I've been itching to write but have been so busy finishing an (internet) exhibition, that I have barely managed to keep the children fed. The exhibition was finally released into the world today which is a huge weight lifted from our collective shoulders, as Jem was doing the designing. The launch went well, I managed to get out of speaking, but simply paraded around in a retro 60s "Jackie O" suit inherited from my grandmother. There is no amount of washing that can remove the...
We spent the last week at a family summer camp. I originally had the idea because going to camp is a big part of diaspora Latvian life, and some of my best memories come from being at camps as a child. Latvians are good at living in camps, having had a lot of experience at this in the five years following the second world war, when Latvian refugees lived in refugee camps in Germany before being relocated to their new "homes" elsewhere. Latvian camp in Australia or the USA for...
We're in the country...the deep dark country, four hours from Riga by car, in a part of the world where people speak in a barely understandable dialect and when you go into the local store, you get asked what you're doing around here by the lady at the till - who is having a beer on the job. You know. Serious countryside. Kilometers of dirt road and even horses and carts taking hay from the field. This is a very Catholic part of Latvia (most of the nation is Lutheran), and I have been...
Summer's flying by... not time for posting. We have been busy with visitors, the junk in our back yard, eating lots of summer berries, playing paddock golf, working on an online exhibition at work, keeping kids amused in the THREE MONTHS that is Latvian school summer holidays, trying to keep cool in a house with no pool, watching kittens play. Can I just say that kitten play is far rougher than the way my boys play. And their mum doesn't seem to mind a bit. A few of these things...
At the risk of sounding like a travel blog... I was in Gotland, Sweden last week for work. And I wanted to share some pics with you - because Gotland was magic! And can I just say (again) - I have NO idea why it has taken us 10 years of living in Latvia before we start travelling in Scandinavia. Especially to a place like Gotland, which is a big island in the middle of the Baltic Sea, one of the closest destinations to Latvia you could choose. This is why thousands of Latvians...
There's a patch of woodland just down the hill from our house in the country. The boys call it "The Wild Square". Every year we go exploring there. From the outside it looks small but once you break into it through the line of shrubs on the periphery, you realize its huge, with bits and pieces of swampy terrain, grassy spaces and trees. The Wild Square is home to wild boar and deer. We know because we see them come in and out of it. We see the patches where they...
