December

I think it's winter though the calender says not. The weather is erratic, December has been mostly dry after a very wet November, but we have freezing temperaures, snow and some beautiful warm days. The temperatures go from 16 to 18degrees C one day to 0 and below the next, then back again.


This week has been very busy. We had Christmas dinner last Saturday, in a local restaurant of repute. Very different from the way it would be done in England, there were loads of little dishes (tapas) then the main course, mine was Wild Boar, it was very tender and tasty but there was far too much, an enormous plate of meat and potato. There were no decoration or anything to show it was for Christmas!


Monday we had an outing to the coast, this was put on by the Xunta de Galicia to promote the eating of fish. It was a wonderful day. to start with the weather was superb, the coast of Galicia is beautiful, especially with the sun shining!
We started with a meal, this was cooked by an award winning chef! We had a plate with 3 cold fish dishes, like tapas again but beautifully presented, then the were 3 hot ones then octopus with beans. Whilst we ate the chef demonstrated other way of cooking fish.


The whole meal was superb, it really demonstrated to me the importance of presentation! I can cook but my food presentation is lamentable!
After lunch we visited a small village that has kept it's original character.

Finally it was a visit to a fish market, then a stop for coffee and cakes and back home.

Sunset over the Rias Baixas!

Today I have invited some of the local ladies for Mince pies and Gluhwein.

More mellow fruitfulness

My drainage problems have been sorted, causing some disruption to the village as the whole road was dug up! It took 4 days to clear the drains and provide me with a drain that now connects to the sewage in a sensible place, but all is now well.

The last few weeks have been very wet, interspersed with the odd dry sunny day, just to cheer us up. This has resulted in a burgeoning of mushrooms and toadstools. Tina called on me the other day to suggest we go mushroom hunting We found loads of these, I recognised them as Inkcaps and was sure they are edible as I have eaten them in the past.

We picked a lot, not for me as I do not like them but Tina was prepared to give them a go even though she didn't know them. I was reluctant to take responsibility for her eating mushrooms on my recommendation, so hurried to check on the web. I was, and still am, sure that these are Coprinus comatus and are edible when young (before they turn inky) but when translating the info I also turned up information on Coprinus atramentarius, which said about not drinking alcohol, this was stressed very much in the Spanish information though less so in the English, probably because there was a greater certainty of the Spanish drinking alcohol with a meal! In the end she decided not to eat them!

There were some of Parasol mushrooms, Macrolepiota procera, most were getting a little old but we picked a few. I was reluctant again, wisely I think, to eat these without clear identification, even though Tina seemed confident that they were edible. So I took spore prints overnight and looked them up. They were delicious!

I'm not sure what these are, some kind of Lactarius I think. I wasn't stupid enough to pick them.

Nor this one, though it looks very pretty.

not a good life!

Tuesday, 19th October

Recently I have discovered some problems with the plumbing. The washing machine has caused a flood in the pantry the last few times I have used it, then the shower and toilet became slow to drain, it became progressively worse this week, so, today I got a builder in to have a look.

He has spent the entire morning trying to locate my drain! The one we assumed was mine turned out to be my neighbours. It rather looks like my effluent has been happily draining under the house for weeks, maybe months. The pipe from the sink and washing machine has a big hole in it and he can't get anything down that pipe to clear it, so he has disconnected the toilet, he then suggested that I flush the upstairs toilet, as this appears to be working, the result was a load of very shitty water all over the bathroom floor.

We are now awaiting his return with someone else to help to locate the drainage. Ling, a friend who is staying with me, ended up walking through the village in her dressing gown in order to shower else where and we have the key to an empty house across the street to use the loo there!

Tomorrow I'm going away for a week, I'm just going to leave a key and hope it is all sorted when I return!!!! Which is what I have had to do as he can't get hold of a machine untill tomorrow, I'm just grateful I won't be here.

Autumn

Autumn, Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness. It was certainly misty this morning.

Why does everything seem to ripen at once? I'm overwhelmd with tomatoes, I have a great big box of pears, and that's just the first tree! My neighbour brought me two bunches of grapes and some figs and I bought fruit this week because my son was supposed to be coming. (His flight was cancelled else he would be able to help me). As it is I have a punnet of nectarines, a punnet of plums and all the fruit from here, not to mention the vegetables! I have a few lettuces coming through again and some more strawberries have germinted so hopefully I will manage to get them planted out before I go away again.

Saturday,18th September

The autumn crocuses are coming out again! We've had a few days of rain life is returning to the ground.

