low temperatures this week and begin planting our seedlings out after next week.