Snowy Sunday

It is quite exciting finding out what kind of weather Winter will offer out here, I have been thinking back to childhood days in chilly noseburningearnumbinglybeautiful Northumberland and dreaming of snow. Sunday started with a rainy haily morning round the house then we headed out to the mushroom picking place somewhere between As Pontes and the Fragas de Eume hoping high ground would pay off and it really did. The closer we got the more it got like Northumberland in October; oaks and silver birches with golden leaves and a scattering of snow on the ground until the last kilometer when it almost turned into a proper blanket - a really wonderful few hours was had by all.
Callum's first proper snowball

The higher we went the more snow there was


Callum was so impressed he even said "You can have a wonderful Christmas even without presents"....so if it snows a lot more we might get to save a bit of cash this year if we take him at his word.Another few weeks and a few degrees below and there will be ice on the streams and hard crunchy snow this was soft and soggy but great fun all the same.
There were still a lot of mushrooms about I managed to find 7 boletus sheltering under the pines. Callum stuck with eating snow...

And of course we had to make a snowman then Rowan got really freezing so we headed back. The boys worried about the snowman all the way home so we are going back next weekend to see if he is still there.

Changable weather

Saturday was mostly being; rain, sun, rainbows, rain, sun, hail....

A second visit to Cedeira was needed

We now have two holes where the boys dug for gold


We still need to chop a few trees to let more evening sun in
One minute of hail...

Prince not Princess

Oops Princess Crystal is a he after all, or a she with a pair of furry dice dangling, so now renamed Prince Roll because he does roll a lot.

Rowan got a new Wall-E play blanket for going to school and hijacked my mew laptop this morning. As you can see my desk is the dinong table and it also serves as a playsurface I often ahve to battle with orcs, robots, aliens, dragons or dinosaurs to get a space.

Good to be back

Great flight home and some lovely views of cloudy hills as we flew towards Santiago. Graham and Liz met me at the airport and drove me home and two other friends Carmen and Ian arrived seconds after we got back. So a warm welcome from good friends and hugs all round from the family but it is a bit chilly weather wise. I still haven't managed to get to Vilarrube beach but we did go to Cedeira shopping and nipped onto the beach just as it was getting dark last night. The boys were grumpy until they found one of those sandy cliffs a meter or so high that the sea makes at highwater after having pushed loads of sand up the beach during a storm. It was hard work to get them from beach to shops but really wonderful to watch the hills reflected on the wet sand in the last glimpses of light.

Starting to make some progress re importing the Deli, I found some sources of LHD headlights and Graham put his Chevy van through the test yesterday so I know where to go to find out what else I need to do.

Wildmite is now known as Princess Crystal, has put on a lot of size and lets the boys and Jenny pick her up but still runs off when I aproach :-( I am the guy who chainsaws and chops wood in her palace so that is no surprise really. The boys are sort of going to school, its a hard slog on that front. Hacianda and tax still to sort but we are moving forward on all fronts slowly.

Pattern languages

Stephen and I have been trying to articulate our approach to online work-focused inquiry based learning as a pattern language - in a nutshell architects sometimes use pattern language to support the design of buildings- you can see how a library would need a set of toilets, somewhere for books, a quiet room or two etc etc and how each element could be seen as a pattern, all of the individual patterns that go to define a library are the pattern language for the library and this language or variations on it would be identifiable in most libraries. Each pattern articulates a problem, poses a solution, reflects on its implementation and shows how it links to other patterns. We have applied this strategy to define our practice and it has proved a valuable experience so far in that the patterns provide an analytical framework and reflecting on elements like 'defining the essence of each problem' really made us think deeply about the rationale behind our approach. We are as yet less sure about the use of the patterns as a vehicle for disseminating our practice. We have put them on a blog and invited comments from anyone with a knowledge of delivering education at HE level or having experienced education at HE level. http://inquirypatterns.wordpress.com/ Please take a look if you are interested.

great finale

What a cracker of a day lots of things were flying round in a half formed miasmic cloud and are now consolidating into a promising reality. Moving from that generative phase of effervescent tentative abstracts towards cohesive and cogent realities happens in jumps and leaps - from excited chaos ideas coalesce into strands and clumps and eventually shades of shape and form emerge and bang crash wallop ideas become concrete. Bids need to be written, timeframes, inputs, outputs etc need to be considered, we are almost underway, we have a good idea what the train will look like and a fair idea about the journey it will take - a good close to a valuable trip but I still ache to be home.

