Jose poped over today to see how we are getting on he was working night shift when the storm hit and poor Violetta spent a sleepless night in their house while Alexandre slept soundly through it all. Jose says the wind speed at Carino just a little way North of here was recorded as a little over 220 KPH...in old money that is 138 MPH. We were celebrating the return of electricity and two minutes later it cut off again ah well - we don't have real electricity; there is a big generator down the road and occasionally it needs men in boiler suits to give it some attention.
More wind expected tonight and lots of weakened trees just waiting to fall.
bueno viaje
Friday 30 January 2009
Thursday 29 January 2009
more pics
We headed over to Samozas to see Graham and Liz on her birthday and the usual turn off 20 mins inland from here was rather blocked...ther is a road turning off the the right under those trees and I think there were hundreds of them on the first few hundred meters of the road. The bus shelter seems to have survived although we have seen a fair few just blown to bits by the wind.
The road to Valdovino was quite an adventure I had to drive under a lot of fallen trees on Monday morning but had no camera - they were all sawn off by the time we managed to take pics.
The boys treat it all as a great adventure and enjoyed stacking the timber and playing on the larger rings.
Handy having a go anywere vehicle - over 2 cubic meters of heavy wet timber in there and it hauled it out over mud, tree stumps and holes without blinching and saved hours of wheel barrowing. I have a fair bit of axing to do now but we do have enough timber to see us through next Winter.
The road to Valdovino was quite an adventure I had to drive under a lot of fallen trees on Monday morning but had no camera - they were all sawn off by the time we managed to take pics.
The boys treat it all as a great adventure and enjoyed stacking the timber and playing on the larger rings.
Handy having a go anywere vehicle - over 2 cubic meters of heavy wet timber in there and it hauled it out over mud, tree stumps and holes without blinching and saved hours of wheel barrowing. I have a fair bit of axing to do now but we do have enough timber to see us through next Winter.
bit of a blow
We got a phone call late Thursday night telling us the school would be closed on Friday as they were expecting a bit of wind around lunchtime. By the evening it was gusting at around 190 KPH and we could hear the odd tree crashing down. I logged on to post an abstract to the good folks at BERA and the lights dimmed to a glow then all power went and the phone line stopped too. As the water system relies on a pump to draw the water from the well and another pump to circulate it to the taps and another pump to make the heating work we were down to dipping a watering can into the cold tank and collecting water from our downpipes for other purposes. We were rather pleased we had put the wood burner in or we would have had no heating or means of cooking at all. There was no way of getting out of Vilaboa for a couple of days as all of the roads were blocked. Unfortunately the camera was low on battery and we had no spares. When we got to the shops there were no batteries to be found either so there are only a few pics.
We drove to Ferrol on Sunday and then popped over to see Graham and Liz and found the same story everywhere although the centre of Ferrol did have electric there must be hundreds of thousands of eucalyptus down and many, many fruit trees and pine trees too. Trees you couldn’t wrap your arms round snapped off like matchsticks or torn out of the ground. In places it was reminiscent of the trees around Mt St Helen’s after the eruption in 1980. We had a peep of electric on Wednesday and it seems stable today but the phone has not come to life and the internet came on only for about 20 mins Wed evening. Carlos and Carlos came over and chopped up the trees that had landed on our land so we now have more that enough wood to see us through next winter although most of it is far too fresh and wet to be any use for a few months.
Being in the middle of it all we had no idea how far the storm had reached, it sounds like we got off lightly with only wind damage although there is some flooding locally it is fairly minor although it is much worse along the North Coast. We headed over to Rioforcado to check out a friend’s property and their neighbour Pepe told us it was the worst winter he had ever known…thank goodness for that we were hoping this was not the usual kind of Winter.
