Diary of a Dreamer

Christmas has come and gone

2012-01-09T17:22:00.001+01:00

Well christmas has come and gone,(how did that happen) and so has the new year. Here we are with a new year stretching before us full of potential for good and for bad thing to happen.

Christmas seemed to happen in a big rush for us, as we had invited friends for christmas dinner before our Kitchen was finished. a foolish thing to do by any account. “All,s well that ends well” though and, even though we had a few scary moments, we cooked and ate in the new kitchen. We even have a television (A Galician kitchen necessity) bought in the hope that our Spanish would improve if we watch Spanish TV, I live in hope as nothing else seems to have worked so far.

Steve goes away at the weekend to do a teaching English as a foreign language course, but we still have helpers here so I won’t be on my own.

I am starting my blogging year of course with the intention of blogging regularly but who knows.

I leave you with some pictures of the kitchen. The photo's are not great but the kitchen is wonderful.

Of mice and men

2011-11-23T16:26:00.001+01:00

We have an invasion of mice in the house again, I think that they come in when the weather starts to get cold. we have tried mouse traps of all descriptions but never seem to succeed totally. We try to block up gaps as we work but with a house this old I am guessing that isn’t the answer either. One of the problems of living in the country is trying to find ways to stop the local wildlife re-colonising the house, birds, bats, insects you name it and it seems to prefer life indoors especially in the winter.

It’s getting difficult to find anywhere warm and clean to work at the moment, perhaps I am more fussy than the mice. I am working on a website for my friend Art and at this moment I am sitting in my little workspace with several jumpers and a scarf. Of course the kitchen and bedroom are close to being finished and when they are done everything will be moved cleaned put away and organised and we will be able to breath clean air and find a clear space, until the next time of course.

We do seem to have settled down to a pattern. When a project is finished we organise temporary living spaces from areas that are not needed for the next project. They are by their very nature less than perfect. no proper lighting and rigged up heating, lots of draughts in winter and impossible to clean. Even so they start off cosy and organised and for a while I am happy with them. They only work for a time though, hastily rigged up furniture starts to fall apart or is borrowed to use as a saw bench(or whatever is lacking) and dust creeps in to every space. In winter lighting is a problem as we only have proper electricity in the finished parts of the house and a lamp on an extension cable doesn’t do the job.

Please do not see this as a moan we are simply at the end of a cycle rather than at the start. Soon all will be well and reasonably comfortable again, and I am dying to show you the kitchen, just a bit more work to do and I will take the ‘before we move in” photos. Steve is finishing the tiling on the hall floor today then it will need cleaning and sealing. A couple of selves and a missing cupboard to chase up and we will be almost there. Moving in will take a while of course, but really that is the nice bit where a tiny bit of work makes a mass of difference. Funny thing that, a days painting and people think you have been working your fingers to the bone but weeks spent digging out a floor and everyone wonders what you have been doing with your time. still I guess life is like that!

2011-11-16T12:34:00.001+01:00

I am having yet another crisis of confidence. You would of course think that at my great age I would have life completely sussed, but no I haven’t. I am not destined to be the calm, confident and beautiful person of my dreams. We still have half a dozen balls in the air and no way of making an income, and my crisis comes from not knowing where to go next, more balls or more patience!

My resolution to be fluent in Spanish by the end of the year looks unlikely to be fulfilled I am keen to make progress but maybe not keen enough. I feel that it is my own lack of confidence which is holding me back as when I do have someone to talk to I completely cease up and remember nothing. Of course after the event I know exactly what I could have said and whole sentences of conversation flood into my mind. But then in my mind I am often a completely different person. I could go off at a complete tangent here whilst I decide, which one of us is the real me, but you might start being glad that I live in a remote farmhouse and not in a house near you.

Our current helpers have their own Caravan

The one good thing to report is that our experiment with Helpx and volunteer help has been a runaway success. We are on our own at the moment as our current helpers are housesitting for friends. But, both in terms of work done, and good company I would recommend it, it has been great fun and our helpers to date have been lovely, hard working and a pleasure to have around.

The garden without Swampy tent

The swampy tent (it slit so had to be covered with a tarpaulin) and hammock has now finally gone from the garden (Our current helpers have their own caravan) and we have yet to decide where next years helpers will be housed. They might end up with a choice as the tent was surprisingly popular in the warm weather. We will by christmas have one good bedroom, do we move into ourselves or save it for visitors? As yet no decision has been made. Of course living in nice clean surroundings with furniture and electricity would make a pleasant change, but as our current rate of renovation is one room per year, it would still leave us with a guest room crisis.

