Spanish views from a small town

September is here, and summer is mostly over. With September has come the rains after two months of drought, compounded by a drier than usual spring and winter. There are cities and towns that have already started to ration water. Arqueological sites and ancient villages are appearing from under the receding waters of reservoirs. The earth is bone dry and grasses and shrubs, that normally stay green all year, are turning yellow and dying.  It has been a bit of a boring summer, at least in the month of July. I did go on the maritime procession to celebrate the Virgin Mary on the 16th. It was the first time I had ever gone, and I loved it. I will try to go again next year. I have left Catholicism far behind, but the procession was wonderful. Other than that, I didn't do anything interesting all month, except give classes. Even those were diminished this summer, partly because now there are no recuperation exams in September for those who fail in June, and partly because my regular st...

It's been warm ever since the weekend began. Temperatures above 30ºC/86ºF, and a grueling sun, have made us realize that this is summer, astronomical calendar notwithstanding. After all, the ancient Celts were wiser, and realized that the summer really began on the 1st of May.  After a rather lazy weekend, came a busier week. Yesterday, I had errands to run, and classes to give. I finish my classes next Tuesday, the last day of school. After that, I have a free week before I begin summer classes, and my mornings disappear. I'll have late afternoons free, but by then the day is advanced, and has lost its freshness.  Today, I had another trip into town, to the town hall. Yesterday afternoon, I heard a car beeping its horn outside. I went out to see if it was a neighbor, and it turned out to be the mailman. She was bringing a certified letter from, where else, the regional tax office. No, the saga with the paid fine isn't over, yet.  Last month, when I went and everything wa...

Summer is supposed to appear from today onward. I won't mind temperatures in the upper 20's/low 80's, though I hope they don't rise too far above 30º/86º. Just warm enough to know it's summer and not sit shivering in the early morning or late evening. Classes have gotten off to a slow start. The first day, only the students of one hour appeared. The others didn't come because they didn't have a car available, or because they forgot. The second day, almost everyone scheduled, came. One afternoon student is yet to confirm which days he'll come as of next week. Just as long as some show up, I don't mind that much. I pass a cloth soaked with alcohol over the table, the chairs, the pencils, the erasers, any book used, and the dictionary before the first class, between classes, and after the last class. The study is starting to smell like a hospital; of disinfectant. The window is slightly open. I wear a plastic screen in front of my face, which is qui...

Summer is over. Yes, we're still getting warm days. Yes, I'm still wearing sleeveless tops and shorts. Yes, I'm still barbecuing. But the sun is turning. Every evening it sets earlier, at just after eight thirty, and every morning it gets up later, just before eight thirty. Close to sunset the air turns chill, and in the morning dew lies on the grass, and a blanket feels good at night.  Apples and peaches lie on the ground now, the few that have grown without being pecked or invaded. Different weeds grow, with different flowers and seeds. The Queen Anne's lace is become balls of seed. Some fields will have a bumper crop of them next year. The blackberries are ripening, and the birds are beating me to them.  Our daughter has left to Santiago to finish the two classes and end-of-school project she had left to do. The house is empty now. This week the schoolbuses will beging their routes again, and I'll hear them go by in the morning, the high school one at eight...

Pick a date on the calendar. Now, choose your poison. Today you have mussels in Rianxo, Albariño wine in Cambados, German sausages and beer in Sanxenxo, sardines in Teis, tortilla in Laro (Silleda), bonito in Burela, peppers in Arnoia, razor clams in Fisterra, horse mackerel in Chaín (Gondomar), roast pork ribs on a spit in San Clemente (Caldas de Reis), roast ham in Mondaríz, and octopus in O Carballiño. Apart from that, if you're not hungry, you have various different traditional, religious festivals that turn into musical nights in tons of different parishes. Then there is a medieval fair in Ferrol, the Cultural Week that ends today in Zas, a beach party in Ézaro, a motorcycle concentration in Vilagarcía, and the disembarkment of the Vikings in Catoira. And I know I'm missing stuff from the list, such as the book fair in A Coruña which I think is this week.  August is the month on which Spaniards have traditionally gone on vacation. There are still factories that turn thin...

It's June, and on everyone's mind is on the coming summer and vacation. Those who have children think about it. Those who have to take care of a relative's child think about it. Those who work with children think about it. But the only ones who are truly going to enjoy a long vacation are the children.  Ah, but it doesn't have to be like that. Not according to just about every commercial on television. Publicity for websites, like Booking, Kayak, TripAdvisor, Rumbo, and others, tell you how easy it can be to book the cheapest trip possible, and show tantalizing pictures of five star hotel rooms in the most emblematic tourist spots. You know when you see them that the cheapest night there is still way above your budget, though, and they never show you just what you can afford, a tiny, cramped hotel room with a window facing an air well.  Then there are the beer commercials. Yes, champagne commercials usher in the Christmas season, and beer commercials usher in summer...

