Galicia - Timeless in Our Hearts.

We are in Galicia right now, "resting up" from all the last intense days of preparing for the shippers to come and pack up in Braga and to prepare for the move itself (i.e., clean the flat, say our goodbyes for now, etc.). We came up to the little apartment we rent in Monforte, a charming small town with a castle, no less, and we have been visiting friends here - saying more goodbyes until next spring.

Why next spring? We had really hoped to come back in October, but the tentative date for the shipping to arrive in Oakland is September 28, and then it will take a few more days for it to reach Sacramento, so that wipes out any fall trip. We'll need the time to place furniture, unpack things, find new places for pots and pans and dishes. Whew! I hope this is our last move ever!

Meanwhile, it's lovely to be in Galicia again. Above are pictures showing what a walk by the river looks like at night. And while the heat has been suffocating, in the evening it does cool down enough with a soft breeze that the air is quite pleasant. So we took a walk to the park that edges thte river and then sat on a bench and talked for a while.

We just finished having the perfect week-end, too. Saturday we went back to our beloved village of Trasulfe where we had a house for so many years and grew so fond of our neighbors. Many of them are gone now - one by one, they have passed on. Earlier in the week we had met out previous neighbor Miguel at the Feria in Escairon for pulpo - our first Feria in three years. Here are two picture from earlier days: They drizzle the pulpo bites  with olive oil, give you a loaf of bread already slashed for tearing into bits to dip in the juice and a bottle of red wine. Heaven.

  

Miguel was our immediate neighbor across the lane and used to bring us coke bottles full of his home made wine and sometimes full of aguardiente. The feria was just as remembered in a poem I wrote - so much community! Everyone greeting everyone and catching up on news. And the two daughters (and one of their husbands) of our dear neighbors, Manolo and Eva were there, so we caught up a little with their news, too.

Then Saturday we returned to visit neighbors at the farm down the road - Maria Elena and Antonio. Neighbors from afar, as we used to call each other. (Even though we were in Sacramento, they were still our neighbors.) Maria Elena has health problems now, and walks with a cane but her personality is as sweet as ever. And Antonio is as full of life as ever. It did our hearts good to see them again. 

Here is a picture from a few years ago — when I was still taking pictures of everyone. 

After our visit with them, we went across the road and visited a with other neighbors, Jesus and Milagros —  whom we met again yesterday in Monforte for lunch at a pulpo restaurant. (They have a flat in town where the spend evenings, and then they stay at their original home in Trasulfe during the day. They have quite a large farm and a dog to take care of.)

After we left them, we drove into Tuiriz, planning to go to Escairon for lunch. But we passed the home of Julio and spied him in the yard, so we stopped to visit with him - and his neighbor, Pepe. Before we knew it, we were in the bodega, enjoying a glass of homemade wine, a slice of terrific cheese, and a slice of bread. (So we considered that lunch!) But it was so great to see them all again. What wonderful memories the day brought back - days of walking the dusty roads and taking pictures, stopping to talk with those we encountered. A lovely day altogether.

On another note, here is a link to the trailer for my new mystery, Deadly Verse, set in Braga, Portugal, as was the first book. Just click on the title. This is a promotional video my publisher put together, and I think they did a really good job. Deadly Verse will be released August 4th (the very day we are flying home! Isn't that weird?)   Enjoy. Comments about the video are welcome, and if you are motivated to buy the book when it comes out, reviews are always welcome, as are opportunities to guest post or be interviewed. 😍 Right now, a blog friend has a nice shoutout on her blog, Vicki Lane Mysteries. She is a mystery writer, teaches writing, wrote a terrific historical novel, And the Crows Took Their Eyes, and shares good photos of the countryside where she and her husband live in western North Carolina. Well worth a visit. 

Meanwhile, how about you? Do you have a favorite food that you only have now and then in special settings? Are you nostalgic about places you've lived? Do you keep in touch with neighbors even after you move? 

Back in Beautiful Galicia

I certainly meant to post before now, but soon after arrival and opening the house, etc., I came down with a cold. Here we are arriving in Santiago: True to recent trips, I took pictures of surroundings, etc. but got so engrossed in conversations with friends I forgot to take THEIR pictures. Still, here is a picture of my husband's feet, camera bag, and carry-on, as we left the airport.


