While we were offline

Lots has happened; my Daughter Kate and her boyfriend Luke visited for the week leading up to Christmas, excellent timing as the rain stopped and the sun came out for the whole of the time they were here. We had some fine frosty starts although the car thermometer was reading +3C before dawn, the Arum lilies survived fine unlike in Cornwall where ours melted at the slightest sign of frost, we think maybe the mist floating through caused it rather than a hard ground frost. As you can see I have been doing more logging too.
By lunchtime most days it was feeling like early summer in the UK and we visited a fair few beaches despite most of us being ill most of the time.

Action men at Cedeira


Resting at Ortigueira
Low tide on Ortigueira estury


Kate and Luke at Pantin

We met Mark, an English friend, on the beach at Pantin, he spotted us from the sea and popped over to see us..here is a pic of him paddling out in the rip.
Rowan learned a new trick on the trampoline eek unfortunately he managed to handstand off the edge a couple of days later but was unhurt. Kate and Luke trying to chill in the sun.
The Fragas were looking good ..the river was flowing well, Luke tried to fall in
And this old mill by the Monesteiro de Caveiro is a place I would like to spend some more time although it was a bit scary with two adventure boys rampaging around. Jen and Rowan are on the bridge that has an alarmingly unprotected long drop to the river.

Christmas was fun...

I stood on a rusty nail while gathering wood for the Christmas fire wearing slippers... so was hobbling for a few days.

Wildmite/Prince Rollo is now very friendly although still runs a mile when I am around.
Christmas over and our colds thrown off we immediately all got ill again, Jen lost her voice and Rowan was very feverish but we are all recovering now and looking forward to more visitors on the 2nd Jan.
Oh and its my 50th birthday today - feliz cumpleanos to me - how time flies when you are having fun.

bonfires mist and the gatito

Every evening Rowan asks if we can have a bonfire, I try not to have too many but we did have a lot of cleaning out to do as underneath the woodpile was an accumulation of all sorts of horrible organic rubbish that I did not fancy composting so it went up in smoke. It is hard to balance caring for the environment against boys doing the kind of things boys need to do.


We had another lovely misty start and it is now looking to be a hot day with clear blue skies again.

Our gatito of many names is getting more and more friendly, we are so glad Geraldine managed to trap her and bring it over here, the next stage of the plan is to entice her into the house and stop her using the hay / sawdust downstairs as her toilet.

Mising the mist and other musings.

The rain cleared overnight and we had a lovely misty start this morning, that usually means a hot day ahead and it turned out that way. We seem to just be perched above the mist, it often covers the houses below us but rarely touches us. Sometimes it looks like a Japanese painting with layers of trees in hundreds of shades of grey. We ended up on Vilarrube beach again and decided it felt as warm as a good May or June day in Cornwall. We gathered some figs and a couple of lemons from the trees on the way down to the beach, there used to be a whole village down there but I think it was removed as it had been built without planning permission however the garden trees still remain. The boys stripped off and went swimming, we found a huge kind of periwinkle thing about 25 cms long, I thought it was just a shell but it turned out to be inhabited. We gathered a load of shells and other beach bits and bobs for the museum the boys want to build in the attic.
Callum has discovered the cupboard in the guest bedroom and calls it his office.

Rowan found a picture of his sister Poppy when she was a toddler and thought she looked cute and gorgeous, Jenny says she still does :-) ...Hiya Poppy.
We are getting on really well with two new friends we met at Stanley's birthday at Rioforcadas - Liz and Graham, the boys have really taken to them and decided Graham is golden Graham. They have a lovely fairytale house near Samozas about 15 mins from us, I hope to put some photos of their house and garden on here soon. Bill and Jackie two other friends we met at Stanley's party are coming round tommorow and I also hope to get some photos of their house on too. It is a small world really; Graham was brought up just over the other side of the river Tyne from where I spent my early years, he and Liz were living in Cornwall, not so far from where we were, for many years before they moved out here. Jackie spends a fair bit of time in Chelmsford where the University I work for is. I hear rumour that there is a couple from Porthleven now living near Pantin about ten mins from here too. Ruan, Stanley's dad went to Sennen school when I was doing my teacher training there and I knew his mum well too. Geraldine, Stanley's mum's mum was familiar as well I am sure we met in Cornwall too.

If anyone out there is short of eggs we have a fridge full of them now please come and have an eggfest... five hens = 4 eggs a day= too many for a family like ours and one of the hens has not started laying yet. Wildmite/Ronnie is thriving but still keeps a little distance off, I don't think he will ever be a house cat. It is time to go and watch Arthur and the Invisibles in bed with the boys, my daughter Kate and her boyfriend Luke sent it and Goblet of Fire over and they arrived today along with some lovely late birthday cards...you have really got some design sense Luke get enrolled on that degree matey.
Night night.

misty morning and vilarrube again

We had a lovely misty morning start a few days ago and a visit to Praia Vilarrube later in the day.


there are a great network of warm pools left as the tide drops.


This is how clean the water is.


This is how busy the beach is 28 C and no one about.

the snowbird is now allowed into the hen house by the other hens; it has taken some time they still chase her sometimes and she has to roost on a seperate perch but that is a big improvement on being left out all night. Wildthing the little black kitten is out and about feeding well enough but not making contact yet.