Jam, cookies and guirlandes.

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RJ
rebecca jansen
wo 21-12-2016 09:21
Postvak IN; Verzonden items
Aan:
rebecca jansen (rebs@live.nl);


Just a minute ago the sky was filled with low hanging child-drawing-like clouds in a light greyish sky. IIt took me by surprise when I looked up from the crossword I was making. The clouds, with beautiful curves and bubbles and a flat bottom, were amazing colorful, in different tones of grey, blue and pink....they reminded me of the inside of some shells you may find on the beach. The sun tried to penetrate through and succeeded for a short moment. On that moment the clouds shone even brighter, the water in the river we were passing looked like silver and the brownish trees seemed to glow. Now, not so many minutes and kilometers later the sky is one big patch of grey...and eventhough it is midday, it got very dark. The high mountains that now and then appear on both side of the train track do not help that much either..shielding the small amount of light that was there to begin with.
I just switched trains in Leon and am on my way to Oviedo. Around Leon the landscape is flat and quite dry, reminding me of a savana. Coming from green Galicia where yesterday morning the garden was covered in frost, the land around the city of Leon is much drier and arid. It is beautiful in its own way though, with low brown and red scrubs on yellow ochre colored earth and fields of soft looking and more spiky looking bushes with small bright yellow flowers. And the skies....the clouds that I just witnessed were only visible thanks to this wide bare landsscape, giving these clouds the space for their moment of fame. But not long after leaving Leon and the flat lands, the landscape changed again....the train made its way through snow covered mountains, their highest points invisible through all the mist...It was breathtaking. The many tunnels on the way obscure the few a bit, but after every dark tunnel there was a new stunning vista....more mountains with snow, evergreen trees and rocky outcrops. Just love this northern part of Spain.

I had a very good time in Galicia. It's a stunning part of Spain and thanks to my hosts I got to see many beautiful corners that I would never had seen on my own. Every week, after working in the garden or making cookies for the German Christmas market, they would take me on several small and bigger trips into the countryside. Showing me the best of the region Ribeira Sacra ( known for its wine) and beyond. In the beginning most of the trees still had most of their leafs, coloring the slopes in all the imaginable autumn colors you can think of. Not many days later the cold weather came in and so we went on snowhunt.....making our way up and down the mountains on the other side, through narrow, very curvy roads, stopping at a attractive quiet picknick place with a waterfall before driving up higher and higher were we found snow. Luckly the snow stayed high in the mountains and after a few chilly days, there were sunny December days in which we enjoyed working in the garden, preparing it for the winter. Cutting back flowers and plants, spreading cow poo around the fruitplants and covering the older strawberry plants with straw whilest we replanted the 'babies" in small containers where they can grow bigger and stronger and prepare themselves for spring. It was nice work, relaxing and nice to be outside in the late december sun. On other days in that first week of December, we baked cookies, jams and chutneys in the kitchen and made Christmas decoration...all for the Christmas market. When Barbara and Martin started the German tradition in their village Mer, people did not really know what to think of this market stand where the sold cookies, jam and gluhwein, but by the look of it they now fully appreciate the effort Barbara and Martin make. There were now more or less 11 stands where friendly and skilled artisians sold their work...the sun shone, christmas songs played on the radio and of course the gluwhein, christmas stol and small German sausages were available for those who liked ( and believe me...it was liked). A great sunday it was..with loads of happy faces and nice people. And we sold almost all our jams and cookies.
This week the frost and fog came in and on our way to the hot springs in Ourense we saw that now most of the trees lost their leafs now. The odd one still has a few brown or yellow leafs, but most trees in this region are not bare without their leafs...they now proudly show the lightgreen, crafty, almost like embroidery looking like moss on their branches. Very beautiful. Together with the evergreen trees like the conifer, the pine trees and the almost blooming Mimosas, they winterlandscape of Galicia was still beautiful. A must see for nature lovers.

Since none of the host I wrote to this month replied yet, I have no idea where I will be working in 2017, but will keep you updated. For now I wish you all a merry Christmas and a great 2017. Abrazos desde España.