Just after I wrote the last post it was Halloween, which here in Spain, as in the UK, is a quite recently introduced celebration from good ol` US of A. In fact, in Spain, the 1st of November is the more important day, being ´el dia de los muertos´ when people remember their departed loved ones by taking flowers to the cemetery. But the kids, as everywhere, love dressing up for Halloween, and the tricking and treating. This was outside the school on the 31st.
My main task has been to finish the stone wall. It is a dry stone wall, which means no cement was involved, and consists of two walls built using flattish stones and the middle filled with small stones and gravel. I made a planting pocket for a Scaevola, whch is a fairly drought tolerant perennial, to grow from the top of the wall.
This year is proving different to the previous two winters we have been here, with rain almost every week, sometimes quite heavy. The garden plants have responded magnificently. Such as this Aristolochia which is growing on the car port.
These Gazanias have taken a while to get established but are so far proving quite resilient against the dreaded mealybug.
Taking advantage of the rain we have been planting out small Washingtonia palm trees, to bolster the windbreaks to the north and east. These were from seedlings sent over by Peter from Tenerife. He also told me about germinating date palms (Phoenix dactylifera) from date stones. It didn´t take long to demolish a box of sticky dates and from one box I now have around 20 date palms in pots which will be ready to plant out in a few weeks to add to the windbreaks.
The wet days have definitely slowed the rate of work though. And we have to sit indoors.
And when there is nothing else for a dog to do......
But then the sun soon comes out again and Goofy is a happy boy once more...
I can report that as of today the second lot of Pinus seeds have begun to germinate. However the mouse was at work again and managed to wreak some havoc, despite setting the pots on trestles with legs smeared with grease, the tops laced with mouse-trapping sticky stuff, rat bait placed everywhere, and mouse traps baited with irresistible goodies, as you can see...
And the little b****r still managed to sneak in help himself to my pine nuts. Well, I am hoping he didn´t get them all and that I will get some trees out of this lot. Incidentally the mouse ended his days in a trap trying for some rich Fuerteventura cheese - semi curado. I can also report that he was very fat.