disappearing act

Sorry for the long disappearance! Our last three weeks in Latvia were overrun by family gatherings, weddings, trips of all sorts and sizes, spectacular summer weather, lack of internet connections … and to be totally honest … keeping up with this blog and emails became such a ‘job’ that I figured – I don’t need a job during my holiday! So, I disappeared, only to return to a mail box full of 68 emails (thank god, gmail sorts out junk mail, because the junk mail folder had 348 emails in it) and a whole lot of angry messages about not keeping my blog going. My appologies…

We’ve been back for two days. Back in Toronto. Back at home. Back in the swing of things. I’m still processing the last few weeks of our trip and the whole ‘returning to our regular life’ thing. Kaspar is going through some heavy jet lag, I think. His lack of sleep during the night and long naps during the day are sort of forcing me into an odd schedule myself. But, we’re happy to be back home! Here is a picture of Kaspar still in Latvia. The day before we left…

nightingales & rain

Last week a friend of mine from Toronto was here. She stayed at my mom’s place and we got talking about families and history and grandmothers and it turned out that her grandmother was a friend of my grandmother’s way back. Go figure! The world is so small, so small…

Last week it also rained a lot. It was a cold and wet sort of a week. One night, as the rain stopped pounding on our windows and the evening was approaching, my friend decided to hook up with some old friends and go for a drive out to a town called Tervete, where she used to work in a sculpture park of a sorts. It’s a large property with wooden and bronze statues that are made after characters from books by a Latvian author Anna Brigadere. She wrote a lot for children, fairy tales and stories… so, the sculptures are of the one foot tall boy “Spriditis”, the “King of the Forest” and so on…. But that’s really not important. So, she decided to go and invited me and Kaspar along. I could not resist. After several days indoors we both were dying to get out. Even if it was going to be a late night!

We piled into her friend’s car, tight like sardines at 8pm in the evening and drove into the sunset. Kaspar slept for the hour in the car, while we drove. By the time we arrived the rain began to sprinkle again, but that was not going to stop us. Armed with umbrellas, Kaspar in the sling across my shoulder we went for an evening walk. We stepped out of the car shortly after 9pm. It was still somewhat light out. Dusk. (Evenings are light, here! In fact, I think the night (as darkness) only lasts for about four hours right now.) We paid little attention to the sculptures, but went to all the beautiful nature spots in the park and listened to many stories about the park, many local tales and past love affairs with this place. My friend’s girlfriend’s husband is a local from Tervete. He had stories galore! Very interesting fellow! But the best part came around 11pm, as we were crossing a little meadow and approaching a creek with a little bridge across it, someone said: “Hear it? It’s a nightingale!” And sure enough, there were a couple of them calling out to each other across the field. It turned out that the interesting local fellow could not only tell tales, but do the nightingale call, too. By the end of our listening session we could not count the nightingales singing back to us. There were at least seven or eight of them singing back and forth to one another from every corner of the field. I had never heard anything like it in my life! A nightingale’s song is not all that special, when you listen to just one bird, but when there are many of them singing back and forth, it becomes an entirely different experience. It was magical. As the night started to come upon us, we hurried back to the car, but not before exploring the edge of the creek and finding a remnant, a piece of an old clay pot. I thought it was quite something. But the locals were not at all surprised. Somewhere, just up from the park are ancient burial grounds, never excavated… and the creek washes out smaller pieces occasionally. So goes the story!

But, that was not the end of our trip. We still had to stop by the mother in law’s place in town, where we got showered with hugs and kisses and were given freshly milked cow’s milk, a whole 3 L jug of it… and a whole lap full of lilacs, that she kept breaking more and more of, as we were starting to pull out of the yard. And it did not take us long to realize that my cousin is about to get married to a guy, who has grown up only three doors down the street from this lady and for many years has taken milk from her. I’m telling you…. This world is a very small place!

We drove back watching the night time sky and listening to an amazing mix of Islandic pop, a band called “Pink Martini” and some Latin American music. It was a perfect conclusion to the night. Kaspar had stayed awake on the whole walk and was in a great mood thoughout the night, but slept soundly in the car on the way back. I managed to pull him out of the car and carry him up to the bed, without waking him. So, our fine little trip came to a conclusion and the next morning we all slept in until 11 am. I love sleeping in until 11!!!

