Spanish views from a small town

Today is raw. It was sunny in the morning, but then the clouds came and so did the rain. Without the sun, I notice the cold more. I'm shivering in my studio, with a shawl draped over my shoulders. After weeks of spring weather, with the trees and plants flowering early, winter says hello, I haven't gone far. My husband has been doing things around the back field and with the logs out front. He wants to get work out of the way for when he has to go back to his job. Those employees that have been told to stay home from yesterday are supposed to be paid by their employers. But they have to work the hours lost during the rest of the year. My husband envisions two months of working Saturdays, which is when he's usually doing something around the house. So, he's pushing the season's chores, cutting grass, and cutting the logs to later rent the chopper and make the winter's firewood.  Last night, on the news there was the story of an elderly lady in Pontevedra whos...

In the end, nonessential workers are given today to set everything to rights for two weeks at home. So, my husband went to work, more than anything so that they can cover a roof so that when it rains later this week, people won't get wet.  Today it's much colder and the wind is strong and biting. It's sweeping everything away and I've had to collect pails and close windows tightly. Pollen is getting into every cranny there is to be found. This is now weather in which it is easy to fall ill. It's much worse elsewhere; on top of the new cold, it's supposed to rain and snow in the rest of the peninsula today and part of the week. Here, we're supposed to get some showers toward the middle of the week, and spring should return by the weekend. Last night, on my Facebook feed, I saw that someone posted a blog entry on the 1918 pandemic here, in Rianxo. The second wave, in the fall of the year, seemed to have been much worse than in the spring. At its zenith, in...

Well, that's that. My husband is staying at home from now on.  Last night, it was declared that only essential workers should continue working. That doesn't include construction workers. From Monday till April 9th, everyone unessential stays home. (I don't know why the arbitrariness of the 9th; it's a Thursday.) But my husband doesn't know if he should go on Monday or not. It seems they started to undo a roof and the house is uncovered. They may need to temporarily cover it, which they would do in the first hours of Monday morning.  Oh, there's plenty to do at home. There's too much to do at home. Still, there's also time for play. The weather continues fine, but the temperatures are supposed to go down from tomorrow onward. There might even be a light frost on Monday night. Now, after putting in the potatoes. With all the trees that have or are flowering. Normality is being sorely missed. What is normal is the presence of smugglers in our inlet....

I'm tired today. I'm tired on three counts. The first is that I went to bed late. The second is that I got up early, and the third is that this morning we put in the potatoes. The regional government decreed last week that all the rural households could work their fields as long as they were within five hundred meters of the house. This morning you could hear the growl of tractors in nearby fields. At the beginning, it had been our intention to go at it just the two of us, but then my mother-in-law insisted on coming to help. So did my brother-in-law, despite living in the next township and having to come by car. The two of them wore masks and gloves. My mother-in-law and I finished first while the other two were tamping down the earth. We came to the back door and she took out a re-purposed spray bottle and starting spraying herself. "Is that bleach?" I asked. "Non, muller, non. É caña." She was spraying herself with caña , or augardente , a spiri...

This morning I finally finished off the pancakes, with a sliced banana on top. I prefer them with strawberries but I finished those yesterday. And I finished the bananas today. That leaves a kilo of mandarine oranges, which I will have to pour some chocolate syrup on, just in case they're not very sweet. If it were just me, there would be fruit aplenty still in the fruit bowl. But, instead of a sweet tooth, my husband has a fruit tooth. I had to hide that last banana for this morning's breakfast. His problem is that when he's home and not doing anything, he's eating. Sunflower seeds, peanuts, fruit, fuet sausage, everything goes. It's a good thing he's not sitting around all day. Even so, he's gained a few kilos in these last years. If he's finally sent home, it's a godsend there's plenty of work around the house he has his eyes on.   I finally have a class today, and from next week onwards, on Mondays. One of my students' mothers called ...

