The Ruin Garden

We took the opportunity of the holiday in Madrid last week to run up to the ruin. While we were there we met with our Architect, double checked some measurements and went to see one of his other projects in Palas de Rei.

We were last up there during Easter so the weeds were considerably taller, and V was anxious to try out a weed strimmer he´d gotten for the occasion. While he was strimming, I took measurements and snapped pics of the immediate environs.

I believe these are walnuts to go along with the apples and figs.

Dog Rose in the hedges.

I think this is elderberry. Thank goodness, I was afraid it had gotten ripped out last fall - very bad luck!

Anyone know what this is? Ordinary hedge bramble? There´s lots.

It´s been dry this spring and the creek is down to a trickle. On Sunday it got up to 35 C in Galicia - a record for June - whew!

As a faithful reader of the Matron, I took some time to check out the pasture south of the barn and some of the vegetation on offer for future critters. Gene Lodgsen and Bill Salatin are both advocates of ¨grass¨ farming, so I was interested in what we have to start off with.

I think any herbivore would be happy with it. Lots of tall grass - no idea what they are.

Some very pretty flowers too. These are sort of orchid-y.

And lots of white clover, some red and these yellow flowers I don´t know.

And something which looks like a plantain of some kind?

Lots to think about for the future. I´m concerned with the heavy machinery which is likely to be running around the place during renovations compacting the ground. The huge ruts left from the clearing that was done last winter have hardened into concrete. I hope we can keep the damage limited to the area between the house and the barn. We´ll need to decide where to place the kitchen garden, small orchard, and how to keep the rest in bounds. After two days of weed whacking, we mostly cleared the house and wood oven, but left the rest to it´s own devices.

More to come on the house and Melide.

Shampoo bar

I used the recipe so generously provided by the lovely Cocobong. Scented with lavender and lemongrass. Colored with alkanet infused in olive oil.

Turkeys!

A Jersey Red.

I can´t believe I´ve found a place in Ávila that has heritage turkey breeds! It´s probably an American thing, but I´d love a couple of these strutting around the yard. (Not to mention roasting in the oven at Christmas)

These are Royal Palms - aren´t they striking?

Paella - sort of

Paella is a rice dish served all over Spain, but really a specialty of Valencia where the rice mostly comes from. Ingredients vary from vegetarian to seafood, although the seafood type is the one everyone immediately thinks of. I call this paella, and we´ve served it to family who don´t complain, but really it would be more accurate to call it ¨rice with other ingredients¨. Paella is complicated and tricky. Rice with other stuff I can do.

Believe it or not, paella is one of those things the Spanish make when picnic-ing, open fires are paella-friendly, so we do ours on the grill. This is convenient because the paellera or pan is too big for the rings on the stove.

Heat olive oil in the pan - more than you would think. Sautee diced onion, then chopped peppers and garlic. I add the garlic with the green pepper because if I don´t it always seems to burn and tastes terrible.

After the onion and peppers I add garbanzos. This is very non-traditional but I like the color they get from the saffron. I can never get dried garbanzos to soften, so I use the jarred variety, rinsed.

There are quite a few packaged paella spices, but the main ingredients are saffron and salt. You could certainly add these separately on your own. Stand back and admire the lovely color.

Add the rice, long or short grain as you prefer, and let toast for a few minutes. Then add the appropriate amount of water. Rice quantities will vary depending on how many you are serving, the size of your pan, and the amount of other goodies you´re throwing in. Let simmer 10-15 minutes, stirring to make sure it doesn´t stick.

We generally add in order with a few minutes between ingredients:

1/2 lb of meaty white fish (cod, hake, etc.)in chunks
1/4 lb Calamari rings
1/2 lb. shrimp - shells on (The Spanish eat whole shrimps with the shells, but no one ever seems to get sick. I´m the only person I know who butterflies and de-veins them in other dishes.)
Clams, mussels or currently available shellfish, previously soaked in salt water to release the grit and bearded, scrubbed, etc. - today we have mussels. Shellfish tend to be tricky because they never want to open by the time you´ve got all the other stuff in there. But this gives your MIL a chance to cluck over something.

Hint to people shopping in Spain - Pescadilla in the fish markets is really a Merluza (hake)that´s under 2 kilos.

