Seasons Greetings to All

Merry Christmas, Happy Mother Night and Sun Return, and Bo Nadal. Our feasting has begun and Tim and I would like to raise a glass to you all. Roll on seed sowing time.....

Magosto Galician Style

On Saturday night we went to the local Magosto celebrations. Most small villages here have a thriving social centre and ours is better than most (well I would say that). There was a massive paella, barbecued pork chops, roasted chestnuts and a huge selection of deserts.

The band played on as people danced, some very well, some not so well. People sang the traditional songs and the room was full of joy with children playing amongst the adults. There were multiple generations gathered to celebrate the chestnut harvest, the end of summer and the beginning of winter, and their heritage. A privilege to be amongst our friends and neighbours at this time. Thank you Carballo and to Mercedes for the fabulous pictures. A night to remember!

A Special Samhain

We sat in front of a log burner watching the fabulously cheesy Van Helsing movie, drinking port and toasting our dearly departed. I had carved one of our sweet dumpling squashes which was glowing in the window and for those few hours we forgot the awfulness going on in the world.

 Autumn is proving to be as fruitful as ever. We are eating parasol mushrooms for breakfast most mornings. Chestnuts roast on the woodburner for nibbles and we continue to pick ground cherries, our last cucumber and tomatoes from the polytunnel.

I still haven't decided what to do with my basket of quince, compote is nice, I have made membrillo before but with Tim's diabetes, a lower sugar method of preservation might be a more sensible approach. The lettuces are almost ready to start using and my late planted peas are now in flower, the green beans continue to grow. Only time will tell if I get a crop from them over winter.

As usual the tyres have come up trumps and the kale and chard are looking good so far. Fingers crossed that a snail doesn't come and massacre them all (it has happened before).

Tim and I have spent the last week between downpours of rain trying to prepare the veggie patch for next year. When I was ill it was left untouched for eighteen months and the result is thick tussocky grass and brambles. We have covered as much as we can with the available chicken poop, mulched with cardboard (until it ran out) covered it in a layer of barley straw and then covered the lot with plastic weed suppressant material weighed down as much as possible against winter storms.

If left for a minimum of 6 months we hope to uncover it to reveal a weed free fertile veggie bed perfect for sowing straight into. Obviously the reality may be otherwise but as ever in small holding, hope is everything.

Early Snow

Just last week it was 22 degrees C and last night we got snow with more to come by the look of the sky. It feels all the colder because of the rapid change. Porridge for breakfast with home made apple compote and our first fire of the year last night.

The animals are hunkering down in warm spots.

With the crazy weather all over the world this year I hope that our winter is relatively normal and 'mild'. Fruit is still on our trees waiting to be picked and many of the autumn chores await completion. Evening fires and the occasional glass of 'red' go someway towards compensating us tho. Compared to others who are freezing and starving, we still feel very blessed.

Wildlife Everywhere

In these days when wildlife is under pressure it is good to know that there are small havens where it still thrives. Galicia as a whole, and specifically Petas is one of those havens. We have adders around our biggest compost pile, my daughter nearly trod on one. Last week I saw our youngest cat getting excited. A fully grown slow worm was dragging a huge protesting frog backwards into the orchard. I haven't got any pictures because I don't have a smart phone or carry my camera around with me. I did however get a rather unfocused picture of one of the praying mantis that live in my poly tunnel.

Whilst watering the polytunnel yesterday a water vole dashed away from the hose and out of the door. The locals call them mole rats and curse them as they eat vegetable plants from underneath. I curse them as well but in the UK they are a protected species because of their rarity. I have written a previous post on the various amphibians we have lurking under stones. As I watched another breath-taking sunset and darkness fell the night was alive with the screeching calls of barn owls and hoots of tawny owls whilst bats flit around the windows hunting the last of the insects. We have little owls as well and the cries of hunting buzzards are a daily occurrence. Deer and wild boar  are often seen from the car as we drive by. I could go on but I expect you get the picture by now. It is lovely here.

