Postcards from Riga

12 June, 2016 | | 7 seen

It was still and tranquil (most probably Friday evening) after visiting my dear grandmother in Riga, I decided to take Riga in night pictures.

Experimented with long exposures and HDR photography tonight.

View towards Old Riga from Radisson SAS hotel 

River Daugava

View towards Old Riga

Vansu bridge in Riga

Classical Old Riga photography

River Daugava

Riga: Iron Bridge, TV Tower and National Library

Short Day Trip to Lithuania (Curonian Spit)

11 June, 2016 | Travel guides | 6 seen

At start of May 2016, we went on a short two day trip to Lithuania, we had no goal or destination planned. Just a spontaneous trip idea. Unfortunetly our car broke somewhere in middle of nowhere (Barta- Rucava road) and we had to stay overnight in Liepaja. 

Next morning we booked a rental car and our spontaneous trip started. We visited Palanga, Klaipeda, Juodkrante and Nida on Curonian Spit. 

Apple tree blossoms

10 June, 2016 | | 9 seen

A couple days ago I introduced you with first sprouts in our garden. Today allow me to show first apple tree blossoms from our apple orchard.

Apple orchard in mid-May 2016

Apple tree blossom

Akropolis Shopping Mall in Klaipeda

9 June, 2016 | Shopping Venues | 83 seen

Shopping and entertainment center Akropolis in Klaipeda most probably is the largest shopping venue in the area. Those of you who have traveled to Vilnius most probably will recognize this brand. I first discovered Vilnius Akropolis in 2003 or something. 

Now it is time to put Akropolis Klaipeda on map. We were returning from Curonian Spit and decided to make shopping somewhere in Klaipeda, I noticed few Rimi and Maxima stores when we approached Klaipeda from Liepaja, but after we left Smiltyne Ferry Terminal Akropolis crossed our way. It was time to make a stop.

Akropolis shopping mall in Klaipeda 

I was tired and I even didn't visit this shopping mall actually, instead I spent few hours in parking lot, well, that's a shopping experience also, right?

Parking lot near Akropolis Klaipeda

HyperMaxima, Drogas, Douglas and many other locally known brands here.

My Summer Office 2016

8 June, 2016 | Home Remodeling | 7 seen

Finally I have a good working place, a year ago I had to spend my days in front of house, while two years ago I reported very scenic working place - Turtle Lake in Tbilisi. 

After several days of improve back at our rural house, the room meant to be an office / guest bedroom is finally done, except it asks for some interior decors and other details, which makes overall mood.

Summer office 2016

Well I haven't done much digital work from here yet, but I hope I will spend these Summer nights not only by trimming grass, but hopefully patching some Drupal modules, developing new things, of course blogging, and post processing my photography (Adobe Lightroom, you rock)

As for Digital nomads, the place means nothing until you have good internet connection, well this is a problem a bit, we are using routers built in our phones to connect our laptops to the rest of the world (or in my case with Linode in London data center). The internet is pretty slow or is not available during daytime, thus it is fast as a rocket in night (strange, right).

Ok, enough talking, it's time to trim some more grass!

Taking the Chimney Down

7 June, 2016 | Home Remodeling | 7 seen

This is a task we had, most probably, to do already a year ago, together with roof replacement, but trust me, last year's summer was one of the hardest, as the new home owners we didn't have much clue how to handle all those many things, the house asked us. 

So it took about a year before we actually decided to tear town that huge manfetel chimney. Well. I actually hired two workers to help me with it, meanwhile I was in the other part of loft painting and photographing the small room.

