Life in Galicia

As written before feiras (ferias in castellan) and fiestas not necessarily are on weekends. Our local Feira da Rosca is dove tailed on the first market day in August. This, in Sober is the 12th.

Normally Sober is on the quiet side. August sees nearly all houses inhabited as lots of Galiciens come home for the holidays and there are some tourists as well. So with a market and a feiria on top Sober explodes into life. So that you don’t miss it, at 10am there is Disparo de 13 Bombas del Palenque. Big bangs between you and me.

Rosca (del Reyes) according to Wikipedia goes back to either the three kings or probably the Saturnalia’s from roman times.

Either way, there is a huge variety of this round or oval shaped cake. Here in Sober it’s made from flour and as Saffron is a bit on the expensive side yellow food coloring. The cakes are round and go well with whatever one fancies on top. Cheese, ham, fruits (dried or fresh) everything is possible. The central well was  decorated the show the theme. Local artisans exhibit and sell alongside the normal market.

Entertainment was provided by the Grupo de Gaitas - “Os Albarinios” - from Monforte de Lemos and folk dancing by the “Lemavos”.

Whilst this is going on the children made their own rosca. Our alcaldesa Raquel Arias Rodríguez was happily lending a helping hand or maybe tried to keep some sort of order. Nevertheless once these cakes where done and each child had its own named plate, they all trot off to the local bakery so they could have their very own rosca.

The last high point of the Feira da Rosca was the public tasting. In the background lots of slices of Rosca with a slice of cheese had been prepared. These where marched to the well and feeding tasting got underway.

Than it was time to find a seat in either one of the tents or at the local bars to sit down for the important meal (national dish - fresh pulpo…. but there are also other choices) as well as more talking, see and be seen and simply enjoy the day.

Thanks to the concello and everyone involved. It’s great to see that these feir(i)as not only are well organised but mostimportantly appreciated by everyone and thus keep a community alive. 

Expat

PS Why not visit the Sober concello site for more information and not to forget the tourist information at the plaza (or praza) is open throughout August.

Again we have fallen for the trap that one sort of automatically assumes a fiesta is on a weekend. Like I’ve written before, time is a slightly different concept here. It is therefore very important to memorise the names of the days not the numerals.

So Sobers fiesta de Rosca is on Lunes (12 de Augusto). Although we tend to know what day (numeral) it is, it is not important except maybe for market days which are always on fixed dates e.g. 8th and 24th.

Most other events revolve around Saint days and local customs and are adjusted by the name of the day. So its lunes secundo semana Augusto, or tres semanas antes… etc.

It is also important to know the local fiestas as villages, even Monforte tend to be closed for some days whilst this fiesta is held.

It can be quite funny when instead to going to the local ferreteria for some materials one ends up in front of one of these huge orchestra vans. Instead of the cash register tingling one is blasted with Latin American rhythm. Nothing can be that urgent and there is always manana.

Today a beautiful Sunday we thought, oh, it must be fiesta de rosca in Sober. Oh no, it isn’t - its lunes (Tuesday)! 

Ah well, we had a nice coffee and mgdalena, drove around a bit, admired the scenery around us and are now awaiting our new guests. They are Spanish - so it’s going to be a severe test of our language abilities soon.

Until than we are going to enjoy a blissful warmish day.

Expat

Finally I came round to address the water supply for our houses and the garden. We have a powerful pump - submerged (it’s much quieter than the above ground) and had small expansion vessel (Calderin) fitted of about 25Liter.

Well, water can’t be compressed but be put under pressure. So as soon as one opens a tap, pressure goes, specifically if, like us, you have a system that holds very little water. Calderins (expansion vessels) have air or nitrogen in it which can be compressed. These vessels have the advantage to absorb pressure fluctuations and shock waves which are generated when a pump engages or a tap / vent is closed fast. This is not a huge problem but does put stress on the system. 

There are pressure / flow control systems that in theory do not require expansion vessels, but standard pumps my take up to 8x the power when starting so “soft-start” electronics is required, also each time a glass of water is filled the pump may start. There are single phased pumps whose delivery rate can be controlled, but again this is advanced and pumps tend to be less effective if throttled back. I’m aware of these possibilities but try to use standard equipment / materials as much as possible, so in case of problems it’s easier to rectify.

Another problem is that systems never tend to be totally water tight. Come on, there is always a tap or an outside connection that drips, or the hose connections are now longer spanking new.

With the increasing garden here there is also growing demand for individual watering, thus small amounts of water in very short bursts.

Lately, probably due to a defective air vent of the existing calderin the pump had to switch on fairly often.
Whilst taking a shower the pump switching was always noticeable but became more increasing.

Normally this can happen because here the calderins are mostly without membranes and the air cushion slowly but surely dissolves into the water over time. Thus all have a standard car air vent to re-pressurise with a compressor or a simple car tyre pump.

Now I’ve fitted a 50Liter upright. I haven’t pressurised it as in our system we don’t have a lot of water. No boilers etc, just straight pipes and hot water by gas on demand. I run the system between 3 - 3.75Bar (at point of distribution not at the water table) - the pump easily delivers 8Bar. Our maximum head is only about 20Meters (water level to shower head) so allowing for a little pipe friction (feeder pipe well to distribution is 32mm) I would get 5.5Bar if I wanted to.

Now with the new calderin the pump switches rarely, and if it engages, it runs for a decent time before being triggered off. The water flow has become smooth and regular.

So my tip: If you can fit it, fit a larger expansion vessel than strictly nessesary. Make sure you can easily reach the air vent. Also if you are not regular using the system it maybe advisable to put in a three-point valve so you can drain the calderin. Another advantage the bigger, the less insulation it needs when installed outside to prevent freezing.

So here is to “the summer is easy”

Expat