Back to business, the first trees are starting to change colour. Our biggest mulberry is luminous even in the morning mist.

We harvested the squashes. Considering we didn't get back here until March we were lucky to get anything. We have four sweet dumplings and three huge blue banana squashes.

Flowers are hanging on grimly and the roses still put out their wonderful scent. Galicia is fabulous in Autumn and it has barely begun. The chestnuts are nearly here and mushrooms soon hurrah.

Autumn Equinox Ahoy

We have got this far and are counting our blessings. My latest cancer scan and bloods are clear, I have just got over a horrendous tummy bug, it was brief but AWFUL. A fabulous misty and drippy start to the day and we can plan for our Autumn activities. I made the first chutney of the year earlier this week before the lurgi struck and as you can see I have planted some seeds to over winter. Chard, red kale, bush beans and peas. The peas and beans are an experiment to see if they will get productive in the polytunnel. I have read that you can sow autumn beans so fingers crossed.

I have bought the standard over wintering veggies for the outdoor tyre stacks, cabbage, sprouts, cauliflower, more kale, leeks and some lettuce again for the polytunnel.

Somehow the flowers keep on blooming. The ginger exotics are blooming again despite last winter's heavy frost. They just like the shelter of the porch and pear tree which keeps their rhizomes frost free.

 We still haven't managed to get the brambles thwacked but the wood is away into the wood shed, some of the big bits still need splitting further but we will get around to it. There is always more to do than we have time for. I am just so lucky to still be here and enjoying the views.

Summer Again

As usual there are loads of annoying flies and it's too hot to work outside in the daytime heat but the buddleja is back buzzing with bees and butterflies and there is nothing better than watching all the activity in the early evening from our armchairs under the porch with a cold beer.

As everything has been so overgrown, and still is, I am making do with containers this year. There is the one planted with culinary herbs and the fabulous hanging basket.

Everything is watched over by the ruler of this place, Nosher the elderly tabby, from Kent in the UK. The warm weather agrees with him.

Getting Hotter

Most days have been cloudy and humid with an occasional hot one. This is unusual for Galicia but I blame climate change as weather is becoming increasing unpredictable. Our fabulous friend Billy came and did some brush-cutting and strimming for us. There is still more to do but it has changed my mood immensely from overwhelmed to positivity as order reigned over chaos in some areas. He has created raised beds in the polytunnel using locally grown and milled chestnut planks, and now I need to source some compost and manure to fill them up. At least watering is more effective as the precious water doesn't run off the beds, it now gathers on top and has time to infiltrate into the still rather poor soil. Once I have got the soil wetter I will mulch with barley straw.

The orchard is looking great as well. Lots of fruit setting and the strimmed grass and bracken is now a mulch beneath the trees.

Pears are developing well, the quince has set fruit, there are tons of apples but I expect the trees to drop some as it gets hotter. I also hope to get my first taste of bletted european medlar this winter as the fruit has definitely set. No sign of kiwis yet. I think I need to wait until they are a bit older. Plenty of male flowers but no female flowers that I have seen. Even the hardy kiwis that are self fertile need bees to pollinate and the long cold winter and spring has resulted in fewer bees than usual. Perhaps some will emerge in the foliage as they get bigger. Talking of bees we have another small colony that have set up in our Warré top bar hive. As yet they are few, last years swarm died possibly due to hunger while we were both in the UK. Tim and I have our fingers crossed.

The loganberry is a vital part of our breakfasts and the edible day lilies are great in salads, other flowers are just beautiful and feed the soul.

Finally mixed news on the chick front. We are down to seven chicks from the eleven we started with. One drowned in a water bowl when sneaking through a crack in the stable door and falling into the big chickens' water. The other three have been eaten by crows we think. The survivors are enjoying the sun with their mother but they are small enough to get through the fencing into the cattle field where they are easy targets for crows. The remaining chicks are less adventurous and dive into a bramble patch when the alarm is raised. We hope that they will remain healthy into chicken adulthood now they have became less foolhardy.

