Work on the finca has slowed up considerably. For the past three weeks I have been teaching at our English language school since the main teacher left at very short notice. It is certainly less work physically but more of a challenge mentally. The problem being that youngsters, for the most part, are at the school at the behest of their parents. They don´t really want to be there. If only we could go back to the good old days of boxing their ears, giving them a good thwack on the backside with a ruler, or as my old French master used to do, pull your hair until your eyes were streaming. Hey, we are a private school, maybe we could......

One idea I had was to start a pumpkin plantation. The idea being that when the kids are choosing their pumpkin for Halloween they will see the Christmas trees at the same time and they may be encouraged to choose and reserve one ready for Christrmas. I am a bit doubtful about growing pumpkins here as they require a lot of water and not too much wind. However, nothing ventured nothing gained. 
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​Yes, there it is on the left. That little green thing. All the others died, I think from over watering! More are in the greenhouse soon to be ready for the great outdoors.

The grass growing in and around the finca is wonderfully adapted to spreading its seeds by their tiny hooks which catch onto the fur of any passing animal. Including me.

I did manage to finish building a pergola on the south facing wall of the car port. It is a nice place to sit and relax but it can be too hot when the sun is out. Better to have an arbour of Bougainvillea for shade. Cutting the ogee ends of the rafters took some time, but it looks nice.
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​Here is Wendy giving it the final test and seal of approval.

Flies can be a bit of a menace here, for which reason we need not only fly screens on the windows but also a fly curtain for the patio door. The local prices seemed exorbitant so we ordered one online and carried it back from the UK in a suitcase. It only weighed 22kg! We then discovered that it is self assembly and that many man hours were required to thread all the pieces together. Anyway, we are nearly there as you can see.
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​I have found time to plant out the last lot of young pine trees. So we now have around 320 planted out which, at retail, would be worth about €18,000. There are another 200 or so to be planted out between now and when we go away for the summer at the end of June. No pressure!

The weather had turned quite pleasant by the middle of March and it seemed a good time to get on with covering the car port. Shelter is needed for the cars from the strong summer sun. Rather a lot of tongue and groove timber was ordered from the timber merchant in Puerto, the timber cut to length, screwed into place and then covered with fibreglass sheet and rubberised paint.

Just in time. Three days later we had a hailstorm and a deluge! We were sitting in a bar in Caleta by the sea and we thought the sky looked a little dark inland. As we drove back towards the windmill we ran into a wall of rain and hail.

The field filled with water and the dogs had ponds everywhere to splash and play in. Two brown grubby dogs.

After all that rain it was a good time to get the veggie garden sown and planted. As with the ornamental garden I will try everything to see how different plants stand up to the tough conditions. Good choices have been carrot, beetroot, Swiss chard, rocket, and to a lesser degree onion, spinach and lettuce. The dwarf beans have remained stunted. Despite adding a lot of compost the soil dries out rapidly and the high silt content causes the surface to develop a hard crust (surface capping). It seems best to start plants off as modules in the greenhouse rather than sowing directly.

We built a new gravel path to link up with the Jacaranda and the Flamboyant trees.
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​The wall to the car port needed finishing with a tiled top. These had to be cemented into place. 

Quite tiring work and I was soon nodding off.
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The great thing about having people coming to stay is that it is a good excuse to stop work and relax a little. My cousin Colin and his fiancee Caroline spent a few days with us and we visited the beaches at Jandia.
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Then the mother-in-law. Rather easier to entertain as she was quite happy just eating, sleeping and relaxing in the sun. Alongside the dogs.
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​Last week I had about a hundred pine trees sitting in the greenhouse ready to plant out. With the warmer weather they had put on a lot of growth. Interestingly the plastic tubes are a big improvement on the root trainers which I used previously.  I cut the tubes to eight inches long and so there is more depth for the roots to develop than in the root trainers. For the next batch I will use a wider tube as it is fiddly sowing in these narrow tubes. Also the growth should be even better in wider tubes.

