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? 

A Trip Down Memory Lane

 Yesterday we went to Trasulfe, the village where we had our house for 16 years, almost 17. We wanted to meet the new owners of our house, and we enjoyed them so much. They love the house as much as we did, which is exactly the kind of persons we wanted to move into it. 

 

       

 

From the galería window, the scene was ever changing, due to the configuration of the land—all hills and dales. Cloud cover would drift down, then lift, then roll against slopes like ocean waves. You could sit at the window for hours and watch it constantly shift.

 

                                                        
     

Oh, the memories!

 

Many of our neighbors in the village are gone now. (I have written a poetry chapbook about our years spent in the area—on extended trips. We never did live there.) Everytime we go to Galicia, we do take a day to visit the village. So many of our neighbors are gone, and the health of the ones in this photo has become frail. We used to have these three wonderful neighbors over to the house for "meriendas" (snacks) a day or two before returning to Sacramento. In this picture, don't be mislead by the soft-drink bottles. They held home-made wine!

How about you? Do you have a special place that you return to again and again? Have you had home-made wine? Are you mesmerized by ever-changing scenery?

Today I have a "School Visit" via Zoom with a class iin Monforte de Lemos

   This afternoon, even though I'm in Braga, Portugal, I have a "School Visit" via Zoom with a class in Monforte de Lemos, Galicia, Spain. How cool is that! (The "visit" is to the Escola de Idiomas Eoi Monforte). The class's teacher is a friend of ours, and she teaches English to adult learners. She actually ordered copies of my mystery for students earlier in the year in high hopes that by now Covid 19 would be under control and everything would open up and I would visit in person. (Monforte is about a two-and-a-half-hour drive from Braga.) Well, things are opening up, but only gradually, and in Galicia classes aren't meeting face to face yet. 

Still, I'm happy to meet her students via Zoom. It's for an hour. I'll be curious about what questions they ask. She has formed a "reading club" with some of her students, and here is the flyer:

    About Monforte de Lemos: Many of you who have followed this blog know my husband and I in pre-Covid days used to go to Galicia twice a year. We started going there in spring of 2014 and even had a house in a small village about twenty minutes away from the town of Monforte (as the locals refer to it).  The "de Lemos" comes from the fact that the town grew up around a castle owned by Conde de Lemos. It's on a hill and overlooks the rather large town that developed since then through the centuries. At times part of it has been a monastery. And there's a cathdral at one side. But now the whole edifice is part of the Parador system and it houses a hotel, a restaurant, and a café/bar. Everyone in town refers to it as "The Parador."

The Parador

The Old Roman Bridge in town

     A walkway in the park in town.

    It gives my heart a twinge to see these old pictures of Monforte. We haven't been there since fall of 2019. Once the borders open up again, we'll look forward to driving up to visit Galicia friends. Until then, we feel very lucky to be in Braga and able to see our Braga friends, whom we've started meeting in the allowable open air spaces outside cafés. 

    Just mentioning the virus at all reminds me that the pandemic is still here for a while. So many countries are suffering from too many cases and not enough vaccines. 

May all of you stay safe and well, and may next year bring happy news for us all. 

Another Long Silence Because I'm Writing

                                           

            Well, actually not writing, but re-writing a collection of poems I wrote about Galicia. (Although, "rewriting" can sometimes feel like writing. Some poems have been entirely revamped. Picture me at this desk, huddled over my computer, deciding on words, then redeciding.) 

I want to finish it sometime next week. There are forty poems altogether, and I have five left. My Storytellers Writing Group has valiantly critiqued many of the rewrites, after they and two poetry groups I attended before Covid-19 had critiqued them the first time around. At times like this shut-in period, one truly appreciates the Internet. 

So, I really don't have a lot to say right now until I finish this project. I've tons of pictures taken in my walks around town that are out of season, now, since the last ones were taken in October and early November. Still, when I finish the collection, I'll post them anyway—beautiful murals on public buildings (another of Sacramento's beautification projects, this one called "Wide Open Walls.")

That will have to be in my next post. And that will be in a couple of weeks.  Till then, wish me luck on finding the right place to send this collection. My husband and I both love and miss Galicia, Spain, as well as Braga, Portugal, and these poems are from the heart.

If you are a writer or artist or love to garden or scrapbook, I hope your own endeavors are going well. And if you are a reader, I hope you have been enjoying some wonderful reads. (I have.) Whatever you love to do, I hope you are able to do it during these Covid times. 

Take care, and stay safe and well. There will be light at the end of this tunnel. 

Sad News and Memories of a Good Friend & Neighbor

                               

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I'm going to take time out from book and publishing concerns to pay tribute to a friend whom my husband and I will deeply miss. We received the sad news Friday from our village neighbors in Trasulfe (Galicia, Spain) that our mutual neighbor, Manolo, had passed away, and that the funeral would be Saturday. That has come and gone. If we were there, we would have gone. As it is, we can only send a card to his family, and then, on our next trip in August, go immediately to visit Manolo's widow, Eva, who has become like family. That is how we have always known them: Eva and Manolo. We have never even found out their last names. We first met them 14 years ago in spring of 2005, right after we bought the house. By our fall visit of 2005, we were friends enough to have them over to our house for snacks before leaving. Manolo looking devilish; Eva looking sweet and shy.