Galicia Is The Best

I have been back here for nearly a month now and I have to say Galicia rocks! Cancer makes you appreciate the good things in life. After fearing that it was all going to be taken away there are so many good things here. My Galician friends are fabulous, always asking after my health and just saying I am fine is not good enough, they ask again "How are you really?" They care and that is very special. There are so many friends who have helped Tim and I, from running us around to taking Tim into town, lending us freezers and looking after the place. Thanks guys, you know who you are.
Cancer wise I am still in remission, I am being monitored every three months for signs of it's return. The reversal surgery went well so I now produce waste the same way as the majority of people do. It was very rough and painful at first but now I am getting into a sort of routine and although it will never be the same as it was before, I can live happily like this. Hello onions and salads, how I have missed you. Lentils will be phased in at a later stage but now I can eat almost anything.

Petas is looking awful or stunning depending on your point of view out of this small window. The grass, wild flowers and brambles have completely taken over but the green lushness is amazing. We haven't fought our way into the forest garden as it is blocked by head high growth but trees appear to be thriving. Veggie patch? What veggie patch? Shrubs are blooming, fruiting trees and kiwis have been full of blossom. The poly tunnel has a small cultivated area but the rest is bracken fronds and weeds but we dutifully water the cultivated bit. The lime, mandarin and nectarine look good in there. We have more chicks, eleven of them the darlings of their mother's eye. She is in heaven with her little ones orbiting her feet as she clucks reassuringly. For this year we have mostly given up trying to tame the wilderness. We know a man who will brushcut and strim for us and so we will be hoping he will rescue the worst of it. I still can't lift anything heavy and I have developed an incisional hernia so probably another op needed to fix it. Tim continues to work hard during the week and we are indulging ourselves at weekends because we more than anyone know that life is short and you have to enjoy yourself when you can.
There is always next year.......

Countdown has started for Operation Re-Connect

I have a date for my last (I hope) surgery. On the 15th of May I will be under the knife again unless they run out of beds or something. This will all happen in the UK so I shall be missing Galicia again like a Norwegian blue parrot pining for the fjords. I expect to remain there recovering and healing until early July which is the soonest possible date for my return. Tim will be here bravely soldiering on, on his lonesome keeping the creatures in check and disciplining our newest two chicks born on the 1st May. Their mother is a psychotic silkie bantam who is mild mannered when alone but turns in to a ravening lunatic when her chickies need protecting. He needs a chair and whip just to replenish the bowl of feed. Luckily he still has both eyes intact.

Waiting for treatment is always the worst bit of having cancer and once this is over I feel as though I can get back to something resembling a normal life. I will of course have a new best friend afterwards.

Back In Galicia

Well I have made it back here but only temporarily. I am awaiting my third and final op (I hope) to remove my ileostomy and reconnect my plumbing to the outside. I am on the list and could be called back any time so Tim and I are enjoying life as much as we can, eating fabulous meals and sitting by the log burner reading and sipping decent wine. It has been a horrendous winter by all accounts and we are still waiting for Spring to arrive. Bitterly cold days, endless rain and a lack of firewood is trying to dampen our spirits but we have bought pretend sawdust logs from a DIY store and the celebration of life continues. Tim will stay on here when I am called back and I will do my best to return as soon as possible but complications are expected with the rerouted plumbing (see Lower Anterior Resection Syndrome). At least the cancer is gone (for now fingers crossed).

Despite all of the above I am still planting seeds for the summer, squashes today and we have a selection of seedlings coming on in the polytunnel waiting for the warm weather to return. No new pics today, everything is so dreadfully overgrown and the only tree in blossom is the hardy blackthorn. I shall therefore attach something cheering from the past.

Here are our faithful boys Sam and Toby who have had a difficult time with a variety of sitters but who continue to give us love and cuddles when we need them most, especially when we have left-over meat from our menu del dias.