Having lost my planting tool (David) I invested in a motorised post hole digger. This made quick work of digging 100 holes although with rocks hidden in the soil one has to be very careful as when the auger hits a rock it suddenly stops turning, and the operator (me) turns instead!
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For weeks now the broken windmill sails have been hanging on the front of the windmill looking very sad. We still have not agreed a figure with the insurers. It would be nice to replace them with traditional hardwood sails which is very expensive, so we will need every centimo we can squeeze out of the insurer. In the meantime, this week, we have at last had the old sails removed, and taken advantage of having the cherry picker to repaint the walls.

This is the time of year when we have wild flowers springing up everywhere, though this year I have not seen any poppies. Curious. Lots of Marguerites though.
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​The big event since the last post has been the storm of the 12th February. News reports said that winds reached 140km per hour. Trees and hoardings were brought down. I heard that before flights were diverted at the airport there was one aircraft full of rather unfortunate tourists who had to endure four attempts at landing, They did finally make it, presumably as quivering wrecks. It is about time the Tourist Board adopted the slogan `Fuerteventura will blow you away!,

Anyway, for us we had a wild time. Early in the morning, lying in bed, we heard awful graunching noises coming from outside. Wendy braved the gale to feed the dogs and reported that the windmill sails had broken.

​We sat in the conservatory praying that the large windows would hold against the wind, and waited out the storm as various pieces of debris, large and small went flying past!

​Soon after midday we were able to get outside and start tidying up. The following week was spent repairing the fences.

​It appears that our house insurance will cover the damage to the sails, though so far the insurers have not been able to find a repairer on the island. This could actually be a good opportunity for us to have the sails rebuilt in the traditional style using timber.
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The previous week we had a visit from brother Bob and wife Denise. We toured the island and took in the beaches of Jandia in the south. This is a great place for windsurfing and kiteboarding.
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​A nice picture taken in Morro Jable, somewhat spoiled by the Ewok in the background???
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I have been sorting out some electrics. One job was to re-run cables in preparation for roofing the car port. (A job for this week).  I have also been putting in more garden lights, mostly 5 watt LEDs. Amazing how little power is needed to light the garden. Probably less than 100 watts in total.
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The tool store has been getting untidy so another job was to put in shelves and get everything properly organised so it is easier to lay your hands on the right tool when you need it. (Assuming tools get put back in their right place each time).

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​In the greenhouse the next batch of Christmas Trees are coming on nicely. Though around 100 trees from a sowing of 1000 is not too good. There are another 500 germinating now in the safety of the conservatory, out of reach of the mice.

​We have had a decent crop of tomatoes from the variety Black Russian. The fruits are sweet and tasty and the plants seem quite blight resistant. I am heartened by the Coriander and Parsley growing in the greenhouse. They have been quite rampant. These should grow well in the aquaponic system. Also, here is a pic of the Hylocereus - Dragon fruit seedlings. It will be interesting to see how well they grow outside with little or no protection.
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​I am adding to the veggie bed little by little. The wind has been really strong for the past few days and some of the plants are struggling. However the carrots and chard are doing alright, so far.

​And here is Wendy battling the wind today, sporting the Fuerteventura hairstyle!

​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.
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The week before Christmas, a visit from Harriet and Jon meant a week off work for me, (not Wendy).
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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.
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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.
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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'.
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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....

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​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.....

​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.
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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.
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The wet days have definitely slowed the rate of work though. And we have to sit indoors.
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​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...
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​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.

It is such a rare thing that rain is welcome here, though it does tend to be accompanied by stormy weather. High winds are forecast for tomorrow so I have been out checking that the fences are solid and nothing is left to blow around. Rain also means that the power in the house trips out due to poor electrical insulation somewhere outside, and this is when we discover where the roof still leaks! Ho hum. 
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The great thing about this blog is the ability to look back to last month and see what has changed. Because I look at my Christmas trees every day they hardly seem to be growing. But seeing how they were on the 12th September, hey, they must have doubled in height!
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Over the last couple of weeks have had some stiff easterly winds and it seemed prudent to offer the trees more protection. To do this we tied brown shade cloth onto the eastern boundary chainlink fence and sandwiched it in place with livestock fence mesh.

I started watering the new transplants at weekly intervals with about 4 litres of water each, but some of them were starting to look unhappy and they are now on fortnightly watering. Where they are grown in the southern US they recommend watering every week until established then every two weeks extending to three weeks with time. Mature trees may need water once a month.

