Permaculture Course at Tanquian

This was great timing as my mum was here so my little girl had someone to look after her while I could go along to this finca and meet some Permaculture people. The finca is run and owned by Paul (an English man) and his wife Emily ( a German). Antonio from Permacultura Galicia had invited me along to meet everyone. They were running Module 1 of the course all about People Care. It was very in depth and at times I felt a little out of my depth especially as I was tuning into Spanish again! Lot´s of books to recommend but I´ve left my notes at home so I will add to this blog later. Paul and Emily are also WOOF hosts so if any of you fancy a visit they are a mind of information.

The loo with a view!

Hens and pond - I´ve got to go back to collect my first hen and cockeral in a few weeks.

This fencing gave me a great idea as I need to enclose some land and this is an economical way of doing it with the bits of wood I have all over the barn.

They have tried to run the place as a community and different people have come and gone

This is one of the houses that has been built in their woodland using available materials.

Solar energy is used to supply the cabins. Fires are a hazzard so the ground is cleared and used as compost or mulch.

This cabin was made up of part of a caravan.

Hemlock grows all over the place.

Inside one of the cabins and the grey water system.

Working on the Permaculture tree.

Friday 30 March

Where does the time go?????????? I don´t have access to the Internet unless I come into Sober and use the one at the Library which is painfully slow but does mean I meet people and the librarian, Julia, is lovely. Don´t want to overload you all with too much but here goes. The journey was smooth as was the sea crossing thank goodness. Alas when I arrived my collapsed wall that my neighbours had told me about was a bit more collapsed than I expected.

I totally agree with what Aranya told me in an email in that I can now open up the room with a large window and doorway to let the light in to what would have been a very dark area and the doorway could lead out into a brilliant zone 1 growing area - I´m getting good at this positive thinking! By accident I´ve been introduced to different people who say they will start working on repairing the wall before the roof collapses completely but I guess they are working on a different time scale as they still haven´t appeared and it´s been raining heavily. The nights have been cold but it´s great hearing the owls.

Neighbours have been wonderful - feeding us and visiting us to make sure we´re doing ok. There are three elderly ladies in the next village who walk up nearly everyday to check in on us. Two English neighbours came over to help weild the chain saw which I´m too scared to touch but fire wood is needed. Hillary and John live in a village up the hill and also helped clear the corner by the old pear tree which is spurting into

growth again. I´ve measured up for the design but as usual I had to get going as time is moving on and I needed somewhere to put in the plants. I chose a manageable area on the corner of the house and have also started some beds at the back. Pepe who has his finca next to us told me not to touch the grape vines at the back of the house as he and another neighbour Tomas will come and prune them for me. I did suggest they could show me how to do it but this time they said I could just watch them - grape vines are precious things here.

Here I skimmed off the top surface of grass and put down a mulch of cardboard and bracken which they use a lot of here. I´ve used old wood to build up raised beds but it´s not exactly been a low energy input yet!

One dilemma I have is that there is lovely walnut tree in the garden which Megan´s swing sits in and which gives us great shade. However I have been told they can grow up to 45 metres and that the leaves give off a chemical to inhibit other plants to grow near it which isn´t going to help my vegetables so to cut it down or not ?????? I have also read that it takes at least 10 years for them to fruit and we have had some good walnuts off it. I have set my seeds on the ledge in the galeria but to be honest it has been very cold so it will be a while before they get going.

I made some nettle soup and with each mouthful I was amazed not to have stung my mouth and even more suprised as to how tasty it was. I will go a gathering more nettles soon. It is the wine festival in Sober this weekend which I´m sure will be loud and colourful. Must rush on to talk about the Permaculture course as there is a time limit for access on the computer.

Friday 9 March

We are due to set sail on Wednesday. The dogs' passports are ready - they are Spanish citzens already having brought them in to the EEC from Ecuador where I lived for several years. They spent six months in Spain before being allowed into the UK. When we arrived at Madrid airport I found them going around the luggage belt in their travelling boxes. Nobody asked to see their papers and we wheeled them straight through. After spending 6 months in Spain (a stipulation by the UK authorities despite all their paperwork), we brought them via ferry from Santander to Plymouth only to find that we were waved straight through and no papers were checked.

I have been sorting through my boxes that have been up in my parents' attic. While up there I came across my mum's quilts and have taken photographs of these and put them on my website www.activeenglish.co.uk . She's very talented but alas I did not inherit an ounce of her creativity.