Every time I move house a great storm arrives in wherever I move to - to Portsmouth in 1978 in time for the worst snow for many years...back to Tyneside in 81 to face gales and the two coldest winters I have ever known...off to Sennen to face Michael Fish's non Hurricane...to St Just in summer 1990 to then face the great wind of Jan 21 1991 and have our house roof blown off..to galicia for the Grande viento de enero 23. Ah well here are some pics.....
They are quite strong those electric cables
no way out
Two new plants in garden
lots down in the distance here
We drove to Ferrol on Sunday and then popped over to see Graham and Liz and found the same story everywhere although the centre of Ferrol did have electric there must be hundreds of thousands of eucalyptus down and many, many fruit trees and pine trees too. Trees you couldn’t wrap your arms round snapped off like matchsticks or torn out of the ground. In places it was reminiscent of the trees around Mt St Helen’s after the eruption in 1980. We had a peep of electric on Wednesday and it seems stable today but the phone has not come to life and the internet came on only for about 20 mins Wed evening. Carlos and Carlos came over and chopped up the trees that had landed on our land so we now have more that enough wood to see us through next winter although most of it is far too fresh and wet to be any use for a few months.
Being in the middle of it all we had no idea how far the storm had reached, it sounds like we got off lightly with only wind damage although there is some flooding locally it is fairly minor although it is much worse along the North Coast. We headed over to Rioforcado to check out a friend’s property and their neighbour Pepe told us it was the worst winter he had ever known…thank goodness for that we were hoping this was not the usual kind of Winter.
Every time I move house a great storm arrives in wherever I move to - to Portsmouth in 1978 in time for the worst snow for many years...back to Tyneside in 81 to face gales and the two coldest winters I have ever known...off to Sennen to face Michael Fish's non Hurricane...to St Just in summer 1990 to then face the great wind of Jan 21 1991 and have our house roof blown off..to galicia for the Grande viento de enero 23. Ah well here are some pics.....
They are quite strong those electric cables
no way out
Two new plants in garden
lots down in the distance here
Monday 12 January 2009
new school
Boys tried Valdovino school today, not too easy getting them ready on time but we arrived only a few mins late and they walked in with minimal resistance but little enthusiasm. They are both immersing them selves in being characters from Father Ted just now ..ye thanks loads for the DVDs Kate :-) Callum settled into an armchair in the admin office in his best father Jack sitting shape and out came "Drink.....girls .....I want cake.." I stopped him just in time on "Fe..." He was not very loud fortunately....I managed not to giggle too so well done me. I did the regulatory 'moito papeles' (much papers) and tried some good humoured banter in my best meczla accent - I think I speak in a mixed gallego/castillian/fast show kind of language. It must be like listening to a Yorkshire, Geordie, Scot with hints of Cornish, Home counties and Queens best thrown in. Anyway while I was doing that Jenny was cajoling them into the classrooms and then spent the day with them. It wasn't perfect but no one ran away or had tantrums and once they get used the the ammount of pupils we are hopeful they will settle in. There is a cracking view from the school and far more resources and staff that speak English and have some experience of dealing with children from outside Spain...fingers crossed.
Fragas again
We took Shirley and Derek to the dam higher up the Fragas de Eume than we usually go and it was rather spectacular although a bit worrying having to keep a close eye on the boys as there are a lot of up and down bits. 
The scale is hard to comprehend really even being there we were struggling to guestimate how deep the canyon was. We had a quick look round the dam then drove up the road a few mins and set off along a track to a waterfall we had spotted on Google Earth that the boys thought looked a good place to play Merlin games. 
Stay away from the edge Rowan....stay away from the edge Rowan ....Rowan stay away from the edge.....we think about an 800 foot drop below the track.
The sun came out and it was like a summers day despite there being a very frosty start earlier in the day. The waterfall was lovely and would be a great place to refresh on a hot hot day.
There are some lovely views of the lake we hope to do some kayaking there when summer aproaches.
Later we headed off to our mushroom picking spot to see if we could find some snow and Derek ended up in several snowball skirmishes.
We also managed a quick snowman.