Keep trying the rice as all this gets cooked - but it will take a while to soften. Salt to taste at this point. If it looks like it needs more liquid, feel free to add more water, white wine or a squeeze of lemon, etc. The seafood will release a certain amount of liquor while cooking, which adds to the broth. We throw in a handful of peas and/or roasted red pepper for color at the end. Resist the impulse to keep stirring constantly, once everything is in there, just leave it alone until everything is done. And don´t worry if a bunch sticks to the bottom of the pan - for some people that´s the best part.

¡Que aprovechen!

Weekend Goings on

This is a busy weekend in Galicia:

Semana Verde in Silleda - the annual celebration of agro stuff in Galicia. They´ve got everything, a livestock sale (heritage breeds!), food exhibitors, horses, antiques, home decor, tractors, cars. We went last year and enjoyed it despite the rain. There were 2 beautiful oxen pulling a cart around. And we got some absolutely delicious chorizo made from free range porco celta.

Arde Lucus - the Romans v.s. the Celts in Lugo. Warning - the website has music that I can´t figure out how to turn off, and let´s just say it´s navigation is ¨problematic¨. I´ve never been, so I can´t comment, but it sounds like good silly fun.

From 2010:

Have fun everyone!

Body Butter

Body butters are mixed (semi)solid oils and liquid oils beaten until fluffy. I am interested in saving some euros on the bottles and bottles of Nivea cream we go through, especially in the winter. The first batch was shea and jojoba oil, the second shea with almond oil. The good thing about body butters is that, being anhydrous (without water) you avoid having to use a preservative. I put in some vitamin E which helps in extending shelf life of the oils. But the quantity is so small, they only last a few weeks.

Verdict - a little greasy. That seems obvious given the ingredients, but the light mousse-iness fooled me. It works into your skin like body oil. My skin likes it, but I would be careful about putting on good clothes immediately after application. The second batch has an orange/geranium blend that´s quite nice.

Now I have to get over my complete intimidation before unpronounceable chemical preservatives and make an actual lotion for summer.

Paper Dolls

I think this artist is AMAZING. Unfortunately, the exhibit ended June 5th, but keep an eye out for her work in the future.

Elenora de Toledo - Bronzino

Isabelle de Borchgrave´s version, entirely in paper:

From an exhibit at the Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco.

Another shot:

Parts I - IV here.

Game of Thrones

“Oh, my sweet summer child, what do you know about fear? Fear is for the winter, when the snows fall a hundred feet deep. Fear is for the long night when the sun hides for years and children are born and live and die all in darkness. That is the time for fear, my little lord, when The White Walkers move through the woods.”
— Old Nan, Game of Thrones

Canal Plus is in the middle of this HBO series based on the first book in the fantasy trilogy by George R. R. Martin and let me just say - I.am.hooked.

It´s got everything:

a complicated plot, an enormous cast, beautiful production values, political intrigue, madness, incest, murder, attempted murder, a half-seen creepy supernatural threat,

lightly clothed barbarians, swordfights, sex, a charmingly snarky dwarf and. . .direwolves!

They´re using Northern Inuit dogs. So gorgeous!

I may have found my summer reading.

Shea soap with Madder, Saffron and silk

Scented with orange and geranium.

Plans, I have plans

For those over the whole kitchen thing - skip this post.

I have spent most of the last weekend cutting, pasting and rotating shapes in hopes of coming up with a kitchen plan.

Now you´d think that since we possess no actual kitchen furnishings or large appliances, or more than 2 window/door openings in the existing space, coming up with a kitchen floorplan would be a piece of cake (pun intended). You´d be wrong. The space is 2,9 x 6,94 meters or 9.5 x 22.7 feet.

Requirements: woodburning stove, regular stove (for warmer months),fridge, farmhouse sink, table with seating for 3ish, china hutch, dishwasher.

Let´s see. Since the woodburning stove is the biggest thing, I´ll just move that around and see what happens. My instinct is that it should go on the shared wall between the living room and the kitchen - but it´s awkward. There will probably be some kind of smallish butcher block/cutting table in the mix too, but for now lets just concentrate on the major stuff.

This is just to establish where the plumbing and electrical outlets need to be. We´ll be purchasing individual elements later.

If anyone has any ideas - feel free to let me know. As I say, windows/door openings can be smaller, larger, fewer, made into french doors, etc.

Extra points for anyone who can figure out how to create a traditional Galician inglenook or lareira out of the woodstove area. Aren´t these great?