A Tale of Cats and Sacks.

Joe relaxing at home in the winter with some of her cats.

I was asked to write the blog this week and other than food and cooking my passion in life has always been cats……………..

Here at the Hotel there is no shortage of these four legged creatures, all with their own personalities if you excuse the phrase.

This is Luna our eldest cat literally given to me by a neighbor in a sack, when I let her out she disappeared into the cavity of the wall of our old house and only emerged to eat in the midnight hours. This she did for two weeks and eventually plucked up the courage to see us, she now enjoys all the attention she can get from various guests on the bench outside the Hotel main entrance.

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Ghandi

Sandy

We have six cats at present all appeared here at the hotel over the years. Sandy and Gandhi arrived at the kitchen door to see what was on the menu, obviously liked it so decided to stay. Funny thing is that raspberry and almond torte is a favorite with the cats and with the Pine martens who also used to be frequent visitors to the back door of the kitchen.

Tootsie

Our one and only true farm cat is Tootsie, she was abandoned on the road above the farm, she now spends her life hunting mole rats, a huge problem in this part of the world in the orchards and vegetable garden. Toots is normally found in the stable or in the orchards.

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Our last two additions who were left at the hotel door were Lizzy and Frosty, guess who is who?

This is also to show we did get some snow this year. As you can see I don’t need to start a cat’s home, there is obviously someone local who keeps me supplied…..

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And to all those we have loved but are no longer here.

Tiggy

Blog entry written by Joe

Self Guided Walking 2º Edition April 2010

It’s been almost 18 months since we produced our first Self Guided Walking "book" with 35 self guided walks in the Picos de Europa and Asturias. The book has been a big success with hotel guests and many have used it to help them decide on their outings and walks whilst staying at the hotel.

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Self guided walking along an easy track in the Ponga Mountains

We have just finished the second edition of the book and its now being used by hotel guests. It includes 7 completely new walks making a total of 42 walks. There is also more information on the walks which can be done with out using a car; 19 walks in total! There is an introduction to the walking opportunities in the eastern part of Asturias, including the Picos de Europa, with brief descriptions and photographs of the different walks.

Personal satisfaction reaching the summit (Sen de Mulas above Collado Viances)

The walks are grouped into the following geographical areas:
Around the hotel including the Sueve Mountain range
Picos de Europa Western and Central Massif
Ponga Mountain Range
Coastal walks

Coastal walking

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An "Easy" Peak; Mosagre

In each section (geographical area) the walks are listed in increasing degree of difficulty; easiest walks first, most difficult walks last. To grade the walk a combination of both the total distance and the total ascent has been taken into consideration

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Bird watching whilst on one of the new self guided walks "Andarra Massif" Picos de Europa

Resting on Pico Moro, one of the self guided walks starting and finishing at the hotel

Most of the information about the different walks is also available on our web site, under the Self Guided Walking section. The actual notes for each self guided walk are available for guest along with the appropriate map at the hotel.

Checking your not lost in the forest! Happy Walking!

More information on our self guided walks.

A lone ranger in Asturias

Stunning scenery in Ponga

It was good to see an article about the Ponga Mountains and the hotel published in the travel section of The Guardian today. Entitled “A lone ranger in Asturias” it is written by Stephen Venables who was the first Briton to climb Everest without supplementary oxygen.

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Prompted by Inntravel, Stephen stayed at the hotel for a few days last year. Whilst here we suggested he visit the Ponga Mountains so he could get to know one of our favorite regions. His article starts; Northern Spain's variety of mountain terrain means you should be able to find a range to yourself –in the enchanting Pongas for example. The full article can be found here A lone ranger in Asturias.

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And a few more photos so you can see why we think Ponga is such a lovely region and why it inspired the title " a lone ranger in Asturias"

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Looking north from El Abedular

Looking to Pico Zorro and El Recueno from Tiatordos

Extensive Beech forests in the Ponga region with the Maciedome mountain in the background

Beech trees in winter and the snow covered Picos in the far distance

Climbing Pico Pierzo. One of the nine self guided walking routes in the Ponga region available at the hotel.

Pasture Maintenance

At this time of year many of our pastures and meadows are starting to burst into flower. The photo above (taken today) shows a mass of spring squills flowering in the hotel meadow. The pastures don’t look after themselves though. If we didn’t maintain our pasture it would start to revert to forest, which for us would initially mean brambles, accompanied by other species which our livestock find unpalatable. Our pastures are grazed by sheep, horses and chickens, and some are cut for hay but they also require human intervention to maintain them.

Sheep grazing the hotel meadow in autumn.

Horses helping maintain the pastures.

