August in Galicia

August has been a rather significant month for us since we arrived in Galicia.

It was our eleventh wedding anniversary yesterday; eleven years since we managed to say consiento against the odds (and a certain fire-breathing dragon at the gates of the Justice of the Peace office who was determined to thwart our efforts), and marry in our tiny market town of Taboada. It was a fabulous day full of friends, food and wine, and sunshine. All the elements of perfection here in Galicia.

This Saturday was an altogether quieter affair of cooking tomatoes for sauce, watering the allotment, and enjoying a quiet meal out nearby. Perfection of a different kind but still perfection.

Actually, I wrote that before we finished our day which did indeed proceed quietly, at least until someone (and definitely not me) didn’t apply the car handbrake sufficiently which meant it gracefully crashed into our Spanish brick-built well housing, demolishing it and leaving water spraying everywhere! So now we have no water until the ferreteria opens on Monday. Luckily, we had plenty of cava to drink so the day ended perfectly after all.

We moved into A Casa do Campo, our derelict ‘country house’, in August – the 10th August 2007 to be precise. I happened to be sorting through some of my old photos the other day to try and bring some organisation to the masses – and failing but anyway… I was shocked at some of the early pictures of our lovely home.

It’s funny how memories fade isn’t it. When I looked at the old barn, last used for cows and still full of manure (wonderful for the garden) or the kitchen with its verdigris smeared walls where the rain had soaked through the ceiling boards and the broken roof tiles above, I thought back to our beginnings here.

Now we are comfortable and relaxed in our lovely home, we easily forget just what we had to go through to keep warm in the midst of howling gales through glassless window frames, how we battled to get our wood burning range to draw rather than to smoke us out, and just how unsavoury that old bathroom was.

It was nippy indoors that first year!

Memories must fade because in 2014 we did the whole thing again when we bought a second, smaller ruin, A Casita do Campo for my mum, who had finally agreed to move here following a campaign of persuasion!

We bought that particular ruin in June though we began the serious building work on it in August that year. Looking at the photos I think A Casita was in a worse state than A Casa. Certainly, it had been empty far longer; twenty-five years in fact, and it showed.

Mum is happy in her country cottage though.

She celebrated her 90th birthday here in July. That was another day of friends, food and wine, and sunshine. Just like it ought to be. Cheers everyone, and happy August.