Con Madres & Con Padres

This is a typical custom of this area. Images are made of different people in the town or family. They are dressed in their clothes which in the past have been pinched off the washing line if the person wasn´t forthcoming to provide them. They are then displayed for all to see and burnt that night. I joined the women in my choir to prepare the effigies of the men. We used turnips and melons for heads and packed the bodies with straw. The following week it is the turn of the conmadres. It is all done in good fun although it was strange to see myself swinging from the tree as part of the choir I had joined. That night I was burnt on the fire while someone played the bagpipes.

Plants in rocks

Pine tree growing out of a rock on the banks of the Sil Canyon. How strange nature is and how resiliant.

Boxing Day

There are some real treasures on the Galican coast and we find one on Boxing Day. It was a glorious day probably thanks to Climate Change. We took a picnic and set off for some Celtic ruins I had read about. The beach when we got there was deserted apart from a few surfers. The ruins were magical and to be by the sea again was wonderful.

These ruins are at Castro Barona.

Christmas 2007

Christmas was a time for foraging in the woods for decorations. There was no holly but plenty of other material such as pine cones and lichen to bring a festive atmosphere to our newly heated kitchen. My daughter enjoyed making the decorations and finding them a place on the tree which was a piece of evergreen broom. Here they tend to give presents of the day of the Three Kings and a special celebration was held at the local nursery where there were three special visitors and lots of hot chocolate to drink.

Not so mobile chicken tractor

What went wrong? I didn't trust my own design abilities. Not having kept hens before I felt others would know best but I should have trusted my instincts after reading up on their needs and kept it simple and moveable. The result is that it is too heavy and very awkward to move to new positions needing at least two people and two long branches to insert under it. The hens seem happy with it though - so they should be after seeing what other hens are kept in. SO far no foxes have broken through and it has kept them safe from the birds of prey that took three of them when they were free range.

December

For those of you who haven't yet seen it there is a small article on Permaculture and my neighbours and myself in the regional paper. You can see this at :-

http://www.elcorreo gallego.es/ index.php? idMenu=2& idNoticia= 241487

It makes it sound a little idealistic when in fact my finances are almost zero - I am job hunting to support myself and my daughter which in a rural area with few employment prospects is a little difficult but we are ever hopeful.

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?