Begoña Riobó

There is a brief ad before the song. 



From her website:

Begoña Riobó is currently one of the most renowned violinists in Galician music. She has an outstanding musical career, has played with Carlos Núñez, Anxo Lorenzo, Susana Seivane, and Sondeseu, amongst others, and is now the first Galician Folk violinist to lead her own band.

"Riobó" is the name of Begoña's group and also the title of the first album, characterised by the virtuosity of the musicians when arranging and interpreting traditional Galician melodies, being faithful to their origins. Thus, each concert is a journey of sensations during which both the deep cultural roots and present day performance formulas live side by side.

Accompanying Begoña in 'Riobó', we have four renowned musicians that garner a solid professional career and participate regularly in the main musical projects in Galicia. They are Fernando Barroso (guitar), Marcos Campos (Gaita, accordion and whistles), Xosé Liz (Bouzouki), and Fernando Pérez (flute and requinta). 

An interview in Spanish with Begoña about her philosophy, celtic music, and putting together the group.  She points out that they tried to make the CD sound as close to the live performance as possible.

Potager dreaming

source

source Heather Maynard via pinterest

source

source

source via pinterest and yahoo

source

via Sarah Clark Rummer at pinterest

source

source

Renovating

The fabulous Sharon included this French Blog about a couple renovating a barn in Dordogne. I read it straightaway from the beginning with the help of Google Translate - just plug the web address in, select the language pair, and it will spit out something readable.

Wow, is that project expensive. But so unbelievably gorgeous, the beams are stunning. The work on repointing the stone is amazing.

And I am so ordering one of the Point Master mortar-gizmos.

And I found another intriguing blog - this time through the lovely Dawn. Visit Galicia is the product of a UK couple renovating a place close to the border with Asturias. They´re planning a rural hotel with several outbuildings, but first are focused on the barn/house where they will live. Look at the beautiful results.

source

They are now in planning limbo (my sympathies), waiting to start the next phase but off to a great start. Paul´s observations of Galician food and living are worthwhile as well. I´m so encouraged by the results of his local team and their hard work.

Rumor has it that the Augas de Galicia people have made their site visit to the ruin and their report is now wending its way through the entrails of the bureaucracy for approvals. We´ll see.

Making a Living

I´ve been focusing on job-related stuff lately. Business cards too Dickensian? Linked in instead? Facebook? Tweeter? Resumes, forums, blogs, social media, selling yourself, marketing, positioning, strategizing, honing, targeting. Glossy websites with endless photos of smiling manequins bathed in the cool glow of computer screens and artfully seated around shiny plastic conference tables.

And I happened across a new blog - Of the Hands. Joel is working on a farm with a CSA in the northwestern United States. He presents an interesting reflection on the difference between what´s thought of as making a living as opposed to having a job.

I’ve played this game. I worked in the electronics department at Fred Meyer, a general retailer here in the Northwest, doing a variety of jobs over the course of six years. I made an hourly wage and received benefits and this job allowed me to continue to legally live on this planet, in this society, and gave me the means to distract myself from the various ways in which my life failed to satisfy me. The job was a slot and I filled it. It didn’t particularly make me happy and it certainly didn’t provide me with fulfilling work. It was a means to an end–it was a job to be worked, not a living to be made.

I think of making a living as something different. In my mind, there’s more meaning to it. These days, I don’t want a job. I want to make a living. And there is a certain literality in that term. In making a living, I want to be making something and I want to be making my life. This is why, in the last few years, I’ve turned to farming. With farming, I’m helping to make food while simultaneously crafting a new sort of existence for myself. I am making meaning within my life and creating happiness and joy and a connection to the land upon and community within which I live. In as much as this is the case, I then gain satisfaction from my work.

I have spent a lot of time in cubicles shuffling papers. There was that brief flash of the dot.com revolution in the 90´s when it looked like creativity and individuality and bringing your dog to work might have a shot at succeeding, but that turned out to be all smoke and mirrors. But the job finding process has become completely ridiculous and adversarial. Writing a resume has devolved into an exercise in justifying your entire existance. The HR dept is looking for reasons to ¨screen¨ or reject any applicant. There are 30 minute interviews during which no one, neither the employer nor the potential employee gets any sense at all of what the job is or if either suits the other.

I think the process of applying for a job speaks to how inhumane many jobs are. You first find an open position that seems as though it might not be entirely soul-destroying, then put together a resume and write a cover letter for that job–which is, essentially, an act of advertising oneself, often in a whorish manner. Then you wait too long for a response that may or may not come and hope for an interview, which–should it even occur–will often lurch its way through awkward questions and suffer from anxiety and terrifying optimism, quiet desperation and need, and will almost certainly bear no resemblance to normal human interaction. . .

This is a horrid way to find work. Granted, I realize there are plenty of people out there who experience the above process in a more positive manner and there also are those who feed off the challenge of it. Even so, what is particularly human or humane about this process? There is rarely any sense of honesty or care to it, and it most often serves as a winnowing–a battle, a competition.

It seems to me there is profound consternation, that now even the cubicle drone jobs are disappearing. Spain has produced an entire generation of educated youth who stand ever-shrinking chances of finding ¨a paying job¨. Especially in the all-austerity-all-the-time world we live in. And yet, society is still focused with laser-like intensity on contemporary western lifestyles with the city/suburban flat, car, job commute, and electronic toys.