Our friends, Terri & David, picked us up, and since they were leaving on a trip of their own the very next day, we all stayed over at a charming casa rural, "Casa de Amancio" not far from the airport, so that we could drop them off and then drive home. "Casa de Amancio" was delightful, reasonably priced, and tucked away down a winding road so that you felt far removed from the heavily trafficked highway to the airport.

See the fresh flowers?
Fresh flowers were everywhere.

There was no fire that night,
but you can see how lovely one
would be in winte

Rajan and I stayed in the room on the left (behind the outdoor table & chair set). For those staying longer, the room is equipped with a tiny kitchenette: microwave, sink, and fridge (where I was able to keep my glaucoma drops that need to be refrigerated.) We showered after our long flight and then met up with Terri & David in the little lounge above.

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Later, we went in into one of the dining rooms (they had three tucked in different areas.) This one was hard to show because of the lights and mirrors, but it was charming. And we had one of the best and most reasonably priced fish dinners we've had in Galicia. The place also offers a nice breakfast. It also seems to be a popular stop-off for peregrinos (pilgrims) walking El Camino, since it is right on the way to the Cathedral, the pilgrimage destination. The speckles you see on the dining room wall are coins people have left.

Then there was the drive home and we were at our beloved village of Trasulfe at last. We love this place. I write poetry to Trasulfe and the surrounding villages and countryside. It all just fills one with such serenity:

Our patio and a glimpse of our
little field across the sheep path. 

A good view of the potatoes our
neighbor Miguel plants each year. 

This is what it looked like when we arrived twelve days ago. We immediately walked over to our neighbors, Eva, Manolo, & Raquel to say hello. Then Eva walked down to our new Dutch neighbors, and then Elías, who frequently comes from Barcelona, came out and joined us. I was too tired to take pictures, but we all had a fine chat.

The time has really flown by: We had already set up dinner dates to have friend over last Friday evening and Sunday afternoon. Before and after, Rajan and I took turns with head colds (nothing serious, but a little vexing when you want to be out and about visiting!) Still, we sit at our window in the galería, gazing out over coffee in the mornings, and that, too, is nice. Meanwhile, Miguel harvested his potatoes (and gave us a huge bag of them). He had spent the week before helping friends and relatives with their harvest, and then last Saturday morning, four men and a woman came with two tractors and an interesting wagon with metal wheels (along with baskets and small and larger buckets) and made short work of it in about two hours. Here is how the same scene looks now:

The little tree on the left is a
volunteer peach tree that, sadly,
hasn't borne any fruit in 13 years.

Sadly, in our area, while the vegetables have done well, the grapes haven't, due to a too-wet spring, mildew, and recent scorching heat. Other fruits are  delayed, if they fruit at all. The fig tree beyond our wall is usually loaded with figs this time of year. This year they are the size and texture of hard, unripe cherries.

In my next post I'd like to take you on a nice river walk we took in Monforte on one of our "revived" days last week. And after that, I'd like to take you on a little tour of Trasulfe itself.For now I'll leave you gazing on our harvested field, imagining all the things one can cook with potatoes.

Which leads me to ask: What is your favorite potato dish, and do you share your recipe?

Back in Beautiful Galicia Again

                   

We are back in the place we love in Spain — for 7 weeks this time. Alas, the first week has passed in not very good health: I came down with a case of shingles a few days before we left. Layered, so that I couldn't spread the virus, and armed with medication, I was fairly comfortable on the long, long flight, and rested up the first few days after arrival.  Luckily, as you can see, this is a peaceful place to rest up and muse upon things.


Shingles is active for a couple of weeks: Small welts blister, then crust over, and once they do, you aren't contagious to others (which is why you cover yourself thoroughly during the time that you are.) They are very painful, and in a peculiar way. The wounds are abrasively painful, but your muscles ache, and you feel a general mess. Think of it as grown up chicken pox, because it's the same virus. If you had chicken pox as a kid, you have the virus in you for life and can get shingles as an adult.