Chimney to be taken down

In past, most probably by time, when this house was built (1890) this chimney was not only just a chimney, but also a bread oven, kitchen and maybe even a bath. Nowadays its leaky, non functional, beneath it a ceilings are made with out any good reason. It asks to be removed, to free up space. A year ago we lost a top of this chimney while doing roof replacement works, see: Replacing Roof - Part 3: Removing the old roofing (Losing Chimney)

For making above and most of the rest pictures bellow I had to use light painting technique while shooting from a tripod (about 10 sec exposure)

Workers a top on…

Kavine Kolibris in Nida

6 June, 2016 | Restaurant reviews | 19 seen

Kavine or cafe Kolibris is located in Lithuanian seaside town of Nida. We paid here a short visit to have a meal. I was not hungry at all this time, so all I tried was just a cup of coffee and milkshake. Girls thus tried some local Lithuanian specialties. 

Kavine Kolibris in Nida, Lithuania

Soup

Some fish soup. I didn't tried, but was told that pretty good one.

Ice cream

Kavine Kolibris is a very decent place. Try, you won't regret it.

Another Layer of Paint (HDR)

5 June, 2016 | Home Remodeling | 7 seen

In part 1 I told how we scratched chalk from ceilings and removed old wallpapers, in part 2 I showed how I applied base layer of white paint and did some photography tricks. Today I applied second layer of white paint, both for ceilings and walls, and also mastered a technique, I felt bad about in previous two articles. 

I had to use HDR photography technique to get the right exposures of window. Who said a construction worker cannot be a good photographer or vice verse?

Second layer of white paint applied

I hope that stove in the middle of room will keep us warm in cold winter nights.

HDR trick helped save the exposure

Anyway, its time to apply paint for floor and move in, right?

Nida - Resort Town on Curonian Spit in Lithuania

4 June, 2016 | Travel guides | 16 seen

Nida is a resort town in Lithuania, the administrative centre of Neringa municipality. Located on the Curonian Spit between the Curonian Lagoon and the Baltic Sea, it is the westernmost point of Lithuania and the Baltic states, close to the border with the Russian Kaliningrad Oblast exclave. It currently has about 1,650 residents.

We arrived to Nida just shortly we paid a visit to Juodkrante (both are located on Curonian Spit). One of my first observations about Nida were simple, it's some artists paradise or something - a lot of workshops. And later by reading on Wikipedia, turned out I was right.

 Thomas Mann Summer house in Nida

In 1929 Nobel Prize-winning writer Thomas Mann visited Nida while on holiday in nearby Rauschen and decided to have a summer house erected on a hill above the lagoon; it was mocked by locals as Uncle Tom's Cabin (Onkel Toms Hütte). He and his family spent the summers of 1930–32 in the cottage, and parts of the epic novel Joseph and His Brothers (Joseph und seine Brüder) were written the…

Paint Job - White ceiling, white walls

3 June, 2016 | Home Remodeling | 7 seen

Today I'm continuing works in second floors room. Yesterday we did a wallpaper removal and chalk scratching thing. Today is the right time to apply base layer of fresh paint for ceilings.

I had an idea not to apply white paint for walls this time, as I did it in first floor last year, see: Room One - Wall and Ceiling Painting with Water Based Paint; Removing Junk And Adding First Layer of Paint (Kitchen Works);   instead to glue new wallpapers here. Thus after finishing paint job for ceilings I decided to apply a test layer  with paint on walls, just to see. The result was pretty much satisfactory, and after a short consultations, we decided to go white again.

It was interesting experience not only to excel as a paint dude, but I had a time to improve my photographer skills also (or apply my latest knowledge). It is hard to make a decent photography in a narrow space. I experimented with panorama technique and got pretty decent result (see bellow)

Ceilings and walls before paint job

This is a default photo I could get shooting at widest with my kit lens (18mm). 

Paint applied…

Juodkrante - Lithuanian Riviera

2 June, 2016 | Travel guides | 16 seen

Juodkrante is a seaside resort town located on Curonian Spit in Lithuania some 20km from Klaipeda. To get on to the Curonian Spit you will need to take a ferry at Smiltyine terminal at first.

I was really surprised of different architecture I seen here on Juodkrante and Curonian Spit. I you have ever been close to the Netherlands, you will find some similarities with Dutch architecture here, thus, most probably the architecture here is kept from times when Curonian Spit was part of Germany (prior to WW2). I did find some similarities here with Dutch town of Leiden, for example.