I am not normally an energetic person (yes, I'm lazy) and when I don't have an  outside deadline, I flounder. I tend to be at my most energetic in the hour or two before my classes begin. Or when I have to make lunch. Or when I have to go somewhere. Otherwise, I just lounge unless I pick myself up and order myself to do something. And even then I can get sidetracked easily.  So, I haven't been painting. In the afternoons, light floods my studio and I can easily finish a pastel painting that has been sitting here since autumn. But I don't. My writing has suffered, too. I am at a point in my story where it would be prudent to visit the areas I am writing of, instead of using Google Maps, which, even in satellite view, don't exactly show the reality of a place. I discovered that fact when I went looking for a place where my characters could ford a river, and discovered they couldn't do it unless they had six-foot legs. I had to rewrite an entire scene. I know I c...

Every morning, I sit at my computer and check Facebook, the internet, and blogs I follow. Among them is Anthea's Virtual Jotter , written by a woman who lives in Manchester, England, and is a friend of another English blogger I follow from Pontevedra, Thoughts from Galicia . Anthea mentioned Samuel Pepys diary and a quote, though the quote came from an account recently set up on Twitter to follow this pandemia in the style of Pepys. (https://twitter.com//Pepys_Diaries for those who want to check it out.) But it made me remember Pepys' famous Diary, of which I have excerpts in an English literature book. The actual diary can be found online, too, at pepysdiary.com. This habit of keeping blogs and online diaries is not new at all. Samuel Pepys kept a personal diary he wrote in shorthand, where he described his daily life as the Chief Secretary of the Admiralty for Charles II, and all his personal relationships (he was quite the womanizer). He also spoke about the two most impor...

I now have pancakes to last me the rest of the week. I haven't made pancakes in absolute ages. For breakfast, I generally eat a yoghurt with nuts, seeds, and blueberries or strawberries. But, the other day when I began to stockpile, I saw a small bottle of maple syrup at a decent price, so I bought it.  I left it next to the coffee maker and I've been looking at it every day. I really have no idea why I bought it. Or, maybe, my brain sent me a coded message. So, the last time I did some shopping, I bought flour. Today, I decided to make the pancakes. And the mess. I haven't had so much to clean up in the morning since the holidays. I even had to crack open the kitchen windows because, having forgotten the niceties of making such things, the pan was too hot and the oil was smoking. A lot. Well, I now have pancakes in the fridge to last me the rest of the week. I'll be happy to get back to the yoghurt breakfast.  Life has been reduced to little things like that. O...

Here we are, the first workday of the second week of confinement. Three weeks to go. After four days together, I was glad to see my husband go to work this morning. Don't get me wrong, I love him and I don't want him to get sick. I love being with him, but I also like my time alone.  Three years ago, when he was temporarily unemployed, we spent all day together. At first, it was a matter of getting used to the new status, then it just became routine. But back then, we had the opportunity of one of us going out on our own, or both together. Now, we can only be together at home. I suppose, if his company shuts down, that we will get used to the new status quo. So, my husband and I would get into a routine of sorts, just like everyone else. After a few days, it would all start to flow. I miss our daughter, too. We did a couple of video calls, but they're not the same. I can't just stare at her while she sits at the table, nor just mention something off the top of m...

It's been a week, we have another week to go. Or two. Or three. Or - have pity on us - many more.  It's been decided that the Congreso will approve an extention of the state of alarm. That will mean more weeks of confinement. It was to be expected. The worst days of infection are yet to come. This won't be over by the end of the week.  I suppose it's a defense mechanism for the mind. When every modern war began, we all told ourselves it would only be a few weeks, a month at most, and it would be all over. But it wasn't and it won't be.  I sometimes think about Anne Frank these days. She, her family, and friends, were in hiding for over two years, confined to a small apartment. But, unlike the Europe of today, they had no internet, no television, and no touch with the outside world. In this confinement, people play music, go out on their balconies to chat with the neighbors, do exercise in their homes. Those hiding in the Secret Annex, Anne's name for t...

Some of these free virtual tours might be hazardous for your cabin fever. I did a small visit to the Hermitage last night, and returned this morning before I began some chores. It was not enough. I want to go there. NOW. Oh, to traipse those inlaid wood floors, gaze upon gold and crystal chandeliers, be blown away by the immensity and richness of each hall, contemplate up close each objet d'art , and to think upon those that walked through those same rooms shortly after they were built, appraising the work of hired craftsmen!  Fine, so make plans after all this is over. Not so fast. It cost me blood, sweat, and tears to gather enough money to spend five days in Cantabria last September, to celebrate our anniversary there. Even so, we had to dip into the month's money. I haven't checked, but it would take probably three thousand euros for a trip to Saint Petersburg, the lion's share going to airfare and hotel.  Yes, the cheapest way to go would be by car. But it wo...

