Last summer.... 2010

With the help of Couchsurfers, Workawayers and HelpX-ers the grass in the dog meadow was brought back to reasonable proportions and  a lot of wood was taken out of the meadow. Nathalie learned to drive the tractor! Erik and Olga did so much wood cutting in two days I cannot believe it! Erik is a host in the South of Spain and has lots of experience.

The dogs got lots of attention, we sampled Iranian and Greek vegetarian food and German Anne made her nice dog videos and pictures!

In this picture Yasmin, an exchange student studying in Valencia with Morgan (Captain Morgan) - rehomed in the Netherlands and Winnie, rehomed in Germany.

June - walk-in volunteers

Kai and Gwen joined us just when I had to pick up a large dog food donation. Good helpers and a nice couple! They are from Germany but thay are students in Friesland, in the North of the Netherlands. Very strange to hear German people speaking Dutch ;).

Ceceda in June - US

Veronica and Marcella who joined us for a short while in the beginning of June, both from the USA.

Ceceda in June - 24-30 June

Alma, Lucas and Lauti who joined us at the end of June with their favourite dogs. Maria (who used to be my flat mate in Barcelona donkey's years ago!!) had made sure they brought all kind of goodies from Barcelona and thanks to Alma they behaved quite well ;) (for 16-year olds that is, haha). Lucas is a son of Juan Carlos and he had been here as a 14-year old. ´He was the same, just a lot taller...

May/June in Ceceda

Susana from Bilbao and UK-based Marten who just returned from travelling around the world and just did not want to return to England straight away. He also stayed at the Donkey sanctuary, so the wellies ended up there (we got them back!).




Helpx-ers Denia and Michael gardening - they stayed twice in their little tent in the 'dog-free' zone.

Tiffany and Megan - The Aussie Connection

May 2009 Tiffany and Megan are travelling around the world with their surfboards! They stayed in Spain for a month before their final adventures in India and Sri Lanka. First they went to the Donkey Sanctuary (where they tried to teach the donkeys to read) and then they came to Ceceda where Tufo was their favourite dog - and for the rest they have been working very hard and it has been fun to have them around!

Work in April - 2

We had Barbara from the US arriving, Christina from New Mexico who works at a wolf sanctuary (and thus thought nothing of our "wolves"), and then Andrew (UK) and Katja (Finland).

Check out the wolf sanctuary's website

http://www.wildspiritwolfsanctuary.org/

A lot of weeding and building has been going on....

Barbara, Christina, Andrew, Katja and Bob

Work in April - 1

Tyler and Bob planting onions and garlic. The donkeys enjoy the company! The dogs all checking what's going on on the other side of the fence....

Tyler is a student and musician from Chicago. He plays in a band called Sidewalk Chalk http://www.sidewalk-chalk.com/

Lyckle Sterringa in memoriam

My father suddenly passed away on 23 March 2009 at the age of 75. He taught us so much.

Lyckle, vaar-wel.

The house

Views from the house.

This is Jasmin, or Jazz, the Whippet. She was found wandering the streets of Oviedo, and taken in for a few weeks by a friendly family. She was destined to end up in the 'perrera' (dog home would be to friendly a way to describe the place). We took her in and adopted her, or she adopted us.

After summer blues

Summer is gone again - after a continuous stream of visitors, we are finally all alone.

Almost, that is, not counting the donkeys Eeyore and Flora, the dogs Tika, Bobbie, Luna and Tufo and the cats China and Sasha. I don't think we should count mr Bo Jangles II, this year's resident mouse. We got Sasha to deal with it, but she is more interested in things going on outside the house.

Temperatures in Northern Spain have been extremely high in October and November - up to now at least. It is sometimes not even worth it to light the wood stove in the kitchen in the evenings. But it's so cosy....

Ceceda in Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asturias
Other places of interest
Ceceda village: east of Oviedo along the N634 road. Of particular interest in this exemplary settlement are the traditional horreo grain silos, raised on stilts so as to keep field mice from getting at the grain.

There are many many little villages with horreos but it's nice to see Ceceda mentioned!


(photo: Peter Halsey)

Ceceda in English

This is my blog about Ceceda in English, so the English part of the family and other 'foruners' will be able to read this!

My translation blog is still here:
http://your-translation.blogspot.com

This is the Ceceda blog in Dutch:
http://Ceceda.blogspot.com

Luna, a dog from the shelter

This is Luna, our third dog. I read about her, and hundreds of other dogs looking for a new home on the Internet. She had been in the 'refugio' for three years. Nobody wanted her because she is not a guard dog, although she is a big dog, a crossbred Alsatian. This was the description given below the header 'perros olvidados' (forgotten dogs):
"Hembra adulta, mestiza de pastor aleman, con una mirada así de dulce, ella es toda así, dulce, buena, tranquila, no se mueve para no molestar, le gusta que la mimen pero si no es el momento de ello se espera hasta que toque. Salió una vez en adopción pero la querían para que cuidara una finca y la pobre ... no vale para eso ... dejó que entrara un zorro y eso la condenó de nuevo al abandono. Entró en la prote el enero del 2003 (Adult bitch, Alsatian crossbreed, with such a soft look in her eyes - and that is what she is, a softie, a good dog, very quiet. She will not move for fear of disturbing you. She loves to be cuddled, but she will wait for the right time to be cuddled. She was adopted once, but they wanted her as a guard dog, but she is not suited to be one. She allowed a fox to enter the property, which again condemned her to the dog's shelter. She has been in the shelter since 2003)".
She was born in March 2002 according to her papers, although nobody is really sure - high time she got a home! The dog shelter is of course heavily overcrowded, and run by volunteers who are doing an incredible job!
Update after 2 months: Luna is actually a very good guard dog. If she hears anything outside, she wriggles through the dog flap (which was designed for the smaller dogs) and checks things out. Strangers get a good barking from within the finca (just as well). When we go walking, which she does not seem to enjoy as much as the other dogs, she stays 'at heel' almost all the time. she is slowly starting to learn how to play. She is not interested in chasing tennis balls, but the fluffy toy 'Puppy' seems more interesting.
Links to Spanish dogs looking for new owners:
http://www.aproalangreo.com/
http://groups.msn.com/adoptastur

Donkey business

This is Eeyore , a young Asturian donkey (a gennie). She will be mowing the grass, nicer than having a small tractor we thought. There are not many young donkeys around anymore in Asturias, the vet told us. Bob built her a shelter, but we have to close it off to keep her in it if the weather is bad. She'd prefer getting snowed on. I thought about making a raincoat for her, but the neighbours think we're batty enough as it is. We take the donkey out walking, which is obviously a bit weird. It is good for the hoofs though and she normally enjoys it. If not, she'll tell you so and be a nuisance, kick the dogs, go the other way, and on top refuse to go back into the meadow. A carrot works wonders though...
Eeyore arrived in the beginning of February, but we knew we had to have two donkeys as they need company! So in March (8th) we found Flora in a regional advertising paper, we went to Grado (about 70km away), had a look at the donkey and the guy brought her over in a rather large cattle truck the very same evening.
We had first looked at a very young donkey, tied up in a stable next to a cow and her calf. Owned by an 80-year old, whose son had bought him the donkey to keep the cow company in the meadow. He said he needed to sell them all - he could not walk them up to the meadow anymore. We felt very sorry for the wee donkey, but Flora is a two-year old donkey, just like Eeyore which is a lot easier.
This is Flora. She is slightly smaller than Eeyore and a little bit quieter. Eeyore bosses her around....