A new Door

A trip to install a new patio door, and have a little fun while there. 

The water at Plymouth looked very inviting as the Pont Aven started chugging.

 They have installed some of those Star Trek style transporters...beam me up Scotty

 Rowan still enjoys the play area as a good hangout space

 Not sure whose idea this was...any thoughts on that one Luke? 

 Monkey see, Monkey do.

Mmmmm chocolate heaven.

Mmmmm driving heaven...where are all the cars? 

 Vilarrube looked wonderful, we had time for a few fleeting visits but not long enough by far.

 Rowan getting a lift in the surf.

Ah the door, Luke soon worked out a good way to remove the old bits.

My special safety angle grinder with safety guard, glasses, gloves etc.

When not working Luke spent a fair bit of time walking on air

 and Callum did fairly well at it as well

 then it was upside down time for a while

yup that's the way to do it

 Cal having a lie down on a very pretty blanket

 They both did a lot of smiling

 Three upside down boys

 I did not manage to go kayaking but Luke and Kate had a paddle about on the lake one evening.

  Dip, Dip and Swing a very happy Kate and a rather relaxed Luke

Sam popped round and helped keep up the momentum just as we were flagging and ready to go play.

 Good work Lorena.

Lovely full moon over the church

 Another Vilarrube visit

Poser

Some jumping squirting tricks 

Toadflax looking lovely as always

Gone fishing

Back at the ranch and back on the job, the frame was a tight fit - drat 2mm too tight in one corner.

 A bit of quantitative easing and all was well.

 This is the view out of the new door although no one remembered to take a photo of the finished job.

 T table

Then there was the drilling. Drill 4 holes in each side of the frame it said...easy peasy...

 ...well if you have about an hour to spare per hole and plenty of drill bits, a steel drill would last about 4 mins, the instructions said to use a masonary drill- weird but we did and they lasted a bit longer

Snoring is not the same as drilling Luke

 Once the frame was in we dared check under the tarp to see if the glazed panels were intact after almost 700 miles on the road and 20 hours at sea...big Pheeeeeew!

Easter egg hunt time

 Wooohoooo chocolate eggs in the hen shed who would have guessed to look there?

Counting Eggs

The start of some food

 Its not quite summer yet but warm enough to have a little outdoor party in the evening

 and a good excuse for a fire hrrrm barbecue

A few rustles in the woods and we were off looking for wildlife - thats where there was nothing to be seen.

 Luke and Kate had a day out in La Coruna it is well worth a trip only a 1 hour drive from the house..Tower of Hercules lighthouse

 A big anchor

Strange things in the Aquarium centre

Down in the Nautilus

Lovely healthy seals in the seal bit

and Thrift in the flowery bit

 Overview of the seal bit, there is an opening to the sea so they have a tidal experience and fish / octopus etc can pop in.

Mr Plumpy outside of the museum of humanities

 Luke exploring a scar with the microscope thing - it really is a good museum with plenty of interactive stuff.

 Some architecture in the ciudad vieja

 Lovely stone work

 and some stunning roofs

 I love the mist in the early morning it changes so so slowly if you watch it but if you look away and back it does a sneaky all change.

A few mins later and the light is growing

  and eventually all becomes technicolor, this is the view from the new window but no pics of the new window.

Preparing for Summer

it is not easy looking after a house from a distance. We need to replace the back door, it does slam in the wind if the front door is opened and is currently slammed permanently shut after our last set of rental visitors departed. The obvious solution is to put in a sliding door but there is a narrow door space and a chunk of wall + a radiator to remove first. We want to go from something like this

to something like this - looks simple enough

Then there is the problem of do we buy a good surplus stock patio door fairly cheaply in the UK and take it with us and fit it ourselves, or do we get one made and fitted by someone local in Galicia. It is a long journey to transport a large thing with a lot of glass in it, trailers jump and jiggle over the bumpy bits of road and glass breaks all too easily. Getting things done on time is not usual in Galicia, I don't know anyone who has achieved that as far as any building work goes and I don't want our first guests to arrive to find a jammed shut door or a gaping hole where a back door should be. We need to make a decision soon.

October break

I have been in galicia for a week now, at first it was very strange, I felt like I had come home again from a holiday but I got the hang of being here soon enough. We have done a lot of cleaning and tidying of the grounds and the house despite the weather but I have not taken any photos of that. We took a look at Pantin one day, we parked in the top floor of the car park. As always if you click on the images a couple of times they get bigger.

The boys did boy stuff

We made some cool pumpkin lanterns but didn't have any candles and missed the pumpkin festival.

 And we paddled down at Vilarrube but left the cameras in the car ofter getting a shot of Kate setting out.

 A couple of hours at Ortigueira timed well with some hot sun. I really miss these walks to the beach.

 Autumn crocuses are a pink haze on many dune edges

 A little green one, there were a fair few but most were scaredy cats

Lovely arching trees by the lagoon

 Aw

 We did see three people on the beach over 2 hours but these were not them, this is Chris and Luke kiting in nearly enough wind.

 Chris playing dodge kite

Such a lovely resource and so underused. 

Luke made a car

 and I made a swirly thing that was a lot bigger than this bit

 That is a fair bit of compost to get out of one strawberry bed

 The football pitch is flat again but the woods and the field will have to wait until Spring.

 I Idon't recall the lake ever being this low

 Yesterday we went to Pantin again the waves were wonderful and the boys got wet, first Chris

 Then Luke

 Back on the beach there was loads of space waiting to be drawn on but the sun was getting low

 so we headed up to the cliffs North of Baleo and the view was well worth the shuggly drive

 It is hard to convey the scale - they are big waves

 It looked Wintery but felt summery

 Then it looked African

 Back in the garden its time for these fellas again

 and strawberries, very tasty but not many cropping prob because they were so overgrown

Neil brought his dogs round and they made themselves at home

So far a good productive break and so much to do tomorrow