Starter Smallholders

Rita and I will be in England for the next week, so the blog will be silent. When planning to go we worried for ages about who would look after the garden in our absence, and Rita eventually brokered a deal with one of the neighbours. I will give her regular English lessons between now and September, when she and her husband plan to move to England to look for work, and she will water the gardens when we can't. Not a bad deal on either side, except that long ago I swore that I would not teach English to adults, and had frequently recommended that beginner English students (and she is definitely a beginner) find a Latvian teacher who can explain the finer points in their own language. Much to my amazement, I am quite enjoying the lessons. This is partly because her English level is so low that it roughly matches some of the ESL students at school, and I feel very competent. But also at this stage of learning a new language the individual steps are so large and so easily noted that it is a pleasure for both student and teacher to watch the progression.