Time flies by

And another week gone,   still busy although with different things now,  the strawberries are thankfully having a rest at the moment but the pears are ready to eat.  Pip gets the windfalls,  Monty isn't so fussed but will eat a bit sometimes.  Last year we had over 30 kilos I think,  this year is much easier to cope with - more in the region of 50 or so pears.   Enough to go and pick one when you want.  Not so many that you wonder what on earth to do with them.

The pomegranates have been  in full flower for a couple of weeks and now the fruit is taking shape.  Such a strong vibrant colour,  the leaves are bright yellowy green  and set against the blue sky,   well take a look at these.....

Our mimosa trees have been in bloom too for a week or so,  clouds of pinky-yellow blossom,  the first blooms starting to drop off now but lots and lots of buds so many flowers still to come.  It flowers for most of the summer....

 This tree is in the side garden and I took the picture from the pool area,  looking down towards it,  whereas this other tree is in the front garden and although planted at the same time is not as big yet.  Looking up through the arch you can see it's feathery leaves well against the sky.

Another dog arrived in Montenegro a few weeks ago,  don't know what type - probably a mixed variety,  but she's got big paws!   She's not a stray, but belongs to one of the Paco's.
Another mouth to feed along with the dog and  3 cats that he already has.  Can't count the chickens, rabbits or goats as they are food!

And lastly an early morning worker,  toiling away in his field...we went past at 7.45 and he was already working,  a basket of seeds by his feet.  I wonder what he's planting? 

A bit of a beef.

We don't go out often, we do try and alternate the cars though when we go,  enough to keep them both running as we are quite isolated and  occasionally we have found that a battery goes flat but then use the other car.  Yesterday we went for a shopping stock-up trip and when we stopped to fill the car at the petrol station,  John found a wasps nest - tiny triangular shaped made of mud thing - behind the flap when he opened it to access the cap!  Now maybe Mr and Mrs Wasp had only just recently made the nest but then again we hadn't filled that car since the middle of February.  The nest is now history,  luckily there wasn't an angry Mr Wasp in there when he found it!

About shopping....over the last year maybe more, we've noticed that some supermarkets have changed their ingredients of some meats,  surely meat should be meat not need a list of ingredients!   Specifically we've noticed it on minced beef.  It used to be 100% beef,  maybe 98% with some salt and preservative added,  but now we are finding labels that say 87% or even 80%!  If we wanted to buy water or soya protein or cereals we would,  but not in our meat thank you.  Anyway our water is free and we don't eat many cereals,  they are for breakfast not in our minced beef.   Our answer to this is to buy lean stewing steak and mince it ourselves as we have an old fashioned fit it on the table type of mincer which does a wonderful job.

Then there is the mark-up on things like from ketchup to chilli ketchup.  Maybe double the price?   We both like spicy foods so now just buy ketchup,  empty it into a bowl,  add our own ground up dried home grown chillis and pour it into a squirty refillable bottle.  Same with garlic mayo,  spicy bbq sauce,  flavoured oils......all so easy to do yourself. 

This morning I spent a bit of time in the kitchen doing all of the above plus starting a batch of lime pickle - for those who like Indian food and buy lime pickle it's easy and quickish.  Day 1 chop the limes and add salt.  Day 4 add ground spices.  Day 8 bottle.  Basically that's it but the real recipe is here  along with a few other easy to do  chutney ideas.

And that's it,  rant over.  Sorry for that.

But the sun is out - or was earlier - the sky is/was blue,  the water was lovely and warm once I'd escaped from the kitchen and went for a much needed swim and as far as I can see the forecast is good.  

Off now for a much needed very large glass of wine.  Plus to stop Pip barking,  there are Scops owls out  in the hills hooting and she is barking back at them. 

Where's our sun?

The sun has gone in,  the clouds are gathering all around,  quite gloomy looking out there at the moment,  and the forecast has rain from an hour ago till tomorrow evening.... :(  
  
So no swimming for me this afternoon,  and maybe no need to do any watering tomorrow,  it is our day for it but it might get done for us! 