I have decided to try sowing the Pinus eldarica in time for planting out soon after Christmas so that we are in a position to replant immediately after the ground is cleared. Last year the earlier sown seedlings were slow to develop but it is possible that can be improved upon by tricking the plants into thinking it is summer by using night interruption lighting.

The seeds arrived last week from the US and Wendy and I spent last weekend making up planting poly bags from tube which we cut into 20 cm lengths and heat sealed their bottoms and punched drainage holes. These were filled with compost (a tedious job) and stacked in boxes. I also used some rootrainer pots to compare the two systems.
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But there has been a problem. Last night a rather greedy and pesky mouse wandered into the greenhouse, bypassed my carefully prepared trap baited with tasty peanut butter, sat on the planting bags, dug out each seed one by one, split them open and ate the tender insides. 

I am guessing the little b****r will be back for more tonight, when he will discover some special mousy treats in the mouse traps which will lure him to a sudden and instant demise.

A few weeks ago I found some garden trellis panels in Ideal (our B&Q) in Puerto, and these we stained and set up to provide extra windbreaks, and which will support Bougainvilleas.

​In other news, I have been building a drystone wall. This is the landscaper´s cliche of `bringing the landscape into the garden`. I also thought this would be a good way of using up the great pile of rocks and rubble we still have. But, as I discovered, it is easier to build walls with large stones which we have had to search for. Enrique has been helping me. Enrique is the husband of our cleaner Rosa and he is a good worker. Though he did not make a promising start. His first job was putting compost on the beds. He did this so thoroughly that he completely covered all my smaller plants and it took me the rest of the day to find and uncover them. But he is great at weeding and finding rocks.

​This I had to do under the watchful eye of my mother-in-law. She was wearing a stern expression and seemed to be fiercely concentrating and it looked as though she was taking notes of my slow progress. Fortunately she was just painting a water colour of the garden.

​One thing Wendy is not, she is not squeamish. She was weeding one of the beds recently composted when she found this horror and showed it to me with apparent delight.

​I reckon it is a Death Head Hawk Moth larva which I understand will metamorphose into a moth with a 5" wingspan.
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We have shelved plans for a swimming pool. It is not often that the weather is so hot that we would welcome having a pool. And it is a faff cleaning a pool every week. People we have spoken to with pools here invariably say they are not worth the hassle. Also, being an agricultural holding, it may be tricky trying to get permission for one. So the area we had reserved for a pool is being planted with ground cover succulents and a few more shrubs.
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Many of the plants I have tried fail due to the wind, or attack from mealybugs. The purple flowered Osteospermum of which i have planted quite a few are, unfortunately, regularly killed by mealybug. But I have found that this pink flowered Gaura lindheimeri grows extremely well. This is one to grow more of.
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​In the greenhouse I am raising Amaranthus caudatus which has the dark red tassles, and Lychnis coronaria  with silver leaves and pink flowers. I also have some Dragon fruit (Hylocerius) cuttings and young seedlings which is an extraordinary climbing ´cactus´ with bright pink fruits. 

​To make room for this lot and the pine trees and some tomato plants I have made a standing out area in front of the solar panels where we cannot have anything tall growing. I have put in a tap and drippers to each pot. Most of these are Washingtonia palms sent over by my friend Peter in Tenerife.

Goofy, in his younger days, had a problem with plant pots. When we went out and left him he would take his revenge by throwing plant pots around. Thinking he had grown up, I was surprised and annoyed to find one of my baby palm trees had been ripped out of its pot. Goofy had a very serious talking to from me and so far he hasn´t done it again, yet...

Goofy needs toys with which to tease Pongo. He will dangle a toy in front of Pongo then run off with it. Here he is with a stick just about to run away, and Pongo is looking around for sympathy.
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It is still raining as I write this. But my plants are loving it. The banana now has several stems and soon will come the day when we have our first banana harvest!

