Five years on....

For anyone stumbling across this blog and wanting a short cut to view what happened in a neglected orchard and a new house surrounded by builders' rubble, have a look here

There are many wonderful gardens to see out there in blogland. I particularly like the English ones as well as Yolanda's in Holland, Titania's exotic one in Australia, Nicole's in the Caribbean, Green Thumb's in India and it's fun and interesting to see what people in other parts of Spain are doing and what works for them. (See sidebar for links).

It has been a real battle against the hot Levante winds, claggy soil , summer droughts and winter deluges. We have learned what works in this south west corner of Spain and with the help of Gonzalo and Mathilde, our Spanish neighbours (who incidentally think we're mad when we plant non-edibles) have been able to provide ourselves with delicious veg and fruit. There are several places now to just sit and be and watch the unusual, for us, wildlife and birds...the balletic storks, the Spring returning hoopoes, chameleons and little green frogs.

Just when I think we're done and there's nothing new to say, el jefe will come up with a new project and our enthusiasm gets renewed. It's been salutary having a look back at the photographic record and creating a web album. I hope you enjoy it.

Grandmother of all storms

A week ago, in the early hours, the east wind got up like a hurricane, and the rain was a deluge. The sky was lit up like a million flashbulbs for about 3 hours and it looked spectacular. 3 inches of rain fell in those hours; 750 litres poured into one of our depositos and half a tree came down.
Here is el jefe with his chain saw tidying it up. We got off lightly. Others we know were flooded out and all we had was a pooling of water and rubbish by the front gate (below).




It is very odd: when we installed a wood burning stove last autumn, that winter was too warm to light it (it is so efficient); we bought a super-duper portable air conditioner and it's been too cool to use it. So blame us for the excessive rain - we had a 25 metre tube well sunk to give us enough for the fruit trees and veg next year.....Parkinson's law strikes yet again.