slate grey day

Well here we are two days into a new year, drizzle outside cold inside if I'm honest. Need to get dressed because I am so fed up of this cold as in illness and temperature now.

This is a picture of my neighbours roof in the rain.

Not that you can tell from here but it's quite pretty,covered in moss and filled in with bits of tin can.The rain makes it shimmer and brings out a multitude of colours It's old probably the original roof  hence the tin can wedged between the slates to try and keep it waterproof. The houses here kind of hunker into the hillside as though they expect rain, the slate and granite bring a solidity, A bit stark in the winter but softening as the spring comes until the whole village blends into the summer greens and morning mists.

I am glad of the rain not only because it reflects my current mood but also because we have had a year of drought, First time ever in Galicia. Yes of course there have been dry spells, none that required serious water conservation though. The reservoirs still need water so the rain needs to continue. The trouble is we also need to cut wood, better done in the dry. Life is full of conflicting needs.

new year

The worst thing about having a cold is not the symptoms, though no one would suggest blocked noses sore throat and eyes and a perpetual headache are pleasant. It not even the tiredness that magically disappears the minute that you get into bed but becomes overwhelming the minute that you get out. The worst thing is the fact that you don´t want to do anything, a kind of mental tiredness that makes even getting dressed a struggle. Feeling like this on the first day of a new year is particularly stressful. This is the time for being full of resolve, planning new adventures, dreaming a little or a lot. A day for possibilities, a day for hope.

Instead all I am doing is sitting in front of the fire drinking hot chocolate.My tissues have overflowed the bin and are creeping across the floor and the disturbing thought of doing any of the small jobs planned for this holiday day is out of proportion to the size of the jobs themselves.

My resolutions are put off then as is the new in new year, for another few days. Saturday here in Spain is Kings, The last day of the Christmas break, the day when children, in this area at least, get their presents, there will be a parade, A market, lots of people eating Pulpo, lots of people in bars. The bakeries will be filled with special aniseed flavoured biscuits and the children have their last chance to be hyper and over excited.So my new year will move. Maybe the rain will have stopped, The tree man will be at the market so I can replace the apple trees that the sheep have eaten. I will be able to plan my garden and my normally overly ambitious plan for the year will seem realistic.

If am really honest a couple of days with a good book and a supply of hot chocolate Is a joy in itself, if only I had enough energy to enjoy it.

keeping Chickens

The one  thing we have done almost from the beginning is keep  chickens. Up to now they have been mainly  kept for eggs. Some times we buy a few cockerels to fatten up for meat. Sometimes one of the girls ends up in the pot, not often though for two reasons; They are pretty scrawny, and they are funny. Yes I mean funny ha ha, they provide endless entertainment, despite being fairly stupid they often have big personalities and some have huge egos. At the moment they are pretty much free range, having the run of the garden. We keep them out of the orchard and away from my veg patch though, as they happily destroy every thing in sight, and therein lies the problem. Our slightly hippy totally  free range animal policy has proved to be impractical as probably any country dweller will tell you.
We did take on board some things, we generally don´t name our animals, dogs and cats excepted. You have to have certain frame of mind from the outset, generally animals must pay their way.We are not vegan so some will end up as a meal. A small holding, however small, is a farm, animals all have a job to do, sentimentality has to be kept to a minimum.
So back to chickens, the long term plan is to try and find duel purpose birds meat and eggs. This is a little out of sinc with our neighbours, all of whom eat chickens raised at home but tend to raise two varietities of bird and only eat cockerels (They do use old hens who no longer lay for making chicken stock.) Buying hens for eggs or cockerels for fattening up is easy here, There are plenty of shops selling young chickens and there is a livestock market 3 times a month.
Our current girls are a little long in thebeak and now lay infrequently so we have just bought three more who will join them shortly. In the spring we will add a new cockerel and start looking for a larger breed of bird. Steve has named the new chicken run Stonehenge and has it well under way.

 This is Stonehenge under way, not a great photo,but its gives the idea.

These are the new girls, living in the broody coop for the time being.

Three important rules for introducing new chickens into the flock.

1. Always introduce more than one at a time. A single bird will get badly bullied and may never integrate.

2. Always keep them separate for a few weeks, they may be ill(you don´t want your current flock infected) and they need time get used to you and their new environment. We gradually let them spend time with the other chickens in the daytime before putting them in the same coop.

3.Put them in with  the others in the dark, and try and make other changes at the same time, clean the coop, introduce new toys, rocks, and a big bowl green veg to the run. This distracts the current flock and means than they have other things to focus on.

Remember chickens can be really mean.

I will let you know how it all goes.

