Catching up

ETA:  Even more apologies for not replying to your lovely comments.  It´s an issue of logging in to Blogger through Google, I think.  But I have yet to figure out how to get around it.  Sorry!


Apologies for not posting in so long.  I´ve been busy with the flower farm and trying to minimize the destruction of the puppy princess.  Add to that ongoing family drama and there´s little time for blogging.


We´ve had a very unpredictable spring in terms of weather.  Heat waves in February and May, lately cold snaps and ¨cyclogenesis explosivos¨ or cold front rainstorms with high winds.  We even had a frost yesterday, in the middle of June.

It seems to me that I´ve been blogging about the garden for so long, and I don´t want to bore those who aren´t interested.  I have been visiting florists and the reception has been generally positive, though orders are non-existant.  I need to work on selling.

The latest culinary project is chive infused vinegar.  Very simple to make, it´s about 1 cup of chive flowers to 1 1/2 cups of white vinegar.  Crush the flowers (fresh and not too past their peak) before adding the vinegar.  Let sit 2 weeks at room temperature in dark storage.  Strain and ready for use on salads.  It turns a beautiful pink color.  I´m going to give more thought to edible flowers.

Briga continues to be a challenge at eight months.  Now weighing in at 30 kilos, her latest obsession, aside from digging and stealing footwear to chew on, is climbing.  We found her up on the ¨roof¨ of the barn the other day.  V nearly broke his neck getting her down.  At least the enclosure around the flower patch is finished and seems to be working.  Fingers crossed.

In other news, there are projects on the horizon.  I desperately need a space to store craft stuff and process harvested flowers, so I´m studying the Swedish empire catalogue for cabinets to finish the laundry area.  And we may finally see progress on the barn this summer.  Stay tuned.

Galicia remains bewitchingly beautiful, and thankfully far away from the horrors which dominate the news.  I´ve planted tomatoes, onions, carrots and green beans, along with more flowers.  The roses have been particularly spectacular this year. We have firewood that should see us through the end of the year.  Breo continues to be a miracle of patience and loyalty, especially when I´d like to strangle his little sister.

Gardening with a Puppy

Briga is 5 months old now.  On the plus side, she´s beautiful and healthy and starting to have moments of calm.  One the other hand, she´s very naughty and is convinced she´s a goat.  She´s never seen anything she didn´t want to climb.  Walls, structures, tables, she wants a bird´s eye view.

So V was in Madrid for work for a week and we started out with this.  Briga is also intensely interested in mining studies.  She has started excavations all around the property.  This is a dry stack planter for a grape vine we hope will eventually shade the south facing façade of the house.  We stacked some extra rock around the grapevine to discourage her attentions.

A couple of days later, I went out the kitchen door to find this. Note the presence of her ¨supervisor.¨

Besides the digging and the climbing, she has knocked over or broken off a bunch of the ranunculus and snapdragons and dug up roses and dianthus.  She´s recently started in on the tulips emerging from the ground and pulled out all the gladiolus bulbs from the raised beds.

Oh, and nobody bothered to tell me that bagged, pelleted organic horse manure is like crack to dogs.  Both of them had their heads in the plant containers for days after I put it out.

Sturdy fencing will have to wait until the expanded planting area is disced once more, probably in April, and then I can start sinking fence posts.

And then V came home.  (Notice the Briga effect on the other planter.)

More garden

On the last day of a sunny spell, Manolo the tractor guy came and disced the expansion of the flower patch to about double, and the old garden that took me literally years to dig by hand.  He´ll come back when it stops raining in May to re-disc and leave it nice and crumbly for making raised beds. I´m thinking I´d like a perennial/physic/monks garden with herbs and roses up in that corner, but for the time being it´s just a big muddy space where the dogs get filthy.

Yesterday, I re-trenched along the old patch, in anticipation of the two weeks of rain predicted. I´m tired.  And crabby. And what´s really exhausting is that continual sense that you don´t know what you´re doing. I wish I could have started all this 5 years ago, but that´s the way these things go, I guess.  Better now that 5 years later.  As it is, I have to do everything in half hour intervals after doggie walks, between doggie meals, during doggie naps and for the time Briga will tolerate being tied up and teased by her big brother, assuming it´s not raining.

My biggest challenges right now are the weather and the dogs.  The puppy gets under the plastic mesh and what she doesn´t dig up, she tramples.  She´ll go wild when I start flinging old horse bedding around.  Now I´m tired again just thinking about it.

2018 in Review

It´s time again for that year in review post.

I´m afraid not much on the list of 2018 got done - again.  Once again, economics got in the way of the bigger projects.

No well.
No barn.
No laundry room.

But, I did make progress on the flower farm.  Didn´t sell anything at the market as they have a waiting list and a 2 page long list of administrative requirements, but I gave away several nice bouquets to neighbors (bonus points for social engagement), had lots for guests over the summer, started up an Instagram account, refocused the Romanesca Facebook page and got actual enquiries from other businesses.  Met some guys in Pontevedra who are absolutely deeeelightful and have exactly the same interests in wild, organic flowers and greenery that I do.  They are keeping me sane and giving me hope.  If you´re in Pontevedra check out Indigobygm.  And, I´m in a Whatsup chat with several other women who are flower farming around Spain, so I can ask questions and get experienced answers.  Thank you social media!  Did a lot of reading and planted a bunch of seeds and bulbs/corms in the fall for Spring 2019.

And Breo is now enrolled in school at Montegatto, in Oza dos Rios.  We´ve signed up for 10 classes with the trainer, who will help us out on basic obedience and getting him to cooperate a little more on the leash.

And finally, we brought home Briga!  She is growing apace, and starting to settle down into a good puppy.  Not quite so much ferocious biting, lots more tail wagging and we´re tremendously relieved she sleeps through the night now.  We´ll be applying what we learn with Breo to her, and hope to have 2 well-behaved, well-adjusted canine companions by summertime.

In the meantime, we´re stocking up on more firewood during this frosty spell.  Now looking at two weeks of rainy weather, and so, so much more weeding to do.

And started some sweet pea seeds for planting out in a few weeks.  Onward and upward.

Happy Holidays!

This was the best I could do this year.

Because then this happened.

Wishing all of you a happy, healthy 2019!!

In the garden

The new intern, while enthusiastic, has trouble following instructions and something of a problem with authority.

Presenting the new Intern

Salutations and well met!

It is I, Breogán, Chief of Security and I have commandeered the glowing screen device to inform the wider public that I am happy to announce that I´ve finally gotten a staff increase approved by management.  It is my great pleasure to introduce our new intern, Brigantia, Pearl in the Crown of the Ancient Kingdom of Galicia.

She has mastiff credentials on her mother´s side with additional guarding qualifications in German Shepherd (and I suspect from his impressive mustachios, some wire-haired gryphon tracking aptitudes, as well) from her father.  All in all, she brings the whole package to the mix. She comes to us highly recommended and I´m sure will be an invaluable addition to the operation.

She is quite young at eight weeks, but you can never start too early with a new recruit and I fully expect her to be assisting in standard investigative and monitoring operations within a few months.  I will, of course, personally oversee her progress and initiation into the mysteries of the Mastiff Code and ongoing training in critter patrol, bone hiding/rotation and ball keep-away.

In the meantime, please join me in woofing her a warm welcome to the team.

Constant vigilance!

A courteous canine wag of the tail to all.

Breogán, The Belligerant, Bone Crusher, Cat´s Bane, Celtic Cur
Head of Security