Sunset.

 This was taken at 8.45  this evening.  What a dramatic sunset we had tonight.....

We haven't had any clouds for ages, even though the forecast sometimes says partly cloudy it just means a couple of puffy white things float by during the day.  But there are storms around the coast of Spain on the way up towards Murcia and Barcelona and there have been some clouds this evening - resulting in a colourful sunset for us.

Runner beans.

On the way up to Yegen  about half way there on the right hand side,  is a very large flat area that in September is planted with runner beans.  This year 2 crops have been planted, the first in May and now the second lot are in.  This year for the first time we have heard an automatic bird scarer firing, when we first heard it we thought  'hunters'  but it was way out of season for them.  Mariano put us right about that when I asked what it was!  

Also for the first time we have seen lots of workers there.  In past years the beans and bamboo stakes have just appeared with no obvious signs of people - yes, I know someone's done the work but not when we've been out and about.  But this year there have been groups of people - about 8 or 9 - staking, picking, whatever.  We think it must be irrigated from the deposito that is on the hill above it and that is fed by a large tube from the stream that runs across the track between Montenegro and the entrance to the bean patch.

7.45 am - the start  of the days work and bundles of canes ready for staking the beans.

It's difficult to judge the size of the patch, but we reckon about 100 metres  each way which is going to produce one hell of a lot of crates of beans!  They must be for selling direct to the wholesalers,  one of our Paco neighbours sells his broad beans like that, half the market price but a guaranteed price.  Similarly 2 guys from Yator who grow cherry tomatoes get a set price from the wholesaler - 60 cents a kilo I'm told - maybe not much but a definite sale.

Talking of cherry tomatoes, ours haven't blown up or popped the lid or anything nasty so will do more soon.

Cherry tomatoes.

Over the last couple of days the cherry tomato plants have produced more tomatoes than we've had for about 2 weeks.  And as much as I like them, I can't keep up with that amount and unfortunately John doesn't really like them at all.  He'll eat sliced tomatoes in salads and once they are made into sauces and used in meals that's fine too.  Luckily we only planted 2 cherry tomato plants, we have more of the big tomatoes - a variety called Simone - and those we sundry and store.

A friend told me her sister in Malta bottles tomatoes in brine so I had a google today to see what strength brine, how long they keep etc.  Lots of info out there as you'd expect and as normal lots of the same info on different sites and forums.  So with my bit of paper full of notes about salt to water ratios I headed to the kitchen.

Low salt pickles are a 3.5% brine,    the old 'float an egg and that's strong enough'  idea is about 10% brine but then the vegetables need 24 hours of soaking in clean water before eating,  most of the sites I read today had  1/4 cup salt to 1 quart water but those are American measures and they have a different pint to us (and anyway how big is a cup??)  so I have used this amount......
3 tablespoons sea salt to 2 pints water  which is about the low salt ratio.  

First make the brine, boil the water, add the salt and leave to cool.
Then rinse and dry the tomatoes,  put into a nice wide neck ex-pickle jar, cover to about 3 cms below the top of the jar with brine and top up with olive oil to keep a seal.  Screw on the lid - they apparently keep for 9 to 10 months. 

If the jar doesn't explode or do anything silly like that in the next few days then I'll do some more.  I thought about drying them but they'd shrink down to something very tiny - although very intense in flavour I'm sure.

Sorry to be boring but...

it's still hot!   Waking up to 25° going up to about 35° in the afternoon and down to 30° at about 11pm.   John has dug around in his old work shirt box and found a long sleeved cotton shirt which he saturates and then puts on in the evening -  it keeps him very cool as it dries.  Not pretty but functional.  I either go in the pool or in the shower for quick cool downs, then sit in front of the fan in the lounge.

It has been a very long hot spring and summer  and the house is a bit like a storage heater.  Most of the walls are half a metre or so thick and they slowly absorb heat.  It'll be nice in the autumn when they start giving the heat back into the house when it's needed but right now we are just overheating.  The lounge thermometer hasn't dropped below 29 for a few weeks now,  and we are doing as much cooking as is possible outside - we have barbeques, a gas grill, a small electric oven and a full sized gas cooker that we were given last summer - it  all helps keep the temperature down in the kitchen. 

Late last week we had a shopping day which was lovely.  Half an hour to Berja with the aircon on low and full blast, into Mercadona for a couple of hours shopping in the cool,  back in the car for 10 minutes up to Aldi, half and hour in their air conditioned shop and then half an hour home in the nice aircon cool car. 

We have been seriously thinking about buying a free standing air con unit for the house this summer but it's a bit late now......normally August is cooler than July and it should be getting better soon.  But maybe for next year.

Scorching heat.

After a blisteringly hot weekend which saw temperatures reach 44 - 45 degrees, we are now back to a somewhat more comfortable 35 -36 degree high.  In fact this morning when we went out it was to a relatively cool 24.

As well as the hot sun we have had strong hot winds  and there have been lots of wildfires around Spain.  The worst ones are on the islands of La Gomera and Tenerife,  with some on the mainland up around Alicante.   We've only seen 2 fires from here this year, one just outside Mecina Bombaron and the other over towards Válor.   The yellow fireplane that sprays foam on the flames and a helicopter with water bucket have been flying by quite regularly so there's probably more fires round here than we know about.  The government says up till the end of July nearly 131,000 hectares of vegetation were destroyed by fires and on Sunday there were 10 wildfires raging in Spain.

I suppose after the driest winter recorded in either 60 or 70 years, depending which report you read,  followed by this scorching heat,  then fires are not surprising.  But when regional officials  say that there is evidence that it   "was started deliberately as it had two focal points two miles apart that began burning within a short time of each other"   you do wonder what makes people tick.


Pictures and more words   here    and    here.