These days it is very dangerous to be a raspberry.
Our friends from over there (ocean) always have to know precisely what they eat.
Although from their size you wouldn’t think so.
Here is my « make up »:
According to the USDA National Nutrient Database, one cup of raspberries (about 123 grams) contains 64 calories, 1.5 grams of protein, 0.8 grams of fat, and 15 grams of carbohydrate (including 8 grams of fiber and 5 grams of sugar).
Ancient secret ?
Now he might know that : Eating one cup of raw raspberries will provide 54% of your vitamin C needs, 12% of vitamin K, 6% of folate, 5% of vitamin E, iron, and potassium, and 41% of manganese needs for the day as well as lesser amounts of thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid, vitamin B-6, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, zinc and copper.
So here at Zapatero / Casa de las Flores we eat while we pick. Once my face looks similar to that of the turtle I start collecting them.
If you can’t eat anymore – simply drink them….
Greek Yogurt with Raspberries – Or if you happen to have yesterdays in the freezer use frozen ones and make soft ice…….
Everything that passes the above challenges tends to be made into Marmalade.
Which I think is a fitting end to a fruit and a story.
On these brilliant frosty morning skies the painting of trails is very prominent.
Have you ever wondered where the contrails or vapor trails are leading to ? or where they from ?
NATS national air traffic control of the UK have made a great visualization of a days flight movements here in Europe.
Just click on the picture which is a link to the NATS video. Incredible.
NATS visualisation
Another reason why we live in Galicia and not in south UK, Frankfurt or Amsterdam.
Todays weather
No, the swirls are no indication of nice contrails they indicate potential morning mist. Maybe due to the lack of many of these vapor trails do we have these nice temperature differences of 20C in just 10 hours or so. Enjoy it will only get hotter!!
The frost just – lifted the contrail dissipate – no excuse to linger – off into the wild (garden)-
We seem to inherit – no not monetary wealth BUT nice people. Jeff and Elaine had a German couple Steffen & Karin house sitting. Long story short, it turned out they both are travelling on a sabbatical (year) and Steffen had to go back to Germany for 10 days to attend urgent business. Just in time our holiday apartment (Casa de las Flores) became available and we said, well Karin if you help a bit you are welcome to stay and await the return of Steffen.
Virtual office
Steffen did return ! and as we got along quite well they stayed a bit on to help and organize their further travel plans.
The weather wasn’t great but we could show them a bit of Galicia and galician live as well – One memorable evening/night was spend with our neighbors at a typical galician dinner and Karin, solo at that time, was invited as well. Nothing to it, except Karin is VEGAN, a very alien concept to Galicians. Some salad leaves where found, we could just prevent lacing these with tuna and Karin indulged in a huge helping of local potatoes. An extra Filoa baked in sunflower oil rather than the usual fat and the typical loud and happy congregation will have made a lasting impression.
The two cooks
I had the unmissable experience of two cooks preparing a huge selection of evening dishes vegan and non vegan – EACH night.
Steffen, who organises tours for punk groups across Europe, came back happy, tiered and deaf but recovered sufficient to help with some chores.
Mechanised mule
Among these was the unloading and locating of the famous « Bauwagen ». This arrived on a low loader in driving rain and there was no way this lorry could get across our wet field. As the usual ever so optimistic guy I am, I said « it doesn’t weigh that much its just a bit of steel and sheet metal ». One tug at the towbar and the concerned face of the lorry driver had me scampering away to round up the smallest tractor and an experienced driver.
Our neighbors are just wonderful and seem to tolerate our weird ideas. Juan arrived, took one look and went off to get the old green mechanised mule of the village.
Bauwagen in – Tractor out
Whilst this was going on more neighbors congregated and together we manged to hitch the casa on wheels and drive it across the field to its designated place – all in driving rain.
My wife Barbara got elevated blood pressure and accelerated heart beat when she found out that the tractor had to negotiate the garden to get the « Bauwagen » in and itself out again. But Juan, with encouragement of us all, managed serene and without any destruction to highly prized plants to « plant » the « Bauwagen » and get the tractor out again.
Color scheme To be discussed
She did think about an offer to buy the tractor and inter it in situ, but now she can and does spend that money on even more plants, some of which are necessary to obscure our newest acquisition.
Today Otero delivered more sand & gravel to finalize the stand, insulation material for the interior and some tiles for yet another project. I am happy to report that divorce proceeding could be avoided when discussing the color scheme by simply agreeing that two or more coats of paint simply add to the insulation factor therefore are not wasted.
Here are so called « artists » impressions – done by cheap software rather than expensive artists – and we apologise in advance for any damage done to animals nearby that maybe the result of our color trials.
Color trial
The Option
Sadly Karin & Steffen are moving on – but they left us the legacy of being properly schooled in all things vegetarian & vegan – not converted – but capable of guaranteeing the survival of future visitors that are vegetarian or vegan.