Tuesday, 12th October

I was away last week but this time it rained most of the time I was away so my plants survived. It is also much colder, the peppers are growing nicely now, I'm going to have an influx of peppers. I must be sure to pick them before we have a frost. The tomato plants have produced lots of new shoots, leaves and flowers, so I've cut them back. I don't know if the green tomatoes are going to ripen. My courgettes have behaved this time, even the biggest isn't half the size of the courgettes I found when I came back from England in August. I've pulled out one of the plants now so I only have one left, this will allow some space for the last of the spring onions, which were getting flattened. The last sowing of lettuces is now a decent size for eating so, all in all I'm doing quite well.

My orchard had a pile of walnuts in one corner, I was a bit perplexed about this until a neighbour came to explain that these were windfalls, from their tree, that had landed in my plot. They had collected them for me because they weren't sure that I would know that what falls in my plot is mine! I have collected them and put them in a box to dry out in the sun. There are also loads of pears on the ground, these are really big juicey ones from the top of my tree, apparently it has been very windy as well. I have so many pears I don't know what to do with them. I have 3 boxes in the shed and 2 in the house!

The strawberry plants that I planted out before I went away have survived, they are still tiny but 2 look promising, I hope we get some more warm weather before winter sets in.

Monday, 18th October

Managed to get the burning done. Now most of the roots from the bracken have been burnt.

It took 2 hours to get the fire to light yesterday! Then we hit on the idea of using a box under the roots in order to allow the air to circulate, this worked, but by 3 I was fed up so gave up in order to cook lunch! Today I stared with the box and the whole thing worked so well we were finished by 12! Now I know. This must be the most unflattering photo of me I've ver seen!

first summer

The weather is improving and plants are growing well. My vegetable patch is full to the brim, I forget that plants take up more space once they've grown lots of leaves! The potatoes are now enormous though this will not be a problem for long as I'm pulling them up bit by bit. It seems they don't do 'new' potatoes here and I do like them, so my potatoes are coming out just as it seems that everyone elses are just going in.

I made some elderflower cordial and invited some of the neighbours to try it, in my new garden. I don't know how impressed they were with the drink but they seemed impressed with my garden! It's now been baptised!

I've sown strawberry seeds, ready for next summer, partly because I wasn't sure that I will be around in March to buy plants! The seeds have germinated and I've pricked them out ready to plant out later in the summer. They will go in the area just visible behind the ladies. I'm still working on getting rid of the nettles and the ferns, it's slow process as the roots of the ferns are difficult, it's very hard and hot work now but I do a little bit every morning. I'm also collecting seeds from lots of the wild flowers to spread around between the trees.

There are still pretty flowers around but mostly it is grass and ferns now.

The grass is as tall as I am and I've never seen so many different varieties. The fields are being mown now for hay.

The ferns are pretty tall too and they get all over the place.

This field was full of wild lupins and so pretty, now they've all gone, wrapped up in black plastic at the edge of the field!

29th June 2010

Someone has sprayed my potatoes with insecticide! I know some of my potatoes had creepy crawlies, one of my neighbours told me, yesterday, that I needed to spray them or the bugs would strip them in a couple of days. I wasn't really bothered as I want them for new potatoes and I am digging them up already, my plot is really too small for potatoes. I hadn't planned to use any insecticides, I want to see how it works this year. Some of the neighbouring plots that have not been cultivated this year have potato plants that have just grown on their own, a bit like some of mine, and they are infested too, some of those have been sprayed too. If the spraying has been done by someone to protect their plants then I suppose I will have to grin and bear it but I will be annoyed if it has been done to protect mine!

I could have started harvesting the potatoes earlier but I wasn't sure when, they are getting quite big now. It is lovely to have fresh, just out of the garden, potatoes but I think I need to just dig them all up or they'll be fighting with the courgettes!!

30th June

I was in the middle of lunch yesterday when one of my neighbours turned up with a lettuce! a nice lettuce, it must be said, but I prefer my system of having small ones or just taking off leaves, that way I have them fresh every day. This lettuce is going to last me a week! I had told Paco I have lettuces but he must have forgotten and I was so surprised that I accepted it. Now I must find a way to say 'thank you but no thank you'. I also found out who sprayed my potatoes, she did have the sense to realise that I might not have wanted them sprayed! She also said that she was careful not to go near the lettuces!

2nd July 2010

I've dug up all the potatoes today, it's incredible how they vary in size. I've got plenty, I reckon they should last the summer. My patch looks really empty now, it will certainly give the courgettes room to spread. The lettuce have got really leggy trying to compete with the potatoes, I will sow a few more just to last till the end of summer. Everyone is offering me lettuces now, they use them to feed the chickens now that there are too many!!

I've planted a few potatoes in my 'orchard', in the patch I've cleared, I'm not sure what will happen but I've nothing to lose.

It's cooler today I should have felt like spending longer digging, but I didn't! I was still sweating cobs (I wonder what that actually means?) Hopefully it will rain later, before I go out with my watering cans!

