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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Fire and water.

I cannot believe that it has been so long since my last blog. I lost my desk in the last installment of house updates. I have it back now, though the updates are not quite finished.
As sit writing this I am listening to fire planes flying over head. Fires are everywhere in Galicia at the moment 50 new ones per day according to the local news and the tragedy is that many are started deliberately, some because the fires themselves create employment. Its all made worse because one of the cuts during the economic recession was of fire watchers. Meaning that by the time fires are spotted they are already out of control. Of course there would be fires anyway, we have had no rain for a couples of months and high temperatures (well for Galicia) the wet spring ensured that there was plenty of undergrowth to dry out and provide fuel.
I have tried to get a photo, though its not really that clear.

this is the view from my bedroom window. The haze is smoke.

On the upside we found a river beach that we never knew existed which is quiet, clean and even better only 15 minutes from home. We have been swimming 3 times already If only we had known sooner. Never done much river swimming before but I fear I'm addicted!

Friends

All the time we have lived here, I have gone out of the way to invite people to come and stay. They rarely do, and of course I know at the time that, that will most likely be the case. I am not the most scintillating of company at the best of times and spending holiday time with even close friends can be fraught with potential pitfalls.

 If you are one of the people who has been invited  please don´t think that the invitation is less than genuine, we would truly love to see you. I just want you know that I understand, really I do.

What I don´t want to happen is that you would be put off coming to Galicia. When people do come they are almost always surprised, in a good way. There is a gentle beauty here, the rain makes it green, there is miles of coastline and thousands of beaches. I could go on but I would rather you came and saw for yourself.

The weather here is inclined to be changeable though and weather forecasts are apt to be changeable as well.  When a friend did stay with us recently we decided to brave an unpromising forecast and hit the beach. It turned into a glorious spring day and so we headed for Cathedral beach, a popular tourist spot that we have never visited ( Our preference is normally for quieter less well known beaches of which there are many)

 There was a definite breeze when we arrived especially at the sea front, it did warm up later and we ended up carrying as many clothes as we were wearing.

 We walked along the coastal path, of which there is miles, rather than sit on the beach. And then meandered along the coast road in the car stopping on the way for lunch, coffee and a bit more walking.

I am determined that we will have more days like it this year.

Sunshine, beautiful places and cheap houses,

Well at last the sun is shining and Galicia feels Spanish again. We had a chance to visit with friends see the lovely Frages do Eume national park and have a picnic on the beach. We also looked at a couple of houses with our helper, Jane.

Both of the houses we went to see were in little mountain villages with stunning views and both were for restoration the first though is the one with the story attached. We had to walk through the village on foot as we were unsure about getting the car down to the house. So of course by the time we arrived every one in the village knew we were there. We were shown to the house that was 'on the internet' and told by the villages in no uncertain terms that it was overpriced at 9000 euro's the house next door we were told, though smaller was only 2500 immediately the owner was phoned and an appointment made for us to see inside a few days later. The owner turned out to be one of those terrifying Galician women that remind me so much much of the strong Yorkshire women of my beloved home county. We barely escaped with our lives, so determined she was to sell. The house as it turned out was not what Jane needed being a tad small with the optional garden just up the lane and not attached.( It would make a perfect holiday cottage though once restored) We were told of several other houses in the area for sale but declined to look for fear of agreeing to something by mistake. As usual on these occasions I wished we had money to spare as I am pretty sure that prices like these cannot last forever, still we have a house and far too much to do to take on another however cheap.

I leave you with a couple of pictures taken on our trip to the National Park and recommend that you visit if ever you get the chance.