I had expected to feel much better this week-end, so off we set with friends for a day trip to Castromayor, a Celtic settlement dating back to 400 b.c. to 100 a.d.

A "castro" is a Celtic hill-fort typical of Galician culture before the Roman conquest. In this case, Castromayor appear to have been concurrent with a Roman settlement nearby, which we did not see for reasons I'll mention later.

Castromayor is a point just off the main pilgrimage road to Santiago de Compostela. In this picture, you can see some pilgrims ahead of us, walking along the main entrance into these ruins. The stone ruins are basically the foundations of the old settlement, built the way "dry walls" are built — i.e. no stucco or cement to hold the stone in place. And while some areas have fallen to rubble, it's amazing to think of these foundations still existing for 2400-plus years. Have a look:

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More pilgrims here and there.
"The Camino" is something I have wanted to walk for some time.  To get a certificate, you have to walk 100 km minimum. Being realistic, though, I don't think I'm going to be able to do anything more than walk parts of it. Actually, that's fine with me. I was excited to be walking on a small stretch of it Saturday—less than a kilometer. But it was the Camino!



Meanwhile, here is a good layout of the entire settlement. Rajan and I were simply amazed.

After that, we went to an interesting town called Portomarin, with full intention to sight-see some more after lunch  But then the aftermath of my shingles was catching up with me. I was suddenly very tired and hurting all over again the way I hurt when I first broke out in shingles.

I made it through lunch — and a delicious lunch it was, at an Italian lunch that really knows how to make penne pasta and pesto sauce, not to mention dough pizza with herbs. But I digress. We came home early, deciding to keep further sightseeing for another day.

At home, Googling it, I learned there really is something referred to as "shingles aftermath". You feel the pain, though not as keenly, but there are no new sores or blisters. You lack energy and may have sore muscles (like flu symptoms) Apparently you can feel this way for months afterwards. I don't think that's going to be my fate--again because I had the shingles shot, which has made everything less severe than it might have been, from everything I've read.

But I am so glad we went! I felt so good until I felt so bad, and I would have felt horrible to postpone and perhaps miss this trip, as our time here is more limited than last time.

Meanwhile, Trasulfe is a great place to recuperate. It never looks the same way twice: This is what it looked last night before the rain and then this morning after the rain.

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How about you? Have you ever gotten a sudden illness you didn't expect to have? Do you make a good patient? (I try to, and I'm usually a "good sport" for about two days, then I get cranky.) Do you like ancient cities? Does ancient history fascinate you?

Dreamy Days and Ancient Villages

Our house on the corner that leads into
Trasulfe (population 7 year round, about'
6 more in the summer and other holidays.

Even though we are back in our house, now, in Trasulfe, we took four days to go to Braga, Portugal, which I'll be blogging about later. (Meanwhile, I'm posting pictures on my Facebook Timeline at:  https://www.facebook.com/elizabethvaradan )

But being back in Trasulfe and having good weather every day brings home the peacefulness of the entire area. Two days ago we took a walk to a nearby larger village — Tuiriz Santa Eulalia — that actually included several smaller villages. These villages run into each other. Thus, we passed El Carmen, El Bario, and finally Santa Eulalia, before turning left onto a road that led to another group of village — these with more space between them.

This house borders El Bario. We bought
our garage space from the woman who
 lives there and from her sister.

Across from the house pictured below, a woman whose son had shown us a house for sale once reminded us that she knew our neighbors in Trasulfe. She also knows I bake "pan dulce" for Eva and Manolo (my way of thanking them for all the eggs and wine.) But this is one of the things I love about this part of the world. Everyone knows everyone. They have cousins, friends, children, etc. in nearby villages, and news travels in a way that gives that song, "I heard it through the grapevine" real punch. (Or wine, teehee.) We always notice carefully tended flower gardens in some of these small villages.

A side road took us up to Frenzas, then O Docil, then Santalla, then brought us out onto the road that led back to our house. Along the way, the roads curve, you pass scattered meadows and pastures divided by drywalls, and woods where the cuckoos call. Wildflowers abound that I've mentioned before: Queen Anne's Lace, alfalfa, buttercups, wild blackberry brambles that will fruit in the fall, purple foxglove, and some beautiful wildflower below that I can't identify.

