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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Autumn, woodsmoke, and quiet.

I have arrived back in Galicia with the autumn, rain outside and my cocina lit. The cocina is fueled by wood and is the most common form of cooking, heating appliance in rural areas. For those of you in Britain it is similar in appearance to an "Aga", less sophisticated and far less expensive. In the UK I know that wood burners are trendy at the moment here where the population is small and most people in the countryside own a piece of woodland they make economic sense.

The down side of using a cocina is that they involve a great deal of work, felling trees if you have them (we buy uncut logs locally) chainsawing, splitting and stacking. all of which should be done by now. We still have logs to cut, but have some ready for winter from last years supply. Working a year in advance means the wood is better seasoned anyway, but every fine weekend is spent cutting wood and in our case scavenging wood from local logging sites (with permission) to eke out our supply,
Cooking on a cocina is also more of an art than a science and takes a degree of practice.

The up side of all this is that winter fuel costs little in terms of cash, the kitchen is always warm, the kettle is always hot as is the oven. A faint smell of wood smoke hangs over the village which adds to the welcome and I love it. I always wondered with Aga,s whether the attraction was purely psychological,  the always warm kitchen, the reassuring solidarity, the potential to dry anything from wellington boots to kittens, and the promise of casseroles and cakes. Our wood stove  would have no place in the super hygienic, pristine, kitchens of home makeover shows but carries the comfort and warmth that I want in a home.

I have just returned from a whirlwind week in the UK. The time shared between cooking for friends and being a Grandma. Both are occupations which are high on my favorites lists and I miss my family dreadfully. The longer we live here though the harder I find it to tear myself away, I am used to the quiet, the clean air and the steady rhythm of rural life. Besides that, being used to Galicia´s roads, good quality and almost empty the M1 seems like a nightmare version of eternal punishment. The cost of a bad cup of coffee is also bewildering as is the size of the cup. I fear that these examples of progress may one day reach here,and have to remind myself that "sufficient unto the day the evil there of....."


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Into the swing

Despite having failed dismally so far, I have decided to get back  "into the swing" of blogging that is. I have a new computer, my beloved mac have passed away peacefully in its sleep a week or so ago. Alas the new machine is a PC and I have entered the ghostly world of windows 8 persuaded by a 700 euro difference in the price of  the relative machines and am already certain that if I had the said 700€ I would willingly have handed it over. But then I like Astin Martins but rarely loose sleep over my lack of one.

The house.

Our official project at the moment is Steve`s study which is making slow progress and will get a boost over Christmas when Steve has a bit more time.
I am always a bit irritated by the fact that we never quite finish a job. As soon as a room is usable we stop and move onto the next project and with this in mind I had a bit of a brainstorm during an unscheduled visit to Ikea. I take my hat off to  the Ikea shop designers, on entry to the shop your mind is infected by no-,end uninvited and expensive thoughts ,(enough to end a marriage if some of the overheard comments are  taken seriously) I decided that we would finish the cloakroom. I bought towels, pictures and a candle holder with that in mind. Considering the size of the room which is barely big enough for a toilet and sink I thought that a weekend would do the trick, how long can it take to hang a picture and change a towel. How wrong I was, I should have known that nothing is that simple.
The walls, or at least two of them, are stone as  they dry out tend to leak dust, sand like and in quite large quantities. We had heard that it is possible to seal them with a dilute solution of p.v.a glue and set about to give them a quick clean before applying said glue. We also had a vague recollection that you had to brush the glue mixture onto damp walls. We obviously  h.adn`t  made a great job of cleaning the stone before we pointed it in the first place. We ended up with neatly sealed in streaks which were so obvious that could have been going for a zebra theme. I have to say that PVA does an amazing job of sealing stone because it has taken the best part of two weeks to get rid of the streaks.
The worst thing is that we haven`t finished even now we have a window to fit and shelf to put under the sink. Both jobs were left undone because we hadn`t a clue how to tackle them in the first place, the door does now have a working lock though so that's something at least.

The animals

 

Let me introduce you to our new head of rodent control. He followed me home last week and since he followed me for a good 3 kilometres I hadn´t the heart to turn him away at the door. At the moment he dosn´t seem to know the difference between mice and socks so we have a good number of dead socks. I am however hopeful for the future. His name is Franky we have put the word out that we have him as someone might be missing a kitten. He unlike, the normal barn cats who live around here is used to people and likes attention. I hope he gets to stay.