I can hardly believe how more than a month has passed since my last blog. We must be so busy, or enjoying ourselves so much, or something. I suppose also that since the builders have been off site progress has slowed so there is less to report, but it is giving us a chance to do all the little niggly jobs without having people around to supervise, check on, or answers questions to. The latest project is the little greenhouse. I have managed to fix timber foot boards, shelves and a door to the steel frame, using mostly materials lying around the finca. The shelves were part of the bed which I cut down. The door made of pallets and scrap timber is self closing which uses a line running through two pulleys from the door to a weight on the inside of the greenhouse. I pinched the idea from the Eco Centre on Soneva Fushi where they used a coconut as a weight. Not too many coconuts here though...
I picked up a roll of netting this morning from an agricultural merchants in Gran Tarajal, to cover the roof and sides. It was an opportunity to look at their stock and I was pleased to see they have a good range of fertilizers with which I can make up hydroponic nutrients in the future. The netting is going to need cutting into panels and sewing to the frame with fishing line.
Summer really does seem to have arrived. The days are sunny though the night temperatures can still fall to 16 centigrade. The plants outside are starting to show signs of new growth at last. It has really been a terrible winter, the coldest since 1998 someone said. The wild flowers are looking terrific however. I have been collecting seed on my dog walks. Mostly Ox-eye daisies (Marguerites), Poppies, a yellow Senecio, and Bladderdock. This last one (Rumex vesicaria) is interesting in that it has a high content of antioxidants, has some antibacterial potential and it can be good for your liver. It is used extensively as a folk medecine in India and Saudi Arabia. Collecting the poppy fruits was a bit time consuming but at least each one contains a massive amount of seed. I will sow this tiny tiny seed by mixing it with sand and broadcasting by hand. I love the fruits which are like little salt and pepper shakers. As the wind blows them about the seed is released from the ring of holes near the top.
Summer really does seem to have arrived. The days are sunny though the night temperatures can still fall to 16 centigrade. The plants outside are starting to show signs of new growth at last. It has really been a terrible winter, the coldest since 1998 someone said. The wild flowers are looking terrific however. I have been collecting seed on my dog walks. Mostly Ox-eye daisies (Marguerites), Poppies, a yellow Senecio, and Bladderdock. This last one (Rumex vesicaria) is interesting in that it has a high content of antioxidants, has some antibacterial potential and it can be good for your liver. It is used extensively as a folk medecine in India and Saudi Arabia. Collecting the poppy fruits was a bit time consuming but at least each one contains a massive amount of seed. I will sow this tiny tiny seed by mixing it with sand and broadcasting by hand. I love the fruits which are like little salt and pepper shakers. As the wind blows them about the seed is released from the ring of holes near the top.
The Ox-eye daisies are easier to harvest and the seeds easier to handle, though I still lost some when the wind was gusting!
I will try sowing a small patch now which I can keep watered (assuming we have seen the last of the rain), and save the rest for sowing next winter/spring. With this amount of seed it should ensure a colourful display next year.
Goofy is doing well. He is learning to sit and stay. Here he is sitting waiting for his dinner - looking the other way as though food is not really something that concerns him.
Goofy is doing well. He is learning to sit and stay. Here he is sitting waiting for his dinner - looking the other way as though food is not really something that concerns him.
However, this morning Wendy took him for a walk and, for the first time in his life, he saw two goats. So off he went in full pursuit with Wendy whistling and yelling for him to come back. Last seen he was disappearing in the direction of Las Pocetas. Wendy returned without him, somewhat anxious. Goofy found his way home half an hour later to be met with some very stern words. Next walk, he is going on a lead until he learns better manners.
We have sorted out our internet and TV. On the hill behind Antigua are the antennas for both, and so we now have two fairly discrete aerials for picking up the internet signal (with which we can access TV channels from any country) and an aerial to pick up the local TV transmissions. The local stations are mostly in Spanish (though occasionally English films) which we watch to help brush up the language.
We have sorted out our internet and TV. On the hill behind Antigua are the antennas for both, and so we now have two fairly discrete aerials for picking up the internet signal (with which we can access TV channels from any country) and an aerial to pick up the local TV transmissions. The local stations are mostly in Spanish (though occasionally English films) which we watch to help brush up the language.
Other house improvements include putting windows in the doors to the lounge and the bedroom in the windmill. These rooms were impossibly dark before.
We found some new pine furniture for the windmill lounge. It needs staining to match the rest of the woodwork but then it should look the part. I had been in favour of a cow skin rug but Wendy was not happy with the idea of dead animals on the floor, so we will go for a round sisal rug which will need to be brought out from England. The blue rug which is there now of course had the end chewed off by 'you know who'.
The car port turned out well. Though I have to remember not to drive under it when I have tall things loaded on my truck. I have managed to bend two lots of curtain rails that way! There was no second coming of Jesus (the electrician) so I was left to investigate why the light over the car port didn't work. My experience so far of Spanish workers is that they are in a great hurry to finish the job quickly so that presumably it doesn't get in the way of their leisure time. Jesus is no exception and I found he had wired up the light incorrectly.
I must try to write my blog more frequently. I suppose another excuse was that we made a short trip back to England to see everyone and to check on our cottage in Oxfordshire. But, while we were there, we were able to visit daughter Harriet's painting exhibition at South Hill Park, Bracknell - 'One hundred paintings in one hundred days'. Here she is, and it is (was) Day 94!
I must try to write my blog more frequently. I suppose another excuse was that we made a short trip back to England to see everyone and to check on our cottage in Oxfordshire. But, while we were there, we were able to visit daughter Harriet's painting exhibition at South Hill Park, Bracknell - 'One hundred paintings in one hundred days'. Here she is, and it is (was) Day 94!
