Sunny flowers.

Just in case you are in the clouds, rain or have generally gloomy weather, here are some lovely bright flowers to cheer you up.

And if the sun is shining wherever you are, enjoy the pictures.

Nearly out of the 'teens'

It was almost 20 degrees today and the sky was a gorgeous deep blue. I know that sounds daft, but sometimes it isn't a typically Mediterranean blue, but a rather wishy washy pale colour.

Went into Cadiar early this morning for market, bought some baby vegetable plants to get started with, 20 leeks for €3, 10 cauliflower for €1.50 and a big bunch of onion sets for €2 - probably about 100 in the bunch. We have leek seeds but this will give us a head start.

We then drove out to the other side of Cherin to see the new rockfall . . .

More info here.

Our brussel seeds are up, as are the coriander seeds and in the new herb area J has made we are going to put cumin, mustard, parsley and basil. The rocket has self-seeded, the sage goes on from year to year so do the rosemary, chives and marjoram. We also bought some peanut seeds, about 35 for €3 so now need to find the right space for them and this year grow them for more seeds, then next year grow for roasting and eating. Always of course keeping spare seeds for the following season. Tapas tonight was almonds 'toasted' in olive oil and cumin - ours of course. I'm sure they taste nicer when you are sitting looking at the tree they were picked from a few months previously.

We spent yesterday strimming the top terraces, raking all the trimmings into piles for compost, clearing acequias of strimmings, emptied one compost heap and bagged it to be moved to the most needed veg beds and turned over the second compost into the newly emptied one. We've moved the climbing bean/tomato frames down a bed to a newly prepared one ready for planting up. Still lots more to be dug but there is now enough space for the first vegetables/seeds to go in to. We are having to water the broad beans and peas now as they are podding - despite all the rain! The sun is drying out the ground really quickly and it's cracking in places.

Happy Easter to everyone, wherever you may be.

So you've got snow!

Whereas at last we have lots of sunshine. It's lovely in the sun, cooler in the shade and cold when the sun sets at 8pm. The air temperature isn't sufficient yet to get the inside warm enough and it feels chilly when we go in at sunset. Having said that, I got heat rash on my back today after being out digging a vegetable plot with the sun on my back all the time and J is looking quite rosy.

This week he has been repairing a stone wall on a terrace behind the house, making a herb garden in the area behind the house where we now have lots of vegetables growing - well protected with netting so Pip can't get at the beans and peas - and at last we have some more pictures up in the dining room. One has been waiting for more years than I care to remember but we have been given a painting of the chapel painted by John's Uncle Doug, which has prompted him to hang both (with a little nagging from me!) Or maybe more than a little nagging, as in ...is today the day we get the pictures up? Was it yesterday you said you'd do them?....but they're up at last.

We've strimmed all the 'grass' around the house and pool - not really grass, it's clover and ground cover but kept short looks good. Fished a frog out of the pool this morning and sent him on his way to a new home hopefully some distance away. Swimming with frogs doesn't appeal to me. Not quite swimming weather I know, although a friend's grandson - Dale - went in on Monday for a quick swim (click the > play button to see it).



The vegetable beds haven't been dug over since the end of last seasons veg and have had 3 months of rain. They are very weedy but still nice and moist so are easy to dig into, turn over, de-weed (if that's a word!) and rake level. They'll soon be ready for this years seeds and plants.

Every picture tells a story

I wouldn't like to be explaining this to my boss!!

Not much in the papers apart from this

http://www.theolivepress.es/2010/03/25/spanish-lorry-driver-wholly-embarassed/

Oh dear!

You can tell when the weather is bad because you get more to read! Come the summer - whenever that may be - you'll be lucky to get a couple of posts a month.

The JCB finally got the pista cleared Thursday lunchtime and so on Friday we did a big shop. Basically if it was heavy, bulky and/or long lasting, we bought it. Things like 2 sacks of dog food, big tins of tuna and mackerel fillets, litres and litres of milk, bags of dried beans and pasta etc. Actually, J went armed with a list while I took advantage of the nice dry day to catch up with the washing, put the rugs out on the balcony for a good shake while I washed the floors and started planting some seeds - brussels, coriander, cucumber and courgettes so far.

Saturdays forecast was rain yet again, so we did an early trip all around the top road and down to Cadiar to change the gas bottle and pick up bread flour, a sack of potatoes and some tile cement. And the pista, I hear you ask. Well, the mud has been shovelled away, likewise the rocks although there are some to drive round, and it's a bit narrow in places. The surface is either rough or squidgy but it's passable. The rain, more like steady drizzle, started at 5pm yesterday and hasn't stopped yet.


At 8am this morning Pip, Monty and I went off for a walk up through Montenegro to see the state of the newly cleared pista and found this. Oh dear! Is it parked or did it slip, I'm not sure. And how to get it out?