Jack Frost.

He came last night and left a very pretty white coating on the grass beside the road,  it wasn't until just an hour or so ago that I noticed he'd also got the tops of our potato plants.  They look very sad - hopefully not fatal though.  Also the autumn sowing of dwarf Borlotto beans  have keeled over,  they had just about stopped setting beans anyway,  it was more of an experiment this year as they did so badly in the summer heat that we thought they couldn't do any worse now.  We have had quite a few good pickings from them since the end of September till last week.

3.3° on the thermometer on the front  terrace this morning - I met someone when shopping in Ugijar this morning and his thermometer reading was 0°  - he'd gone onto the terrace for his morning coffee but I doubt he stayed out there long.

Snow showers forecast as from 5pm,   it hasn't happened yet this year but we did get this on the 30th November 2008

Now that snow wasn't forecast and was quite a shock to say the least,  there was snow on the beaches as well.  At least this year it's being predicted and we won't be so surprised if it comes down tonight.

Twinkle twinkle little star...

Clear skies, twinkling stars and a nearly full moon - tomorrow night - means a cold night. 

Today has been lovely - blue skies and sunshine - and that sounds like it would be good for doing outside stuff but there's also been a chill wind straight down from the north and we reached the dizzy heights of 10° at lunchtime.  Having said that, it was 7°  this morning at 8am, so it didn't change much from overnight.

The forecast for tonight is light snow and a temperature of minus 0°.   Honestly, that's what it said.  How can you have minus 0.  Surely it's either 0 or -1?  At the moment we still have clear skies but there are some puffy clouds around but not snow clouds.  On the plus side, a full moon and clear skies makes for a nice last dog walk as we don't need to use the torch at all.  The street lights don't start for 50 metres or so and recently 2 of them have blown a bulb and have not been repaired,  not something I'm expecting to happen any time soon given the current economic climate.

The nispero tree.

There aren't many  fruit trees in bloom at this time of the year,  this is the exception......the nispero. 

It blooms in the autumn and fruits in the spring although I think there is also another variety here that does it the opposite way round.  We only have the autumn flowering variety.  The fruits are quite apricot like,  orange and juicy but with several small brown shiny nut-like seeds inside.  It's leaves are evergreen, there is a Telegraph article here about the nispero likening the leaves to a sweet chestnut on steroids!   They are thick and long and very dark green. 

We did wonder what the English name for the fruit was,  out came the fruit and vegetable gardening book and on the same page as the Quince, which we have here, was a Medlar.  Although the fruits in the photo were browner that ours,  they do go brown if left on the tree, so for the last 9 years we've thought it was a Medlar.

Until today that is when I was looking for a photo online that I could use here of the fruits and their seeds.  The Wikipedia info about the Medlar  describes them as  'deciduous large shrubs .....with five petalled white flowers produced in late spring'    neither of which sounds like our trees.....  the leaves turn red in autumn before falling'    um, no.

Carry on reading and we come 'related plants' and mention of the loquat, sometimes known as a medlar or Japanese medlar.  New search on Wikipedia for loquat and this sounds more like it....'large evergreen shrub or small tree, leaves are 10–25 cm long, dark green, tough and leathery'     'The flowers have a sweet, heady aroma that can be smelled from a distance'.  Yes, most definitely yes.  'The flavor is a mix of peach, citrus and mild mango.'  I would have said more like an apricot but maybe that's just my taste buds.

So we've learnt something new today,  and it's only taken 9 and a bit years!

Pea planting.

Peas and beans of all types, both bush and climbing, grow very well here but I've always had a problem keeping the peas upright.  They start off well but no matter what support method I've used, they get top heavy and collapse.  Then of course the stalk snaps and the peas stop podding.  I've seen  twigs recommended but my peas have always outgrown the twig height,  I've tried the local way of planting in between the broad beans so the peas can cling onto the strong bean plants.  But last time the beans  were so strong and bushy the peas struggled to get any light and were a bit of a failure.  

I read lots of gardening blogs and online newspaper columns and recently came across this 

http://www.allotment.org.uk/

and on the  chat page  was some - hopefully wonderful - pea growing advice.  Basically you put stakes round the edge of your pea bed and down the sides,  put string round a few inches from the ground,   I have also put string across from stake to stake creating little boxes.  Peas go in as normal,  2 inches or so apart in staggered rows and I put 3 into each hole - my beds are each 6 inches or so wide.  As you imagine that adds up to a lot of peas - we've so far got a bed of 27 holes,  each with 3 in,  another of 29 and another of 17.  If my brain is still working ok that comes to 219 seeds.   And lots more in the box - as soon as these start to appear,  the next lot will go in,  so the picking season lasts longer.  

The theory is that the peas cling onto the strings and each other and as they grow so you add another string a few inches higher.  The chat page has some good photos of what happens at the various stages, if ours look anything like that in the spring, I'll be very pleased.

 

The smell of freshly cut grass.

Grass is not something we see much of here,  by grass I mean lawns not the green clumpy stuff that grows on campo in the veg patches and acequias where you don't want it.  But about 6 or 7 years ago we came across a large box of grass seed which said it was especially for a hot dry climate,  was for 'high traffic' areas,  resistant to the sun etc etc.....all of which made us think it was worth a try for our front garden.

The main instruction was 'just water well and away you go'

We dug and raked, levelled and smoothed, watered and sprinkled the seeds,  covered with netting to stop the birds having a feast when we weren't looking and sure enough,  the grass started to grow.   Then the weather warmed up,  we did as instructed and watered well and sure enough the 'away you go' part of the instructions really did do as it said.  The grass just  got up and went.  Well, not literally walked away, but it did disappear.  The hotter it got, the less grass we had.

Until the next year though,  when the autumn rains came and then back came the grass.  It's done the same thing every year since then and seems to be getting thicker and spreading further.  Obviously we don't have a lawn mower here but do have a strimmer so we keep the grass looking neat and tidy with that.  Today was the first trim of the year,  I also did the so called lawn under the olive tree out by the pool - in reality it's lots of clumps  plus clover that is nice and green but looks good when trimmed.

We only need to trim it a few times during the winter rather than the weekly lawn cut of days gone by in UK and I'd forgotten what a wonderful smell freshly cut grass has.  So good that the eagles came down really low for a look - we were enjoying the last of the sun with an early evening glass of chilled white wine when a pair of eagles swooped down low over the house.   First one came low over the roof, then they both circled around,  then a few minutes later this one came round again, just in time for me to grab a picture.