Looking back on 2022

New Year is the traditional time for looking back on the year which is ending, and forward to the one just beginning. I’m looking forward to 2023, with another book due out in spring and so much to do in the garden. This past year has been one of mixed fortunes but so much beauty too. Here is my pictorial record of the year that was 2022 for us here in beautiful Galicia.

The mill at the bottom of the valley looks beautiful in the mist

January began dry, the winter scenery stunning in its browns and moss greens. Our Sunday walks were punctuated by leaves crunching underfoot and mists rising from the valley below us as we wandered the lanes.

sunshine and wine barrels!

In February, early primroses and hellebores were already blooming in the garden when we returned from a lovely week’s holiday in the Canary Islands.

The local sheep had lambed, encouraging us that spring was on the way and bees were buzzing madly around my winter-flowering honeysuckle, eager for the early nectar.

March rains brought out our handsome salamanders and spectacular rainbows over the hórreo.

Mum’s treat for March was a visit to the Doll’s House Museum in nearby Monforte de Lemos. As a doll aficionado, this was a real joy for her. It is a beautifully kept collection and tea in the parador at the top of the hill rounded off her day nicely.

After a strange episode in late March, when S lost his short-term memory for a number of hours, he was diagnosed with dangerously high cholesterol. I decided a change of diet with far less saturated fats was called for, and more exercise.

The stunning island of Ons

Although we are hardly sedentary, we didn’t do much sustained exercise. With Mum away for her holidays in the south of Spain, we took the opportunity to do more walking.

white sands on Ons

We had some incredible days out that April. From deserted white sand beaches on Ons to a walk along the river Miño in Ourense and another along the same river in Lugo, we dodged the raindrops to enjoy some of Galicia’s fabulous scenery and pondered on how lucky we are to live here.

the Miño river in Lugo

If you are interested in some of the incredible scenery here in Galicia, my fourth travelogue memoir, Pulpo, Pig & Peppers – travels around Galicia, includes all these walks and many more places to visit.

thermal pools on the Miño in Ourense

In May we gained a new member of the household when a handsome stray cat arrived on our doorstep.

Called Laranxa (the Galego for orange) for his handsome colouring, Larry for short, soon made himself at home and is now a fully paid-up member of the family. From definitely not being a house cat, he is now content to spread himself around every room.

June produced both rain storms and brilliant sunshine.

Our regular woodland walk was becoming more overgrown each week as the weeds outcompeted our boots. Since our neighbours retired from farming, the track is no longer grazed regularly by their cattle and I fully expect the area to revert to woodland in the near future. Our beautiful swallowtail butterflies will be happy.

still enough cows for a traffic jam

S had been working on his beautiful floor mosaic in our Big Barn, which was finally revealed. The wooden pieces are left over bits from our various projects around the house and outdoors, comprising oak, chestnut, cherry and many other oddments.

He had also been working at cleaning up an old salt box from one of our barns. This trough, hewn from the trunk of a single tree, would have been used to salt the pig carcasses in years gone by. Its use had long since ended when we discovered it in one of our barns, but the wood was magnificent and S enjoyed many hours trying to clean and sand it to a silky smoothness. It now has pride of place in our Big Barn as a bookshelf.

the birthday girl at 91

July sees two birthdays in this household.

Mum turned 91 on July 14th with a fabulous meal at one of our favourite restaurants, The Pitón. The staff spoilt her rotten and even came out to sing happy birthday.

walks were curtailed, but there was cake

Unfortunately, S spent his birthday, just four days later, in hospital after a different 91-year-old, knocked him over during one of our ‘health’ walks. He sustained three cracked ribs and five days in our not so local hospital being well looked after. I took him a birthday cake and candle in, to the delight of the staff.

Although still sore and unable to carry on with his latest project (insulating the ceiling of our downstairs barns), by August we were able restart our walks. We did change our route though, to avoid roads and crazy elderly drivers.

In September, we were all off to the UK for a family wedding in a beautiful setting near to Banbury.

Mum went up to Scotland to spend time with family while S and I travelled the UK vsiting friends and places we’d never seen before.

October meant relighting my lovely wood-burning cocina and plenty of cakes to eat in the warm kitchen.

We also had a surprise addition to one of our Sunday walks when Larry decided to tag along.

November saw us dining out and spying fungi on our walks (no, we didn’t eat this one).

Our long hot summer weather finally broke with rain more frequent on our daily seven-kilometre walks. One day was so wet we had to strip when we got home. Though it seems a neighbour thought it a good time to hang the washing outdoors.

In early December I found this tiny serin on the patio, exhausted and unable to fly. Luckily, after a bit of TLC indoors in the Big Barn, he recovered and flew away down the valley.

This year for Christmas, we had a change of venue for our celebrations. Instead of Lugo to the north of us, we headed south to Ourense. It was a good choice with an excellent meal at the Gran Muralla (great wall) Chinese restaurant and a lively pub crawl in the evening.

I wish you all a 2023 filled with beautiful sunrises,

bright rainbows

and plenty of colourful characters