I bought some traditional Alpujarran material to make curtains to hang in front of the sink and some shelving, it's the usual style of kitchen in these old cortijos and is very colourful, quick and easy to do. That is, when you've worked out how much material you need. My brain went on a major go-slow on the day I went for material....I knew the finished curtain sizes, the material was 160cm wide, stripes down, I knew I needed some joins but asking the lady in the shop was no help. She needed a calculator to work out the price of 4 metres at €9 a metre. So I went to the nearest coffee shop to kick start the old grey cells, met a couple I know, not well but well enough for Carole to offer her husbands grey cells - as she said "he can work out area, he used to farm and work out hectares and such like" Not that I needed that much fabric of course!! I've a bit left, an odd shape piece after cutting and joining to make the last curtain, possibly enough to make some place mats for the dining room, or a type of oven glove (but not a glove, just a long thick strip - is there a name for that?)
Yesterday was unusually warm and sunny so we took advantage and decided to clear out the bottom acequia. There were 3 land slips blocking it, 2 between one and two metres long and the 3rd was 6 metres of mud. It took all day, muddy back-breaking work as the acequia is below the footpath and narrow and we had to get in it, dig, rake and get the mud out onto the path- sometimes at almost shoulder height. Add to that the soil still wet and trickling back down as you dug... Clothes are all in soak, welly boots drying out. The only good thing is that it's a year since it was done so it works out at about 1 man hour a month and we have put some tubo into the worst area so if the soil continues to fall, at least the water can get through and not overflow onto our land.
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