If you live in damp grey England then it is good to get away to the Canaries for some bright sunshine and dry weather. But if you live here on Fuerteventura you go to Alaska for your holiday, which is cold and has the highest rainfall of just about anywhere. In fact, due to the maritime climate it doesn´t actually get particularly cold, rarely below -2C on the coast. The temperate rainforest of north west Canada and Alaska has developed form lichens colonising the bare rocks of the glacial moraine, which allows moss to grow and then a thin soil will form on which small plants and then trees can establish. It is absolutely beautiful. Also the sort of place you would expect to meet Bilbo Baggins.
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​This planting, above, in the town centre of Juneau (Alaska´s capital) was quite stunning. The plants seemed to be twice the size and full of colour. We played cowboys at Calgary in silly hats and took the obligatory picture of Lake Louise near Banff.

But back to El Molino, where the first job was to plant the rest of the Christmas trees.

​Actually these were the first trees to plant out (around 1st July) and were a bit on the small side. The rest, shown below, were planted in the middle of August and were a better size, about 20 cm tall.

It was necessary to erect windbreaks every 8 metres. This was done using steel reinforcing mesh with shade netting tied on using cable ties. Watering every two or three days, using drippers, is needed to stop the young plants drying out. Though larger trees can withstand very dry conditions, so this watering will be reduced over time.

I want get as much protection from the east wind by planting along the fence boundary, so we were planting the rest of the Schinus and Eucalyptus, and anything else that was lying around. 
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We had a major water leak while we were away. Fortunately the house sitter was able to make a temporary repair which I had to make good, with Pongo´s help.
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There has been an addition to the family, though a temporary one. We really don´t want any more dogs. But a young Podenco, which is a Spanish hunting dog, found its way into the garden. We called him Pod. He stayed with us for three weeks until he could be found another home. Goofy was quite happy to give up his bed for him.

The garden is at last starting to fill out and become colourful. I have learnt that during the hot summer the more water I put on the plants the better they grow, while during the cooler months they will suffer from too much watering.
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Last week was the Antigua festival week. There was a mariachi band on the Sunday night complete with a troupe of horses parading around the dance floor, unfortunately leaving behind them some small obstacles for the dancers. There was also a car rally. Quite exciting, especially as we accidentally found ourselves on the racetrack facing an oncoming horde of rally cars!

Fuerteventura has a number of restored and working windmills, one of which is in nearby Tiscamanita. We took a look there last weekend. Not, we decided suitable as living accommodation as the the width of the downstairs room is only about three metres, which is about half the width of our lounge. So our windmill must be the largest on Fuerteventura! We should have called it Finca El Molino Grande.

With the heat comes the wind. The garden gate which I built last month helped considerably to cut down the wind around the pool, and some of the plants are thanking me for it. So a door on the other side of the conservatory, the entrance from the car port, was also called for. Again, no B&Q nearby, so it was another test of my bush carpentry skills. I nearly got it right first time, but I found out that if you hang an arch topped door in the middle of the opening, i.e. set back from the front edge, it will not fully open. With Wendy´s help, and despite a gale blowing through the gap, we re-hung the gate correctly and it does the job nicely.
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I set David up with making the car turning area by the car port and building paths to either side of the greenhouse. No path bases are needed here as it is rarely wet and never frosty. Just mortar some stones in a line and dress with gravel. He made a nice job of it.

We have been thinking long and hard about whether we should have a swimming pool. We know where it could be built, between the patio and the field entrance. It is not just the expense, but a question of how much we would we use it ourselves. We are still in two minds (or is it four minds?). In the meantime we need to do something with this area, so with David´s new found expertise at building paths, I set out some sinuous sexy curves to lead from the patio down to the field entrance.We planted a few shrubs by the paths and we will add some tough and drought tolerant succulents to cover the area.

​The warm weather has brought the plants to life and there is colour everywhere.The blood red geraniums (or pelargoniums) we have put into large planters to sit on the patio. The purple bougainvillea is full of flowers and the white agapanthus has decent flower heads. And this in a little over a year. It is amazing how fast everything grows. 

While there are many pests which attack the garden plants here, lots of aphid, various species of mealybug, caterpillars, scale insects, mice eating the seedlings, the two biggest problems have to be the wind, followed closely by the dogs. The pests I can do something about. Removing excess parasites by hand or using soapy water and neem oil helps, and natures´predators do the rest. Setting traps for the mice is still a daily task. But to deal with the wind will take time, We have planted many Eucalyptus, Casaurina, Schinus, Coccoloba, and palm trees all around the boundaries, particularly to the windward side and these will eventually afford some protection from the wind.

