Yet another new beginning

One thing you can't stop is the wheel of life from turning. After a year living in paradise it looks like Tim and I will have to return to the UK to earn some money. When we came out here Tim had a permanent job with remote working but after it stopped he has been struggling to get another job from here.
Rather than spend lots of time apart we are hoping to go back to the UK together so we can maintain our married status and I can keep my feet warm while we try to get some bills paid.

The good news is that we are not the people we were when we came here. Galicia has shown us life as we want it to be. It is achingly beautiful, the people are amazingly generous with their time and indeed with anything they can give. We have raised our own pigs, grown vegetables, kept poultry and performed so many tasks that would have stumped us in our previous life. We have drunk wine, spent time with very good friends, had more than one night singling along to Tims guitar playing, in other words we have really LIVED LIFE.

I have spent precious mornings watching the sun rise over our valley (I never had time to do this in the UK) and precious memories of the glorious summer nights, when we rolled in merrily from a party late at night and then sat on our patio and just gazed awestruck at the clearest stars I have ever seen. You can see the milky way from our patio and more stars than you can imagine. So....I have had a privileged year and it has made us both doubly determined to get back here by hook or by crook as soon as we can sustain it.

In the mean time... does anyone know any house sitters????

New beginnings... again

This time of year is very exciting. A whole new year to enjoy. Tim and I have just finished fencing our first bit of veggie patch with supplies paid for by my mother as a Christmas gift (thanks Mum). As it was our first bit of cultivated ground we put in it all of the fruit bushes we had bought with us from the UK, most of which seem to have survived. It is therefore going to be the official soft fruit area which we hope to net this year. Last year the birds cleared all of the currents in one morning. A massive flock descended like a plague of locusts. We did get some nice strawberries though and a handful of raspberries (the ones the ducks didn't get). We also lifted the huge piece of black plastic and moved it on a bit and I now have a beautiful area of dead grass for this years proper veggie patch. Turning the thin soil over is a complete joy as the thick former turf parts like butter. As I found out last year, trying to dig through the living turf was a nightmare. Even using the local satcha (mattock) I struggled.

I now find I am behaving like a miser, going though my tub of veg seed packets whilst fantasising about the huge luscious crops I will grow in my new veg patch. Of course the reality is unlikely to match the fantasy (like so much in life) but it is the new year and the time for dreaming of the good year to come.

Improved Creativity

One of the many reasons we moved here was to spend more time creating things. Too many evenings spent watching TV in the UK had left us feeling as though life was passing us by.

In Galicia we still have the TV but only for playing DVDs. We spend much more time playing cards and chatting together. Tim plays his guitar whilst I wail along, frightening the dogs. We have resurrected board games which get very competitive and staring at the wood fire whilst sipping wine in silence is a very nice way of passing the time.

Now Tim has a few weeks off he has decided to put one of his novels on Amazon for the kindle. Shortly to be followed by the rest as he transcribes them from scanned paper copies (The Mac died with all of his work on it). In his heart he is a writer and poet, and always has been. Its strange how people get identified by the jobs they do (Computer Programmer in Tims case) and yet so often there are secret urges buried within. Since coming out here Tim has started on his 4th novel, the first book he has written since we met. He may never be famous or rich but the act of creation is the most fulfilling. Else why are we here at all?

For those that are interested, you can find it here:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006N87A0Q

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006QK9RDO