Strangely empty

What a wonderful job I have, two new undergraduate degree pathways in development, a new Masters pathway being worked on; all embracing the Ultraversity approach to work based learning, a rebuild and revalidation of our current BA LTR pathway our innovations are being recognised by the University and Mark and myself aiming to develop a media rich academic peer reviewed journal publishing project that will enable both undergraduate/recent graduates and more experienced academics to use creative technologies to disseminate their learning. Stepping beyond the usual constraints of MS Word and text rich media starved papers releasing the creative voice through a fusion of rich expression is something long overdue in academic circles. All sorts of exciting developments underway, the team I work with is stunning I don't have words enough to express my admiration for them and some icing on this cake today we got our shiny new MacBooks clean, crisp and wonderful machines...but still I hanker for my home and my family, the hens, Wildmite and the smell of eucalyptus and there is an emptiness in my soul I am not used to feeling when I am away. I should right now be out at the Atlantic having a meal with my colleagues and Maureen and her husband who I have not seen for a long time. Maureen is very special and was a PA to everyone at the Ultralab; organising us and nurturing us with efficiency I have not met before or since but I just can't face an evening out..sorry M...some days are good some not so good.

Thoughts from the UK

Back in the UK again following a great flight out we went near enough to see our house and Graham and Liz's then headed over the Picos de Europa that were looking lovely with a capping of snow...we must take a treck over there soon. Landed in Stansted in the dark, grey and raining, missed my buss by about 5 seconds and had to wait an hour for the next one. The keys to my room did not fit my room and I was greeted by a used bar of soap and a nice little shower hat. We managed to heat the kitchen by turing the cooker rings on and my room heater worked some of the time - not much has changed in student accomodation since i was a student in the 70s it seems. The smell of takeaways was overwhelming in Chelmsford - they don't do them in Galicia really well not international ones, I had a Chinese take away and eat it with a teaspoon oh what fun.

I am lucky to have a great set of colleagues and really looking forward to getting down to some creative meetings later today but to be honest I would far rather be in Galicia, there are so many people here every whre feels crowded...and I am missing my family so so much :-(

A walk at Praia Morouzo, Orteguaira

We took a wander around the dunes and one of the beaches that first atracted us to this corner of Spain. The first slide might take a few moments to load, if you click on the slide show it goes full screen. Ortegueira is situated close to the top left on a map almost on the North Western tip of Galicia there is a complex estury with a whole host of environments and some lovely wildlife and beautiful beaches. This was what it was like mid November 08

bonfires mist and the gatito

Every evening Rowan asks if we can have a bonfire, I try not to have too many but we did have a lot of cleaning out to do as underneath the woodpile was an accumulation of all sorts of horrible organic rubbish that I did not fancy composting so it went up in smoke. It is hard to balance caring for the environment against boys doing the kind of things boys need to do.


We had another lovely misty start and it is now looking to be a hot day with clear blue skies again.

Our gatito of many names is getting more and more friendly, we are so glad Geraldine managed to trap her and bring it over here, the next stage of the plan is to entice her into the house and stop her using the hay / sawdust downstairs as her toilet.

getting fit

Here are some pictures of us at the training park at Vilaboa, it is next to the football place.

school and a pretty walk

The boys gave school a try today, Rowan went in straight away with Jenny, Callum's cold was very runny over the weekend but he is a lot better today and with a few hesitations he eventually decided to go in himself. The other children were very excited and they seem to have settled in fairly well.

We found a lovely walk at San Sadurnino about 6 miles from here but yet again the rain only relented long enough to grab a couple of photos.A lot of the walks have wooden or gravel walkways and it can seem a bit artificial but there are many wild walks to be found too apparantly.

The weather is set to improve as the week progresses and we are really looking forward to a sunny weekend although there is plenty of time for the forecast to deteriorate. We had a pheasant in the garden again this afternoon and Wildmite is getting very friendly with Jenny rubbing against legs and allowing the occasional stroke but not so keen on me - we think as it is usually me who shouts and chases the other cats away and I do a lot of chopping of wood near where his den is too....ah well time will fix that I hope and maybe we will have a house cat eventually.

All seems well with gingi

Gingi seem to be OK, she survived the night and seems quite perky today although the hens have all decided to stay inside their house today. I have strung a network of white polypropolene string across their enclosure, hopefully enough to discourage any more airborn predators from coming down.

There was a rather sad looking apple treee struggling to survive near one of the front gates, I dug it up today and found it had been tied to a stake with nylon cord that had become deeply embedded in the bark, it was also planted in a mix of builder's rubble and gravel so I would imagine was bone dry for much of the spring and summer - no wonder it was struggling. It has now joined the huerta or orchard that we are planting in the rich soil down the West side of the garden between the house and the eucalyptus.

Weather is still on and off wet and windy but quite comfortable as far as temperature goes. When we moved to Cornwall I met the word 'mizzle' for that sort of rain that is somewhere between thick mist and drizzle...out here we ahve met another word that works really well - they call heavy showers 'tormentias' and inded they are a torment.