The dogs are another matter. I regularly find trampled plants. When Goofy spots a hiker walking past the end of the finca he takes off like a rocket, followed by Pongo trying to keep up on his little legs, but both flying through and over my plants as if they weren´t there. At least they have not yet been in the pond, though judging by this picture which Wendy took, it was a close thing.
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​We have been avoiding putting the dogs in the car recently. They love going for rides, sitting on the back seat and watching the world go by through the windows. The problem is the amount of dog slobber left on the inside of the windows after a doggie ride. And the seat gets in a mess too. A large cage ordered in the UK arrived last weekend and we though it would be nice to put the cage in the back of the pick-up and take them down to the beach for a swim. Getting them to jump up and into the cage however was not straightforward. In the end the only way was for me to climb inside the cage armed with very tasty pieces of sausage. As we all know, Pongo will do absolutely anything for food and he was no problem. But Goofy was wary. Eventually he reasoned that if I can sit inside a cage, and Pongo, and we seemed to be alright, then he could too. Though it got a bit crowded.

​Then it was just a case of me squeezing out and off we went!

I have lots of excuses for it being two months since my last post. Firstly we spent the Semana Santa (Easter) week in Seville. Around a million tourists descend on the city to see the parades of hooded penitents carrying heavy statues and religious tableaux to the sound of mournful music and drums. But while some walk in the procession all day without shoes there are also young children taking part with their miniature hoods and cloaks followed closely by attentive parents. These two look as though they got lost.

Then there is the fact that there are always things to do. The latest project is the gate. A simple thing if you have a B & Q store nearby. But here, as people say we are only 60 miles or so from Africa, you are lucky if you can find anything you really need in the shops, so invariably you have to make do or make your own. Here is my attempt at a garden gate.

 Then there was the disastrous week. The water pump developed a rust hole and leaked a huge amount of water overnight. This necessitated hunting around the shops for a replacement pump, preferably one which would not rust. The old pump was just a year old. Maybe I can claim on the guarantee.

A guarantee did not apply to the exploding shower screen which happened the same week. Ever since it was installed, by a so called professional plumber, the sliding doors required constant adjusting. As I was standing in the shower late one night after a hard day, stark naked and cursing the shower screen which would not close properly, trying to adjust it with an allen key, it exploded with a bang and I was covered in glass. Fortunately there was no serious damage to me or my personal possessions!

 We thought that Goofy was growing up and turning into a responsible adult. Based on that assumption I left him to roam one afternoon while I popped down to the shops. When I returned there were various flowerpot pots up-ended and mess everywhere. So a decision was made, Goofy always gets shut away when we go out. But maybe it would be better if he had more room. A dog run was called for. Preferably one that could be dismantled and moved if needed. Here it is, complete with a sandpit, a little shelter and a sunbathing platform. What a lucky dog!

We have planted to the front of the conservatory with small herbaceous plants. The wind is a problem though as it seems to accelerate around the windmill and becomes stronger where it converges beyond the conservatory. We will see how the plants get on. Maybe more succulents are called for, though not cacti with their pesky spines. In fact the succulent garden to the side of the conservatory is doing really well.

Having the pond and waterfall, and lots of plants growing now has made a big difference to the amount of wildlife visiting the garden. There are not many tall trees around us, in fact there are not many trees at all, so the birds tend to sit on the windmill sails.

The compost bin has been filled so another task was to build a second one. I entrusted this to David to test his bush carpentry skills. He did very well and knocked this up using some old pallets.

Out in the field we have been planting a windbreak using Schinus terebinthifolius (Brazilian Pepper Tree), Casaurina, Coccoloba uvifera (Sea grape), bought as young plants from the government Agriculture station, and Eucalyptus which I grew from seed. There are also a couple of Flamboyants against the end fence to give a splash of red.

We have put in some palms also. Canary Palms, a Royal Palm as shown here, Washingtonia Palms which grow very quickly, and a Queen Palm. I had some cacti and a Yucca which were also planted out.

My Christmas trees had a bit of a set back with being over watered while away in Seville, but are now growing away and the second batch are catching up. Next year I will sow these Pine trees in April as the growing weather really doesn't kick in until May.

