Showing posts with label Ferry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ferry. Show all posts

Tuesday, 12 November 2013

November visit

Bit of a grey start at Plymouth and blowing a gale. 

Too windy to get to the edge of the heli-deck

Had a good sleep due to being rocked all night and woke to a lovely dawn, we should have been a few hours off Santander but due to bad weather we were about three hours behind schedule. The sea in this pic looks fairly calm but it wasn't.

Sometimes we could see out of the front window...

…and sometimes we couldn't.

By mid morning the swell was calming down a bit although there was still a big ground swell every now and then.

No more photos for a few days but yesterday there was a wonderful sunset that turned the sky to fire.

I really miss the view from here when I am in the UK.

Our new tenants have done some good clearing in the jungle of brambles and autumn is just starting to turn the chestnut trees.

Composting vegetation getting ready to enriched the earth.

Last year's lemon tree pruning seems to have led to a growth spurt, plenty of small flowers starting I hope we get a good crop in the coming year.

Brugmansia still flowering very well.

This young banana recovered well from being strimmed and a young echium sprouting right inside a fuchsia ah well the fuchsia might survive.

We took some time out on Sunday and headed over to the lake near Cabanas, despite being overcast it was a very warm 19C.

 Not a very wide path a couple of hundred meters of vertical drop and very little protection.

Dunno what the iPhone did to make this shot seem so dark it was bright enough at the time, the white streak is where a waterfall streams down the canyon wall.

Having explored the steps of doom by the dam we jaded for a gentle walk along to the old quarry higher up on the valley side. managed to pick another carrier bag full of chestnuts to bring back.

They are replacing the big discharge pipes that run inside the dam, on the outside at the bottom is a load of shuttered fresh concrete and works that are not complete, the water looks only a few cms from starting to pour over the lip, I guess they know what they are doing.

Mark decided to get a closer look over the edge, I did not. 

Somewhere in amongst that bracken on the left is a herd of wild goats, we smelled a few but did not get close on our side.

That is the top part of the waterfall that cascades down the valley sides.

Autumn is only just starting over here.

Earth star just starting to do its slow motion hydraulic explosion...

…a few minutes later and it is growing...

Another 20 mins and it would have looked like this and stunk of rotten meat.

mmmm tasty boletus.
We had a break on our last day, an hour of kayaking down at club nautico

Not a breath of wind when we set off and comfortably warm with glimpses of sunshine.

it was a stunning paddle, we hardly spoke to each other it was so still we didn't want to break the silence.

We eventually stopped and let the ripples play with the reflections.


From here our house looks like it is very close to the lake.

 At the west end of the lake there was a forest of trees to negotiate, the water level was lower than I have ever seen it.

The invading crayfish are not hard to catch, Mark tried one as a hat ornament.

Galicia is vibrant in the sunshine fields turn emerald green.

We could have spent all day looking at the reflections but we had to head home and get on with clearing the house out and packing a trailer full of furniture to take back to the UK.

24 hours later we were in Santander waiting to board the Pont Aven again.

We left in similar weather to that when we arrived but we saw a fair bit of sunshine and the night temperature was often over 17C so it felt a little like a summer trip.

Sunday, 21 April 2013

Easter again again again and home.

This is the chap who has been shouting at us from the garden at night I think.

Oh dear its the morning rush hour on the road that skirts the garden.

We had to stay a few days longer than expected as Callum was very unwell so I embarked on a major striming marathon, Carlos and Victoria popped round with some other neighbours to wish us well and show us their new dog Scooby, unfortunately Callum was busy being ill and Rowan was off with Sam and Mel for a beach day.

Scooby is lovely he is only 6 months old and will grow huge but he is really friendly and just totally wonderful. 

I did not get time to do any raking but hopefully the wind will have dessicated and blown away most of the strimmings by now.

I am so glad we put that big window in, Carlos is going to sort out a railing (quitamierdas) to go round the steps before summer.

There is plenty of room to park at the front 

One day I would like to put a big glass door across the opening below the extension, there is a huge space in there, we have some windows ready to go in the west wall so the evening sun would shine in there as well. The rooms upstairs will be a self contained flat one day in theory.

Callum got a little better and seemed able to travel, he was OK but tired on the drive but not long after we left port he became very ill - he does not get seasickness and it was only a 2 meter swell anyway. Every time we leave Santander we say we will visit that lovely long beach but we never have time. I am glad we went for a cabin with a window we spent most of the time in the cabin.

Trying to photograph dolphins is not easy there were hundreds of them over about an hour but this is the only vaguely decent photo I managed. If you go by ferry they usually appear about 3 hours off Santander and are well worth looking out for.

Rowan watched the magic show from a distance, he said it was really naff and from what I could see he was right but the poor guy only had 5 very young children in his audience so not a lot to work with.