It's 8.50pm here and still the temperature is 27.....John is in the pool and I have just come in to do a quick update. It almost reached 31 this afternoon, don't think it has been this hot in May before.

We are working from early till late, Spanish style, with a break in the afternoon - siesta. We are up and about from 7am, one of us goes out with the dogs while the other makes breakfast, then we get on with our daily jobs. I tend to look after the fruit and vegetables, following the shade as the sun moves around. Watering, weeding, planting out, picking peas and broad beans, mostly for eating and some for drying for next years seeds, strawberries are producing enough for a dessert a week. I am collecting seeds from other plants too, mostly rocket and sage at the moment, while I am keeping a very close eye on the spinach as it's flowering and will set seed soon which we want to collect. The runner beans are running, the dwarf beans are in flower, and the potatoes are doing well too. There are cucumber plants up - never tried them before.We are mostly eating what we grow, have only bought carrots and lettuce recently. Just transplanted 25 brussels and 20 cabbages this week too.

John is finishing the outside walls around the pool and as each section is done, it forms a bay between the supporting pillars where we are stacking firewood to finish drying. The wood was on shed roofs, moving it has meant the roofs are now free for other things...not as daft as it sounds as the sheds are in the side garden which is lower, so the roofs are level with the side terrace. One has plants on that are growing on ready for planting out, 109 chilli and jalopenos, 25 peppers and 72 tomato plants plus about 50 marigolds. They have shade from an almond tree and an old parasol plus today I added some sun shade fabric (pegged onto the tree - not pretty but functional and very necessary) The other shed roof is waiting to be cleaned up and then I can bring out the drying racks as that is where we dry figs (figgy pudding for the winter?) later on tomatoes and this year we are going to try drying apples, peaches and pears. I want to freeze some too, but as we have adopted some more trees recently we are hoping to be able to eat fresh fruit as well as freeze and dry the rest. We have adopted 1 apple, 1 pear, 1 pomegranate and 7 peach trees which have been neglected in recent years but are continuing to fruit so with lots of water and a bit of tlc should see us self-sufficient this summer. I think there are 2 plums as well but no fruit this year, maybe in the future.

We have friends in Yator who don't have a compost (not enough outside space) but don't like to throw away useful stuff, so both families collect all their compostables (is that a word?) and bring it up each week. We now have 4 heaps, still not making enough for the land we are now growing on but as each crop finishes and gets cut down we are hoping the soil will get better. We have some areas which dry out much too quickly, some crops cope ok, but not others.