Sign of the times

My blogging activity for the last few years has been much reduced. The reason for this is that the days had acquired a kind of rhythm , nothing remarkable seemed to happen. I seemed to blog more and more about the weather, I have felt guilty because we apparently have made little progress toward anything. Of course I could go on, but best to skip to what has changed.
I feel that the world around me has changed. We have had Brexit, we will soon have Donald Trump every day I read new stories that scare me, or make me feel ashamed, or angry or upset. Though actually nothing much has changed yet for me there is now the potential for change, over which I will have little or no control. Then one day I woke and realized that somehow, I had changed, finishing the house is no longer a priority, though I hope that we will. But making our lifestyle more self sufficient, reducing our dependence on actual money (rather than finding ways to make more) has moved up the list. As before nothing is going to physically change straight away, it can't. One of us needs to work outside the home to pay the bills, At least at the moment that is possible. we have too little prepared growing space, and too few animals for the garden to become a small holding over night. Steve doesn't altogether share my certainty about our direction, although he does share my alarm about world around us.
So this blog will change, imperceptibly at first I am sure. Darker perhaps, more frequent perhaps, but I know I want to record the change and my reactions when and indeed if they happen. How we cope with the new uncertainty, whether we can make sufficient money to pay the bills. Our pension prospects, never good, have never looked worse, but you never know. If anything forces us to live in the moment it is the lack of knowledge about what faces expats in a post Brexit Europe.

 For the time being, at least, lets glory in a little triviality. The picture above was taken from my bedroom window. Galicia in her Autumn wardrobe. Stunning! My favourite time of year and the sun is shining I am surrounded by the most beautiful scenery, the air is fresh, life is indeed good. Below are couple of photos taken on Friday night at a couple of bars in town. Yes it,s the annual tapas contest once again, two euros a plate, one euro for a glass of wine to wash it down.

Best laid plans

First proper day trip of new relaxed regime planed for today. But yesterday the dogs dug up the well pipes ,electric and water and ate the mole proof casing! So instead of visiting a monastery, a castle, and a historic church with lunch in a medieval village we will be visiting the builders yard, digging a long trench, and moving enough stone to deter them from trying again. Aaaaaaah!!!!!!

The strangest decision

The summer has been a struggle, too hot, too hard, not enough money (to put it into a nut shell). The reasons are simple for nine months of the year Steve works in an Academy and does some private work, teaching English. The other three months, Academy and school holidays he has in the past taught crash courses for people who need to pass exams or need spoken English for an autumn start at university or job.This year we decided to work on the house so he didn't take on the extra work for the holidays. Bad move as it turned out. Stupidly hot weather hasn´t in any way helped. Either the work or our temper.

By the time he goes back to work we will have finished our bedroom (Complete with en-suite and walk in wardrobe) and he has a nice new study both are fantastic and will make the world of difference. But the stress hasn´t been worth it, so next year no work on the house. Actually I mean no new work, no major project. Of course it would be nice to have the house all finished, but we don´t need more than we have. The new plan is a steady list of jobs that we can do bit by bit, more time for hobbies and more days out. We live in the most amazing place and barely have time to walk the dogs let alone anything else.

So here goes, we have already spent several very pleasant afternoons at the river beach, I so love to swim, If you can call laying on the water as still as possible trying to spot fish swimming underneath me as swimming. Between the so called swims we sit with a book and dry off honestly it is the only thing to do when the temperature is 38 degrees.

Anyway having made this momentous decision and faced with a trip to Ikea (don´t get me started on Ikea trips, I really feel that they should offer in store marriage counselling ) We decided to pack a pic nick and stop somewhere nice on the way back.

The somewhere nice on this occasion was The Parque del Pasatiempo in Betanzos It is amazing.The park was originally 90,000 square metres but sadly less than 9000 remains and some of that is is pretty poor repair. A folly in every sense of the the word, built on a private estate and meant to depict not only the seven wonders of the world but wonders yet to happen.

 I wished that I could have seen in in 1920 but I know that had I been alive in 1920 I wouldn't have seen it either, not moving in aristocratic circles.  Now it is crisscrossed by main roads surrounded by an industrial park and shops. The elaborately build viewpoints make no sense and the quiet spots for reading or contemplation are anything but quiet but I was still in awe.

Desk and Dog walks

Having told you that I had a desk I thought that I would include a photo, it stands in the corner of our new bedroom which, although already lovely, needs a few more minor finishing touches. I will of course post photos as soon as I can.

I am still organizing things here in my little writing corner but I am enjoying having this space. Steve has a beautiful new study of which I will also post photos soon. When his work gets back to normal in September he can hide himself away as much as he likes, either to work or to sit quietly with a book. We are slowly making progress here, a study and a bedroom will mean that we can begin to organize our belongings which, to me at least, will make a huge difference to our lives. We don´t have a huge amount of stuff and we do have a large house so actual space has never been a problem, it is organised storage that will make the difference.

One of the advantages of living in a sparsely populated rural place is the evidence which still exists of a past life. It will, I expect, change in time just as people like us are buying and renovating the old farmhouses, so too will the land be bought and made economically viable. The old tiny farms that once were the backbone of life here no longer work, for most people. They were never meant to generate money simply to sustain life. Life in the western world a least has changed and the old farming communities are a thing of the past. The mechanisms of that way of life still exist though, softened as nature takes them back, just as the memories have been softened by time. But if you close your eyes you can see the ghosts of a lifestyle that once existed

 This is the old camino or road between our village and the next, rarely used now. A change in field boundaries means  that it stops short of the next village it is beautiful non the less.
The biggest threat is logging the huge modern machines that make it economically viable destroy everything in their wake, dry stone walls, old paths and ancient woodland. While I understand the need for a buoyant economy and the jobs that come with it, a part of me aches for price we pay for that.


The pictures below are of an old reservoir build as part of an irrigation system and no longer used. I think that very little work would make it function once again so simple and elegant is the design.

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