Minor earthquake in Galicia just round the corner

Last night we suddenly heard a growling sound. Seconds later the house shock just once and the growling passed on into the night. We thought either it was a tremor or a rather large lorry has tried to pass through one of our lanes and brought a wall or house down. So I checked one of the monitoring sites – and yes – there it was. A minor tremor 2.7 just about 15Km from where we live in the middle of the Belezar lake which is along the river Mino fault line.

As we sit on sheer granite it is probably more noticeable here than in other areas. Nothing serious has happened but it is a weired experience.

Details of present alerts in Europe are here

Spain experiences about 3600 tremors a year! Of which maybe one a day is noticeable, they are mainly in the Levante and Andalusia area. Here we are on a minor fault line, thus there are so many hot springs along parts of the river Mino. Ourense alone has about 24 known hot springs of which quite a few are used to feed public bath along the river. The water comes up at about 62C! which is very nice on cold days.

Here at Zapatero and the Casa de las Flores, harvest is in full swing. The deep freeze is full of rasberries, the rhubarb is growing well and producing nice juicy shoots. Finding the beans in the leaves can be a challenge, specifically when you turn round and see more – I just picked these…..

As it also a great time to pick lavender, parsley and mint (do I love chocolate mint! – smelling after eight without the calories!)

I build some simple wooden frames and nailed “mosquitera” or wire mesh onto them. The top one is just black plastic, so the sun can’t bleach it and heats  it up nicely.

Tomorrow, 20th of July, Ikea opens near Coruna. Great, because Portugal has decided to start charging (1st of August?) for the A28 and A27, the new motorways to Porto,  Porto airport and Ikea. The quirk is, there are no toll both. You can only pay electronically by having a “chip” in your car window. These you can buy prepaid at all service stations. The systems Via Verde or PayG are common enough in Portugal, but don’t work in Spain, neither does the Spanish system work in Portugal – welcome to Europe!

Expat