The picture of the field is the view of the creek, where we listened to the nightingales and the picture of Kaspar is taken in the car, just before we started driving back. Yes, he does look exhausted, doesn't he?

retreating

We've been chilling at home for a few days. On Saturday Kaspar hit a rough patch and I was forced to accept the inevitable - teething or not, it’s time to take it easy for a few days. We’ve now spent the week-end at my mom’s place (the house, where I feel most at home, where I grew up), with regular nap times, getting to bed on time in the evenings and spending the days playing and walking and digging in the dirt in the back yard. It seems to have worked magic on the little fellow. He’s back to his old self, again. I guess the gypsy lifestyle can be hard on anyone, especially such a young chap!

Last week we spent a day hanging out on a farm, where they raise racing horses. Standing in a field surrounded by these gorgeous animals was both magical and a little frightening. Even though the woman, who takes care of them, reassured us of their friendly temper, we were cautious. The last thing I wanted to experience was being trampled by a herd of horses, especially with Kaspar in the sling. Even being kicked or bitten by a horse was not on my list of things to do. So, we kept our distance and made sure not to be swarmed by more then a couple of animals at a time. Kaspar loved to touch the soft nose of the horse. Every time his little hand managed to reach far enough to touch, he’d quickly pull away and squeal with pleasure. This black horse in the picture was very friendly! He kept trying to nibble on my hand and I was a little afraid that Kaspar’s hand might fit too far into his mouth. But in the end Kaspar only managed to put his fingers in the horse’s nostril. That kind of put an end to our relationship. I don’t think he was impressed. The horse, I mean. Kaspar was more then impressed! He was just waiting for the next opportunity to pick another nostril.

On Friday it rained. It’s been pretty cool all week, in fact. I’m so very glad that I brought my spring coat and a few extra jackets for Kaspar with us. We were visiting a friend of mine and went for an unusual stroll. Unusual for Jurmala, at least! Since Jurmala is a town that stretches for miles along the coast of Riga bay and has gorgeous white sand beaches, most residents of this town go for walks along the beach. But this time we had a nice stroll through the pine forest just before the beach, where the city has put pathways that are not unlike the boardwalk along the beaches in Toronto.It was great! A clean wooden path slightly raised above the forest floor, smooth… perfect crawling surface for Kaspar. Even though it rained a little the pines gave us just enough cover not to feel soaked and kept the path just dry enough for us. I’m calling this one “Chasing Kaspar”. I bet it will be spectacular here in the fall, when all these light green colored blueberry bushes are full of blueberries. Path or no path… I bet they’ll be picked!

cats

Latvia is full of stray cats. Maybe some of them aren’t stray, but just not looked after, too well. Who knows... but it’s May and wherever we land, I’m always listening to a half a dozen of howling cats at night. The apartment buildings and the courtyards in the cities are the havens for these night time sopranos, but I have noticed a couple on the street where my mom lives, as well. The best night time choir I’m hearing right now, just below the third storey window, where my sister lives. The loud choir of miow’s and screeching occasionally gets interrupted by someone screaming at the poor creatures to stop the noise and a little while ago it sounded like water (or some other liquid substance) being thrown out the window. A swoosh of a sorts followed by a whole racket of cat noises. Entertaining to say the least!


My sister has a sweet little cat named Hercog. He has accepted Kaspar as an equal, a playmate of sorts. They get along famously and even seem to be alike in some ways. They both like to play with the sheer curtains in my sister’s pad, very often getting totally tangled in them. They both are equally good at using up the toilet paper. The roll quickly gets spread throughout the entire apartment, if someone leaves the bathroom door open by mistake. The painting above my sister’s couch often gets attacked, even though the cat seems to scratch and Kaspar seems to pull and I’ve learned to restore with the use of nail polish, gum and other innovative, spur of the moment procedures. Thank God my sister cannot complain too much abut the painting, as it really is my painting, that she’s acquired by fluke. The stroller has also become a favourite of the cat and Kaspar. Hercog can spend hours sleeping in the basket underneath the stroller and Kaspar can spend hours trying to get him out of it. It’s great! It keeps Kaspar busy and entertained and I have time to watch bad Latvian day time drama.

on the road

Even though I haven’t had a chance to update this blog on a regular basis, I’ve been keeping notes on paper. These next few entries might not be in the right order, but you should still get the general idea of what we’re doing and where we are these days.

We’ve been on the go the last few days. I’m beginning to feel like a gypsy, spending a night or two in one place, before packing up and going to the next home. My family members all live in separate towns and we’ve pretty much have done the rounds in the last few days.

