Late Summer in the Garden

 After my cross country trip in April/May I thought it might be too late to plant my garden, but I took a chance and boy, did it pay off! We've been harvesting all month!

Here are some photos of how the garden is doing now...

Today I picked my first cantaloupe of the 7 or 8 that are on the vine. It just fell off in my hands and smells very sweet. Cantaloupe for breakfast tomorrow!

Joe also harvested two of the sunflowers today after he caught Mr. BlueJay stealing seeds!

This garden has fed us all summer. 

Here are just some photos I've taken:

First artichoke of the season!

My sage is VERY happy!

Still have some carrots coming on.

The green beans are going nuts!

Joe has been canning them every few days.

My strawberries have been nice this year.

This week, I cut and rooted the runners for next season.

Zucchini, Yellow Crookneck, and Patty Pan Squash

The asparagus finished and I've tied it up.

The tomatoes are so heavy, they've imploded.

We just started harvesting them this week.

Loving my Dahlias!

This is the first year my fig trees bore fruit. 

I waited and waited and was watching the first fig ripen.

I thought, "I'll pick it tomorrow..."

Next morning I went out and there was 

a big old chunk chewed out of it. 

A RAT!

And it was war!

We set rat traps and caught 6 rats over the week.

I think we got them all!

Soon we'll be canning tomatoes.

These were started from heirloom tomato seeds saved from last year.

Not sure what we'll get.

So far, I've picked two and they were pretty good.

7 more cantaloupe waiting to get ripe!

My spearmint is about done, but it sure did bring in the bees!

I mainly use it for Portuguese Cueves.

Golden Raspberries put on a HUGE Spring crop

and are now putting on their late Summer crop.

They are SO sweet!

We freeze them and use them in cereal for breakfast,

when we don't just eat them off the bushes!

The bell peppers are really putting on a lot of fruit...

We have tons of volunteer cherry tomatoes 

as well as some little yellow pear tomatoes. 

No photos - I ate them!

The cucumbers are about done.

Joe has been fermenting pickles for a couple of weeks.

This is Delicata winter squash just getting started.

My thornless blackberries are going NUTS!

The turkeys got after them and I had to put in

a motion controlled sprinkler.

So far it has worked.

These are REALLY nice and fat and sweet

if I wait long enough to pick them.

I've been putting them in bags in the freezer for cereal.

We actually had a nice little volunteer potato harvest.

We ate a lot of them.

This is what is left.

These purple potatoes were volunteers.

They're REALLY good and I hope more come up next season.

What is left of my Autumn garlic.

I have more coming to plant in September for next Spring.

I had a nice little onion harvest;

here is what is left.

Next year I'm planting more.

Love my dahlias!

This was a surprise!

My kitchen counter always looks so pretty

with all the colors of the harvest.

I LOVE my garden!

My Life

I haven't been posting much because I haven't been doing much.

Literally.

I took a fall on the Camino last Spring and nearly broke my wrist. 

I fell again at home in December. Both times it was due to depth perception issues - The first time I hadn't yet had cataract surgery and the second time was immediately after the surgery. 

The fall in December was a HARD fall - I tripped over a storage bin and fell flat onto my hardwood floor, catching myself with my arms.It knocked the breath out of me and I knew I was hurt, but I didn't know how bad until 6 months later.  I went ahead and took my van trip back to Georgia and home with no problems driving, just a little pain at night in bed.

Upon getting home, I started up at the gym and immediately knew something was wrong. I went to the doc, who sent me for imaging and I have a complete tear of the supraspinatus on my right rotator cuff, and my left is also damaged. I started PT but it has made it worse to the point I have pain lifting a coffee cup at this time.

I'm seeing a surgeon in 2 weeks (appointments are difficult to get) and hope to try to resolve this without surgery but we'll see.

Doc also complained about my high cholesterol but I refused statins. 

I'll tell you, I want to live to be 100 but it is a BITCH getting there!

It can be depressing.

Anyway, Joe and I were hoping to walk the Camino Ignatius this coming year, but looks like it will have to wait because I can't carry a pack and if I have surgery it could be 9 months before I can carry a pack.

So.. stay tuned. 

I'm not sure where my life is going.  I'm a little depressed - getting older isn't for sissies. But I'm hanging in there for now.

Love,

Annie

Watch Your Step!

There are only a few places I suggest you watch your step

on the Camino Frances:

• Going down into Roncesvalles from the summit. You have two choices. You can stay on the trail and walk down through the beech forest. If it's dry, this may be a good option. However, it is very steep in places and in wet weather, the fallen leaves make the trail slippery and dangerous. Also, over the years, water has washed out huge gullies. If you choose this option, take care and watch your step, use your sticks, and go slow. The other option is to turn right and walk on the road. It is just as beautiful a walk, is safer, and no longer. That's the way I go these days. Also, if it's hot, there is a nice ice-cold stream where you can take off your shoes and soak your feet. 
  
