Photofest

I haven't been taking many photos these last few months, but here are some of the few I did snap. Make the most of them becasue my camera seems to have given up its hold on life and no amount of persuading can get it to work -  believe me, I've tried.

Oviedo city council opt for the cheapest solution - Woody Allen, now completely devoid of glasses.

March skies and Redes mountains

March snow

Fruit from the garden. The berries and plums have all been scoffed and I'm about to make a start on the pears.

Feeding greedy sheep though the garden fence.

A neighbour's lambs

A different neighbour's donkey and a two-week old... erm, what's the word for a baby donkey? Donkette?

Still curious

And still friends

A real nip in the air

This last week has been getting distinctly chilly, a far cry from the start of winter last year when we were still picking tomatoes. To make matters worse we've been getting up early for all sorts of reasons, curtailing my snug mornings in bed as I wait for the temeprature to rise.

The advantage to this is catching the first rays of sun on the mountains in the morning. And before everyone stands back in complete shock and thinks I've somehow overcome my innate aversion to rising from bed at a 'decent hour': the sun doesn't get over the mountains here until about 8.30am, although I do still like being able to say that I get up with the sun.



First sun of the day on the mountains


As the sun rises over our valley

I'd like to be able to say that I have been inspired by the natural beauty of the early morning to rise at a similar hour next week. However, I know myself too well and I expect that I shall be snug in bed waiting for it to warm up before I sneak so much as a little toe out from under the duvet.

A strange-weather day

We were awoken this morning by the sound of thunder resonating around the valley. I love a good thunder storm. Last summer we spent many evenings watching storms from our terrace; the combination of mountain silhouettes and forked lightning was thrilling. We listened this morning, feeling snug under the duvet while the thunder rumbled outside. When I eventually crawled out of bed to peek out of the window the sky was a bright blue with hardly a cloud in sight, yet we could still hear the thunder, it was very peculiar.

Although the thunder ceased shortly after, it's been incredibly breezy all day. The wind has been whipping across our terrace and Matt had to put supports up for all our young trees. It has been quite exhilarating, the wind has given everything a wonderful, fresh feel, and the mountains have been very clear today.




I had a wander in our 'meadow' this afternoon - we let the grass grow long in half of our finca and our neighbour, Samuel, comes and scythes a bit for his sheep every now and again. In return we get the cucho - manure (the first word Matt learnt here), from his cows for our vegetable garden. Samuel hasn't been in for a while so I waded through the meadow enjoying the feeling of the grass waving against me and the wind ruffling my hair. This part of our finca is also full of wild flowers and is quite beautiful.

My day off

Although rain was forecast for today - yet again - we awoke to clear, blue skies. To take advantage of this rather lovely surprise we made our way up the hill to the land above the house for a pleasant morning walk.

We do this quite often, but it's always different up there depending on the season, time of day, weather and the light. There are also numerous routes we can take so I never get tired of exploring and enjoying the surroundings.

Also, it was fairly clear today and the mountains seemed that little bit closer because of it. I've never lived this near to mountains before and even though I've been here for over two years, I'm still not tired of looking at them. Despite their being huge lumps of ancient, solid rock they're constantly changing.

Looking north, past the concejos of Siero and Nava, we could easily make out the sea (although it's not quite so easy in the photo!).

Hmmm, I could quite happily take another day off tomorrow.

My much-needed Easter holiday

Work started again yesterday, but not before I had taken full advantage of my five days off. Last Sunday we went for lunch at Matt's dad's house. Matt's dad and his wife, Carolina, live in a small village near the town of Nava - in the cider making district for those who are interested. We had a tasty lunch (leek and pumpkin soup, spinach and goat's cheese tart and chocolate creme caramel - Carolina is a very good cook) then went for a leisurely walk through some neighbouring villages.

Shaggy sheep and small ponies in Grátila.

The scenery around Nava is different from our area of Asturias. The mountains don't dominate as much as they do here and the view is more open.

A view of Grátila, walking from La Piloñeta.

Before we left to go home we stopped off at a bar and had a drink outside with this lovely view:

Everything was so picturesque that on the way home I found myself half-wishing that we lived in a different area. Come Monday, however, I soon changed my mind. This was when we made our way up the Peña Mayor, a mountain ridge which rises to over 1,200m - it dominates many views in this area. We'd been meaning to have a walk up there for ages and I'm very pleased that we did as this was the highlight of my holiday. Unfortunately it was quite cloudy so we didn't get the fantastic views that we'd been promised. Even so, the clouds made it very atmospheric. It was so tranquil up there - we only saw two other walkers during the whole morning and the only sounds to be heard were those of birds calling to each other.

A view of the Peña Mea, seen on the way up to the Peña Mayor.

A view from the Peña Mayor - I marvelled over the fact that we could see the peaks of snow-capped mountains above the cloud.

When the clouds descended.

The walk was also interesting as we saw the Pozo Funeres. This is a natural well which was used during the Franco regime to kill twenty-two Socialist dissenters. Apparently they were thrown down there and left to die, if the fall hadn't already killed them. It was a sombre moment as I peered down the hole to see how deep it went and realised that the bottom couldn't be seen.

The plaque reads " Pozo Funeres 1988. A quienes fueron aquí asasinados por el fascismo en el año 1948. Viva la libertad y el socialismo." (Pozo Funeres 1948. To those who were killed here by fascism in 1948. Long live freedom and Socialism.)

On the way back down the ridge we saw a couple of things that made us stop and stare:

Matt halted all of a sudden and declared 'look at this!' I wondered why he was crouched down to look at a daisy until I had a closer look. Has anyone ever seen anything like this before? As best I could tell it was a 'sextuplet'. The one thick stem itself was amazing. And while we were sat down looking at the flower we glanced up and saw an enormous bird circling over our heads. I'm not one for birdwatching so I'm really not sure what it was. We get lots of buzzards in these parts but this was much larger. It was impossible to capture the size of it in a photo but we reckon the wing span must have been at least two metres across, it was quite majestic. We lay back and watched as it soared silently above us. In fact, Egyptian vultures also inhabit this area so perhaps it was one of them - as we were lying quite still it may have thought it was its lucky day and lunch had been served. It hung around for quite a while before it decided we weren´t fair game.

We arrived home with very achy thighs but highly contented after an eventful walk. We intend to do it again some time soon but in clearer weather so we can enjoy the views.

Introducing the band

After two years of living here we've finally been blessed with broadband. So now I get to write my blog and to keep everyone up to date with what's going on up our mountain.

And this is where we live - it's the view from our garden - certainly better than my backyard in Cardiff.

For those of you who haven't met all of my household in person here they are:

Matt, on the terrace, enjoying the sun on 25th December - please note the effort we went to with the mango and the cocktail stick, it doesn't quite scream tropical, but we tried!

This is Mahou, first name, 'Queen', or so she'd like to believe. The oldest and most definitely the boss.

Elbi, the cheekist and the clumsiest, also fondly known as Elbus Bumblepaws.

And Beeps, the smallest cat with the loudest purr and very velvety fur.

Our cats will most probably be featuring quite a lot here, but I will attempt to try and write about other occurences too.