About eight or nine years ago, some European report listed Latvia as the country with most traffic caused deaths per capita. It changed soon after that. I think the government realized that this was not good for tourism :-) Police cars were posted on highways and tickets were handed out left and right for a while. I remember one drive, with a friend of mine, from Riga to Jurmala... I think we got stopped three times within that half hour. Every time we got away with the minimum 5 Ls (about 12$ CAN) charge. Today some things have changed. However, highways are still the same old narrow two-way roads. Yes - there is only one highway in the whole country that is more then a two-lane (one lane each way) highway. It's the short stretch of road that leads out of Riga, passed the airport and on the way to Jurmala (the long narrow city stretching along the shore - beach capital of Latvia). The roads are not policed quite as much. People still drive way over speed limit. And the way people pass the slower driving cars still at times takes my breath away. I think, living in Canada has turned me into a 'pussy cat', as far as driving is concerned. Even though I sometimes find myself in complete moments of panic, while sitting in the front seat of someone’s car, I must admit, that those Latvians are very good drivers! It must be the Soviet training… having to learn to deal with the worst conditions and still come out on the top. The drivers here are defensive, quick, fast to react…

We’ve spent so much time in cars the last week or so, that Kaspar has finally learned how to sleep in his car seat. He now takes naps whenever we go for a longer drive and has adapted to ever changing schedules and sleep patterns. I’m amazed at his adaptability! He’s hardly ever cranky and at times, when company is good, he’s willing to stay up until 11pm or even midnight. Then we usually spend the next morning sleeping in until 10am or so. He’s a spectacular travel companion! Am I repeating myself.... ??? I can hardly remember what I wrote in the last blog entry.

dandylions lilacs & violets

We caught this picture on the last day before the rain began. There are dandy lions everywhere! They hardly use any chemicals on lawns here, so, dandy lions are an inescapable part of reality. Kaspar is thrilled, because these are the only flowers he’s allowed to pick. If he had his way, he’d have my mother’s yard all plucked and turned into mush. And then he’d go for the next door neighbors’. He’s definitely a “flower child”, but on his very own terms!

It seems like the whole world is in bloom. Cherries are just dropping their petals. Apples, plums and pears are in full bloom. So are most of the lilacs. It’s a gorgeous spring, here! I don’t even mind the rain these past few days. However, I cannot say the same about Kaspar. I’m beginning to think that he suspects a conspiracy against him. No one is willing to take him outside, no matter how much he begs and pleads. The last day we were out for a walk must have been three days ago. We spent the morning walking around the grounds of the property, where our wedding was held about six years ago. It’s near Talsi. I took this picture of Kaspar under the old oak. That is, if you can spot him there, a speck at the foot of the trunk. It’s said to be 220 years old and many people here believe that such trees hold a certain sense of magic in them… maybe Kaspar felt it. He sure did not want to leave this little spot under the tree.

where's waldo?

oh, i meant to say 'where's kaspar?' we were on our way home and decided to stop at a road side pub/restaurant for lunch and found a spectacular playground for children, practically brand new, squeaky clean and pristine, inside the restaurant. kaspar was in seventh heaven! he was consumed by the balls and had no intention of leaving. i actually had to run with him out to the car and tickle him, while strapping the car seat and distract him with food afterwards, just so that he wouldn't cry franticly about being taken from his favorite playground. no wonder parents love ikea! ikea has it all figured out!!!

we just spent the day slacking off. kaspar woke up shortly after six, but i managed to play "sleeping beauty" for about 20 minutes in bed, while he picked my nose, tickled my belly button and played with his own toes. at least i could stay under the covers. finally, at about 8 am my aunt got up to make coffee and found me curled up on the couch and kaspar playing in front of me on the floor. she sent me back to bed. oh, i love her! i slept in until 10 am and woke up just in time to put kaspar down for a nap. the next two hours were mine! he slept like a baby. (the truth is, this saying is absolute bull. babies hardly ever sleep. what does that mean - sleeping like a baby? who came up with that one? must have been a childless man!) anyways. kaspar did sleep... and i hung out and had breakfast and read and relaxed. it's wonderful to be away from home. i can actually relax and not think - there is laundry to be done, floors to sweep, jewellery to polish etc...etc. after the nap we went to the beach and checked out some of the outrageous homes along the beach (more to come on this subject!) but we were home well before 3pm, because kaspar seemed tired. even though he had enough energy to try to haul it out to the water every time i put him down in the sand, he was not happy with the whole walk idea. we came home and sure enough he fell asleep shortly after 3pm. here's the strange thing - he slept until 7:17 pm. i managed to pull off a bit of snooze myself, but he slept for four hours. i was terrified that putting him down for the nigh will be impossible, but by 9:15 in the evening he was in bed and asleep by 9:30. strange. absolutely strange! it's a bit late for jetlag :-) as i'm typing this, i wonder... will he wake me up at some ungodly hour tomorrow morning? i better go and catch a snooze myself, soon. it's already after 1 am.