I think the ¨recortes¨ or cuts are going to be ever greater and arriving ever faster, and we´re going to have to reconisider what is generally regarded as a viable career. When we see V´s 20-something nieces and nephews, it´s hard to know what to say to them. They´re studying, and traveling and full of half-sketched plans to graduate and work, and perhaps emmigrate. But where? To do what? For whom?

Joel again:

In fact, I have little faith that a traditional job would provide me the sort of security that others think it would. I see us moving toward a future in which we will have dramatically less access to wealth and energy. In such a future, most of today’s retirement schemes will have ceased to exist but the sort of retirement scheme that has existed throughout most of human history–a base of knowledge and skills through which to prove and provide your worth–will be particularly relevant. So rather than build a 401k, I am learning how to grow food and raise animals, how to work the land, how to live with little money and energy, how to enjoy physical labor, how to be okay with extra blankets and less heat, how to entertain myself without benefit of TV or video games (cats work wonderfully in this regard, as do various kinds of poultry, as does observing and interacting with the land) and how to set up and piece together alternative energy systems. I am also learning to figure it out as I go, and I think that’s a skill that will be overwhelmingly useful in the near future.

I want to go north and get dirty (actually muddy because it´s finally raining again in Galicia) but instead I have to proofread my resume again.

Spring planting 2012

Given the disaster that was the harvest of 2011, another stab at the gardening thing.

This year - cherry tomatos - last year none of the heritage plants produced so much as a single tomato. This year I´ve got yellow and red cherry tomatoes coming along. Much better germination rate!

New this year - a row of peppers along with some tomatoes. So far so good. Got them to sprout with the tray on top of the refrigerator.

And lettuces. I´m going to see if I can grow my own salad. I suspect these will bolt in about 5 minutes - but it was worth a try. Again, I´m pleased with the germination. These were left outside to fend for themselves in this crazy spring weather.

Have been trying to harden them off, watering occasionally with chamomile which is supposed to be a fungus suppressent and avoid the dreaded ¨damping-off¨.

Tomatoes now - somewhat the worse for wear after being dropped. I´ll have to make a run to the store this weekend for more potting soil.

Kulning

This is gorgeous.



also here and source Susan Rosenberg

Kulning is a musical form of livestock calling from Scandinavia.

The song has a high-pitched vocal technique, i.e. a loud call using head tones, so that it can be heard or be used to communicate over long distances. It has a fascinating and haunting tone, often conveying a feeling of sadness, in large part because the lokks often include typical half-tones and quarter-tones (also known as "blue tones") found in the music of the region.

The kulokks can belong to an individual, but are sometimes family-based and are handed down so that a family's cows know they are being called and thus respond. A number of calls contain names of individual (sometimes the "lead") animals, as herds are not very large.

Another with Susanne Rosenberg herself live and in a pretty place.



Thanks to the blog To Sing with Goats for introducing this to me.

Maybe it´s Alexander Skarsgård or the dark crime/noir films and novels coming out lately but Scandanavia is starting to really intrigue me.

Ruin update

I have been holding off on news of the ruin, hoping we´d be actually, you know, starting.

However, as it is we are still waiting for the Water authority people to give their blessing to the project so we can get the building permit. Let´s recap.

Plan submitted to the City last July.

Some small changes, and subsequent Execution plan submitted October.

In November the city architect announces we´ll need approval from the Water authority. (That would have been good to know last summer when the city opened the branch close to the house. You´d think it would have occurred to someone to let us know.)

Paperwork off to the water authority, fees paid (a rather nasty letter insisted they be paid within 4 days of receiving the notice)in December. Lightening speed as these things go, or so we´ve been told.

Project officially published for public commentary in February for 20 days.
Announcement expires and lack of commentary is sent back to Waters authority by the City.

And nothing further. We can´t do anything but wait for them to stamp the paperwork done and let us get on with it, and by law they have 3 years to do that. It´s now 18 months since we bought the place. The architect, technical architect, and builder are all standing by. We´d thought to start in March and finish water tight shell by August, but now who knows.

So meanwhile, Galicia is experiencing the worst drought in over 50 years. Perfect construction weather. Unfortunately, they´ve also had forest fires, the latest in the Fragas do Eume, the finest preserved piece of Atlantic Forest in Europe. 750 hectares burned before they got it under control.

So until the earth movers show up, I´ve been looking at shots taken last fall.

Going counterclockwise around the garden:

A really, really tall evergreen - unusual for these parts. No idea what kind.

Some baby bay trees in front of one big one - wreaths?

A little fig?

Some old apples - going to need some remedial pruning - but they´re really tall.

The apples themselves are scarce, small and pleasantly tart. Cider maybe?

A vine scrambling up a dead tree - looks maybe like a grape?

An unidentified tree - trunk

Unidentified top

Elders? Wine with the berries and ¨champagne¨ with the flowers?

And some baby volunteer oaks which will need to be transplanted before they get too big.

The big fig - another big pruning project I´d rather not think about.

Let´s hope they don´t all burn down before we can get the house started. Or after, for that matter.