Autumn has come with a vengeance with good and bad aspects water is now in plentiful supply, though it will be sometime before the rivers are full. Grass and weeds alike are starting to re-grow. Crocus are everywhere as are mushrooms but grey skies are the down side and I am sure they also affect my mood, as a burst of sunshine never fails to make me smile.

make do and mend

2011-10-31T16:49:00.001+01:00

In preparation for the winter I have been making slippers for Steve and I, a bit of traditional granny square engineering. I am pleased with the result they are definitely house shoes ,no good for nipping out to feed the chickens but ideal for curling up in front of the fire. I want us to have home made stuff especially to use in the house it speaks about who we are and it means that our stuff has a story or a memory attached to it.

I have made a hat as well as it is obvious that cold weather is on the way and now that the clocks have gone back, Autumn is upon us. Fine days are heralded by quite incredible mists which float and hover over the countryside. The trees are changing into their autumn colours and we went on our first mushroom hunt at the weekend.

I am also mending chairs, we have a number of broken chairs so mending them all might take me some time. I like the shape of this one and but the original woven cane seat was probably a bit frail when we brought it second hand,anyway it didn't stand up to being used every day. I wont try to restore it just make a usable fabric base and a cushion for the top, we have two chairs the same and they will be nice in the kitchen when the kitchen is finished. On a more practical level we also need them to sit on now that it is cold and dark in the evening. Making and mending does take time though far more than you expect I suppose that is why it went out of fashion.

2011-10-27T19:56:00.000+02:00

I find it hard to photograph rain, the picture you see conveys nothing of the determination of the current downpour to make up for the summers drought. I am glad of it, being short of water especially with guests in the house is no fun. The sudden arrival of the cold grey water laden skies though brings with it a desire to hibernate and huddle around a fire, not work with the enthusiasm of our helpers. We have been fortunate, our helpers have been without exception interesting, helpful and hard working and we and our house is better for them being here. They are brave souls in the rain, living in a caravan and tent and having to brave the weather even to use the bathroom.

It has rained for four days with no real breaks, not always with the same intensity but without much of a break in the cloud cover. Already I am longing for sun again. A chance to have another go at the garden, now the rain has softened the soil, a chance to plant some stuff to over winter. To walk through the woods in search of the mushrooms which the rain should have encouraged. There will be chestnuts too to find and dry for later in the year.

The kitchen needs to finished now, we have nowhere comfortable to eat or to sit in an evening and the house feels crowded all of a sudden. Normally we are all spread out doing our own thing coming, together for un-rushed meals. Now every one has jobs to do in the house and mealtimes mean all squashing into the old kitchen, a gloomy room in the sunshine, dismal in the rain. It is a new experience, a skill to be learned, living with other people, not family, especially without the facilities to make everyone comfortable, so far so good.

The mushroom hunters were here yesterday we saw them climbing into there car soaked to the skin and with empty baskets. I felt quite sorry for them they looked wet and disgruntled, but I am expecting them every day now till the weather gets to cold for mushrooms all together. They are more hardy than me I will wait for a dry day before I start my hunt.

Helpers and helpers

2011-10-19T14:59:00.000+02:00

I really must get round to posting more often so much seems to have happened since I was last here.

Last weekend we had a bit of a French youth convention going on, Some of Antoine’s friends arrived in their camper van. (Actually just a van with a mattress and a few deck chairs, but Hey who needs more) They want a start a small community (hippy style) and were travelling around visiting a few.

I must point out, at this point, that we are not such a community but we did feel almost like one for a few days, except and this is a big except, that we felt like parents, I mean do you ever get rid of that feeling? It was not just that they were so young and idealistic and someone has to be a bit practical. I mean, how long does it take a person to realise that someone has to clean the bathroom? If you sit up all night talking smoking and drinking then not a lot of work gets done the next day. which is fine if you don’t need to eat or have firewood for the winter. I am not moaning at all, they were really lovely kids and I loved having the house full. They would of stayed as well except that we have no water and the arrival of our next helpxers meant that we had not got enough chairs, cutlery and crockery or space to eat together.

They had just come from one community had been really disappointed, it was basically falling apart, because no one organised anything, nothing ever got done. Still they had gone to learn what works and what doesn’t, and no knowledge is wasted. They were heading for another place and have promised to let us know how that goes. Helpx has really opened our eyes, I now have visions of hundreds of people of all ages , kind of swishing around Europe looking for a kind of utopia. Of course, most realise that some compromises must be made along the way, but are really desperate to escape the kind of materialistic excess that has probably been behind the current economic crisis.

Our new helpers have parked their caravan and dog, and are lovely, so work seems to be going well. Rain would help though as we are having to collect water from the village well or the water fountain at the bottom of the hill for almost everything, I am back to never feeling really clean. But who can really complain about tea-shirt and shorts weather in October?