oh. here we go again. pictures are so finnicky on this site. i wonder if i'm doing something wrong. anyone else have problems uploading to blogger?

another day

here is another day at the beach! kind of chilly, windy. it's funny... riga is only a half hour drive from here, where we're staying for the moment, but in riga it's +22 today, yet, here in jurmala (and especially on the beach) it's only +15. i'm not complaining, though. spring can be pretty nasty and cold in latvia, but so far we've only had sunny days and gorgeous weather. and everything is blooming. even the lilacs are about to burst into bloom!

kaspar has picked his favourite place to stay - my aunt aija's & uncle jani's house seems to be the pick of the week. what can i say? my kid is a true bourgeois! aija's house is large and spacious and he can crawl everywhere and there are lots of new toys (from aija's grandkids). he loves it here! so much freedom... no one chasing after him and telling him not to touch this or that or something else :-) he gets bored in the smaller places, it's very noticeable. the apartments. the kitchens. even my mom's place. he has this funny way of asking to go outside, when he gets sick of being in one place. he lifts his arm, outstretched over his head and waves his hand towards the window and makes this funny whimpering sound. communication. the kid knows how to make himself heard! it's awesome. i wish i had done more in the way of showing him sign language, but that never really worked. i think i gave up, because with sign language everyone has to be on board, really... oh well! c'est la vie!

yesterday, kaspar was allowed to crawl around outside for the very first time. my mom's yard is full of flowerbeds and plants and only the center of the yard is grass (whatever grass there is at this time of the year). of course, he headed straight for the flowers. it's rather pointless to try to keep him away from plucking the flowers. i learned it the hard way. i had a friend over, but spent most of my time chasing kaspar out of the flower beds. he thought it was a very funny game. he did! but even though i tried to keep my eye on the lad, he was rather fast at putting plants, earth and dried leaves in his mouth. my granny used to say "every kid needs to taste his fair share of earth, mud and sand." i sure hope she's right! here he is - caught in action. dirty mouth, diggin' the dirt between the paving stones, a hand full of leaves - busted!

what we've been up to

here is a picture of kaspar meeting his 'opits' (grandfather) for the very first time!

the last few days have passed in a daze of a sorts. being back in latvia again, meeting all of my family, having kaspar here with me, traveling from one town to the next... it's a change from our toronto lifestyle. we're loving it!

kaspar has been the centre of attention pretty much at all times and is definitely getting spoiled by it. he's becoming quite the party animal. the 7:30 bed time is out the window. his naps now happen whenever he's in a car and last as long as the drive or sometimes just 15 minutes. stroller is almost unnecessary on our walks through the town or down the beach, because as soon as he lets out a peep there is someone right there, more then happy to carry him. he has begun to eat pretty much everything that we eat, because people just let him taste any food they're eating. this means he's been introduced to meat, sugar, white flour, garlic, spices, salt - all within the space of a week or so! so far so good... knock, knock, knock :-) and he's also met all sorts of animals. he's attempted to hug and pluck several fluffy cats. he has had a chance to check out and pet many different sized dogs. he loves the dogs, because he definitely recognizes the tail. he sometimes does say 'aste' while pointing at the dog (it means 'tail' in latvian!) we also met a few cows and he attempted to pick the nose of a very young little baby cow. funny enough, i don't think the cow cared. brown chickens with bare bottoms were quite a sight. the ducks were also interesting (but different ducks then the ones in high park pond - white ones). my sister keeps promising to take us to the zoo, however, i think for now we've had enough animals for one week!

