WEIRD AUGUST WEATHER.

I've been away in Cornwall for 10 days and already I've forgotten how to blog! Am I on the right page, or getting muddled with that verdesitio site?! Time will tell.

Very overcast in Cadiz Province just before our return, continuing for a couple of days, then the heavens opened for two days running - a deluge on the second day for a couple of hours. What a heavenly smell of earth all round the garden, and plants - washed of their dust - glowed. Most have been damaged by the Levante: pomegranates destroyed, others are lying low ready for the cooler season. Thankfully all vegetables except cherry and vine tomatoes are finished. No, that's not true - those green peppers and aubergines sneak up on me when I'm not looking! The courgettes have thrown in the towel, though.....praise be!

We priced up guttering for the house today as we have two x 1,000 litres water containers to get connected up in the Autumn to a system where we can save the rainwater. Were we starting from scratch and having a house built, we would have designed an underground system to pump out collected rainwater at our leisure. The containers will have to be the next-best thing. Will post pictures when it's up and running so that those of you with wells and worries about the water table can see this option.

We've bought a pump ready for a small pool ( I baulk at "water feature" - it reminds me of Charlie Dimmock!) and new cylindrical pot that D. is mosaicing will be placed in the pool and water pumped up to trickle down it. I think this will work well and am excited at the prospect of doing this in the late Autumn when the ground is softer.


The Levante is blowing this week, which is unusual for August, and this brings on fatigue, irritability and a kind of "sod it" attitude! Can't wait to be firing on all cylinders again.....