2011-10-04T18:49:00.000+02:00

We are still in the middle of a heat wave here. The Summer here has gone on and on. We has never reached the high temperatures that we saw last year in August but still it seems as though summer will last, and has lasted forever. I almost cannot remember anything else . The only downside is that we are now rationing showers at the very time when you would most like to have one. The big patronal festival in Lugo starts tomorrow though and we have been told that it always rains for San Froilan.

I have decided to give the chickens a bit of an upgrade in the nesting box department, so they now have curtains. I have had a few complaints about the colour especially from mabel, but really that chicken has ideas way above her station. The real reason is that I want to encourage them to use both the nesting boxes as they are not keen on queuing. The black chickens will come into lay soon ,I hope, so the one box that they use at the moment might not be enough. Amongst the varied advice I have had, the curtains seem to be the most achievable so I am trying that first.

The Bedroom is at the floor laying stage now, though getting the floor level(ish) is proving to be tricky. A bit of a slope probably adds character to a room but not if it causes you to roll out of bed, or end up under a wardrobe. There has been a good deal of head scratching and measuring going on but we seem to be underway again now. Of course the kitchen cupboards have not arrived but I have faith that we will have them by Christmas.

We have also heard that the Galician Government have actually decided that the traditional Pig killing will have to stop this year, and have not only endorsed the European law but are intending to enforce it. This means that all pigs will have to be taken to an official abattoir for slaughter and a phone number has been issued so that people can denounce their neighbours. I wish I was convinced that the animal welfare was the issue in question. The issue is a complex one and someone will gain by it, probably not the poor pig nor the families who get together each year for the matanzer. It also might mean that we all end up eating factory farmed pork. On the bright side perhaps small humanely run local abattoirs will spring up and then we really will be better off, although many families here are subsistence farmers and could easily be priced out of the market. I will watch with some interest, as you can see by my rather random thought that my feelings are mixed.

A little private space

2011-09-30T22:48:00.001+02:00

We have spent the last two and a half years together all of the time, Steve and I. It has been OK on the whole, but we have have been living in two rooms, with no proper furniture and even less storage space. The dust and dirt and generated by the restoration process is incredible, nothing is ever clean and if is clean it doesn’t stay that way. I am not complaining you understand, it is the price you pay when you take on this sort of project and it will not be for ever. But from time to time I have longed for my own private little space where I can work without interruption and where my pen stays where I left it last. This has seemed even more critical since we had helpers and the little space we have has been shared even more. I love having people here, so the solution had to be one that made the space we already have more sharable, and move my none sharable stuff else where.

I now have a desk to work at. In fact I have a kind of room of my own. It is of course an illusion of sorts, the walls are made from shading cloth and old curtains I have a settee made from an old tent (dust protection) and a lilo. Plank and brick shelves to store my craft things and stationary, I have to borrow the power tool extension cable to charge my computer so it is not really full of mod cons. But is is a place to work, and provides me with a bit of private space, so I love it. There is a desk and chair so I can be really quite comfortable. It should make blogging much easier as I can work uninterrupted by other people needing the space. The deal is that one one else is allowed in. Steve thought that I was losing my marbles when I set it up but now he is obviously jealous, he calls it my nest and is busy claiming that the rest of the house will be his.

I still have a lot to do in terms of organisation but there is no hurry. This part of the house will not be restored for a long time yet so my temporary home will not be needed for other things for maybe a year or two. The cold might be a problem in the winter but the storage space will still be a big help. I will not be able to keep it entirely clean I don’t suppose but tidy and organised will be a good start.

More about water

2011-09-29T23:59:00.000+02:00

Well the good news is that Yesterday it rained, not much admittedly but rain all the same so maybe my current obsession with water will be able to go into decline for a while. Still while we are on the subject I will tell you about our Sunday visit to the local reservoir.

The reservoir is really quite close to us and we have twice before attempted to find it but without any joy at all. Galician signposts are not designed to help the casual tourist find tourist attractions. In fact I cannot help thinking of Dads army every time we go out for the day and Jones saying “that will confuse em, sir, that will”.

On Sunday we were determined, however, so off we went armed with a picnic , drinks and a supply of reading material ready for a lazy day.

I am guessing that this tree is normally under water

We were not disappointed, despite the fact the the lake was about half it’s proper size. we had a longish very easy walk (,by choice there was a car park right next to a quiet picnic area) on which we collected chestnuts and had an impromptu BBQ as well at one of the BBQS thoughtfully provided, (next time we will go with food to cook) there will be a next time, because it was lovely.

Man makes fire!

The hot sun is back today and although the evenings are getting darker we are still eating outside, by candle light. I am hoping that the kitchen is ready by the time that we are finally forced indoors.

