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"Patín" and "solaina"
To get to the residence located on the first floor of the house, there are two outside staircases: one on the main façade “patín” and the other in the rear (“solaina”) facing the orchardand the garden.
A “solaina” in these houses were deserved for several uses: drying the laundry, ears of grain and beans, household chores usually done by women.
The “patín” a covered corridor, along with the “solaina” had both social and utilitarian function: Autumnal chats and summery sunbathe. And there, the peasants waited for the lords in order to close deals.
The presence of his grandmother is constant in many of his works as the short story “Milón de la Arnoya”, gathered in “Jardín umbrío”:
Los mozos en lo alto de los carros, renovaban los brincos y los atrurujos, pisando la uva. Pero de pronto cesó la fiesta. Mi abuela acababa de asomar en el patín, arrastrando su pierna gotosa y apoyada en el brazo de Micaela la Galana. Era Doña Dolores Saco, mi abuela materna, una señora caritativa y orgullosa, alta, seca y muy antigua…
The garden
This is the typical open natural space of “pazos”, recreated by the author in some literary fictions set in Galicia. In particular we can find it in extracts referring to his childhood and early evocations as “Rosarito” another short story in “Jardín umbrío”:
Del fondo oscuro del jardín, donde los grillos daban serenata, llegaban murmullos y aromas. El ventecillo gentil que los traía estremecía los arbustos, sin despertar los pájaros que dormían en ellos. A veces, el follaje se abría susurrando y penetraba el blanco rayo de la luna, que se quebraba en algún asiento de piedra, oculto hasta entonces en sombras clandestinas.
Let´s point out some trees within the group of old camellias : the Camellia japonica and the Camellia sansaqua named “Cleopatra” among others.
They grow under the shade of an enormous centennial magnolia tree (Magnolia grandiflora)- the natural treasure of the town of Vilanova de Arousa, which deserves to be represented on its coat of arms.
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