the weather has been spectacular here. nights are still chilly, but during the day, in the sun, the temperature has been as high as +25 degrees celsius. we're spending a lot of time outdoors. the beaches are stunning at this time of the year and pretty much empty! spring has just begun here. the woods are full of these little white, blue and yellow flowers called 'vizbulites'. trees are just starting to turn green. the birch patches are all aglow with that pale green, almost yellow glow. i cannot wait until the ieva's begin to blossom. ieva is a tree that produces this stunningly fragrant flower in the spring! i have no clue what they might be called in english. sorry! my vocabulary for flowers, trees and wildlife in general is very poor in english. will have to work on that!

today we spent some time at the soviet vehicle show in kuldiga. it was an awesome array of cars and busses, bikes and military vehicles from the soviet era, along with people all dressed up to reflect the times of the make of each car. there were also soviet flags and soviet songs and the 'pionieri' (school aged children, belonging to something that would be like a ''children of lenin'' club, similar to 'boy scouts' but for the soviet school kids) piling into the old busses. a great show! the mc of the show was very funny and had just the right thing to say about each of the pieces on display. he had a way of telling the history to reflect the tragedy of the times with good humour and satire. e had some good laughs. my sister knew some of the people in the show, too! so, we got some good pictures.

anyhow.... that's all i can manage for today. it's midnight. i better get some sleep before kaspar wakes up.

p.s. i have a cell phone now! yes. my own cell phone, here in latvia. if you want the number e-mail me! then you can all call me and bug me... :-) and i've posted some pictures on flickr, because uploading to blogspot just takes too long.

hip hip hooorrrrayyyy!

hip hip hooorayyyyyy! we're in latvia!!!

we had a few excruciatingly busy days just before our departure. even though i had good friends helping me out with babysitting a couple of afternoons, i found myself running out of time constantly. then, kaspar got sick two days before we were scheduled to leave. it was so stressful! i was so worried about the flight, about his well being, about myself keeping my sanity. uh! however, after a good day of chamomile tea and a whole lot of people sending good thoughts and prayers our way, his fever broke and he was fine on the day of the flight.

we left for the airport shortly after 3pm, even though our flight was scheduled to leave at 6pm. that was me trying to be super organized! good thing, too, because shortly after arriving at the airport i realized that i had left my sling (baby carrier) at home. we don’t leave the house without that contraption! i could not imagine spending the next two months without it. i contemplated taking a taxi back to the house (for a short moment), but decided to call my saving grace, my favourite neighbour, someone who really should be awarded the title of a ‘fairy god mother’, because she always saves me in situations of distress and is always there for me – astride. and she saved us again!!! so finally, at 6pm, after approximately 24 hours of no sleep we boarded the plane and took our seats. the flight was smooth. kaspar was more then happy flirting with the flight staff, sitting in my lap and doing laps up and down the isles on his hands and knees. he slept for a couple of hours, maybe three in total. however, i could not sleep, partially because i was afraid i might let go of him, partially because the flight had some turbulence and maybe also due to over exhaustion. But I managed to relax a bit and keep my eyes shut for a while. in frankfurt we had a short layover, however, for a couple of overtired little travelers the two hours seemed to last forever. kaspar was on his second wind. he wanted to move and crawl, but the floors were so disgusting that i had to keep him on the seats. they were long, bench like seats, so i could let him crawl a bit, if i kept close supervision. his energy lasted for about an our and then he just became tired. thank god we had the sling. about 15 minutes before our flight to riga began boarding he fell asleep in my arms and stayed totally passed out until we landed in the riga airport. i was thrilled to get a short hour of shut eye in during the second flight! the seats were narrow and small and i was able to prop pillows and bags around us, so that i was sure he was not going to slip out of my arms, even if i did fall asleep.

when we finally landed and got through the passport control and got our luggage, i was so glad to be done with the flight, so glad to be in riga, that the rest of the airport antics did not even phase me. you see, we had arrived on the same plane as the slovak hockey team for the world championships. so, there were men in beaver suits, a whole orchestra dressed in red suits playing a march of some sorts and a few young girls doing something that reminded me of really bad cheerleading moves or really strange dancing. besides that there was press, of course, with cameras and without, and a lot of people and fans. my mom kept asking if we should take a picture of kaspar with the beaver in the hockey shirt, but in all honesty - i was too tired to care. so, we went home instead! the first night, for the very first time in his life, kaspar slept from 8:30pm until 11:15 am the next day. that was definitely a first!

the picture in this post is on of us taken at terminal one in toronto just before checking in for our flight. terminal one is awesome! it does not even look like a toronto airport! so sleek and new... yikes. the image is not loading. why. why. why? i hate tech problems! tought luck. no picture this time...