Found out! Vipers Bugloss,
or Echisos Vulgare

Wild foxglove

The owner of one of our favorite tapa bars in Monforte grew up in Frenzas, and he also knows our neighbors. One day a couple of years ago he drove us around Frenzas and all these other little villages and told us some of their history. So it was a thrill to go on a walking tour that revisited them all.

And then we were home again, savoring the experience over a glass of wine, looking out our window at more of the Galician scenery. This is what it look like on a sunny day. On most mornings, it's full of twirls of rising mist. Then the mist fades and the trees emerge into the day.

Beautiful Galicia, Otra Vez

It's hard to believe that we arrived in Spain 8 days ago. Time flows by in a different way, even though we bring work with us. The trip is long, we arrive exhausted, but we have rituals along the way. The trip is more than 24 hours (door to door) and spans two days. We leave Saturday morning, have a long stretch in Dallas/FW Airport, where we have battered and fried green beans and a glass of beer at TGIF, waiting for our next flight. We arrive in Madrid around 10:30 a.m. Sunday, and have a lunch of smoked salmon, bread, and wine, then fight sleep while waiting for our connection to Santiago de Composetela. We arrive in Santiago a little after 5:00 p.m. and collect baggage. Our friends, Terri and David,  meet us, drive us back to our house in Trasulfe, where we "turn on the house" (electricity, water, gas-tank connections, etc.), then we all go out to eat at a restaurant in Monforte, called O Pincho, where we split delicious raciones. (Rations are smaller than dinners, bigger than tapas.) 

Here's a picture of Terri and David from last summer (we haven't yet gotten around to pictures of friends on this trip.) As soon as we got to O Pincho, we woke up and had a great time catching up on news, eating rations and drinking the house wine. The next morning, waking with the sun (about seven-ish), eating lunch at 2:00 p.m. and dinner around 8:00 or 9:00 p.m., Rajan and I realized we'd fallen into Spanish time right away, with very little jet lag!

Friends and neighbors tell us it was a continually rainy winter, but our first few days were sunny. There was the usual morning mist and intermittent sprinkles through the day that vanished in afternoon heat. Still, we felt free to bring out our patio table and chairs. Then things changed.

The small pasture across the sheep
path in front of our gate. The thin
tree in the foreground is a volunteer
peach tree that so far doesn't bear.

A neighbor's pasture below ours.
See those little fruit trees? The storm
blew all the petals away. No fruit
this year. 

After four beautiful sunshiny days, on Thursday afternoon a fierce hailstorm struck. First thunder rolled and roared for about an hour, and then hail beat down for about thirty minutes. This was the result :

These aren't snow drifts. Just lots and lots of hail.

I wanted to put a video here, with all its great sound effects, but I couldn't get my video to play. (I've sent to Google for help.) But this should give you some idea.

On another note, we've been making a point to walk at least two miles a day. In about a year, I want to walk a portion of the Camino that ends in Santiago. (One item on my bucket list.) I won't be able to make it to Santiago, but a friend informed me that if you walk 100 km, you can get a certificate. That's about sixty miles. Next spring I'd like to do about 30 miles, and then in the fall of 2015 do the second set. So far, a few times we've parked at Gadis, one of the big supermarkets at the edge of Monforte, and walked up to the Parador.

Here's the Parador, seen from the Gadis parking lot.
Below is Gadis, seen from Parador, to give you and
idea of how far we walk.

Gadis, where we parked, seen from the Parador: See the thin pale blue
stripe about two thirds up in the middle? Above the center green? To the
left of that is a teeny yellow sign. That's Gadis.

Other walks have been along country roads. Beautiful nature walks, really. This will give you some 
idea: The picture on the left is an example of most of the scenery here. 

The picture to the right is of a pretty church in Toiriz. We don't have pictures yet of the stork nests, but on tall posts nearby, there are two separate stork nests, and we sometimes see one of the parent birds feeding the baby birds. All you can see is the upended body, so we aren't quite sure how big those babies get. Hopefully we'll get a good photo sometime soon.



