Autumn

Autumn has arrived in Cantabria, a special time of year when the colours change around us, when the leaves fall, when the streams of water sprout, when the south wind blows, a time of year to enjoy.

These weeks we can’t keep up with collecting all the nuts that fall from the trees, from one day to the next the ground looks like a starry sky, full of large and small nuts everywhere. We also collect a lot of hazelnuts and put them with the nuts to dry so that they can be eaten in a few weeks. Our daughter likes a gadget that the previous owners left us, which on one side looks like a Christmas lottery drum and on the other a mop handle. I prefer to keep bending down and collecting with my hands, using a bag or a fruit basket, although afterwards the black colour stays for a few days on the fingers and nails.

I love to stay looking out the window at the rising mist, at the dawn of the valley with that fog that slowly rises towards the sky as the day begins to break; sometimes the sun has a hard time finding its way. It is a postcard photo, a sea of ​​clouds as if it were on top of the mountain, a sensory experience from another galaxy, which sometimes we do not give importance to because it is so commonplace.

It is a pleasure to go and contemplate the river these days, it comes down loaded with water, it covers all the stones that can be seen in summer, it comes down with great force, to travel the kilometres until it reaches the beach, until it forms a unique enclave in Mogro where fresh water mixes with salt water, surrounded by the dunes of Liencres and where you can see the Picos de Europa when the day is clear, a Windows desktop background image, one of those that stays in your retina for life.

The chestnuts are also starting to fall, I see children passing by with bags to collect them in front of the house. I love that plan, and being able to cook some in the oven to share at home. The neighborhood where we have the house is called La Castañera, you can imagine where it gets its original name from, it’s nice to see the ground as you pass by.

We are planting again, cabbage, leeks, lettuce, broccoli or whatever I can’t remember the name of now, which you find purple in the salad, and which is supposed to be very nutritious and healthy according to mothers. Well, now we don’t have to water, we have good soil from making compost and everything you put in it comes out. We also plant for the animals, we put some green leaves in them from time to time so they can eat.

The color of the green changes, with the rain these days it begins to have a special shine, the growth rate slows down and we can space out the time to mow, now I will start to fix the hedges on the farm. It is also time to make some firewood, to collect fallen branches and cut some down so they can dry in the woodshed, to heat the house next year in this way.

The other day we did the Churrón hike, which crosses a native forest, and we ended up taking a dip in the waterfall. It’s a good time of year to visit. It takes just over an hour and a half to go there and back, covered in a blanket of green and with the river running alongside us, a beautiful path to leave the mobile in the car and disconnect from our daily chores, to enjoy the silence or a good conversation while you walk.

The cabins are very cozy, without needing to use heating, the contrast is nice when you come in from the street, the temperature starts to drop a little, it gets dark around eight and it’s time to go back inside. The truth is that they are very well insulated, every time I meet the carpenter from the village he tells me this, and I have to agree with him, because he did a great job. Sometimes you feel like working from the kitchen and being in your “pijamas” all day. Other days, however, you dress up as if you were going to the office, and walk 20 meters to the garage converted into a coworking space, where you can work with a gigabyte of internet.

I start to close the village bar during the week because the woman who is in charge of the kitchen is on sick leave, so it is also a good place to spend the weekend saying hello, even if it is just to have a drink. I really enjoy meeting other villagers, listening to conversations, greeting people, sharing this typical way of socializing that my uncle taught me when I was very young and we went out on Vargas Street.

Aternar:

6. intr. To socialize, to have dealings. To socialize WITH people of high standing.

Syn.: to deal with, to relate, to rub shoulders.

So, if you want to make a change, if something isn’t working, if you’re looking for a new environment or to surround yourself with interesting people for a while, we’re waiting for you here, PAS Rural Coliving is your place to spend the endless autumn in Cantabria.

And you… Are you up for it?