We've had an outside tidying up week  and got some stuff thrown out,  which for us is unusual as we tend to keep more than we really need just in case.  It's sods law that the minute we have a good clear out then those things would have been useful but we have been a bit more thorough this time.  Take for instance the potting shed.  Piles of plastic trays kept from supermarket meat shopping,  they each hold 8 yoghurt pots for seedlings but are mostly all black plastic and we don't have many clear ones to use as lids.  So they've been paired up and the surplus thrown.  And  a pile of mismatched trays too,  none of which will stack or pair up as a bottom and lid so no use really -  I dropped 2 large bin bags of such stuff into the recycling on Thursday.  So now we have space in potting,  also J is hanging tools from the wall rather than the current  'just put it there'  arrangement.  He has been sorting out one of the sheds too,  lots of wood for making shelves and such like,  but no space to do anything! 

It always looks worse before it eventually gets better,    there's been lots of  'why did we keep this?'  and  'how long ago did we put this here?'  and  I've no doubt we'll be doing it again in a year or so.   But for now,  we have space! 

Busy days.

Sometimes I sit here and think I really ought to write something but what,   I know we've been busy and if you look back using the search box at this time last year,  or the year before,  or the year before.....it involves all the same things to some degree.  

Strawberries - picking, eating and making into wine,  45 litres so far.

Planting out seedlings - peppers, kohlrabi, tomatoes, chillies, squash, courgettes, sweetcorn, pak choi,

Putting in seeds - mostly dwarf Borlotto beans which we soaked overnight before planting and they were all up within a week,  second planting went in Monday just gone.

Picking and eating lettuce and radish,  harvesting the green coriander seeds for using in Indian and Mexican foods,  I've mentioned this before,  the green seeds are very juicy, bursting with coriander flavour and it's a bit like eating a green peppercorn but coriander taste instead.  Last year when we realised how wonderful they were,  we went to pick the seeds and found the ants had got there first.  The big ants were up the stems biting off the seed heads,  as they fell to the ground the little worker ants took the individual seeds off to their store.   But not this year!  We check the seed heads daily and pick as soon as they are plump.  Still waiting for the beetroot to do something...pretty colour leaves though!

Picking and brining the first of the capers,  the flowers are coming out so now is the time to pick the small flower buds then in a few weeks as soon as they set seed I'll pick them too.  We still have a few jars of each type but you never know if something will happen to prevent a good year and so it's best to keep well stocked. 

Stripped out the last of the pea beds and dried any missed pods for next years planting.

Then there is watering,  fortnightly on a Sunday is our main day when we refill tanks and water the olives and veg,  the Sunday in between -  today - we use our stored water to do the vegetables and there is enough for a Wednesday watering session as well in hot times.  Plus watering the tubs and pots of which I realised today we have lots and lots!   Pots of lavender and herbs,  spider plants and parsley,  a clog plant and 2 sorts of basil  are all on the front terrace,   pots of  aloe vera  and 2 cactuses  (cacti ?)  from Yegen along the terrace edge.... the list goes on and on.  Some of the pots are out in the garden tucked in amongst planted flowers,  some are what we used to have as house plants in uk,  purple tradescantia and swedish ivy,  but they keep warm and if they look unhappy they get moved.  Some are plants which only flower for a few weeks and they get moved around when in bloom and put in a shady place when resting,  plants such as grape hyacinth,  star of bethlehem,  narcissi,  autumn crocus.  Under the front garden olive tree are even more tubs of hebes,  dwarf gladioli,  various succulents,  more aloe vera,  more tradescantia,  geraniums and mint.

I counted 40 pots today as I watered,  that wasn't including the ones under the olive tree or in the flower beds,  just  on the terraces,  and there are some out by the pool too.  The beds out there have been tidied up this week - and expanded as the plants just keep growing so I take cuttings,  and then have to find somewhere to plant the new ones,  and so it goes on!  But everywhere is  so bright and colourful. 

All white.

Some white flowers at the moment in the garden,  it's the time that our lilies are blooming and also the olive trees are covered in blossom although an awful lot of it seems to be covering the tables in the garden and then over the last 24 hours it's been quite breezy and now the blossom is covering the surface of the pool. 

The olive blossom is much much smaller and I could only get an overview of the blossom on the branches...

but when John came out with his camera and took pictures it was so much better - so much detail...

each flower seems to have 3 blossoms,  probably not the correct term,  but we think the middle will become the olive and the 2 flowers to the left and right will be what helps make the olive.  Not good on plant biology as you can probably tell!