September. Beginnings and endings. Last night it became very clear that summer has ended. A cold front came through, leaving lashings of rain to make up for a dry summer. This morning I've had to wear long pants for the first time since June. In a normal year, the winter rains begin now. These past few years we've had rainy summers and dry falls. Though a summer drought like this year's is not so normal, fall is beginning as it should. The rain wreaked havoc with our town's festival, though. The Festa da Guadalupe has become quite famous over the years and now lasts an entire week. Last night's music had to be cancelled and rescheduled for the 20th. Too much rain and wind kept everyone home. The festival also marks the end of summer and the beginning of the school year. Back when towns marked their own first day of school, classes always began after the festival. Now, the regional government doesn't take into account local festivities, and elementary school a...

Tomorrow is the fifteenth of August. Most of southern Europe and some of central and northern Europe will be on holiday. The Assumption of the Virgin Mary was once very important in the calendar year. Now it's nice to have a day off in the middle of summer. Many, many parishes all over Spain are celebrating their feast day this weekend, ours included. Generally, our feast day is on the second Sunday in August and this year it almost coincides with the Assumption. We celebrate Saint Mary, and Saint Roche, and Saint Anne, each its own day, so our festival runs from the Friday to the Sunday.  And, now that the tradition of sitting to a Sunday-cum-feastday dinner has been complied with, most of us are complying with the traditional nap after dinner to help digestion. So, most of us, cats included, are sleeping it off in the cool house or in the outside shade. Even the amount of traffic on the road slacks at this hour. Some have already been sleeping all morning, only getting up to si...

This is an odd summer. Except for about three or four scattered days, we have had warm and sunny weather since the end of last month. These past few years we haven't had summery weather until a couple of weeks at the end of summer and scattered days in the middle. But, this year, the number of forest fires doesn't seem to be as high as other years, even with the sun and warm temperatures. And now, this is where I cross my fingers and knock on wood. Yesterday afternoon was an exception. Some time after seven, we heard a helicopter fly overhead. There are four types of helicopters in our local skies. One is the medicalized ambulance helicopter, another is the hated Tráfico machine with the radar gun, a third is the police helicopter, and the fourth is the yellow or red helicopter that is used by firefighters. The one we heard yesterday was the yellow one. We went out the back, and we could see dark puffs of smoke punctuating the blue sky above the hill. It was drifting up from...

They're here. The longest days of the year, the days I've been awaiting since dark, despairing December, have arrived. Though we have not had a run of completely nice days without any rain, we have had a couple with summery temperatures and cloudless skies. Days that are the tantalizing taste of the wine of summer. Days that intoxicate you and make you believe the best is yet to come.  In the morning, by six o'clock the night has disappeared, and the sky gets ready to greet the sun. The birds wake up, and so do my cats, who come to see why I'm still in bed. By the time I get up, the morning chill has started to disappear and the sun is surprisingly warm when I step outside. Sometimes the smell of cut grass greets me when a neighbor has been clearing a field.  In the afternoon the day lingers long, the sun refusing to go to rest. Because we are so far west, yet follow Central European Time, evenings are forever. At eleven thirty we can still see lighter blue in the s...

Fireworks are beautiful. I've loved them since I was a child. To see a light explode in the night sky into streams of different colors, and to feel the boom resound right through me was the definition of summer and good weather. More than anything because I only saw fireworks on the Fourth of July. Here we see them at almost every festival. Only the very small parrochial festivals don't have them, like ours. Last Saturday, a week late because of the weather, Vilagarcía de Arousa had their Batalla Naval , the fireworks to celebrate the end of their festival. We are about a half hour drive away and we could hear the booming from our house. If we had driven to a high spot in the hills nearby, we would have seen them blossoming over the ría .  But all their beauty has a downside to it. For, to be able to see those fireworks break open in all their glory, many different ingredients have to be put together, including dangerous gun powder. Yesterday there was an explosion at a pyrot...

My husband this year collected a lot of firewood for the winter. We hired a splitting machine and those logs were splintered lickety spit in two days. At a much better rate and less cost of muscle than if my husband were to have done it all by hand over the entire summer. Well, the firewood was intended for the coming winter, but we've had to start the pile already. In August. While July may have been the hottest month on the planet so far since record-keeping began, in our little corner it was a normal month. It and June were a bit dry, so some areas were worried. Mostly along the coastal stretch the temperatures were normal or a little under average, though we had the usual few days of wising for an air conditioner.  In the interior they followed the national average this year - broiling! So when August rolled around we thought we'd have more of the same. No. Except for about six or seven scattered days at the beginning and last week, including a couple the pyromaniacs de...