As we get our ear in to Galego we are starting to catch on to what one of the local old ladies says, it is always pretty much the same line of conversation something along the lines of "What fettle canny lad, ahm eyty two years ald ye naa, look me hair all fell out cos of me medication and ah hev te gan te hospital te have an operation soon." We wonder if one day we will be able to differentiate between regional dialects here - at the moment we are struggling to get more than about 20% of what they say and cant really tell if its Galego or Castilian....poco a poco.

Its getting dark I had better go and baricade the hens in for the night.

hen problems

The hens were out and about doing what hens do when out of the sky came a buzzardy eagly thing accompanied by a host of crows and pinned one of the hens down, Jen managed to scare it off and they are all locked away now. There was a few drops of blood on the grass but apart from a lot of ruffled feathers I can't see much damage but time will tell. I guess that is the end of our hens roaming round the garden and we will have to string something across the top of their enclosure to discourage marauders too. Some days are good some less so.

Mising the mist and other musings.

The rain cleared overnight and we had a lovely misty start this morning, that usually means a hot day ahead and it turned out that way. We seem to just be perched above the mist, it often covers the houses below us but rarely touches us. Sometimes it looks like a Japanese painting with layers of trees in hundreds of shades of grey. We ended up on Vilarrube beach again and decided it felt as warm as a good May or June day in Cornwall. We gathered some figs and a couple of lemons from the trees on the way down to the beach, there used to be a whole village down there but I think it was removed as it had been built without planning permission however the garden trees still remain. The boys stripped off and went swimming, we found a huge kind of periwinkle thing about 25 cms long, I thought it was just a shell but it turned out to be inhabited. We gathered a load of shells and other beach bits and bobs for the museum the boys want to build in the attic.
Callum has discovered the cupboard in the guest bedroom and calls it his office.

Rowan found a picture of his sister Poppy when she was a toddler and thought she looked cute and gorgeous, Jenny says she still does :-) ...Hiya Poppy.
We are getting on really well with two new friends we met at Stanley's birthday at Rioforcadas - Liz and Graham, the boys have really taken to them and decided Graham is golden Graham. They have a lovely fairytale house near Samozas about 15 mins from us, I hope to put some photos of their house and garden on here soon. Bill and Jackie two other friends we met at Stanley's party are coming round tommorow and I also hope to get some photos of their house on too. It is a small world really; Graham was brought up just over the other side of the river Tyne from where I spent my early years, he and Liz were living in Cornwall, not so far from where we were, for many years before they moved out here. Jackie spends a fair bit of time in Chelmsford where the University I work for is. I hear rumour that there is a couple from Porthleven now living near Pantin about ten mins from here too. Ruan, Stanley's dad went to Sennen school when I was doing my teacher training there and I knew his mum well too. Geraldine, Stanley's mum's mum was familiar as well I am sure we met in Cornwall too.

If anyone out there is short of eggs we have a fridge full of them now please come and have an eggfest... five hens = 4 eggs a day= too many for a family like ours and one of the hens has not started laying yet. Wildmite/Ronnie is thriving but still keeps a little distance off, I don't think he will ever be a house cat. It is time to go and watch Arthur and the Invisibles in bed with the boys, my daughter Kate and her boyfriend Luke sent it and Goblet of Fire over and they arrived today along with some lovely late birthday cards...you have really got some design sense Luke get enrolled on that degree matey.
Night night.

marrow lanterns,a new stove and a walk by the river

We neither had pumpkins nor turnips so settled on marrow lanterns this year, camera batteries ran out again so we have no photos of the boys dressed up unfortunately. Thats the laundry basket in the background - my great photography :-(

The new woodburner works much better than the last one, so much so that the chimney pipe was glowing red hot yesterday, you can see in the photo that the pipe is blue-gold-silver like a motorbike exhaust now...it is much smaller than the Chinese one but far more efficient and we really have to be careful about how much wood we put on. We decided to move it to the corner of the room to get it further away from the sofa as Rowan nearly landed on the last one a few times doing sofa gymnastics. We now have two holes in our end wall and it is mostly raining too hard to cement them up just now so the old one is covered with choco-cracks cardboard and the new chimney pipe is bordered by thicker cardboard to close the hole up a bit. We bought an Hergom stove, according to the manual "To have an Hergom Lebena stove is the manifestation of an exeptional sense of quality." ... we have gone up in the world.The rain stopped for a few hours today and we had a lovely walk by the river at Porto do Cabo the Consello have spent a fair whack building a new walk with wood and gravel paths over the marshy ground and Billy goat Gruff style bridges here and there.