Autumn has arrived. Damp misty mornings followed by bright sunshine and a temperature today of 26 C. This is why we live in the Canary Islands!
Having said that, we had torrential rain a couple of weeks back. This is good and bad. The good is that the countryside around us has turned bright green and my plants in the garden are growing rampantly without any assistance from the irrigation system.
The bad part? First of all Wendy had a terrible journey on Thursday evening in the car coming back home from the school, with rainwater washing across the road and zero visibility. Then, the next day, I reversed my truck out of the car port onto the gravel drive and it promptly sunk.
However after much swearing, cajoling and some Spanish muscle we managed to pull it free.
Naturally Goofy and Pongo couldn't believe their luck. A large lake at the end of the field to play in, and even a nice little mud bath right by the house.
With perfect timing we had just finished having the roof of the windmill waterproofed. Although we had it painted last year it was not done properly. The right way was to use a waterproofing paint with a fibre mesh. The colour is also an improvement; a more sympathetic light grey.
So, what of the dogs' mud bath? This is actually destined to be a fish pond. Possibly a Koi pool or, more likely, an aquaponics experiment using goldfish or Tilapia. It was rather a last minute decision I made when Antonio was digging holes for us to put more plants in the garden. I quickly marked the outline with stones and we got digging.
I then had to work out how to build it. First of all I realised that I must have a bottom drain. This is not what it sounds like and yes, it is a subject for polite conversation especially among Koi pool enthusiasts. This is what it looks like. That little black round thingy is waiting to have pipes connected to it.
On the internet it looked to be about three inches wide and so I was surprised when a rather large parcel arrived containing my 12 inch bottom drain. Beware of pictures on the internet!
This reminds me of a friend in Vanuatu who was directing a search for wrecked second world war aircraft which had crashed in the jungle of the island of Espiritu Santo. The native bushmen were shown pictures of bombers and fighter aircraft and asked to go and look for them. After several days they had had no luck and finally they admitted that it was practically impossible to find something so small in dense jungle!
The container store has been finished. Last month we had cut out the holy steel roof and replaced it with timber beams and plywood sheets. It has been painted 'gamuza' brown to blend in with the landscape. A surround was built on top of this using 6" timber.and holes drilled in the sides to take small pipes for drainage. The next job was to lay down a waterproof rubber membrane over the timber; actually this was EPDM pond liner. Over this was laid geotextile to protect the membrane from being pierced by the 'picon' or lava rock. This picon which acts as a drainage layer was carried up a ladder and spread to about 5 cm deep. Another geotextile sheet was then laid over this to keep the growing media and drainage layers separated. Here is David putting down the geoxtile to protect the rubber membrane.
And this is after securing the geotextile with timber battens.
All the drainage and growing media had to be carried up by hand. I filled the buckets and David shimmied up and down the ladder.
The growing media is 75% picon mixed with 25% compost. We mixed this by hand and this was spread to 4" depth to the top of the timber surround. You can see here the little drain pipes sticking out through the timber sides.
Then the best part, setting out a variety of succulent plants which should eventually grow together to cover the roof with green plants. Voila!, a green roof.
We had an unusual visitor the other day. David is a bit of a nutter with his animals. Eleven years ago, on Gran Canaria, he saw this being tortured on the side of the road by some young kids. He stopped his car, boxed their ears and rescued it. It has lived in his house ever since (along with his two dogs, cat, and tropical fish). I am unsure who looks more fierce, David or the Iguana!
The dogs are doing well. If there is no muddy water to play in then the sand pile makes a good game. King of the castle.
Lastly some rather sad news. We have lost Ellie. She had begun to follow us on our morning dog walks. The first couple of times it was a 2 kilometer round walk during which she would refuse to be picked up and carried. She would arrive home panting and totally exhausted. Then she got the idea of sitting under a bush and waiting for us to return. Then she discovered that there were mice to be found and played with. Then, one day, she completely disappeared after our morning walk.
We didn't worry to start with as she was now used to being out and about. But then as time went on, and we had walked all around outside the finca with the dogs to sniff her out, we realised that something must have happened. We still cannot understand it. Possibly she became stuck down a rabbit hole while chasing a mouse? Perhaps she came face to face with a large rat. We just don't know. Let's hope she just wandered off and has found a nice kind home somewhere else.