Juodkrante in Lithuania

Juodkrantė (literally: Black Shore) with permanent population of about 720 people is a quiet Lithuanian seaside resort village located on the Curonian Spit. A part of Neringa municipality, Juodkrantė is the second largest settlement on Lithuania's part of the spit.

Situated in Old Prussian territory it was for centuries a fishing village named Schwarzort, which underwent a tourist boom in the late 19th - early 20th century. After World War I this northern part…

First Sprouts of Spring

1 June, 2016 | | 5 seen

A few days ago we constructed our second veggie garden in wooden boxes, then we planted. Few days latter first sprouts were observed.

I was busy with scratching wallpaper from the other room we decided to improve this year, while my better part took some lovely close ups and macro's in garden.

Strawberry plants

Bought these plants at local Kuldiga market

Rhubarb

You can make a lovely jelly out of these, or you can try to make a rhubarb wine later. We decided to try later this Summer and brew our rhubarb wine. 

Plants of tomatoes

First sprouts of radishes 

First sprouts of dill

A dandelion 

Crabapple

Rhuburb

Removing Wallpaper in Second Floors Room

31 May, 2016 | Home Remodeling | 6 seen

Finally we have moved to indoor works, and this time we started with a room I haven't covered yet - a little room in second floor with a stove. We still don't have any idea what this room will be at the end, it might be either a guests bedroom or a temporary home office.

Most probably something in the middle. 

Stairways to the loft

There is a small room on the left

Old Wallpaper

and still some junk inside. In matter of few hours we removed the junk, removed wallpaper and scratched chalk from ceilings.

The result

Clean walls and ceilings

Now it is the right time to apply first base layers of paint to ceiling. At this stage I had an idea to glue new wallpapers on walls, how it will be in th end? Make sure, you check back after a while.

Scythe VS String Trimmer (Then and Now)

30 May, 2016 | Home Remodeling | 18 seen

About a year ago I had a chance to try out an old school tool called a scythe (back at these days, all I had at our newly inherited rural house). The grass were growing as crazy as it could, and I was left with no other option as to use what I have to fight back.

My fight with grass have been personal already.

A scythe was fun, but way to exhausting and for unprofessional not the best solution. Soon I started to rent a string trimmer, and even hired a trimmer dudes to do trimming for me. For this year I finally bought one for my self. See: Edward The Brushcutter AW-BC620TH Trimmer

I was looking through archives of my blog, when found this picture:

Author of this blog captured in action - moving grass (2015)

I asked my better part to make the same photo a year latter, to see what's changed:

Author of this blog captured in action - trimming grass (2016)

Wow - a new roof? Yes, a new roof. No more apple tree in background (yep, we had to remove it from garden, but we planted a new one: Planting an Apple Tree (Doch Melbi / Daughter Melbi / Дочь Мелбы) )  And best of all - much…

Veggie Garden In Handmade Wooden Boxes

29 May, 2016 | Home Remodeling | 8 seen

About a year ago we planted first plants in used wooden boxes (the drawers), see: Our First Veggie Garden: Planting Plants in Boxes .This year we (not me actually) decided to construct boxes by our own, making our veggie garden larger and probably more efficient than it was a year ago.

The idea about using boxes for growing veggies is simple, it proves to be more efficient than planting them in soil, and cheaper than building a greenhouse, thus a greenhouse is another upcoming thing to do.

Wooden boards we got from local sawmill for cheap (for free actually). There are no recommendations for size, only about height, it should be about 30 cm height (to add different layers of soil - compost inside, filling from bottom to top starting with last years grass, top soil and turf). Instead of using last years grass, you can use organic waste, potato peelings, egg shells e.t.c.)

This is how we did it:

Wooden planks

All the works are done in the backyard of our house in improvised outdoor workshop. Tools you will need - a saw, tape measure, a drill,and screws

First box is…