Garden

2011-09-22T22:39:00.000+02:00

I have decided to try and rescue what I can of the Veg. patch so everything dead or almost dead will be cut back and given a tiny bit of water to see if it revives. The repairs to the village water supply are now finished so we do have running water again, but very little, however I have decided that a couple of watering cans a day probably won’t put a cow at risk (The big fear here about running out of water is that the cows will not have enough to drink) and might keep the garden going if we get some rain in the next couple of weeks.

If we don’t get rain then the village will probably run out of water anyway no-one can remember it being so dry before and therefore no-one knows at what stage the spring which supplies us might dry up all together, it might not of course it is just that no-one seems to know. Galicia even here in the interior, where long dry summers are more frequent than Galicia’s reputation would suggest, is normally much wetter than this and much greener though it is only a couple of years ago when there was a winter so wet that no one could remember that much rain before. Does this signify climate change, I am not sure but I do know that we need to think about rainwater storage if we are to have any hope of a sustainable future.

I was feeling quite upbeat having spent the morning working on the garden, sadly we spent the afternoon trailing around the industrial estate in Lugo looking for a whole list of fittings fixtures and ironmongery, (most of which we only looked at, and who can get excited about a screw?) still it gave our helper a change to look at the city whilst we did the boring stuff which gave him a change from pointing the walls of the out building in the hot sun, which has been his lot for the last couple of weeks.

When he has finished there will be more garden excitement for me because I can then grow some climbing plants up the walls one of which is a Jasmine that we brought from our garden in England. I know very little about growing flowers and being able to create a flower garden is one of the things that I am really looking forward to. I dare say that some trial and error will be involved but the chance of having a little space that does not look like a building site fills me with joy however amateurish my attempts are.

Procrastination

2011-09-20T13:49:00.000+02:00

Never do anything today which could possibly be put off till tomorrow

I cannot quite decide whether or not to try and rescue the garden in the vain hope that we get some rain soon. Maybe the slight autumnal chill in the air first thing in the morning is lulling me into a false sense of seasonal change. I find it hard to just let go and hope for a better year next year. Our plans to be eating all our own produce and little else seem to exist on a “maybe next year” basis all the time and for all kinds of different reasons. To be fair we have had food from the garden this year but nothing in the way of surplus to keep us going through the winter.

In the same spirit of hope, this time hope that the kitchen will be finished soon, I am trying to reorganise the freezer and use up the various barely identifiable packages that are lurking in there. We will also have to defrost the fridge/freezer in the current kitchen in order to move it. This a job which is badly overdue but the thought of doing it twice is so horrendous that I am determined to hang on till we are ready to move it. This will be easier in a few weeks time as the weather will be cooler meaning that a while without a fridge will be easier to cope with, or so I keep telling myself.

One of these packages turned out to be fish cake mix, put there after we had had a BBQ and I had as usual made to much food. The sardines and baked potatoes that were left made a whole box full of mix. It was way too slushy after it had defrosted but with the additions of some bread crumbs and an egg made credible fish cakes. We ate them for two meals and there was still enough over for the chickens. I have several kinds of paranoia revolving around food. This first is the fear that I have not prepared enough to feed everyone, and the second is that anything should be wasted, the two things combined generally guarantee lots of strange packages in the freezer.

I thought to myself yesterday, that I would update this blog every day but already I have put off that first update. We should be operating a normal life by now but of course we are not, we have no rooms finished completely and no real prospect of finishing anything soon, so there is always a list of “somethings” to do strangely the list never seems to get smaller, it is a kind of self renewing to do list. The opportunity for procrastination is amazingly huge and in fact if we didn’t if think that we might quickly become overwhelmed or is that just an excuse.

This and that

2011-09-14T19:16:00.000+02:00

There has been a death in the village. One of our elderly neighbours died on Friday, he was in his nineties and had been ill for a long time. I wish that we had known him better he must have had many stories to tell. He was born and died in the same house, farmed the land a stones throw away from home, he never married or left home even for a holiday. His life was one I find hard to imagine.

The church bell rang at intervals from his death till the funeral and it’s mournful chime echoed across the valley for the whole three days. I like this tradition, where births and deaths are marked. The village was tidied up, everyone did something to contribute and the funeral was well attended, by everyone in the surrounding villages. Village life has nothing of the anonymity of city life and I like it. One I hope that my language will be good enough to be even more a part of things,it’s coming, but its slower that I had hoped.

Our latest helper also had some friends to stay at the weekend they arrived in an elderly camper van, much to the interest of our neighbours( we still haven’t really managed to explain helpx to them). I enjoyed having the place full of young people for a few days. They went out in the evening and I must confess I also enjoyed having an evening to our selves for the first time in a while.

