4

Now we are 4 of us, already for 10 days :). Here is the first picture of 4:


It's so good to see and be able to touch my toes again! I really missed them :). If you're interested, here are some more pictures from our recent family events. And yes, this means that I cannot get away from baby world still for some time. So more b-words are to come...

Cars, birds and cats

When we were still living in the city, then one of the attractions that helped to calm down Hanna was watching cars out of the window. We were living at very busy street, and large cross-road with traffic lights was visible from the window, so cars were almost always available. It worked really well on Hanna. When we were moving away, it was clear that we will have to come up with something new, as life in a village house cannot provide this entertainment. We had even a joke that Kaido will have to go out and drive our car back-and-forth while I will show this to Hanna :)
Fortunately, it turns out that country life has its own attractions. Now it's even better, as we have large window reaching to floor, and I do not have to lift Hanna to show the view. Instead of cars, now there are cats and birds that pass or fly by. I didn't know that so many different cats are visiting our garden, but I'm only happy for that because Hanna likes to watch them, and we don't need to have our own cat (it's already enough with Hanna :) ). The same goes for birds - there are plenty of them, and Hanna really enjoys watching them.
To increase the attraction, I put out a bird feeder after the big snow fall. It turned out really popular, at least the same amount of birds was sitting around in trees:
I even discovered that a small ornithologist woke up in me, and I had to find out what kind of birds visited our feeder (well, some I knew, but not all; besides, it was a good language exercise as naturally I know birds in my native Latvian, so it was interesting to find out their names in Estonian and English):
- bullfinch / sarkankrūtītis / leevike
- greenfinch / zaļžubīte / rohevint
- great tit / lielā zīlīte / rasvatihane
- hawfinch / dižknābis / suurnokk-vint
- house sparrow / mājas zvirbulis / kodu varblane
- tree sparrow / lauku zvirbulis / põldvarblane

Do you know the difference between a house sparrow and a tree sparrow? I also thought that there is just a "sparrow", but with Google you can find out more if you just wish. Now I'm waiting to see a blue tit / zilzīlīte / sinitihane to arrive at our feeder, so this attraction is not just for Hanna :)
After all, we do not need that many cars here, and Kaido can stay at home instead of driving back-and forth.

Snow all around

As last year snow got almost forgotten, then this season it looks that winter has decided to learn from mistakes and throw down as much snow as possible already in the beginning. So during the weekend we got just fantastic snow storm! It was nice to watch it through the window. Kaido thought that it looks so nice that he could go out for some jogging... I stayed at home and checked the time to see for how long he survives :) Well, time was impressive and well above my expectations: 1 hour, but to be honest that included also going to shop :) Anyhow, soon it became quite impossible to watch the storm as windows became like this:


By that our storm experience was not over: just by the time when it became dark our electricity went out! In our house no electricity means also no heating, no internet, no TV, no radio news, no hot food (not talking about having some tea), no lights (of course), no hot water and refrigerator turning into useless leaking box. In fact, we didn't have any water at all as obviously water pump house also had electricity outage. The water at least returned by next morning, but electricity outage continued for 31 hour. So we had 2 romantic evenings in candle light and with fireplace. At least we found out that our fireplace is not only nice to look at, but it is also sufficient to heat the house if the outside temperature is around -2°C. We still don't know what would happen with -20°C, but that, I guess, we'll find out some time in future. Anyhow, our first extreme experience in our house is over, and it wasn't that bad at all :))
The nature was so beautiful the next day! This is an early morning after the storm, view from the window (it's nice to have large windows...):


Snow piles in some places were taller than Hanna (and Hanna is now around 72cm, not taking into account boots and clothes):


Snowy road:

Playing the Victim

Last Saturday was the great day when I finally managed to go to theatre again. There was about 1 year pause because Hanna just did not drink from bottle with a teat meaning that there was not so much alternative for her feeding than me being around. Now she's already eating like "normal" people, and finally we could go to theatre. We went to see play named 'Playing the Victim' written by Iranian-Russian brothers Presnyakovs. It was staged in my favourite theatre in Tallinn - Linnateater (Tallinn City Theatre). This theatre the most reminds me of Jaunais Rīgas Teātris (New Riga Theatre) from Latvia.
Unfortunately the performance was a disappointment. The episodes somehow went on for long time, when I thought that I have got the idea and we could move on. So, it got boring to wait for those episodes to move on. Then there was some strange video going on, which was sometimes distracting to see what's happening on stage. There was also a father, who was actually dead, so kind of his ghost arrived from the other world to talk to his son. But he did it with very loud music and very strong microphone. For the first time it was so loud that I just didn't get the message what he was saying. For the second time I was already smarter and closed my ears with fingers - in that way it was possible to distinguish from the beat music what he actually was speaking. In the end I was starting to doubt if I understood the play at all, and maybe there was some deeper idea, what my mind, with education in economics, is just unable to comprehend. So, in the end I felt like being stupid and not understanding the art.
When returning home, the first thing was to search in internet what was the idea of the play. It turned out that there was no more deeper idea than what I had thought out myself. Besides there was article of Estonian newspaper Sirp mentioning some of the shortcomings of the performance what I had noticed. Well, Sirp is the newspaper for culture people with very good reputation in Estonia, so my self-esteem returned :)
Anyway, as we have to use time before the new baby is born, we have tickets for another theatre performance in November, and I very much hope that it will be much better.

