Easter 2013 again

The remains of the tree house had to be removed as wood does not last for ever and goes too soft and squidgy to be safe. The boys took their responsibility very seriously, They also cleared loads of gorse and brambles.

Hard work deserves reward so a trip to Valdovino beach happened later in the day, it was warm, windy  and wonderful. The far end of the beach has good walkway access and is often the quieter end in mid summer.

Wonderful wild flowers I should have taken more photos but I was getting left behind.

Some nice surf that was occasionally overhead and barrelling but a really changeable line up meant most of the best waves were missed. The smaller ones were still well formed and fast though it was a tricky take off in the off shore gusts.

Nice playful size.

Even the inside break was lovely and clean.

Valdovino town only three people on the whole beach that we could see.

Next day round ad forcados Sam was making giant bubble mix, he didn't have all the proper ingredients substituting cornflour for starch seemed to work though. The Piedra de Moeche sink is ancient and was polished up a few years back, weird sinks about two - 3 inches deep and often mounted only a couple of feet off the floor. 

The bubble mix working

Jewel one of our old cats has settled in very nicely.

 Sam really has perfected the art of tortilla, I learned a few secrets so will be trying to improve mine when we get back to Cornwall.

Talking of Cornwall here is a Galician clapper bridge just like the ones we were walking over near Bodmin a few weeks ago.

Trampoline fun.

Even at the full length of the pump line water rockets can be peligroso.

Fortunately it hit Rowan sideways and rolled over his head before heading for the sky.

Milo got a soaking from this one.

Lorena got a soaking off the next one. 

jaunt up a Hill near Meiras, Valdovino

Near Meiras a few km SW of Valdovino is the big hill that we have been looking at for 18 months but never managed to get up until today, we tried once but ended up on the next one along. The temperature rose to 17 C in early afternoon and with blue skies and no wind we had to get out of the house for a few hours.
The track gets a bit jiggly in places and goes on and on up and up...

... but the view is worth it; that is Valdovino in the distance
Then there are the tunnels woooooo wooooo dark and gloomy but once you get in these ones are clean, dry and quite pleasant, even fairly warm if a bit rubbly in places.
in the tunnels are rooms with no view...
...and rooms with a view
and some seemingly with nautical overtones although I think it might be a blast barrier.
Then fairly suddenly it was time for the sun to set over the hills near Covas then...
...we all went home after a nice few hours distraction on a busy day and with thoughts of a future kayak trip from Valdovino to Covas to keep us company. Its one of those fiddly bits of coast Slartibartfast must have a had a hand in the design, its ideal for kayaking on the right day; a total nightmare on the wrong day....roll on Primavera and a touch of scorchio and tranquilo.

Flying and a piggywiggy

Returning from the UK recently we caught a glimpse of Valdovino from the air, that is the main beach on the far right and that is the lagoon that you can't quite see bottom middle...I will try harder next time.

 

The nights are colder now, aubergines and peppers are on the compost heap after a well fought season,  there is still warmth in the sun when it shines and the citrus are setting some good new fruit, young and mature leeks are doing well and the first onion sets are in the ground. Brassicas are a sad mess succumbing or suffering grave damage from a multi-species caterpillar invasion however carrots, lettuce, beetroot etc are still growing well.

We had a visitor in the field adjacent to our house, vigorous shaking of sticks and shouting sent him back to the woods... must finish our perimeter fence soon.

Misty mornings

We have been living in Valdovino province for just over a year now, we have found that misty mornings usually mean a hot day ahead, we have had a couple of days of much needed rain but this morning there is a lovely misty dawn; in the pic above you should just about be able to see our local church peeping through the mist and below the last of our sunflowers are now bearing seeds for the local finches to breakfast on while the mist slowly slips through the valley below us.

Lat night the landscape was reminiscent of Chinese paintings of misty mountains, I can almost like the eucalyptus trees in the mist they really come into their own.

Some things grow well here especially the weeds - these sunflowers were dwarf ones that should have topped out at 1.2 meters according to the packet - either I have shrunk to Cornish Piskey size or something was not quite right with their test plants...perhaps they used an elastic tape measure. Tomatoes do not seem to do very well we had a lot of plants and most were blighted during the late Spring some are still struggling on but we have no tomatoes yet, no shortage of aubergines, peppers, chilies and squashes though.

This is the view from Valdovino school playground looking out over the lagoon and beach, electricity is still done via overhead cables here so it is hard to see past them in a little photo but if you view it full size the distance is clearer. Beaches here are wonderful and usually very tranquil apart from about 5 weeks late July - August where the bits near parking can be swamped but still many of them are nowhere near as crowded as Sennen used to be when we lived there.