I am having a running battle with the mice. They go into the greenhouse every night and have been eating my Gazania seedlings. I set four traps with dog biscuits as bait and they generally manage to extract the bait without setting off the traps. Clever things, and brave. But, they are dicing with death. I normally get one mouse caught out of the four traps. This morning a rather fat mouse, who had obviously been dining out on my dog biscuits, was caught in a trap. Unfortunately the trap came down on his neck and he was still alive and struggling. I think I did the humane thing in introducing him to a bucket of water. He was last seen swimming furiously around the bucket. Maybe I am heartless, but I have my seedlings to think of.

​The pond is finished, waterfall is running, the rockery has been completed with a few plants planted. Fish have been introduced. Unfortunately some of the Koi carp decided the pond was not for them and rolled over and died. Still, there are six fish left. The problem was high pH cause by the new cement leaching calcium into the water.  

The 85 watt pump is extremely efficient, moving up to 15,000 litres per hour. The bottom drain from the pool empties into a 500 litre tank, behind the garden wall, and the flow sets up a circular vortex allowing heavier dirt particles to collect in the middle of the base of the tank. The pump draws clean water off from the top of the tank. Eventually this will be pumped to the hydroponic beds to be filtered, but for now it is returned directly to the head of the waterfall.

I have installed a water feed controlled by a ball valve to keep the pond water level constant. The plumbing is ready to connect up to to the hydroponic beds.
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I kept the fish in the greenhouse for a couple of days. They had some water hyacinth for company. This is a lovely floating plant with lavender blue flower spikes. Unfortunately it is a rampant weed in many parts of the tropics, making waterways impassable to boat traffic and destroying fishermens' livelihoods. It can form dense mats of vegetation.  I met a pilot in Papua New Guinea who had succeeded in landing his helicopter on a raft of water hyacinth on the Sepik River.

Another job completed was to cover the floor of the greenhouse with a weed membrane. It was becoming a pain to keep weeding the ground between the pots.
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I sowed the Afghan Pine seed, following 30 days stratification. Now, four weeks after sowing a very disappointing germination rate of 33% has been achieved. I have ordered another 500 seeds to make up the shortfall. 
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I am growing the pine seedlings in Rootrainers (from Tildenet) which are ribbed to encourage downward growth of the roots, rather than circling, and which open like a book to allow easy extraction of the plant for transplanting.

​Let's pop inside the windmill and have a look at our new acquisition.
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It is a curved screen Smart TV. I hadn't realised until now that there is a whole industry making TVs for people like us who live in windmills with round walls. What a result!
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The massive stone pile in the garden has been steadily shrinking as we make progress with building stone walls and path edging. The success of David's wall building efforts have been somewhat mixed. Though it looks OK from a distance.
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Edging the paths was a lot easier and quicker.
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The windbreak planting is growing quite nicely. But there are gaps and so I bought from the Pozo Negro experimental farm some more seedlings of Casaurina, Coccoloba (Sea Grape), and Schinus terebinthifolius (Pepper Tree). I have raised some Eucalyptus from seed which we will also plant on the boundaries.
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Last time we planted outside the finca we lost quite a few plants to rabbits and partridges. So I have made up some tree guards using plastic netting and steel bar. These hopefully can be re-used for planting the Christmas Trees late this year.

In the middle of all this there are constant interruptions, such as Jose wanting his cement mixer back. I couldn't really complain as I had been using it for free for several months. However it meant having to fix up Bernard's old mixer which he had dumped in the garden. I needed a new motor and belts, and a cover. It looks a bit rusty but it works!
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And then we popped down to a hotel in Costa Calma for a relaxing weekend, as Wendy's birthday treat. Only to discover that it was the grubbiest hotel we had ever been to, in dire need of refurbishment. To top it all, a rusted lamp post was blow over and hit and damaged my car.

One of the great things about living in the Canary Islands is that it is so close to Europe; only four hours flying. So we have already met some friends here by chance who have been holidaying. The latest being Linda and Alistair. I was at college with Linda, more years ago than I care to remember. She has been teaching horticulture and is a keen gardener. Alistair is a agricultural engineer, so we had lots to talk about.

The dogs look so dignified posing for the camera. Whereas, of course in reality, they are a couple of goofy layabouts.
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