And they've always had a touch of elegance about them. This picture was in fall of 2006, when they returned from the bank in Monforte, taking care of some business. They kept a small garden and did some farming, kept vines, and, when we first met them, had a horse, a pig, and some rabbits. But they always dressed smartly for town.

Meanwhile, it became a regular thing to have them over for meriendas a couple of days we left to come home, and during our visits, we spent many a fine evening enjoying bread, cheese, and Eva's superlative home made wine in their galleria or in their dining room, where we sometimes watched comedy shows in Galegan on TV.
At the end of the day, we would often take a walk down the road with them, and then sit on the bench at the end of the lane, listening to all the village gossip in a mixture of Spanish and Galegan.

What happy days these were! In the first picture, Antonio (down the road) is on the right, laughing, and his wife, Maria-Elena, is holding their grandson, Daniel, in front of her. This was in fall of 2007. Daniel is college age now. In the second picture, The woman on the left is Raquel, Eva's sister.

Here is a picture of Raquel in spring of 2007 and one each of Manolo and Eva in fall of 2008.

This is how I like to think of them — so full of gentle humor and genuine good will for other people. Always full of laughter.

We used to go to fiestas with Eva and Manolo, too, and also to a couple of the ferias for pulpo (octopus), a great favorite in that area.

One of my sweetest memories of them is at a fiesta when their teen-age granddaughter, Lucia, danced with her grandfather. She doted on him. Above, next to the picture of Eva,  is a picture of Lucia a few years later (2013), after she finished beauty school and was a hair stylist.  (She had just finished trimming and styling my hair.) She was a beautiful teen-ager, but you can see she has grown into a beautiful young woman. In this picture she is in her 20s. (How time does fly.)

Then ill health set in, first for Manolo, who gradually had a combination of heart problems, diabetes, partial deafness, partial glaucoma. Before things got to such dire straights, he had difficulty walking uphill, and then later, walking very much at all. He was still able to make it to our house for meriendas in fall of 2008. But gradually, he stayed inside all the time, and by 2014 he only came to the window.

Meanwhile, Raquel contracted a lung disease that incapacitated her, and she moved in with them. So, Eva became the caretaker for a sick husband and a sick sister, which pretty much confined her to the house, as well. They had help come in, provided for by national health, but Eva was still his primary care-taker. I stopped taking picture of them. They all looked tired and worn out, and in recent weeks, Raquel was mainly bedridden.

Instead, we would go over and spend our free time with Eva and Manolo late in the afternoons, sitting in their galleria, discussing weather, the view, little things about life, just to keep them company. Sometimes I would take cakes, because — ever the gracious host, no matter how ill — Manolo would want us to sample Eva's wine.  On our last visits, four and five weeks ago, he could only whisper, asking Eva to get us some wine. We would head her off and tell her no, we didn't need wine, and she needed to sit down and rest. By then, he would be asleep again in his chair by the window and we would be mainly there for Eva.

We will miss him. Eva is devastated from what our mutual neighbors tell us. They were married over 60 years, and she had been taking care of him for nearly ten. RIP, Manolo. It was truly wonderful to know you. And it still is wonderful to know Eva, whom we will visit as soon as we return.

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?

The Long and Winding Road

Ever since we returned from Galicia, I've been immersed in immediate activities like:

1) a visit from a special nephew; 2) spreading the word about my new book, Dragonella; 3) getting a TB test and getting fingerprinted in order to teach my volunteer art class at the community center—a new requirement this year, and 4) renewing my driver's license. We've only been home three weeks and two days, and it feels like we've crammed 6 months into that time. 

 1. the visit with our nephew was great, although much too short, and we do hope he'll bring his wife next time. 2. You've probably all heard enough about Dragonella now.  3. Good news:  I don't have TB, and I do have good fingerprints. (The fingerprints were a lot of work, though, because really, I have terrible fingerprints from years of gardening and cleaning house without gloves. I failed my first test two weeks ago. But drinking lots of water daily and rubbing Neutrogena into my finger and thumb tips several times a day did wonders. Fingerprints passed yesterday! Yay.) And 4. I passed my written test yesterday for the driver exam, which was super important: My current license expires in 8 days. (Yes, it's true: Sagittarius is a sign that procrastinates.)

Which brings me, finally, back to our trip to Galicia and the topic of today's post: "The Long and Winding Road." Actually, there are a lot of long and winding roads in Galicia. The picture above is just one of them. Here are a couple more:

But the particular long and winding road of the title goes up, up, up into the mountains to a casa rural and an ancient,  famous monastery—Mosteiro de Santo Estevo. We don't have a picture of that road, because we were too busy having adventures on it.                                              

 

 

Even though this monastery has beckoned to us for years and appears on a poster at our favorite coffee shop in Escairon, Circulo O Saviñao, we've never dared venture up the mountain to see it. Rajan loves to photograph ancient churches, but we both hate narrow roads that drop off on the sides here and there. Then we met Irene and Ian, who have a casa rural—Casa Santo Estevo—right behind the monastery. Since we had lunch with them on an earlier visit in Monforte (our choice), we decided that on our next visit we should go to them.