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There are three main reasons for pasture maintenance on our farm. They are; to provide our animals with food, to conserve natural biodiversity and to control vegetation in the orchards. Each of these three reasons has a different maintenance approach, and combinations are also possible

Hay harvest; preparing animal food for the winter

When a pasture has been grazed, the plants that are left untouched are the ones that the livestock won’t eat, such as brambles, nettles, bracken, thistles, and gorse. If these are left unchecked they can take over, gradually eroding the edibility and therefore usefulness of the pasture, which can result in the pasture being lost. It’s a vicious circle. This is where the maintenance comes in, removing the unpalatable (undesirable) species so that the palatable (desirable) species can grow. Removal of undesirable species can be done by hand or machine, depending on the species and the extent of the problem

Sheep grazing in the Cuevona Meadow

Three areas of our farm are managed particularly to maintain natural biodiversity, in particular of wildflowers, with the secondary objective of providing food for the sheep. Here the pasture maintenance follows traditional practices and cycles; we cut the meadow for hay in late June and then let the animals graze the re-growth in late autumn. Many species of flora have adapted to these traditional practices and respecting these traditional cycles allows this diversity of flora flourishes.

Full Beauty of biodivesity in the Castañarina Meadow

The chief objective for the three orchards is to produce a commercial apple crop, and the secondary objective is to provide grazing for our sheep. Luckily these go hand in hand, with the sheep eating the vegetation beneath the trees, thus making our task of collecting the apples a lot easier

Picking apples where the grass has been grazed

If your interested in pasture maintenance you will find a new document in the how and why section of our web page where it discusses pasture maintenance in more depth

Our horses enjoying the pastures.

A New Walk; Villamayor to the Hotel along the Sueve Mountains.

Typical scenery along the walk

Whilst we have been shut over the winter I have developed six new walking routes, five of which can be done from the hotel and using public transport. I’ve just finished testing the walking notes for the longest of these walks which is from the village of Villamayor to the hotel along the side of the Sueve mountain range.

Farm track on the side of the Sueve mountain near the begining of the walk.

The walk involves walking down to Arriondas where you catch a train or bus to the Village of Villamayor from where the walk starts. At first you follow small lanes for about 2 kms to the edge of the Sueve Mountains, and then you follow small tracks which link small farms and pastures all along the edge of the Sueve Mountains.

Traditional farm landscape on the walk

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There is a fascinating contrast between the farms on the land just beneath the mountain range and the farms higher up on the mountain side. The lower farms on the better agricultural land (at the beginning of the walk) have been subject to “improvement plans” These farms predominantly have dairy cows which are kept in cattle sheds most of the time and the land has been planted with grass monocrops. The farms along the mountain side where it is much more difficult to use machinery still operate in a traditional manner with hay fields and a mix of sheep and Asturian mountain cows grazing the land.

"La Collada" one of the small traditionl farms on the route

The walk passes many different small tradional farms (some of which are being abandoned) and eventually climbs up to the common pasture by the side of the Tiegu peak.

Common land where a mixture of cattle and horses graze

Once across a small section of the common pastures a track takes you down to the small villages of Villar de la Cuesta and Cofiño. The walk then goes along old animal tracks back to the hotel, where the bar will be awaiting you for a well deserved drink.

Looking back from where you have been walking with the snow covered Ponga Mountains in the distance.

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As always when walking along the Sueve the views are absolutely stunning on this walk with the Sella and Piloña river valleys in the foreground and the Pico de Europa and Ponga Mountains in the back ground.

Traditional farm hut

In total the walk is about 16kms with an accumulative ascent of about 800m. Most of the walk is on farm tracks, some on small lanes and short section on animal tracks across open pasture. There is a very short section just before the hotel which is slightly overgrown but hopefully we will get this section cleared before too many guests do the walk! Total walking time from Villamayor to the hotel is about 6 hours.

Don’t worry if this walk sounds a bit strenuous we also have some new walks which are also lovely and much less demanding!

Earth Pilgrims Retreat with Satish Kumar

Join Satish Kumar, Sebastian Burch and Hotel Posada del Valle's Community on a Special event from 30 September to 6 October, 2010

This event is open for bookings

As my mother and I were walking along the estuary of the River Sella, on one of the many signed Santiago's way, a couple that had pilgrimaged all the way from the south of Spain came up to us. Do you speak Spanish? He said, confused by our northern looks. Claro que si! We replied, and only with the humbleness and gentleness of someone who has walked for so long, he asked for some help. As we departed and wished each other good luck, I remembered that in Asturias, land of passing pilgrims, it is well known that helping a pilgrim is something that brings home luck and good times.