My kitchen garden is a sad sight, we were about 3 weeks without water when the village plumber was doing repairs and we have still had no real rain other than brief showers which have done nothing to help. I cannot water at all as the water supply is low, so most things are almost dead by now. I haven’t tried to plant anything for the autumn and I fear that the cold weather will be here before the rain so I guess all I can do is to hope that next year will be better, at least from a gardening point of view.

The house progresses slowly and almost imperceptibly, the kitchen work surfaces have arrived but not the cupboard doors I will post a proper photo as soon as we have made a bit more progress, but how many men do you think it takes to fit a work surface. Likewise the bedroom is a little nearer but not a lot.

Pazo

2011-08-30T12:04:00.000+02:00

We were invited by a neighbour of a friend to look around their garden the other day. This kindly couple have a passion for gardening and especially for growing unusual tropical plants. The house is a Pazo a kind of galician version of a stately home and while not as big as some I have seen, it has been lived in by the same family for 700 years or more, built of mellow crumbling granite and beautiful to my eyes at least. The family are no longer wealthy and are small farmers like the rest of their neighbours, most of their land being given over to maize, turnips,and pasture for their small milking herd.

I didn’t have my camera to hand, I never do when there is something to see. So the only photo that I have is of the cat flap. At least it gives you some idea of nobility of the place when even the kittens have their own ancient entrance.

They were not at all surprised at our interest as the British love of gardening had reached the ears of this rather out of the way place. They remarked enviously that there must be many beautiful gardens in England, and asked how easy it is to obtain unusual plants there.
We tried to tell them about the open Garden scheme, but it not a very Spanish concept and I am not sure that they believed us.

On another subject the black chickens are fairly well integrated now and roam the garden with as much confidence as the brown ones. I just need them to start laying eggs as when we have helpers here we seem to use twice as many.

The village plumber is now filling the village with concrete, he is mixing gallons of the stuff and cheerfully filling holes.

Water Rights

2011-08-25T15:53:00.000+02:00

The demon plumber is here again, doing who knows what. Whatever he is doing requires the use of our hose pipe which means barking dogs as he walks in and out of the yard and an unreliable water supply inside the house. As the village water tank is close to our house it also means a lot of banging. To top everything he has had bags of Sand and gravel delivered. They arrived on a huge lorry which foolishly came right into the village and then couldn’t get out again, it’s movement hampered by the fact that there are large holes in the road.

This has all happened after a stressful weekend, where the former owner of our house, who still owns a barn and some land here claimed that she had a right to water and that because there are now new pipes she had effectively been cut off. (How she knew I have no idea as she lives 600 miles away any only visits once or twice a year). She was in the area visiting her Son (He lives about 20 miles away) and rushed to the village as soon as she heard the news. All this led to several village meetings (in a garage) to which Steve was summoned and finally a lot of shouting and arm waving. Steve had only a vague grasp of what was happening as the meetings were conducted in Gallago And Castilian Spanish was only used when someone wanted Steve to agree with them.

Water rights have historically been something of an issue and by the sound of things this issue is still very close to peoples hearts. There are loads of rules concerning water use, none of we knew about, and none of which will be relevant after all has calmed done again. But the crux of the matter is that only five houses have water rights, and in the opinion of the village the rights were sold with the house. The Latin temperament is obvious here, a lot of heat whilst the argument is in full flow but everyone will calm down once the work is done and everything is settled. At least if we do something wrong we can blame our English blood and our lack of historical knowledge.

All quiet for a short while

2011-08-18T18:50:00.000+02:00

Thank goodness the plumber has left the village temporarily for another job. He did come back on Tuesday though, and managed to reconnect all our pipes including the one to the washing machine. We even have a water filter which is a bit OTT for this part of the world. All is well that ends well, except that it has not quite ended, the road still has holes in it and the new village water tank has not arrived yet, so our house looks like a building site both inside and out side and from every possible angle. At least I have my washing machine working and filtered water. I need to learn to be thankful for small mercies!.

Gillian is doing a wonderful job stripping down our iron work, and the window grills that she has painted look lovely. She leaves us on Sunday though for another job which is really sad. I’m am trying to persuade her to come back next year and do the balcony railings.

There is always far too much to do at this time of year, The garden is full of fruit and veg, needing to be processed and stored. I always seem to look at all the fruit thinking that maybe next year we will be able to make use of everything, knowing that this year there is little chance that I will have the storage space or the time. Maybe I never will use more than a little of what is available, and maybe that is the way it should be, enjoying each new thing as it comes along. Blackberry and apple crumble for tea today so nothing to complain about there

Peace in the hen house

2011-08-15T13:18:00.000+02:00

I was reminded the other day that I had not given an up date on the chicken situation. As you may remember we had had to resort to desperate measures to stop the bullying of the new black chicken after her little friend had become dinner for some passing predator. The good news is that it all worked remarkably well, good news for us and the black chicken, that is. Bad news for the brown chicken known as “the short fat, squat one” as she is now in the freezer waiting to be casseroled.

