Asma is sitting!

Asma has learned to sit all by herself! :) She's just a few days short of six months.

Bird-watching

We went to Cesis, the nearby town, to have some fun there in playgrounds. After enjoying our time in the playground, we rested at the nearby pond and observed the birds there: a black swan family, some seagulls, some ducks and lots of pigeons that kept coming so close to us we could almost touch them with our hands.

The black swans family is living in a special shelter built for them by the caretakers of the park, because their nest was being troubled too much by curious observers. It was interesting to see that the kids of black swans are not black - they are light gray and so cutely fluffy! :)

Ducks have lived in this pond forever! Sometimes we take some bread along with us for feeding them. But seagulls were new visitors we hadn't seen there before. Probably they have flown in from the seashore, which is some 50 km away. This makes us wonder - why have they flown in so far away from the sea?

Referendum

Today Mamma and Vecmamma had to go to the local school, which was designated as the voting location in a country-wide referendum. Latvian people were voting, if they would want their current parliament to be dismissed or not. Now, we know the results already - 95% of voters said that they want the parliament to be gone. So in September, Latvians will have new elections.
Hafsa had the chance to go along with Mamma and Vecmamma to see how the voting is happening. First, Mamma had to register with her passport number and signature, after what she received the ballot paper. Hafsa then went together with mamma into the voting cabin, where Mamma marked on the ballot her choice. Then they both went to the voting box, into which Hafsa was allowed to deposit the vote of both Mamma and Vecmamma.
Uzair could not come this time, as he was not feeling well - he had an allergy attack from petting one of local cats. It was a really furry one!
In the picture below, you can see the school, where Mamma was styding, when she was small. This was the place designated for voting.

Black-currants

Comfortably sitting in her own "Jeep", Asma is exploring (read - eating) the leaves of black-currants, while Vecmamma is picking the berries nearby.

Circus!

Today, a travelling circus was visiting the village of our Vecmamma!!! Of course, we could not miss this opportunity to go and see it. The performance started at 3 pm and was a little more than an hour long. We saw several acts of two clowns, trained cats, dogs, fox and skunk, yoga artists, illusionists, who were working with white rat, huge white rabbit and really wonderful porcupine, and at the end of the show, we witnessed a beautiful presentation of bubble blowing. We really enjoyed the entire performance - it was so much fun! In the pictures, you can see us with our cousin Rudis.

Asma in the garden

Asma is really enjoying in Vecmamma's garden! She loves to look at the nature around her - everything is moving in the wind!!! So many things to look at! :) In these pictures, Uzair is holding Asma, while sitting on Vecmamma's well with a huge water pump. In the background, you can see our garden neighbour's bee hives. Just today, his wife offered to kids a mug of freshly taken honey! Absolutely yummy!!!

Mowing the lawn

Uzair was very determined this time to try out mowing the lawn in garden with the hand-pushable mower. So here he goes - working hard, as the mower is heavy and not easy to move. In fact, it is a pretty good exercise for the muscles of a ten-year-old. :)

Uzair remembered from the last visit to Latvia a couple years ago that our garden neighbour Valters uncle warned about not mowing the grass, when they are working on their bees - they have so many beehives. Bees don't like the smell of freshly cut grass and can come to attack. Also today Valters uncle was working on his bees and he did warn Uzair not to work too close to the beehives. Alhamdulillah, no bees came and Uzair completed his work successfully.

Turkish Airlines to Latvia

On July 4th, all of us (Mamma, Uzair, Hafsa, Asma) boarded Turkish Airlines plane in Karachi to start our journey to Latvia - for visiting our Vecmamma. The journey was long: the flight from Karachi to Isanbul took 5 hours, then 6 hours waiting time in the airport, and then 3 more hours of airtime on a flight to Latvia. Below you can see us in Istanbul Ataturk International Airport, while waiting for our connection flight.

In Latvia, we were received by Māra aunty, our mother's sister, who, according to good Latvian traditions, gifted us a bouquet of sweetpeas flowers, which smelled really sweet. Latvians give flowers on every occassion - it is the most commong gift in Latvia. Māra aunty took us from the airport straight to Vecmamma's home, where she received us with hot dinner. :)