'Farmer of the Year' vs. 'Home of the Year'

There are many competitions where different titles "of the Year' are assigned. One thing that somehow came to my notice this year was prize money size for 2 such competitions in Estonia.
One competition was 'Home of the Year 2008' (Aasta kodu 2008) organized by the magazine 'Kodu ja Aed' ('Home and Garden'). The prize is awarded for creating nice home with good interior, good room planing and everything what goes with it. The winner got prize money of 50000 EEK (approx. 3200 EUR).
The other competition was 'Farmer of the Year 2008' (Aasta Põllumees 2008) organized by Estonian Chamber of Agriculture and Commerce. The winner got prize money of 30000 EEK (approx. 1900 EUR).
I think this is inadequate taking into account all the effort what is necessary to became the best farmer in comparison to creating just nice interior for oneself. I don't want to underestimate the importance of nice home, and of course it takes time and money to create it. Anyway, in my opinion the farmer should get more than somebody who created nice home! Of course, I understand that it depends on the sponsors and organizers. It's interesting to notice that both prize moneys where sponsored by banks: Swedbank for home and SEB for agriculture. So, I have to conclude that banks have evaluated that they get more profit from home owners (or mortgage takers) than from farmers.

And here is one photo which is totally unrelated to home owners or farmers. One day in this autumn we went to pick mushrooms. I have to admit that choice of the forest was not the best for mushrooms as I didn't find any edible mushroom. However, it was well spent time anyway as there was nice view to the Baltic Sea, there were lots of cowberries, and also there was this nice mushroom.

Meanwhile

I have to admit that I've been very bad at keeping my New Year's promises. Good news is that it will be very easy to make next year's promises, as I can keep promising same things and don't have to think out anything new :).
Why I haven't been writing meanwhile? For 3 main reasons. Firstly, I've been just too lazy. Secondly, I've been too busy with moving and everything related to it. And thirdly, I've been feeling too sick to write anything, and feeling sick for almost 3 months by turn - that's no joke.
What has happened meanwhile? From above you can already guess that we have finally moved to the house. I have to admit that it's quite nice, and I like it here. Except for the fact that we still do not have any kitchen. Well, to be honest we have something temporary with small electric stove with 2 places and we even organized some sink. But that's no proper kitchen. There is no oven, and I miss apple cake... and plum cake, ... and cowberry (brūkleņu or pohla) cake, ... and actually any kind of home-made cake. However, finally we have managed to make an order for kitchen, and it is supposed to be installed in the first week of the December. OK, we have allowed for some small delay (but don't tell that to the kitchen company), and we very-very much hope that kitchen will be in place for Christmas.
Many friends have asked to send pictures of our home. But no-no-no, my dears, I'm not going to send you any pictures of our home. Because you have to come and see it for yourself! :)
What else has happened? Hanna has turned out to be so excellent child and has tricked us that all small babies should be like that. Therefore we are crazy enough and are waiting for another one. This is the reason for feeling sick for almost 3 months. But now it's over, and I'm able to write again. Getting big again luckily does not disturb writting.

I decided that I cannot be so cruel and not show you any picture at all. Instead of our house picture, here is one photo that I wanted to post already long time ago because I somehow like it. It's taken in early spring this year. That day we decided to go and search the place where our famous bronze soldier Aljosha was brought to. The place was very nice and very fitting, in my opinion. As you can see, Aljosha is doing well and is not forgotten.

Few minutes, many emotions

I like when friends are getting married

Lately I haven't been too good at keeping my promise to add things more frequently to this blog. Of course, I cannot recognize myself as guilty, and I have to look for somebody/something else to blame. This time I have good excuse - it's fault of too good weather this spring. The thing is simple and it goes like this: We are currently renovating Kaido's grandfather's house that has quite large garden. In recent years the garden has been only so much attended as much it was possible by grandfather and from time to time visiting relatives which means that there is lots and lots to do in the garden. At the same time I have to go out every day at least for 2 hours for Hanna's sleep. So I have made commitment that whenever it's nice weather, I go to the garden with Hanna so that I can do work while Hanna is sleeping. I planned the rainy days as vacation and rest. Everything works very well except for the fact that there have been no rainy days, which means no vacation for me. So every evening, which currently is my only free time, I have been too deadly tired to write any blog. Now I finally got vacation, though not in the most pleasant way as I got slightly ill. But it has positive consequences of getting back to blog. In the meantime I had several stories that I certainly wanted to tell, but now I have forgotten all of them, except the recent one which is Girts wedding. To tell the truth, I expected some other friends to marry sooner, and Girts decision was a surprise to me as I thought him to be one of the least potential for marriage :P. It seems I have been too long away from Latvia and meeting him too seldom :) Anyhow, I like when friends are getting married, no matter if it's surprise or not!

Ega tali taeva ei jää!

Ega tali taeva ei jää! - it is an old Estonian expression, which I learned this year as everybody was using it while desperately waiting for snow. Literally translated it means Winter will not stay in the sky! meaning than one day winter will come anyway. This year I used to say to my friends that old Estonians were mistaken, and this year winter did not arrive. Till last week. It turned out that old Estonians were wise, and finally snow came, even if just for couple of days. It looked like winter discovered that spring time has come, and winter was thinking "did I forget something?... Ups! Snow... Now let's use all the snow I have and throw it down fast and at once". The result was excellent. I do not remember when last time I saw so many smiling people, while making my 2h daily walk with Hanna. I don't know about car drivers and street cleaners, but all walking people, which I saw, were happy. Not mentioning the children!
Finally I could also test one of the reasons to choose my baby pram because it is supposed to be easy to drive through snow during winter. The pram passed the test with excellent results.
Even more - I managed to do a bit of cross-country skiing for 3 days by turn! So sad feeling of putting skiing boots away without using them during season was avoided.
That was last week; now the spring has arrived.

Valentīna dienas biezpiena plācenīši