Nuestra Señora de Fátima

Yesterday was our fiesta here in  Montenegro celebrating Nuestra Señora de Fátima.  The skies weren't as blue as last year,  but the sun did shine for us.  Every year  the fiesta   follows the same pattern, but is still a bit different - it all depends on the day of the week that the 13th falls on.  Last year was a Sunday so lots more people around and about a 100 or so came,  yesterday was quieter and we noticed people leaving to go back to work after the service.  Usually the pews stay outside the chapel and are used by the picnicers but this year they were put away and it seemed that there wouldn't be much of a gathering afterwards.

We shared food and drink with friends as usual,   later on after we'd gone home we heard the sound of guitars and singing drifting down through the olive terraces.

Just this last few days the flowers of the variegated agaves have started to bloom,   this one caught the sun this morning......

Whose egg is it?

Considering the lack of recent rain - or much rain at all this winter - everywhere is very green and lush still,  with lots of wild flowers in bloom.   But there are some places that never green-up,  never have many flowers and a couple of days ago I saw this on the dry open ground.  Actually the dogs saw it first,  started sniffing at it,  and because you never know what might be lying around I always take them away from strange stuff,  dogs and cats have been known to get ill from eating things on the ground.

But it wasn't bad food,  or poison,  but this egg.  Or the remains of an egg. 

The pencil next to it is 6 inches long - about 15cms? - so quite a decent size.  I've googled 'birds eggs beige spotty brown bits' etc and  have found quite a few but none that give a size.  I did wonder if it's an egg from a perdiz (partridge) as we start to see the babies following mum and dad at the end of May and during June.  So hatching now would be about the right timescale.

Any thoughts or if you know which bird,  do say so!    

Olives and grapes.

Before we came here,  olives were just something that we bought in a tin,  ate occasionally and  put on pizzas.  I don't remember thinking much about them, but now we have our own trees which we  water every alternate Sunday (our day for the acequia water)   pick, brine and bottle  the black olives from November to January depending on the tree and variety and also prune for winter firewood,  now we are much more aware of them.

I don't think I ever realised that an olive tree had flowers.  That may seem a silly thing to say as how else do you get fruit?  And is an olive a fruit?  I suppose so but not edible till brined and then definitely not a sweet fruit. 

The trees now are getting ready to bloom,  lots of tiny tiny buds,  the flowers themselves are little white star shapes and will be out soon.


Also getting ready are the grapevines.  Lots of miniature bunches of grapes - hopefully they will do well enough for us to make some wine this October as last years crop dried up in the extremely hot heat of August - yes, hot even for Southern Spain - and the year before just didn't produce enough.  That year I think we made 40 litres which may sound a lot,  but when we first started to make wine a neighbour said we should aim for 500 litres!  What!  Was that a gasp from someone?  Think of it as a litre a day between 2 of us,  which isn't a lot,  plus visitors,  Christmas time,  fiestas - of which there are a lot - and it becomes clear that 500 is about right.

Fingers crossed that this years harvest will be exceptional to make up for the past few.

Lucky Lizard.

Meet Lucky Lizard who lives in the front garden in the base of the olive tree.    We don't see him every day but he quite often comes out and walks around,  sunbathes for a bit,  darts for safety if there is movement and somehow has managed to avoid getting caught by Pip.  When she sees him she rushes over but he's quick enough to get into a space too small for her - behind plant pots,  back into his tree hole,  up inside a drain pipe sometimes.  The cut branch that Lucky is sitting on is about 5 inches across,  so we reckon he must be about 6 inches and his tail even longer than that.

A few weeks ago Lucky Lizard was out for his afternoon stroll,  Monty was lying on the doorstep and watched him for ages before summoning up  the energy to chase him. 

It's strange though,  because neither of the dogs chase after the sparrows or chaffinches in the garden,  they even sit on the dog's water bowl drinking and peck at their dog biscuits and are ignored totally. 

Actually this is Lucky 2,  a couple of years ago we had Lucky 1 who was much bigger and used to live in a drain pipe and was usually  around the washing machine,  but we realised that we hadn't seen him for quite a while then Lucky 2 came along.  Maybe this is Son of Lucky - sounds like the title of a horror movie!

Waiting time.

This is a waiting time at the moment -

waiting for the seeds to get big enough to repot

waiting for the temperature to get warmer so the biggest plants can go out

waiting for my back to stop aching - if I walk for too long - and especially if it's been an uphill walk,  it hurts coming downhill.  I know it's been 2 weeks since I overdid it,  getting some extra vegetable beds ready and also cleaning out the pool,  but for that week's work - too much bending and stretching and digging - I've paid the price.  2 weeks now of gentle work,  walking only on the flat - and that's difficult round here but up to the fuente and back is ok,  not sitting for too long or I get stiff,  it's all happened before but not for a very long time.  Out has come the physio book for my back exercises  and an ibuprofen if really bad.

Still,  there are plenty of things to be doing around here,  cushions for the outside chairs need recovering,  peas and beans to be picked,  podded and either eaten or frozen,  reorganize the wardrobe for when summer comes again...

Today was market day in Cadiar,  one of the few times that we meet up with friends,  there are quite a few of us who don't go out or shopping very often so market day is more of a social gathering - time to stop and chat.  And share back pain chat,  a friend of ours has done the same as me,  the same sunny week as me,  so we had a moan together.

Also heard about the local tomato planting group - 3 guys from Yator who grow cherry tomatoes in bulk each year with a guaranteed sale to the wholesaler - they have planted 24,500 plants recently at a cost of 45 cents each - they should make about €30,000 from that  between them,  minus the €11,000 they paid for the plants.

So a big investment,  all in the ground - and then it snowed.   Time will tell what effect it's had on the plants,  hopefully none,  but it might have slowed down their growth.