Well, that's that for my walks in the woods. Yesterday afternoon, I crossed the road and took a lane into the woods. I went to the top of a little hill and looked across the valley towards the west, and the innermost corner of our inlet, the Ría de Arousa. Everything was tranquil, the drone of traffic had disappeared. When one van went by on the road far below me, the noise was evident. In the silence, I could hear a rooster crowing in the village below, and a tractor far off, working the earth.  And there were birds. I don't think I've ever heard quite so many birds twittering and trilling together in the woods. The oak leaves were starting to unfurl, much too early, and the yellow flowers of the broom were opening, also much too early. I hope there will be enough blooms on those bushes still by Walpurgis night, April 30th, when we all hang them on doors and gates to sweep witches away. We need to sweep them away this year.  When I came back and resumed reading the ...

I have the sniffles.  In normal times, I would accept them as simply my spring allergies arriving, along with the early greening of the world, about a month ahead of time. In these times, I start noticing every little thing about me that's off. These must be difficult times for a hypochondriac.  Today is Saint Joseph's Day, and Father's Day. It's also the biggest day of the Fallas in Valencia, but they've been cancelled. It's a holiday, and there would be some cars going by. But not now. One car went by all morning. One. Car. I'm sure it will be stopped at some point, and I hope they have a good excuse.  An excuse is what one man over forty years old had in Vigo when he showed up at a police station, saying he wanted to be detained and that he had the virus. He was sent to a hospital, where he was found to be healthy. Two hours after being sent home, he was back at the police station, begging to be arrested because he was sick and tired of being shut ...

My first venture outside! Yesterday afternoon I just had to stock up on fruit, to keep up my vitamin C; on diesel for our tractor, because the potatoes will not wait to be planted; and on cat food, because otherwise, I'm cat food. So, I got in the car and drove slowly, savoring the smooth movement of the tires on the asphalt, warm wind blowing in through the open window. At the gas station, the attendant took the container from me at arm's length, and we exchanged money from a meter away, as well. When I got to the supermarket, the first words from the cashier by the door were, "Gloves are on the table!"  The supermarket still had shelves without toilet paper. There must now be a world-wide supply problem. There was no problem with other things, and there were fruit and vegetables to choose from, even fresh fish. But the entire place reeked of bleach, and there was a cleaner spraying the mixture of bleach and water everywhere, and wiping it off. All the superma...

The third day of our imposed containment is here. The nice thing is that it's sunny and the temperatures are rising above yesterday's chill. The bad thing is the strong north wind is still blowing.  The optimists are saying that in ten days, if all goes well, we might begin to notice changes, and that the number of infections will start to go down in about a month. But that's if people stay home and don't wander around at will. Or go to work on crowded trains, I suppose. So, I wouldn't make any plans for May just yet.  All you hear on the news or read online is coronavirus, coronavirus. If it weren't for that, the biggest story of the day would be the tension in the royal household. It seems the old king, Juan Carlos, was given an illegal "gift" by the Saudis of one hundred million dollars, that he squirrelled away in Switzerland. After a British newspaper published the story earlier this month, Felipe VI decided to stop the state salary of almost ...

It's the second day of general confinement.  It's confinement as opposed to quarantine. You can still go out, though only to specific places. But not to the hair dresser's today. Last night they took them off the list of open establishments. Apparently, they had first been allowed to open to attend to movement-impaired customers who might not be able to wash their hair on their own. Today, the customer has to arrange for their hair dresser to make a house call in that case.  That means that though there are fewer cars for a Monday, there are still cars. I don't know just how strict they are here; I haven't ventured out. But in Madrid, from reports, there were moments of overcrowding on the subway. Quite the opposite of what had been intended. I'm sure they'll figure out something.  Hopefully, if they close down more places of business, the authorities will do like in Italy and oblige companies and banks to stop bills and mortgage payments until things ...