We introduced two new black chickens, in hope that they would form a little gang together, and removed one of the brown chickens to disrupt the pecking order. It all worked really well and things settled down within a day. The black chickens are still sexually immature so the cockerel hasn’t yet accepted them into his harem as yet but we are hoping that even that will happen in time. It will be a few weeks before the black chickens start to lay but once they do we should be back to having plenty of eggs.

The village water tank has finally given up the ghost after 46 years of service, and is having to be replaced with a new plastic tank. The old lead pipe work, where it exists, is also being replaced with new plastic pipes. All well and good you may think, as did we when we happily agreed to pay for our share of the work. All this work is being done by a lone plumber whose preferred tool for digging up the road is a hammer and chisel, this peculiarity really should have served as warning.

He and Steve have already nearly come to blows several times. First the plumber wanted to replace our new pipe work (installed last year) as well as the old stretch from the water tank. Then he wanted to bypass our outside tap because it is gravity fed and not operated by the pump which we use for the rest of the house water. Having won those two arguments the next battle will be the washing machine which at the moment is fed by a spur from the old pipe which the plumber claims is irrelevant and has ignored. So today, a bank holiday in Spain so no plumber, will see a mad dash to get all our washing done before he comes back tomorrow and cuts us off, maybe for ever.

Waiting for Swampy

2011-08-08T13:17:00.000+02:00

Time goes by so quickly at this time of year and there is always so much to do. Sadly the car has had to go to the Garage today as we need a new clutch, the main problem being the time it takes to sort it out. The garage is a long walk away and along with discussions about ordering parts etc. then the best part of two days of Steve’s time is gone and of course we are not sure which days, maybe today and tomorrow maybe Wednesday. Telephones calls are of limited use as we can only really understand basic information over the phone. Still these things happen.

New Kitchen Window

Waiting for Work-tops

The kitchen progress has been quite good although we are now into holiday season so our work tops and cupboard doors, both ordered, probably won’t arrive until September now. Still the kitchen looks like a kitchen in progress and not a stable which is a definite move forward.

The tent now looks like the temporary home of a environmental protester but our current long suffering helpxer is being a complete star( despite not being a swampy type of person at all) and seems happy with the arrangement as long as we can keep her dry. We have been really blessed by our helpers so far and so far the arrangement seems perfect. This is Gillian working on the metal work on the kitchen window and doing a fantastic job.

Due to the tent situation the guest bedroom is once again a higher priority than the Kitchen so as soon as we have a car again ( we need more materials) we can work to get that finished. As well as that Lisa (Gastronomic Galicia Friend and Partner) and I have had a brilliant idea for a new cookery weekend after viewing some recently completed accommodation. So planning that will come next. We are really excited about it so look out for details.

up to date shopping

2011-07-29T19:57:00.000+02:00

I went to my local supermarket today and found fresh herbs, crunchy peanut butter and baked beans. It seems that since I last went the 21st century has reached Sarria, it is now only a matter of time before there are isles of convenience food and the vegetables are plastic packed and uniform sizes. It made me a little sad despite the fact that I purchased all the aforementioned Items with great delight.

As if to reinforce the point the local builders merchant has moved out to the industrial estate and is transforming itself into a Large Self serve DIY store. The staff are the same but look strangely naked and forlorn, their brown coats having been taken away and replaced with logoed polo shirts. They still rushed out to meet us as we walked though the door, asked what we would like and then took us to the shelf and carried the item to the checkout. I wonder how long it will take for them or the regular customers to “get” the whole self service thing.

I have also been looking up chicken integration and as usual we have done the whole thing wrong, So a bit of a shake up will have to happen at the weekend in order to resolve the situation. I will report next week on the success or failure of the project.

I have spent the day putting patches on the tent, the porch area fabric has proved to be suffering from old age. All my patches have worked, the problem will be putting the whole thing back up as there is a chance that the rest of the fabric is to fragile It may be that we will be tent shopping as well as chicken sorting over the weekend. I hope not though the tent only needs to be functional and not pretty, and it has served us well over the years, I would hate to see it go We have a helper due next though so It has to work or be replaced

bullies and BBQ

2011-07-26T10:48:00.000+02:00

Our lovely American helpers left at the end of last week to enjoy a family holiday in Ireland,.I think that all Americans have some connection with Ireland even those whose predominant ancestry is elsewhere. I loved having them and am really looking forward to our next helper arriving. Steve spent the weekend detoxing. I think that he had forgotten just how much young people eat and drink and tried to keep up with them, which of course did him (or his 50+year old stomach) no good at all.

