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

A quick visit

Lovely to get back and see friends and places again, the ginger has grown some and many more flower spikes to come, the other 4 varieties we grew from seed look to be settling in well and might flower next year with luck.

Over at Cerdido our cats have settled into their new home well, Sally made herself at home in our van.

 Brugmansia number 1 is flowering wonderfully but the other two still have nothing on them.

 The boys had some great surfing sessions down at Vilarrube

 We drove back via the Picos de Europa and visited the caves at Valporqueo

 Kayaked at about 5000 feet and met some snakes 

and thousands of trout

 

who were less than enthusiastic about the boys snorkelling with them, air temp was around 35C water felt like about 1degree.

Morning in the mountains was very cold just above freezing but rather beautiful

we had a couple of little walks at about 5500 feet

Met acres of wild roses

 and thousands of autumn crocuses but fortunately no bears or wolves - both were seen very close to the camp site a few weeks before we visited.

 We set off for Cherbourg but were diverted into a swim in a mountain lake, a few little lens clouds started to form

 Leylandii in their natural habitat scattered all over the mountains

 I had a new paint job done on the back window...I wish

 Wish we had the time to climb a few like this one

 As we hit the autovia we realise the whole sky was pretty much full of stacked lens clouds, thousands of them but by the time we had found somewhere to stop and photograph them they were dissolving or turning into other types of clouds

23 hours of driving and we made it for a night in Cherbourg and a rocky trip home. 

Can't wait for the next trip.

What I did while working in Galicia

Is the same thing as I do now - it makes no difference where I work from as far as the students experience goes as the course is fully online - actually helps the facilitators empathise with the students as we all work and study from home as well.  Here are two of the students I worked with talking about their experience. We are recruiting for September if you are interested check us out at http://ultraversity.net or find ultraversity on Facebook.