Spanish views from a small town

This morning I took a walk down some lanes that I hadn't visited since last month, when the leaves were beginning to make an appearance. Today, the trees are almost all showing their spring exuberance, deeply, lusciously green. From this month to the end of July is the best time of the year. From doing nothing in the mornings, I've gone to having something to do almost every day. Yesterday, I went on an errand for my husband that took until well after lunch time. This morning, my daughter ran my errands for me. Tomorrow, we will be making firewood all day.  We rent out a gasoline powered chopper almost every year. We drag it out to the pile of wood, then, while my daughter, my mother-in-law, or I wield the ax head, my husband and my brother-in-law place the logs in the chopper and then clear out the smaller pieces. We generally do it in July or August, and the chopped wood then finishes drying out in the hot summer sun. This year, they'll have longer to dry out. At least, t...

So, Carnival is over, not that there was much of one this year. Our township had a virtual celebration, in which everyone could send in videos of themselves dressed up, as well as of how they lamented the burial of the sardine, the Toribiño, on Ash Wednesday. I didn't participate, and don't know how many did, but there were cash prizes for the best costumes. At any rate, now onward to Holy Week. Which will not be celebrated this year, either. At least, the processions have been cancelled just about everywhere. I assume that, if restrictions are relaxed, Masses will be allowed, but with many fewer attendees allowed. At the moment, for example, funerals are only allowed to have fifteen mourners.  Restrictions will probably be further relaxed next week. I hope so, though not as much as in Madrid. There, things are very relaxed. On the midday news, they showed café terraces filled with people sitting not so far apart, and mostly without masks. This, despite Madrid having the highes...

It seems that contagion is getting worse and worse. Hospitals in Galicia have stopped all unnecessary surgeries. Hospital administrators are expecting to fill even more beds with Covid patients. No relief is seen until the end of February, or later and many are saying that we are now in a worse situation than we were back when we went into lockdown in March. There are calls for another general lockdown. Some are calling for a hard one, like in the first two weeks of last April, when only essential workers were allowed to work, and everyone else stayed put at home. I'm thinking that it might be a good idea. I would lose money because I wouldn't be able to give classes, but it would mean that contagion might be brought down earlier rather than later, and we could save lives and get out of this faster.  On other fronts, there is malaise toward the local and regional governments of Madrid for not having marshalled snow plows and salt when the snowstorm started. The mayor of Madrid,...

Today, it's been a dull, grey day, with drizzle just about all day. It's not been cold, but cool enough that I had to put on socks. Summer is definitely over. It was a decent enough summer in this little corner, at least after the rainy and cool month of June ended. There were some hot days, but we were lucky in that they didn't stretch out into obnoxious heat waves.  I've always preferred late spring and early summer. The days are at their longest, and the promise of summer can be tasted in the honey air. The weather is warm, sometimes too much, but mostly just warm. Everything is flowering or has buds.  I prefer these seasons here in Galicia to the same ones in Boston. They were my favorite then, too, but too short. Spring didn't properly appear until May, and then, rain often marred the growing days. After the middle of June, summer kicked in. The worst part of summer in Boston was when WCVB's Dick Albert announced the three H's in his forecast. When I sa...

A low pressure area just off the Iberian peninsula to the west came closer today, acting more like a tropical depression, and actually trying to form into one. Yellow warnings are out for rain this afternoon and evening, possibly reaching 15 liters per square meter in one hour. Until the clouds started getting thicker this afternoon, it was actually a hazy, warm, and dry day. The barn cats were lazing out in the garden, wrapped up in round balls, sleeping on the grass. Then, the day got darker, and, as the storms started approaching from the south, thunder start to rumble softly. One low growl of thunder, louder than the rest, startled the cats. They got up, and looked out to the hills behind the house. One of the young cats born this spring came running in from the garden, her tail a bottle brush, and created her own lightning bolt as she streaked to the barn.  It's understandable. The young cats born this spring have never heard thunder. For some reason, we haven't had any th...