My diet rather went to pot, although I still managed to loose 2 pounds so not too bad, I am still trying to be careful rather than actually diet. I have a tendency to forget that I am being careful when faced with either food or hunger and this failing will probably be my downfall.

Black hen trying to hide

We bought two new chickens last week, black ones this time, I would have shown you a photo of them both but one of them has vanished without trace. They have been badly bullied by he existing chickens so I suppose It might have run away in hope of finding a better home. It is rather more likely that it formed the best part of dinner for something, maybe a buzzard. The remaining one at the moment leads a miserable life trying to avoid the big chickens. I am about to set up an anti- bullying program in the hen house, maybe some Drama and a bit of peer group counselling. Steve thinks a couple more new ones would even things out, and then eating a couple of the bullies just to be sure, but I am leaning more toward home schooling as the answer.

Steve also spent the weekend building a stone garden feature to replace our hastily put together BBQ. I rather like it despite it’s unconventional design. It has yet to be tested, but that may be a project for next weekend.

picture of a beetle_ for no real reason

cold and wet (at last)

2011-07-12T12:25:00.000+02:00

Well our helpers have arrived, a young American couple who are very pleasant and friendly. Steve is pleased because they understood what he wanted them to do without a great deal of explanation, they are also currently working away with enthusiasm which has to be a good sign. So all is well in the Hawkins household for the time being. All these new experiences must be good for us.

The weather has gone so cold, so far this has happened every time we have had visitors. Indoor living with guests is a bit cramped here whereas outdoor life is easy. Still maybe we will get some much needed rain, which has often been forecast but never actually materialised. I am still optimistic that most clouds have silver linings.

The weekend was good too, a leaving party for friends on Saturday and a BBQ on Sunday. The makeshift BBQ worked really well and will probably now be turned into a permanent feature. Although the weather was a bit British so we ended up sitting under cover rather than in the garden. We had a great time though and I am really enjoying having people here.

One of our helpers is a great musician and has a banjo and an accordion with him so they went to the party and it was not long before other musicians came out of the woodwork and played too. I think everyone had a great time.

Dieting

2011-07-05T16:29:00.000+02:00

I am one of those people who always start a diet at the most inappropriate time. The day before a weeding or a party, the week before a holiday where the highlight will be the food, or on the eve of the arrival of guests. Today is no exception, the diet started this morning, we have helpers arriving on Thursday, a party on Saturday, and a BBQ on Sunday. I will have to get my food fix from cooking rather than eating.

Of course the other argument is that there never is a right time, only excuses to over indulge, the important thing is starting somewhere, somehow. I am not sure what my diet will consist of as yet, I am hoping that a little cutting down and a little extra care will do the trick. This is the time of year we have plenty to do anyway, with not too much chance to sit around, so perhaps I can keep my mind off idle snacking. I am only giving my self two weeks though, if no weight is lost before then a proper regime will be sorted out.

The BBQ came about as a clash of ideas, friends we wanted to see and the arrival of helpers. We had arranged it all before we had realised that we hadn’t got a suitable BBQ. Our previous rather flimsy affair had, on inspection, disintegrated since it was last used. As a result of this alarming discovery Steve has spent the morning assembling one from junk found in the Barn. It really is junk, we are not the kind of people with convenient oil drums (Where are all these oil-drums that other people find) or spare grills laying about, as it appears that most good recycling types have. Every thing around here has been reused a few times before it hits the junk pile. Still we now have a collection of stuff assembled into something that at least looks the part, though I think that we will try it out before I unveil it to the world.

Steve is now going through the same junk pile to see if he can rig up a bathroom shelf so that helpers don’t have to rummage through a random box to find washing things or towels. It ‘s bad enough that we haven’t yet put a door on the bathroom. You have to close the curtain and sing, no problem when it’s just us but Steve,s voice is awful, it could be used as a form of torture in times of war.

It think that we need other people to keep us on our toes, we are certainly more focused this week.

Hen and helpers

2011-07-04T17:20:00.000+02:00

Steve was strimming this morning and found a large clutch of eggs, hidden in the bracken behind the tent, which we have put up for helpers. The hens have obviously assumed that they are being provided with a new luxury hen house and started to move in. There was a a major hen panic when he had finished as one of the girls searched for her new nest in the now short grass and couldn’t find it. She was running about with her legs crossed and a desperate look on her face. I hadn’t really missed the eggs as the hens have been moulting and only laying spasmodically anyway. The big problem now is how to persuade them to lay in the nesting box provided by us again.

