Fuerteventura is known for its goat cheese, and we thought that some of these would make good Christmas presents to take back to to England for friends and relations. So we visited a couple of goat farms. Actually one declared itself to be a cheese farm - visions of cheeses growing in neat rows in the field!
Fuerteventura used to produce cochineal dye. It was a highly valued red dye made from crushed Cochineal mealybugs. This continued throughout the 1800`s and up until the mid 1900´s when the industry was killed off by the invention of a synthetic red dye. You can still see plantations of the Opuntia cactus on which the bugs grow. The mealybugs are covered with a white cottony protective layer which you can see here on the cactus.
I decided against mealybugs for Christmas presents but I did pick some pink peppercorms from our Brazilian Pepper Tree (Schinus terebinthifolius). They add a lovely aroma to a casserole.
The week before Christmas, a visit from Harriet and Jon meant a week off work for me, (not Wendy).
After Christmas back to Fuerteventura followed by a spell of R&R in La Palma. We loved La Palma. It is very Spanish (compared to Fuerteventura) with many historic buildings. The capital Santa Cruz has many beautiful balconied Canarian houses with narrow cobbled streets. It was once an important port for trade between Europe and the Americas. I could hardly believe the profusion of flowering plans everywhere. This is helped by there being more rain than the eastern Canaries and less wind. There were areas too of seemingly very fertile soil, thanks to the nitrogen rich volcanic debris. La Palma is dominated by a large volcano which last erupted in 1971. It has been suggested that part of the mountain could, following another eruption, slide into the ocean causing a mega tsunami which could engulf New York. Maybe.
In the meantime the residents of La Palma don´t appear too concerned.
In the meantime the residents of La Palma don´t appear too concerned.
Then back to work on the finca. I have paid little attention to the banana plant and I was surprised the other day to find a fruit bunch maturing nicely. Time for some pruning. There were many side shoots appearing which needed removing. Generally one should leave only the mature stem which is carrying the fruit, a second stem to follow on, and one small shoot to follow that.
There is an area of ground in front of the solar water heater which I considered suitable for growing vegetables as it is near the house and tall plants which may block light to the panels could not be grown there. Like everywhere else the ground is stony and so I made up some timber edged raised beds. These were filled with some rotted organic material from our compost bins, bought-in compost, and soil. So far, a couple of lines of carrots are coming up and some dwarf beans which will soon be ready to plant out.
Another job ticked off of the list was to build a step from the conservatory up into the kitchen. The old step up was a little too high and has proved to be a problem for the 'oldies'.
I have had David back working. I am trying to use up as much of the stone as possible, which has been lying in a great heap to the front of the windmill. I got him started on building a low dry stone wall to edge the driveway to the car port. The result is quite acceptable. At the same time I finished off the stone wall on the other side of the drive which he had started but made a bit of a mess of.
The pine trees are doing ok still. They are on a three week watering cycle. I am not convinced that the windbreaks have been beneficial as there is no difference in growth between the more protected and less protected trees. So I decided to remove the wind protection and rig this instead on the main east boundary fence. The predominant wind direction is east and north-east, Of course the day we had to hang the netting on the fence the wind blew from the west making the job twice as difficult. What is the Spanish for ´sod´s law´?
Goofy has worked out how to climb a fence. A couple of stray dogs were walking past the finca last weekend and he became very excited. We saw him climb straight up the fence like he was wearing crampons, and go over. He has also been escaping from his pen while we have been out. One time getting up to his favourite pastime again of throwing my flower pots around. I now have to give him a very stern talking to before going out and insist he stays put. So far it appears to be working....
The fish also are doing fine. Harriet took some nice pictures of them making silly faces.
She also caught a nice image of the windmill with the moon rising.
I have just received another batch of pine seeds. So today there are five hundred plastic bags to make and fill with compost. And vegetables to get sown. And new lights to rig in the garden. And we have had a major water leak.....