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. 

Easter 2013 again again

Cedeira is a pleasant 10 minute drive away and has a sweet shop that sells wonderful pick and mix so we headed off for a treat only to find we were too early by 30 mins so we had a wander around. This is the frontage where the river meets the sea.

A view up river if you time the tide right there is some lovely scenery to paddle a kayak through just up from the town although it is not a long paddle but is a nice little excursion to accompany a paddle round the ria.

Cedeira has s lovely beach, very sheltered and safe and generally fairly warm water.

A trip a few days later to Pantin was lovely, we parked under the pines a few mins walk from the little cove, this is the view as you approach the beach - despite being 24C and 3 pm there were very few people around.

Little Pantin is a sheltered cove from which you can see the surfers over on the bigger beach and still find tranquil water for snorkeling or just messing about in the water.

That little dry patch of sand is the place to be when there are spring tides.

Hard to believe that just round the corner there are 3-4 meter waves.

Jenny and Callum dug holes ...

While Rowan built sandcastles by dripping wet sand.

then found his favourite crumbly rock climbing corner.

Callum and Lorena enjoying a windy swim.

Two bigger boys heading out for some cliff jumping and two smaller boys wishing they could join in.

 They are great cliffs for children to jump off easy to climb on and many places to leap from.

I moved the car round closer to the far end of the cove and met a chap running down the cliff track who had a puncture but no jack.  That was a great excuse to go be a good Samaritan and see if this car could make it to my favourite car park.

which it did with remarkable ease.

That is as close as you can get to the end of the peninsula, I would love to pitch a tent there on a less windy day.

Masses of tiny crocuses and...

Squill scenting the air and...

these little blue ones that I can never remember the name of.

There are loads of tracks like this along the coast and in the mountains, being used to exploring in a Mitsi with proper 4X4 transmission and BF mud terrain tyres I was surprised at how well the Volvo performed although the general grabbers are part off road part on road rated and picked up a few cuts. 

We did not take photos of all the work that went on during the trip - most of the time we were stimming, cutting, clearing, painting re[pairing etc etc. compared with what it was like when we arrived the garden is starting to appear from the undergrowth.

The nearby trees were cut last summer and the garden gets a lot more light in the evening now, it had just hit shadow as the sunset at 9pm - this is April and it is lovely having such long light evenings.

Front garden

I rarely show the front of the house, the drive has recently been cleared reformed and reseeded so is looking a bit bare but there are a lot of flowers and bushes trying hard to grow, there are bananas and orchids, marigolds, hollyhocks, nasturtiums, pansies, nicotiana, lilac, yuccas, jasmin raspberries, hebes, roses laurels, brugmanisias, azeleas and a cycad that is about to put out a set of new leaves, it will soon change. The echium has made it to a bit over 4 meters I think, possible more although it will not grow much higher going on past experience.

 The old shop next door has been painted and the free soil and rocks I got turned into a little wall and flower bed.

 Flowers.

June evening

I am sitting in the garden watching the evening turn to night, feint radio 4 via internet provides a back drop to crickets and night birds, I guess it still defines me as an Englishman abroad. The frogs down at the lake are still talking and there are half a dozen different kind in the fields nearer the house. Its 11 pm and about 18C just warm enough to sit out. The air is filled with the scent of nicotina and the first gardenia flowers, bats flitter about under half a moon and the church bell wakes a few distant dogs.

I have had some American people visiting to help clear the land, soil has been shoveled walls knocked down, rubble carried and a new drive almost completed as well as a good bit of strimming 

 and forest clearing.

.

I took them to cliffs and beaches on the way back to their house.

They Went to Vilarrube

and did good swimming out to a sandbank

then did swimming away with the current on purpose

and played American football and did singing and other American things, it was a good time right out of a novel, one I might have been in in the 1970s but wasn't.

I have painted and painted and still there is more painting to do but the outside of the house and the butchers shop look a lot better, photos tomorrow I hope. Most of the inside rooms have been done as well.

Jenny, the boys, Shirley and Derek visited for a week and did lots of cleaning and sorting things and we managed to find time for a few beach adventures including some good pirate kayaking with sandy islands and a whirlpool,  I didn't take enough photos though. Valdovino sand dunes below, one false step and you come right back down.

That is where we were sitting eating and drinking

And below is where else we were sitting, the lawn looks a bit bare but the recent rain has started a lot of grass seed growing so it will green up in a week or two. Where those stakes are next to the brown plant pot is a line of oleander of different colours that will be a hedge and windbreak one day, they are settling in well. Behind the bench seats are 4 flourishing varieties of ginger that will fill the area with scent later in the Summer. Two Brugmansia or Angels Trumpets should be flowering soon, a hairy Japanese fan palm is settling in well and a gardenia is beginning to enjoy its outdoor life. Daphne, rosmary, roses and all sorts of bushes are growing really well. Its kind of like doing part of a painting then sitting back and watching it evolve on its own but it takes years and changes through each year. It also looks a lot better in real life than in the photo.

 Lots of things are changing as spring fades away my last days of properly living here are nearly over, the house will be occupied on a holiday rental basis via http://www.rentalia.com/125628 With the new shower room and other work done on the house along with the work we have done in the garden staring to have an impact the whole property feels like it has become a new place as well.

 I will be leaving on a jet plane pretty soon although I will be back again on and off so the blog will be more intermittent in future. As I sit here uploading photos a cricket starts by my feet and an owl swoops silently landing in the walnut tree briefly then a soundless glide down across the garden a shadow in the moonlight...time for a sip of Hierbas liqor.

Blooms and beasties

10 mins spent tracking butterflies lead to one photo and one little video but I did figure out how to use the macro zoom at last.

I am not sure if this is a couple preparing to get friendly or a fight between males, there are loads of small versions of this butterfly around I thought they would be the females.

Dragonflies look pretty from a distance...

...but pretty mean from closer in - what a grumpy guts of a face.

This euphorbia flowers all summer long shame they are so tiny though.

 Aloe Vera is making banana shaped flowers now

 and the other aloe is nearly open with a very different form.

Callistemon is flowering for the second time this year.

 Gazenias are flourishing after yesterday's rain

This minibeast is rather bright I guess not too fearful of being eaten, it did not seem interested in me either thank goodness.

 This cricket popped out, made a noise then popped back under the bark.

These crickets are pretty noisy and have a weird pattern on their wings you should be able to see it if you zoom in. They dig little tunnels and sit in the entrance chirring away, they also will move into abandoned plant pots, watering cans or anything else likely to raise their noise above the others. 

 More than enough berries for jam today we picked 5kg two days ago and there is at least that much ripe again already. 

Most of the holly trees have new berries on them way earlier than in the UK. There was a red berry on one but I knocked it off by accident.

This one is a little bit behind with its last flower still open.

 Purple toadflax is popping up all over our little forest now.

Cherries progressing well for their first season, the birds and I are keeping an eye on them.