Our first helpers are due to arrive on Thursday and we are in desperate preparation mode. Steve is fencing off the tent area to prevent further poultry invasion and also to keep the dogs out (Who knows what Rowan might steal and destroy given even a glimpse of a chance.) Everything is ready to go into the tent once he has finished, I have been shopping, we have work prepared, and a few ideas for trips out. I am worried that something has been forgotten and that they won’t have a great time with us. Steve is worried about the fact that I have gone into overdrive and the whole thing will take up too much time, thus negating any possible help.

As our new kitchen is nowhere near ready I am painting a wall in the old one in a rather desperate attempt to make it feel more cheerful. Tomorrow will be devoted to cleaning and baking. I am sooo looking forward to them coming despite the usual uncertainties around a new experience. I am also trying not to be concerned by the fact that their last email suggested that they were several hundred miles away and heading in the wrong direction on foot. (Guys if you read this, Sarria (Lugo,Galicia) is a long way from Santander, please tell me I have misunderstood).

The weather is still glorious here, if a bit too dry for comfort. The emergence of my summer clothes has convinced me that I need to go on a diet. So scales have been purchased this morning and tomorrow the regime will begin and my current good humour will dissolve like the morning mist.(trust me I have seen it all before)

In Galicia

2011-07-01T21:27:00.000+02:00

It is so good to be back in Galicia, all be it tired and with a bad cold. I am acting like an old lady at the moment and having an afternoon nap.

I managed to spend time with my sister and my mother and my children so lots of family visits achieved. Of course I spent time with my Granddaughter who grows so fast that I can hardly believe it. We had a lovely time and I had a chance to get to know her a bit. This is Pippa feeding goats at a local farm, maybe she will be a country girl like her Grandma. She is beautiful and I am Blessed

I wanted to do so much when I was there, and catch up with friends, but in the end there was no time and of course I caught a cold at Mums,as I have done every time I have gone back. This meant that that the time passed in a cold remedy induced haze.

Mum’s chemotherapy seems to be going well, so I feel much better having seen her. Of course no-one knows what the future holds so we have to take things one day at a time.

Galicia seems so parched and dry after the UK, and now we are into summer I don’t expect it to rain much before September. My garden is not fairing too well, so that’s where you will find me for a while at least until the sun gets too hot in the afternoon. I can not help loving being back though, as I was weeding this morning Storks were circling over head, the sun was breaking though the morning haze and was already warm and the distant sound of a tractor was the only reminder of human activity. I belong here.

A bit stressed

2011-06-07T18:31:00.002+02:00

It is so hard to start writing again when you have had a break, really it is. So this is just a brief entry to catch up.

The reason for my temporary absence is the need to think over a family difficulties. The hardest thing about this move was leaving family behind and then being so far away when you are needed. I rarely worry over practical things but other people I do fret over. Still I have have a flying trip to the UK now organised and a chance to see people.

I am sitting here wishing it would rain, the sky is cloudy and the forecast is promising but nothing so far. It has been so dry that the garden has all but stopped growing and with little prospect of rain after June is over till September some water is sorely needed now. Galician is supposed to be the wet part of Spain, but not here and not now. I think I did finally defeat the black fly on my beans but the lack of water has stopped much more growth occurring.

I have listed some more items in my Etsy shop so new things to look at there.

Guests for lunch tomorrow so cooking and cleaning on the cards.

Still working on the kitchen, Electrician has now been. Electric oven and hob has arrived wood stove and sinks due next week. Windows the week after that. Just work left now, walls to plaster, floors to tile etc.etc.

It's war on black fly

2011-05-19T17:51:00.000+02:00

First a note to Coco who wanted to know more about the walnut oil. At last I got some info together and put it on the food blog here.

Well it didn’t rain last night, and it is a lovely sunny hot day here again so the garden is still as dry as a bone. Maybe the fact that it has been such a warm dry spring is the reason for my losing battle with the black fly.

I decided to try the internet for solutions so this is what I came up with.

Banana under the plants as they don’t like the smell.

Semolina under the plants to deter the ants. I learned a new fact here, the ants don’t eat the black fly but farm them protecting them from all comers. So ants are also baddies, darned clever baddies, you have to admire them (before you exterminate them)

Honey under the plants, to attract both the black fly and the ants.

Wine under the plants, Black fly like wine and are prone to drunkenness (it seems.)

Nasturtium plants next to broad beans to attract the black fly away from the broad beans.

I decided that there was no time for controlled experiments so the whole lot has now been implemented, I have my doubts, I really have my doubts!

Just to be on the safe side garlic and alcohol have been added to my soap and water spray, for reasons unknown. You are reading about a desperate woman here.

I will report progress after the weekend If I haven’t lost the will to live by then.