Casa Santo Estevo: Very old, and very
charming. 

Most of the drive wasn't all that bad, although there are no pictures of it because Rajan was focusing on driving and I was gritting my teeth and gripping the door. (Even "not all that bad" feels kinda bad to me.) But we got to a crucial point that can only be described as a hairpin turn — one going up an incline. Not fun. 

Once arrived, however, we had a lovely visit. The casa rural is beautifully furnished with cosy touches, the rooms all overlooking beautiful vistas. Behind Irene and Ian, you can see vineyards on the far slopes, and Rajan took a couple pictures of the area, vowing to come back and take more. Here's one of us, too, trying to look nonchalant about the hairpin curve waiting for us on the trip back. (These are from my camera, since Rajan hasn't given me the CD of his shots yet.) 

And so we headed back — and missed the turn. Which brings me once again to the title of this post. On the way out, we saw a turn that we were sure could not be IT. We were wrong. So we toodled merrily along for a stretch and then realized the road was 1. getting narrower, 2. getting muddier, 3. winding more and more around shrinking and muddier bends that went who knew where?

Luckily I had put Irene's phone number in my mobile, so we stopped and I called. She said they had seen us go the wrong direction, and Ian was already walking in our direction. When he arrived, she arrived soon after (both by foot). She knew the turn-around spots and directed us — Ian drove, thank goodness! On the way back, he picked her up, and took us past the curve we had dreaded, to a spot in front of the monastery itself, which also was a nice level area from which to drive back home.

And then they gave us a tour of the grounds! We'd been dying to see that building up close, and now there we were, walking around the grounds with friends for tour guides.

This is a very famous monastery. You can see an overall picture of it HERE: The huge rose window is considered the largest rose window in Europe (yes, larger than the ones in Notre Dame in Paris!)

My shots don't give you a view of that window or the entire building — you'll have to go to the site above for that. I did take these to show other aspects of the church/monastery, some parts of which go back to the twelfth century.
(The S in the picture at the left is for "siglo", which is Spanish for century).

Even then, these pics don't begin to convey the size of this building. It's enormous.

Rajan is into black and white photography and wants to go back again with his film camera and take some more pictures of both the building and the spectacular views all around. We have a plan for that, though: Park on a lower level in a good turn-around spot, turn around ahead of time, and walk up the rest of the way.


How about you: Do high, narrow, winding roads make you nervous? Do you like historic buildings? Old churches? Has November been a "crunch" month for you?

Since the big day is tomorrow, have a Happy Thanksgiving. I hope it's filled with love and laughter and good eating. 

An Interesting Series About Galicia

Craig and Melanie and their sweet
dog, Slawit. 

While we are here in Galicia, my postings would be incomplete without reference to friends of ours, one of whom has written a series about living here in Galicia.  Craig and Melanie Briggs actually sold us our house in Trasulfe twelve years ago. (How time flies!) Since then, we've added touches to make our second home more commodious, but we have always enjoyed the house from the get go. And they have always been special friends.

Meanwhile, Craig has written a series of books describing their adventures when they first came to Galicia 14 years ago and, step by step, became more and more immersed in the life of the area, until they decided to live permanently in Galicia. Originally they hail from Huddersfield, England, but 14 years of living here have turned them into Spaniards. They live in a village called Canabal where they have fitted right into village life. (Expats seem to average about one family per village here, and the villages are scattered around larger towns that are hubs of grocery and clothes shopping, etc., not to mention the abundance of fiestas. Canabal is close to Sober, which has a wonderful wine festival each year and often offers classical musical concerts.)

The Books: These are the books in the series:

The very last one, Opportunities Ahead, has just been released.
As you can see from the titles, this is a joyful series, recording how they met challenge after challenge and found that they were not simply "expats" but actually, finally, "home".  This series will give you a good feel for the challenges and adjustments, but also the joys of life in Galicia and what it is like to find a new life in a new setting, speaking a new language.

All of these books are on Amazon, in print and in ebook form. You can go to Amazon.com and Amazon.uk (an maybe other sites as well).  A good way to know your options is to go to the Briggs' travel blog HERE, which makes for delightful reading about certain villages and towns in Galicia and historical signposts that make the area unique.

In addition, a new, humorous posting once a week — The Someday Supplement — includes tidbits of local news and some pretty good local recipes.

You can also reach Craig on Facebook HERE to catch up on latest posts of interesting events and sights.  Happy reading.


How about you? Do you have an author friend who has released a new book lately? Does the author have a site you find particularly interesting? (If yes to either or both, by all means share with us.)