Stocking up

Beginning of the month, empty shelves and freezers.....  well not quite that bad!  Anyone who knows us will now be thinking   'empty shelves?'  as we always have stock.  Lots of jars of olives, tomatoes both cooked and dried,  pasta, rice,  jams, pickles.....

It's only been 2 years since the pista was replaced with a concrete road and we always had lots of stock in,  both bottled, dried and frozen in case the weather was bad and we didn't we want to go out shopping.   We still have stock but now it's mostly things we've produced and have made a years worth of, such as chutney or marmalade.

Recently I've been doing a bigger and less frequent shop down at Berja.  Mercadona is a really good  privately owned chain of supermarkets,  the quality is excellent, the prices compare with Aldi  and Dia which are also in Berja so if you can't get something in 1 shop,  there are 2 more to choose from.  There are also lots of small family shops there plus the usual numerous cafes and bars, it always seems a really bustling small town.  But we've only stopped and walked around it once,  nowadays it's just an in and out shopping  trip.

So this morning the sky was almost clear, the sun was shining - it seemed a good day for a drive.  I left John decorating in the kitchen,  balanced precariously on the wobbly stepladders which have also lost their rubber feet - not good on a tiled floor -   'don't worry about me'   he said   'I'll hang on tight to something'.

It's a half hour drive - about 30kms- down to Berja,  I had a long list  and the car well packed with coolbags and shopping baskets.  The supermarkets charge 5 cents for a carrier but it's still possible to get them free from some places so we have a bag of bags in with the shopping baskets.  The fruit and veg lorry which comes to Yátor every Wednesday doesn't charge for bags nor do some of the local shops so I keep them and use them on days like today.

Back home just before lunch - John was still balanced on the stepladders - as I unpacked around him there was the occasional mutter as he stretched and the ladders moved but so far he's quite safe!

Why is it though, that you can do a big shop, put it all away and nothing looks any different?  Apart from the wine rack that is!   Sadly no grapes this year, or not enough to do anything with as they all shrivelled up really early.  But I am having fun choosing different wines in the shops, something we haven't done for a few years now. 

Roll on 6pm....that's traditionally 'sundowners'   time  although maybe 'cloud downers' would be a better description right now.

Veranillo de Membrillo

It seems a while ago now,  but about 3 weeks ago I picked the membrillo (quince)  for this years batch of spicy quince chutney and our alternative version of apple sauce.  The weather during the first part of October was wonderful - what we used to call an Indian summer.

One of the other blogs that I read is written by Oska who is based in Pórtugos and can be found here -  he also mentioned the Indian summer and apparently here it's known as  'Veranillo de Membrillo'  or  quince summer.  

Pórtugos is only about 40 km from us but a lot higher at 1303 metres up whereas we are a comparatively lowly  890 metres up.  Reading their blog about what grows and when,  the variations in the weather and temperatures, we realise how much of a difference it makes. 

Definitely not summer today,  although it's not raining and is still just touching 17°,  it's windy and cloudy.  Yesterday there was a pair of Bonelli's eagles around and the first time we saw them,  they  flew - or blew - past the window so fast!  Later on they were just drifting by but came down really low near the lounge window.  Of course, never a camera to hand when you need one!

After the caterpillars..

The caterpillars finally finished munching their way through the ash trees on the footpath to the fuente,  it took them a couple of months altogether and they haven't left much behind.

Lacy looking leaves and not much more.

John has been working on and off improving the steps from the side garden down to the bottom acequia and the path to our bottom terraces.  This work depends on the weather and other ongoing jobs around the house,  one day recently I followed him down with cold drinks and found caterpillars munching their way through our ash trees.  The long strings they dangle from were glinting in the sunshine so I saw them before they got into my hair but he'd not seen  them and just thought it was a spiders web or something.

Not sure  they'll be munching much today, it's wild wet and windy out there!  We have   riesgo de rachas muy fuertes hoy ........  otherwise known as a risk of very strong gusts - they are forecasting gusts of up to 80km today and tomorrow.  Despite that the sun is trying hard to shine in between the fast moving clouds and showers.

Exploding pomegranates!

One day  they are fine and the next day they've split open.  I keep an eye on them because as soon as they start to split I pick them but these burst while I wasn't looking.

These aren't as big as in previous years but I thought small would still be better than nothing, as one of our trees hasn't managed to produce any fruit at all.  Not for lack of water or sun - I don't the reason why.

Luckily last year we had a lot of fruit and I squeezed them - what a mess that makes -  simmered the juice with sugar to make a syrupy sort of juice then stored it in sterilised ex-orange juice cartons.  One is still in the fridge and ok, the other 2 are in the freezer although not frozen due to the sugar content I think.  Mixed with gaseosa  - it's a sort of lemonadey drink - only ever had it in Spain,    it's very refreshing.  

Dia de Todos los Santos

Today is the day when people remember their loved ones  and visit the graves in  the cemetery to decorate them with fresh flowers and maybe photos or mementos.   Many people have left Yator so when they come back for this weekend they replace with artificial arrangements so they remain colourful until this day next year.

For the past week or so the bazaars and florists have been awash with flowers,  from single blooms to complete arrangements.  Apparently sales are double this week compared to any other week in the year.  Good for some people, then.

So today has been a public holiday and in keeping with Spanish  tradition, tomorrow is a 'bridge day' -  día del puente  - as what's the point in going  back to work just for a Friday?

I went to the cemetery this afternoon on the way back from Yátor,   walked up with Lola who was going to put candles at her husbands grave, his parents and her parents.   I asked if I could take photos as I didn't want to offend her but she said she knew that the cemeteries here were different to English ones -   'ours are like steps'  she said   'but yours are flat'.