the month in review: august in sunny spain

A full house, an overflowing garden - and looking forward to a cooler, but just as bountiful fall.

No big surprise, August was HOT here.

In less-obvious news: August was the kick-off to lots of rentals here at l’Artesania. We started the month with a two week rental in l’Artesania, a Catalan woman returning to her home pueblo with her daughter and granddaughter. They were lovely, chatty, and immediately purchased a plastic tablecloth for the wood dining table. Just a day after they left, we had a quick turnover for a group from France, and Massi’s French came in very handy.

Then just a few short days after they left, came Fabiola, a guest from Barcelona. She’s an anthropology professor and writer who wanted to get away for a week to focus on a big gnarly writing project. I can’t help thinking that she is exactly the kind of person I had pictured making use of l’Artesania: someone with a project that needs a peaceful space to focus on their creative work away from all the distractions of daily life at home.

Of course, I loved having all these groups, with their different experiences and needs. One family stayed around town mostly, catching up with family and enjoying the local summer activities. The second group went on daily excursions: beach days, touring local historical sites, and so on. I love that l’Artesania can give so many diverse people what they need from her.

I can also picture work retreats or startups planning sprints here, with the creative space and peaceful village feeding deep group work. And of course digital nomads, wanting to get out of the city for a bit or as a stop on the way to their next location, utilizing the fiber internet for their online day jobs and exploring the countryside and getting to know neighbors in their off time.

So many possibilities. It is so incredible to see them come to life in front of us, finally.

August moments: making pickles from our garden cucumbers, getting eggs from a neighbor's chickens, making escalivada for the first time. and below, our first visit to the seaside town of altafulla, and festa major fireworks through the tiny streets of l'albi.

Outside of the goings-on at Cal Castell, we’ve also had our garden adventures this month. It felt like nearly every day Massi was bringing in armfuls of produce from the garden. We especially had a large influx of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and zucchini.

I took full advantage of the bounty and perfected my gazpacho, that refreshing cold tomato soup on the hot days of August. I also made my first escalivada (skipped the eggplant, just peppers and onion, brightened up with a good Jerez (sherry) vinegar. And of course, plenty of cowboy caviar in the evenings and Spain’s tomato salads for lunch: big round slices of garden tomatoes, extra special quality tuna, a little cheese, drizzles of bright olive oil and balsamic glaze. These are my favorite flavors, and despite the repetition of many of the same ingredients, we really didn’t get tired of any of it. In fact, we are sad to see the garden plants fading with the successions of 98+ degree days.

There was watermelon and Spanish melon (Piel de Sapo, so so much better than canteloupe), both perfectly ripe and so sweet. Just recently, big bowls of figs started coming in, so ripe we were pawning them off on neighbors and begging them to take more, no, more! I finally gave in and tried my hand at fig jam (it was a HIT.)

Now as summer’s bounty starts to fade after all those hot days, it’s time to tidy up the fading summer plants and get to work planting and nourishing the fall crops: spinach, kale, carrots, onions, garlic, wildflowers, and honestly, so much more. We both have our own experiments planned: Massi wants to plant more fruit trees and a few pistachio trees, and try his hand at growing saffron. I am bound and determined to experiment with extending the seasons even more, perhaps with some protected hoop rows, like a miniature moveable greenhouse running down the garden. Even if those experiments fail, it looks like we’ll only have a couple months where there’s not much happening in the garden, so I look forward to continued challenges of “how do we use up all these vegetables” and getting the neighbors’ recommendations on what to learn from the Spanish culinary repertoire.

As we complete our 13th month back in Spain, we continue to meet amazing people and discover incredible villages and experiences. In some ways it feels like we’re not even close to settled in, and in other ways our days have fallen into a rhythm that no longer feels foreign or new. We are in the in-between, where you’ve established a life in a new place but still have so much more to do to really feel “at home.”

But the United States doesn’t feel like home, either, any more. Do I miss it, one year in? No. Without hesitation, no. Sure, Spain has not been without its disappointments and hard, hard days. And yes, I’d love a chicken bacon ranch pizza from Jet’s now and again, and yes I do miss dear friends and family back home. But Spain is, in so many ways and reasons, better for me. And this gift of l’Artesania is just starting to take off, with retreats and visits already planned throughout the fall that I can’t wait to share with our attendees. I am so excited to foster it, grow it, build it into everything that our visitors need from it. I look forward to L’Artesania filling up so much with visitors that it starts providing not only space and focus, but connections and community building as well.