11th July

The weather keeps getting hotter but we have thunderstorms from time to time to cool things down a bit. I'm going away shortly, don't know how my veg will survive that. The courgettes are just starting to flower so I'm sure they'll be ready when I'm not here! my lettuces are now enormous and very leggy, that's one lesson I've learnt, not to sow too many next year, little by little.

Paco took me round to his 'huerta' the other day to pick some cherries,there are loads at the moment. Tina has left a ladder by one of her trees and I suspect it may be for me but I haven't seen her to ask. I think the fruit season is under way!

I found a 'wild' lily the other day!

I found another one later, they must be garden escapees, this one didn't last long before it dissappeared. There was a wedding here yesterday, I wonder if the bride went up the aisle with a lily! I'm carefully watching the other to see if I can get any seeds!

20th July
Well the lilies have gone, as have pretty well everything else. There was a tractor out yesterday clearing the verge and what didn't go yesterday was strimmed away today, so not much hope of collecting anymore seeds! Partly this clearing is for safety as fires are very common here and they like to leave fire breaks.
I had my first courgette yesterday, my spring onions are now doing well, I have loads of tomatoes though they are still green, and my peppers are just starting to flower. I will have to give it all a really good soak tomorrow and hope they all survive until I come back.
Tina brought me a load of cherries at the weekend but they were very ripe, they leave the fruit until it is ready to go off and loads is wasted, it's a real shame.

4th August

My garden has survived. The courgettes are ready for the giant marrow competition!

There are loads of tomatoes, but still green. I hope I have bought my last tomatoes of this summer! I have a few tiny peppers and lots more to come. The lettuce have mostly 'bolted', I notice that most of my neighbours' have as well. So, I've pulled up one of the courgettes today, many of the lettuce, and most of my onions.

At the weekend I will have to find a way of dealing with the courgettes or as many as I can.

Neighbours have been watering the flowers I left outside so I should have left my strawberries out as well. In stead I left them in a tray of water indoors and I think I have over watered them, so most have died!

I also found a load of kids in my garden this afternoon. I may be paranoid but I feel that they wouldn't take the 'mick' if I were spanish. They giggled when they saw me coming but they sat tight until I told them to go and they didn't offer any apology, they just look at me as if I've just landed from space. I've put a new lounger up there today so it's obvious that it's in use.

The ground is very dry, there are fires on the hills in the distance. I saw yesterday that it's 4 points on the driving licence for anyone caught throwing fag ends out of a car!

Friday, 13th August

Forest fires continue, there are very serious ones near Pontevedra and in Potugal. Here we can see at least 2 every day, usually somewhere in the distance but last night there was one quite close. it is now much more understandable why the verges are kept clear and all vegetation is cut short before August. They say it rains a lot in Galicia, I don't know when it last rained here, all the rain seems to be falling in Cataluna.

Thursday 19th August

I've picked my first tomatoe today! It's not red, red but it's red enough. I haven't had a tomato this last week as I'm too mean to pay for them when I have loads in the garden. My salad today will be; lettuce, tomato, pepper, courgette, spring onion and potatoes all from the garden! For pud I've stewed pears, apples and blackberries. The only fruit ripe at the moment is the plums and there are very few of them, what there are are being picked by the kids here for the summer! My plums are of the green-gage type, I missed out a bit as I was waiting for them to turn plum colour!

My peppers are doing really well, I'm eating them tiny as I will be inundated if I leave them all to grow big but I will leave a few now. I'm almost out of lettuce, in a way this is a relief, I've managed to have a few days without having to eat lettuce, I've had to eat courgette/marrow instead! I've discovered that courgette, fried with onion and garlic is really tasy and I have plenty of all three. I've sown more lettuce but it is slow germinating, not helped that I forgot I had sown the first lot and I happily hoed them.

4th September

Summer is now coming to an end. My vegetables are all ripe. Today I have picked loads of red tomatoes so I must have a cooking spell tomorrow. I am down to the last 2 big courgettes, the rest are behaving now and ripening more slowly. My peppers are progressing slowly, if the weather stays warm i should have plenty for weeks yet.

My raspberries seem to be both summer fruiting and autumn fruiting, 2 of each. The summer fruiters haven't fruited this year but the autumn fruiters seem about to fruit for the second time.

I have cleared 2 thirds of the top patch, I've been working at it every morning but am going to have a little break now. I need to wait until I can burn some of the rubbish I have collected and that wont be untill well into autumn, forest fires are still a bother! The potatoes I planted up there have done OK but they have been nobbled by something. I'll have enough to last into October I think, then hopefully my neighbours will have harvested theirs and let me have some again. The 2 strawberry plants that survived my trip to England are now in the ground and have survived the move, I have another couple that have germinated so with a bit of luck they will be big enough to plant out by the end of the month, I hope so as I will be away again! I shouldn't keep travelling!

The top 'huerta' with the cleared ground and my potato plants at the end!