And now, it's time for a walk! But stay tuned, because the next post will be about a wonderful Fado singer we heard Sunday night. 


Meanwhile, if you have special items on your bucket list, I'd love to hear what they are.

Return to Paradise

That's how it feels when we return to Galicia; more specifically, to our part of Galicia, the village of Trasulfe. We arrived in Santiago, Sunday, September 8th, around 5:30. Our friends, Terri & David picked us up at the airport and drove us to the village.

After opening the house, we went out for dinner, already on Spanish time,  at 9:00 p.m. or therabouts. (We were pretty sleepy.)  We went to Torre de Vilariño, a really charming cafe/bar/restaurant that we've been to often with our friends, and had champiñones al ajillo, mushrooms sauteed in olive oil, with garlic, salt, and red chile flakes, and truchas, small, delicious, crispy fried trout, served with Galician bread, which we really like so much. I don't have a current picture of Torre de Vilariño, but I will get one to post later.

The next morning, the first thing we did was walk down the hill  to greet all our neighbors, marveling again at the late summer/early fall scenery. You have to admit, those cows look pretty peaceful.

It wasn't long before our neighbors started giving us of their bounty. They are some of the most generous people we've ever met. The first morning Eva gave us eggs and home-made wine. Milagros gave us peppers and tomatoes. Miguel gave us potatoes and wine. A few days later, Eva gave us a huge bag of potatoes and another huge bag of peppers and tomatoes.  

You can see we are going to be cooking a lot of dishes with potatoes, tomatoes, and peppers. And we have had omelets a few times already. I do save some of the eggs to bake cakes for the neighbors in return. 

Later, we drove into Monforte, the nearest good-sized city that flanks the Parador, a former noble's castle, part of which was once a monastery. Now the castle is a hotel with restaurants and coffee shops, although its cathedral still is in regular use for worship. The building itself always grabs me. From any angle and any distance, to me it's very haunting.

We like to go to the indoor cafe/bar and have either coffee with a crescent tapa or a glass of wine with Spanish olives.

After that, we walked around the main plaza in town, happy that we had such beautiful weather. (When Rajan came in spring, while we were still taking turns with our dog, it rained every day except two.)


Over the week-end, Friday and Sunday, we were busy cooking Indian food for our British friends. Other days we worked at home and then in the evenings we went to the bench to chat with our neighbors. (They chat. We listen. We are getting better at understanding, though, until they switch to Gallego, just when we think we are getting the Castiliano. As a result, we've picked up a few Gallego words, too. )

On Saturday we went into Monforte again, this time to have lunch at our favorite cafe/bar in town, Adega do Carlos. We don't have a good picture of Carlos to share, but you can go to his Facebook page and see how warm and welcoming he is as the owner. (Like his page, too!) We ordered two of our favorite racciones to eat with bread and wine:

Grilled Champiñones. The centers are
stuffed with garlic, parsley, maybe
 chopped mushroom stems and
 all ground together in a paste
with wine.

Pimientos de Padron, simply
sautéed in olive oil with salt.
So simple. So good!

You can see how much we liked them:

Afterwards I went to have my hair trimmed in a beauty shop in Monforte, called Tempus. I don't have my hair cut often, and never short, just trimmed. But I went this day especially because the grandaughter of our super neighbors, Eva and Manolo, is apprenticing at this shop. Her name is Lucia, and we've watched her grow from an early teen-ager, who would sweetly dance with her grandfather at the fiestas, into a young lady who drives and is planning a career. 

We thought she did a very good job. (Please pardon how dark the photo is.)

Sunday afternoon we encountered hunters on the road near Antonio and María Elena's farm, using walkie talkies and dogs to track the javalís (wild boars) attacking the wine grapes and rooting for potatoes. This is kinda javalí season. Monday, we learned either 8 or 9 had been killed, five of them near the farm above, the others here and there, but still in our area. No pictures to share, but Rajan is predicting they will show up on menus in the local restaurants.

On that happy note, I leave you for now, but I'll be back with more news and photos later.

Meanwhile, have you ever seen a live boar? (I haven't yet.) What is your favorite snack food? (Racciones always seem like snack food to me.) And do any of you have a good potato recipe?