We ended up staying out longer than expected and the boys got a tad cold and dozed off in the van on the way home.
The scale is hard to comprehend really even being there we were struggling to guestimate how deep the canyon was. We had a quick look round the dam then drove up the road a few mins and set off along a track to a waterfall we had spotted on Google Earth that the boys thought looked a good place to play Merlin games. 
Stay away from the edge Rowan....stay away from the edge Rowan ....Rowan stay away from the edge.....we think about an 800 foot drop below the track.
The sun came out and it was like a summers day despite there being a very frosty start earlier in the day. The waterfall was lovely and would be a great place to refresh on a hot hot day.
There are some lovely views of the lake we hope to do some kayaking there when summer aproaches.
Later we headed off to our mushroom picking spot to see if we could find some snow and Derek ended up in several snowball skirmishes.
We also managed a quick snowman.
We ended up staying out longer than expected and the boys got a tad cold and dozed off in the van on the way home.
tree fellas
I visited Carlos a few weeks ago asking if we needed permission to close the road while I chopped down a few trees that are right on the edge of the road, no was the answer; great i thought; next year I can take them down with no fuss. Then this weekend Carlos and his friend Carlos arrived with a chainsaw and a glint in their eyes and well give boys a toy and they will play....a few hours later I was struggling to stop them no we don't want the old pear tree chopped thanks..eventually hunger got the better of them and they called a halt after chopping about 20 trees and slicing them into burnable lengths - phew. Admitedly they did a much better job than I would have done, there was no need to close the road as Carlos managed to land the trees perfectly inthe 1.5 meter wide strip between our fence and the road with no damage to the fence. Carlos is the one on the left and Carlos is the one on the right.
Two of them needed a guiding hand on the way down so Carlos helped Carlos and all was well.
They refused to take any money for their time and hard work but I did persuade them to take a few of the logs eventually. Muchas gracias Carlos y Carlos.
Two of them needed a guiding hand on the way down so Carlos helped Carlos and all was well.
They refused to take any money for their time and hard work but I did persuade them to take a few of the logs eventually. Muchas gracias Carlos y Carlos.
Friday 9 January 2009
Christmas song
The boys disappeared into their bedroom with a drum and emerged a few minutes later with three songs unfortunately by the time I got the camera ready I missed the first two but I did manage to catch the last one although Rowan was flagging by then. They are not exactly regular collaborators and if we had tried to get them to do a song I doubt they would have responded. Callum has been getting more interested in drumming and spent 5 mins learning last week but this was a totally unexpected turn of events and something we will foster carefully.
Olympic volunteers
A cohort of our students have just finished their final year and all sorts of stories are emerging about the impact the degree has had on their lives. The students all study totally online so I have never had the chance to meet them, even so in the online community environment we have strong bonds develop and they often stay in touch for many years. Dawn is part of the cohort that are just about to graduate and mailed me recently to say the degree and her final year inquiry were influential in her being selected as one of the first 23 (300 applied) trailblazer volunteers on the London 2012 Olympic organising committee. It really is wonderful to read the impact stories that are emerging and makes me feel proud of the students and of the course we have developed. The Olympic blog is here http://www.london2012.com/blog/2009/01/08/meeting-the-trailblazer-volunteers.php
Tuesday 6 January 2009
Reys Magi
The three kings arrived last night traveling on strangly atired lorries and casting boiled sweets to all and sundry most of which broke into bits when they hit the road.
Three more wise kings arrived at our house this morning each bearing a gift...
Weather has been a bit chilly for Grancy and DD's visit so far although the sun is peeping out occasionally today. Snow predicted inland so we are going to try and head off for a snowman making session before they go back.
Three more wise kings arrived at our house this morning each bearing a gift...
Weather has been a bit chilly for Grancy and DD's visit so far although the sun is peeping out occasionally today. Snow predicted inland so we are going to try and head off for a snowman making session before they go back.
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