My first year has gone quite well, I'm pleased with my success, there are a few things I will do differently next year. I also have to give these 2 pear trees a good prune but all in all it has been a good and fruitful year!

orchids

Amongst all the beautiful wild flowers here I have seen several orchids. I'm not at all able to put names to them. This pale yellow one was the first it was flowering beneath the Chestnut trees in April and there were quite a few about.






In June there are at least three varieties, a pale purple that looks like a Heath Spotted Orchid (Dactylorhiza maculata) it was certainly growing on what is now a heath, though it used to be a football pitch! The flowers are pale, with a darker lined pattern on them, the leaves are spotted. Most of the other vegetation is gorse and some heather.
There only seem to be three specimens of this, assuming they are all the same, which I think they are, but they may not be as there are also 2 white orchids as well, growing fairly close, though not together.

There are also plenty of examples of the Bird's-nest Orchid (Neottia nidis-avis), at least that's what I think it is. It is brown and has no leaves and is growing on the edge of old woodland. there are several clumps.


These are just examples that I have seen close to paths.

Saturday, 12th June

We have had a week of very heavy rain, today is marginally better, not brilliant but not actually raining. I went for a walk this morning to see how the rain had affected some of the flowers as some of the fields that have not been mown have been flattened. To my surprise the white orchid has totally disappeared, no seeds, no stem and no leaves, if I hadn't taken a photo I would have started to doubt myself. Likewise a Campanula has disappeared as well. There are lots of flowers and things around so I doubt that the deer and wild boar have suddenly taken a fancy to two rare flowers but something has happened.

end of spring

Spring is nearly over here now. The spring flowers are being over grown by loads of different types of grasses. I went out to the rubbish yesterday and saw a beautiful orange poppy, this morning I discovered that someone had spent yesterday afternoon strimming the verge! I remember going to a lecture at Durham University, when I was in 6th Form, years ago. David Bellamy, talked about conservation and not cutting verges and hedgerows. I'm afraid some of what he said went over my head, I thought some of the verges looked better mown!! However, cutting down a beautiful poppy, for no reason, seems like vandalism, especially as it is the only one I have seen and I have walked plenty in the countryside around here. It is also time now for mowing the hay, this I have no problem with, I understand that farmers need to tend their livestock during the winter.

The only new plants I have seen today are foxgloves and something I do not recognise.

Obviously this is a foxglove.

I have no idea what this plant is, I think maybe it is not in full flower yet.

This is it in 'full flower' I'm still not overwhelmed.

This is the end of the spring meadows, shortly they will all be mown!

My future walks will be used to search for seeds rather than looking for new plants, I just hope I manage to find seeds before someone chops down the plants!

On my way home I picked up a very bedraggled looking, almost dead poppy and put it in water, to my surprise it revived. I think it's a Californian Poppy so it's probably used to draughts! Probably therefore not a real wild flower but an escapee from somewhere, but it's now sitting outside my front door and I hope it will produce some seed.

More Spring flowers!

This week there has been a burgeoning of new varieties of wild flowers, some are easy to identify and others are more obscure. Here are some of those I have tried to photo.

This yellow lupin

and a white vetch,

this one looks like some kind of Dead nettle, I wonder if it is Yellow Rattle or Yellow archangel?

I think this is Moss Campion or Silene acaulis but I may be totally wrong!

Spanish Lavender or Lavandula stoechis

Common Mallow or Malva sylvestris

A Rock rose again, this one is Helianthemum nummularium

White dead nettle or Lamium album

Columbine - Aquilegia vulgaris

Probably Tormentil or Potentilla erecta

wild flowers 4

Last week was too wet and miserable to wonder about looking at flowers so this is week 4.

This isn't exactly a flower it's a very baby chestnut tree.

This is the large variety, it's growing out of a rock! Makes you wonder how much soil a plant needs!

These next three photos show the Asphodel and the Retama as they are now, both blooming.

The majority colour does seem to be white as we can see below, this again is the Helianthemum and the Stellaria.

In fact there are still lots of flowers that give colour, the Green Alkanet and the Buttercup being but two. Most of the new flowers at the moment appear to belong to the Geranium family. I can find names for some of them but not for all.

This is probably Herb Robert or Geranium robertianum

This looks like the Cut-leaved Cranesbill or Geranium dissectum

This is probably Dovesfoot or Geranium molle

There are at least 2 other plants with similar little pinkish flowers but the leaves seem very different. With so much undergrowth it is difficult to get photos that show the distinguishing features.

There are also Vetch around, these seem to be just starting.

Common vetch or Vicia sativa

Bush Vetch or Vicia sepium

The Bluebells are just starting, one does wonder if these are Spanish Bluebells or not.

There are also Wild Pansy and Wild Lupin, nedless to say the one below is the Wild Pansy.

and this one is the lupin.

Bladder Campion or Silene vulgaris