Pilgrims in the 21^st century? It hardly seems like the time in history when you would expect to hear about pilgrims, but it is, and maybe now more than ever it is time to become an earth pilgrim. Earth pilgrim is the title of Satish Kumar's latest book, a conversation between him and his daughter and also is the title of the BBC documentary about him and his relationship to Dartmoor.

Satish believes that at this stage of human history we now need a new kind of pilgrim, unattached to any form of dogma - 'Earth Pilgrims' who are connected with this world, not to the next, Such pilgrims are seeking a deep commitment to life here and now, upon this Earth, in this world. We need to realize that we are all connected, and through this connectivity we become pilgrims. (Earth Pilgrim, S. Kumar)

We are all Earth Pilgrims! Every time we walk, sit and contemplate or take action for the world, in a mindful and profound way, we become Earth Pilgrims. By doing this we become aware of the acute interconnection between every member of this planet and how the landscapes that surround us are also the landscapes of our minds, we co-evolve and are mutually defining.

To celebrate 15 years in Asturias and its social-ecological commitment, Hotel Posada del Valle is proud to host such an event. An opportunity for anyone to enjoy the company of other earth pilgrims, joining Satish and Sebastian in quiet reflection through mindful walking and sitting, as well as sharing some of their thoughts and ideas. It will be a time for walking, discussing, meditating, and experiencing the place of spirituality in the modern world as well as understanding a more holistic way of being in our life by engaging further with the natural world and finding healing in our connection with it.

Satish Kumar undertook an 8,000 mile peace pilgrimage, walking from India to America without any money to deliver packets of peace tea to leaders of the four nuclear powers. In 1973, he settled in England, becoming editor of Resurgence magazine – a position he has held ever since. Satish is the guiding spirit behind a number of ecological, spiritual and educational ventures in Britain and was one of the founders of Schumacher College.

Sebastian Burch MSc (Hons) was born in the south of Spain. He came to Asturias with his family at the age of twelve and became part of what Hotel Posada del Valle is today. Since a young age Sebastian has loved the natural world and this led him to start a degree in Biology at Oviedo University. Disillusioned with mechanistic and reductionist science, he then did a Masters in Holistic Science at Schumacher College. He is now engaged in holistic research concerned with landscape feelings, and is very interested in Deep Ecology and social ecological transformation.

“A pilgrim is someone who sees life as a sacred journey, who sees the Earth as a sacred home, who sees the universe as a process”

Satish Kumar, Earth Pilgrim

Click here for more information on the course

Watch on youtube the BBC 2 Natural World documentary

“Blog entrance written by Sebastian Eslea Burc"

Early Spring Flora on the Farm

Lesser Celendine

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We have had a lot of snow this winter, but now warmer weather has come, the snow is melting and the days are getting longer. The mistletoe no longer has any berries, the birds have eaten them all. Yes it feels like we are saying goodbye to winter and spring is coming and with the beginning of spring there are more and more flowers to be seen on the farm.

The Lesser Celendine is one of the earliest spring flowers and gives a lovely splash of gold. It is more common in the damper shadier areas of the farm.

Dog's Tooth Erythronium

The Dog’s Tooth Erythronium grows in the shady and humid mountain areas of Southern Europe. It’s not so common on the farm, but there were a couple of examples flowering in the wooded areas last week. It’s much easier to find in the higher mountains where the marginal pastures can sometimes have a pinkish tinge due to the large numbers of this flowering plant.

Stinking Hellibore

Green Hellibore

There are two types of Hellibore found on the farm; the Stinking Hellibore and the Green Hellibore. The Stinking Hellibore has drooping cup-shaped flowers which are yellowish-green, often with a purple edge to the five petal-like sepals. The Green Hellibore is slightly smaller than the Stinking Hellibore and dies down in the autumn so in the spring all the visible growth is new. Hellibores like lime rich soil and are very common on the farm. All parts of the plant are poisonous and none of the animals eat them.

The Common Dog Violet

The Common Dog Violet is most often found on short, grazed calcareous turf and limestone scree. We have a lot of that type of habitat on the farm and at this time of year there are a lot of Common Dog Violets in flower to be seen. This plant is an early nectar source for butterflies and is the larval host plant for a range of Fritillary butterflies.

Lungwort

Another very common flower to be seen on the farm is Lungwort which flowers over quite a long period of time. The scientific name Pulmonaria is derived from Latin pulmo (the lung). In the times of sympathetic magic the spotted oval leaves of P. officinalis were thought to symbolize diseased, ulcerated lungs, and so were used to treat pulmonary infections. The common name in many languages also refers to lungs, as in English "lungwort" and German "Lungenkraut".

Primroses

The primroses are also starting to flower on the farm and when the first primroses start to bloom its said they herald the arrival of spring and warmer days to come.