  
• Going down into Zubiri the path has two dangers. First, water has washed VERY deep gullies into the trail. I'm talking at least 12 inches in some places so you REALLY have to watch where you put your feet! It is important not to sightsee on this section of the trail, but watch every step. Also, if it is wet, there are big slick boulders that you can slip on. Personally, I rarely walk this section anymore. I walk to Viskarreta and then grab a taxi to take me to Zubiri.  There are TWO bars in Viskarreta - one busy one on the left just as you enter the village - and another on the left after you are in the village. The second one is quieter and a little difficult to see, but it's there. Just watch on the left. 
  
  
• Going DOWN Alto Perdon. In this section the Camino guardians have put rocks to cover a washed out area. The loose rocks can be difficult to walk on and there's a chance here of twisting your ankle. However, I just walk on the sides and have no problems. The big thing here is, again, to WATCH where you put each step, and don't be watching the scenery. Use your sticks and pay attention. 
  
  

These are the ONLY 3 sections I'm aware of
where you really have to watch your step.

Boots, Yes or No?

 Here is what I think about footwear on the Camino:

Hórreos, Palomares, and Rollos de Justicia

While walking the Camino, you will often come across a strange looking structure, built up on stilts, with a cross on top. What ARE these?

These are Hórreos, and are a type of corn crib, built to store dried grain, and made to keep rodents out.

These structures have different names depending on the province where they are located or the shape they have. They can be called espigueiro or canastro in the north of Portugal, cabazo in Lugo and A Coruña, canastro in Orense, cabeceiro or canizo in the Vigo estuary , piorno in Salnés. Generally, however, you will hear them referred to as hórreos. Hórreos are also known as horriu, horru, horriu, hurriu, hórreo, paneira, cabazo, caniço, hôrreo, and garea, garaia, or garaixea (Basque.)

Hórreos are built of wood or stone, depending on location.

They can be short or long. The longest hórreo in Galicia is located in Carnota, A Coruña, and is 35 meters long.

Here is a photo of a very long one:



According to location, they can be built rectangular, square, or even round.



On the Camino you will see at least two round structures built of woven sticks like basketwork. These are called cabaceiras and serve the same purpose.




The hórreo roof can be thatched, tiled, slate, pitched or double pitched.



The oldest known hórreos are from the 15th century.

These days, hórreos are almost always protected by most local governments, which means if you purchase a property with an old hórreo on it, you are not allowed to tear it down.

Other interesting structures you will see on the Camino are dovecotes. These are called palomares and are almost always round. You will see a lot of these around Boadilla.






From a blog by Allison Reid:

Doves and pigeons were an important resource in the Middle Ages, valued primarily for their meat, eggs, and feathers. Falconries used them as quarry, and their guano was a highly sought-after fertilizer. In southern Europe, it was spread on hemp fields and vineyards. In Northern Europe, it was said that pigeon guano was worth ten loads of any other type of fertilizer.

Until the 1600s, strict laws forbid anyone other than the nobility or monasteries from keeping doves and pigeons. Though some castles and manors had built-in nesting boxes, for the most part these birds were housed in freestanding structures called dovecotes. They were round, stone buildings with either a domed or conical-shaped roof. The round shape made it easier for people to collect young doves or pigeons (squabs) from the nesting boxes. Squabs were considered a delicacy.

The inside of the building had a large open space, with ledges or cubicles jutting out from the walls. Pigeons would enter and exit from openings just beneath the roof. The nests could be accessed with a ladder attached to a revolving pole called a potence.

There is some evidence that pigeons were also used for communication, but only after exposure to Middle Eastern practices during the crusades. For the most part Western Europeans had no concept of how birds migrated. (They thought that Swallows hibernated during the winter in the mud beneath ponds.) The use of homing pigeons to communicate over long distances didn’t become common throughout all of Europe until after the medieval era. However, those regions that continued to trade and communicate with the Arab world during and after the crusades began to build networks of homing pigeons. The Republic of Genoa was the most notable of these, and built towers for that purpose along the Mediterranean Sea.

Pigeons were able to deliver messages relatively reliably and quickly over hundreds of miles from their home. By feeding them in one location, and nesting them in another, they could be trained to fly back and forth between two locations. But more often, once they were released and delivered their messages, pigeons had to be transported back and forth by cart. This method of communication was not without its limitations, however. Any message sent by pigeon had to be very short, and the receiver on the other end would have to be literate enough to read it. Such messages could also be intercepted by trained falcons and hawks, or by archers.
***

ROLLOS DE JUSTICIA:


Another structure you will see, often in the village square is a column called a Rollo de Justicia. These are often topped with a ball or a cross. Sometimes there will be iron rings in the structure.

What are the rollos?  The rollos represented the administrative category of the place, built only in the villages that had full jurisdiction, indicating the regime to which it was subjected: councilor, ecclesiastical or monastic lordship. It marked the territorial limit and, in certain cases, was a commemorative monument of the concession of the town.

The rollos were also used as "pillories", although their functions in the Middle Ages were different. A pillory was the place where criminals were exposed to public shame, often by public whipping. The iron rings were used to hold the prisoner by rope or chain. Rollos were also a place where the dead bodies or heads of criminals were hung as a warning.

Though the Cortes of Cádiz promulgated a Decree in 1813 ordering, at the request of the city councils themselves, the demolition of all signs of vassalage, many remain as historical objects and are protected.

One of the most photographed along the Camino is the one you will see in Boadilla.