These days the weather is very temperate, not at all normal for June, especially after a rather warmer than usual winter and spring. The forecast for this summer is for weather drier than normal, and warm, but not asphyxiating, temperatures.  Another forecast is for hurricanes. In the past couple of years, various hurricanes have decided to head northeast instead of continuing westward. They were mostly extra-tropical, that is, formed just outside tropical waters. But in October of last year, Hurricane Paul formed off our waters in the middle latitudes of the North Atlantic. That's very extra-tropical.  Climate change is spurring such anomalies. If years ago, it was common to have a hurricane change track once every ten years, now, it's becoming common for western Europe to face a hurricane at least once every year. At the moment, they're mostly category 1, but if ocean waters keep getting warmer, they will grow in intensity, as well. I remember Hurricane David back i...

This is getting ridiculous. Okay, so back in December we were praying for rain. That was then, this is now. Now we should be basking in the warm sun, marveling at temperatures rising into the 80'sF/30'sC. I've had to light the fire this week, just to warm up the house and dry some clothes. The saying this year, Non te quites o saio ata o corenta de maio , (don't take off your long johns until the fortieth of May) is sounding like very good advice. Normally, in early June, I am looking forward to the summer. I'm getting an itchy foot, and wishing I could get in the car and just travel till I hit the Mediterranean or further. I'm wearing shorts and tank tops, and waiting for classes to end and go to the beach on a warm afternoon. I should be watching the sunset sitting on the stoop, late into the night, drinking in the fragrances of green things that have sat all day in the sun.  Instead, we've regressed to April. It may not be quite as cold, but it is far...

My daughter, ever up-to-date and informed, just messaged to ask me if there was a storm forecast for today. Since it was only being talked about ever since the last one came by early last Sunday, I replied, yes. She then answered, that's why the weather is like this today. Her powers of observation at least led her to look out the window and see the wind is ravaging the trees, and the rain is whipping everything.  They're too busy in the student apartment to keep up to date on much more than what they're interested in. Their television doesn't work well, my daughter's laptop has died and she only goes online on her phone, and they're studying, whenever they aren't getting together with friends some Thursday nights for improvised chatting and roaming the old town's bars. I keep telling her, war can break out and they'll find out when the bombs rain down.  While some ignorance of the world is necessary for sanity of mind, ignorance of the weather c...

This fall is so gradually introducing itself that many days it seems it's still late summer. Nights fall into the lower fifties, upper forties, and the halcyon days are in the upper sixties. (10ºC - 21ºC) It's not cold, and I'm only wearing a blouse or a t-shirt with my jeans. Sometimes I'll drape a sweater over my shoulders, but in the afternoons it becomes burdensome, though I never put it too far away.  It seems most people aren't sure what to wear, either. I have seen people bundled up in winter boots, winter coats, and scarves on a balmy afternoon . O thers I have see n wearing short-sleeved t-shirts and sandals i n a still-fresh early morning. I've still seen shorts an d tank tops out there, as well as an undecided young woman wearing a winter coat, mini-skirt, and bare legs yesterday morning.  It's not strange that there are more colds going around. If you dress for the warmer temperatures during the day, and night finds you outside, you'll...

Today, for the first time in over a week, the only clouds are thin, high streaks in the vivid blue sky that show no threat. The air is clear and you can almost think your eyesight has grown sharp, considering how far into the distance you can see everything clearly. However, we are in February and that sharpness has a price - cold. Finally winter has arrived, just in time for it to leave. Places in northern Spain that usually get their first snowfall in December got it in February this year. Ski resorts finally have snow to sell, instead of just fresh mountain air. Kids who live in mountainous areas finally have a snow day as snowplows do their work. Drivers dust off their skills at adjusting tire chains to cross mountain passes. The weather has turned seasonable after a fall-cum-spring that had everything flowering early. But that's it, seasonable. Temperatures here on the Galician coast have fallen to around freezing at night and rise into the upper forties during the sun-ble...