November

I have not been able to sit at the computer this month as it has been too cold. We have had several nights below zero with heavy frosts. I am really glad to say that at the end of the month the wood burning stove was installed and as it is our only source of heat it has made a huge difference to our life. To have somewhere warm where you don't have to wear coats to eat is great. The wood we had delivered is coppiced oak, which exists between the pine plantations. The delivery tractor dumped it in the patio and we had a half day to shift it under cover before the rains came. The stove has been built away from the wall as recommended by Andres our local builder. This is typical in Galicia allowing more heat to pass into the building rather than straight up the chimmney and people to sit around the table it is built into. The chimmney passes under the seats at the back of the table and up through the house providing some extra heat.

I have been going through the process of getting the finca registered as an ecological finca. I discovered that my land was not registered as a separate parcel so I had to visit the land registry representative at the town hall. TO my horror he told me it must have been divided ilegally. After a sleepless night I then visited another representive the next day as suggested by the mayoress. He told me it must be a mistake as there is an old wall on the property that is at least a 100 years old. I then had to go and clear the old wall of many years of vegetation and take some photographs. I also had to measure the land and mark it on a map. I have to take all this evidence back to the land registry to prove that it is divided and has been for some time.

I have also had to register my bee hives with the agricultural department. Filled in the forms after finding the hidden office and payed my fees. The veterinary inspectors came out to inspect my two beehives and hummed because they were not 100 metres away from the deserted properites in the village. I did point out that in London they have hives on the roofs of buildings but they tutted and told me this was illegal. They departed passing several un registered neighbouring hives on the way. Two weeks later I recieved a call to go and collect my book for my bees. The vet explained to me that as it was not 100 metres from the other property I would have to construct a barrier at least 2 metres tall around the hives so the bees fly up and over. I didn't point out that they would just fly down again after passing the barrier. Surely this is EU bureaucracy gone mad?