Sorry - another pista picture.

I don't like to bore you all with yet another picture of the so-called pista, but this is the latest version. Surely it can't get any worse! It has slid in slices; first a crack appears, then a slice goes and each slice then exposes more soft damp soil, with no plants to hold it together and so another crack appears, another slice slides down and so on......

Another car tried to go down today, I only heard it coming up and we did wonder if by some magic the pista was repaired (the hole was still there at 8am today - I doubted it very much) but J went out to look and nothing had changed. It must have been someone out for a scenic drive in the sunshine. Bit of a shock coming across that! At least they were in a 4x4 in the daylight, unlike last weeks BMW driver in the dark.

Over the last few days we have working outside, repairing rain damage. We have steps cut into the ground down from the side garden to the bottom acequia which are now rather curvy due to the rain, J has re-dug them, put in concrete bloques filled with soil and stones and then I have planted anything ground cover-ish to stop the soil washing away next to them. Each time it rains heavily or snows something changes, and you realise what needs doing so next time there won't be a problem.

Pruning time soon for firewood stocks....if the lovely weather holds up! Blue skies and sunshine still, cold overnight but at least it's dry.

Las-Alpujarras.net

Something to look at that has changed....

http://www.las-alpujarras.net/

Lots of you come here via vickibray.com which has a link to "where I live" which is this website. But it's now been revamped and comments etc would be welcomed, especially by John, as it is his! And for those of you who come here direct, why not take a look at it.

More oranges today, 2.5 litres of juice and zest grated for the coming year. Why is it called zest, not peel? And why is it so difficult to get it all out of the grater? I've seen zesters for sale - do they work? Not sure we need all this dried zest, but if the orange crop should fail like the olives have this year, we need to have more than enough in stock. It now makes sense when we were advised to get 2 years of olive oil in from last years harvest. Unfortunately we didn't get 2 years of brined olives in stock and have run out. So any olives we want to eat this year will have to be bought - or we go without!

The vet only took a few of Pip's stitches out and he's going to do the rest next week. I don't think she's healed enough and he doesn't want her to pop open!

Blue skies and sunshine today which was lovely after the clouds and rain. Not particularly hot - 10 in the shade - but warm enough to dry the washing.

Friends who have been stuck the other side of Yators' river since Christmas week are finally out! They had to organise a digger themselves but now have access. One couple had got across the river using their tractor to dig but then had to walk to Yator, they still didn't have a car though. The other couple had to walk everywhere, including twice a week with 25 litres of goat's milk each time for the milkman to collect in Yator and taking back sacks of food for the goats. Plus of course everything they needed for themselves. People have helped as best they could, lending a car, offering lifts, taking food etc as close as possible for them but I bet they're relieved to have access.

Celebrations tonight I expect!

Since Wednesday....

We have finally ventured out via the remade track to Yegen and on down to El Ejido to stock up the freezers and shelves with meat and tinned goods. First we went down with Monty and Pip to Yator to empty both cars into one; dog biscuits, beer and coke - strange mixture of things to have! Then we dropped everything off here, plus the dogs and went back out to stock up. Yator to Montenegro via Mecina and Yegen is an extra 15kms - direct from here down is only 2kms! The track is in reasonably good condition considering how it was after the rains. There is only one wet, squidgy area that I didn't like driving over, it's much easier to go uphill than down! So now we are as normal for the winter, the Polo in Yator and the 4x4 here so we have options.

This weekend was fiesta San Sebastian in Yator. We walked down on Saturday morning for the lunchtime do - looked a bit odd really as we were both in jeans and walking boots but our top halves were super smart. J in a blazer, shirt, tie and waistcoat and me in a black and cream fine wool top and pearls! We took trousers and shoes and high heels for me and got changed at a friends house. About 4pm we changed back and came home. A bit slower on the return journey though, something to do with the wine I think!

Sundays forecast wasn't good and we didn't fancy walking home after the wine in the rain, so stayed here yesterday. But by 2pm the promised rain hadn't come so I took Pip and Monty out orange picking, not that they're much help! Got 31 off the tree, loads more to come but they don't all ripen at the same time. First I grated the peel and have it drying on a baking tray to store later for cakes, biscuits and figgy pudding, then squeezed them - 2 litres of juice in the fridge.

There were lots of lemons down on the ground, about a dozen windfalls, so I have started to grate the peel from them before using them. That's drying as well. We have a vase of narcissi on the dining table, they have been blooming for about 3 weeks and we have enough to cut for the house as well as plenty in flower outside. So when you open the kitchen door, there is a gorgeous fruity, flowery smell.

The 3rd lot of broad beans and peas went in this morning, the first beans are flowering already. I also picked 5 strawberries! And there are more flowers and some ripening too. Even some of this years runners/small plants have flowers.

But right now it's raining again- a steady drizzle coming down, so not sure if there will be much of the collapsing track left tomorrow. It hasn't got much worse, just sinking slowly down, down, down. Still no sign of the digger to repair it and it won't come while the ground is wet. (Just looked out of the window - it's rain not drizzle!)

Tomorrow off to the vet with Pip to have her stitches out, should have gone today but she did something while out this morning, I didn't see what, she and Monty were running ahead of me and there was a yelping and she was hobbling on 3 legs. Probably pulled something running or stopped too quickly and twisted something. Who knows, but she's ok now. I didn't want to set off with a hobbling pup who might not be able to walk down to the car and it didn't seem worth going the long way round in the other car. He's a very laid back vet so going tomorrow won't be a problem.

Traffic report

On Monday we heard a rumbling coming down from Yegen, so after lunch went for a walk to see what was happening. It sounded like a digger, was in fact a bulldozer that just pushed every rock aside, remade the collapsed track - see photos from our walk with Mat to Yegen on the 27th December - and arrived here late afternoon. When it got to the border with Yator it had to stop, and we were told that the digger from Yator would be up the following day to do its bit.

Tuesday morning when I went out with Monty and Pip for a walk, no digger in sight but we came across a BMW parked - if that's the right word! - just before the land slide. Drivers window open, no-one around, just stopped. It had obviously been closer to the hole and had managed to reverse back a bit but was on a rutted slope and couldn't get any further. Later that day, a guy walked past on his way up from Yator and shortly after that, he came back down with Micha carrying 2 spades. It was the BMW driver, he'd tried to get down the night before - in the dark - luckily had seen the collapse, but then got stuck. Micha helped him out of the ruts, and he went back up to Yegen.

Today another vehicle also tried to get down, John heard a car go down and a while later a 4x4 came back up. As you may have guessed, there are no road closed signs anywhere and we assume that people in Yegen have heard that the bulldozer came down and are expecting it to be open all the way to Yator.

We are expecting to find someone parked in the landslide one of these days! Maybe if there is more traffic, then the digger will be back. But we can now get home via Mecina and Yegen - a bit of a detour but when we need heavy shopping or gas bottles, it's now an option.

A bit more about the road from Cadiar to Torviscon - there is a report in the Ideal newspaper saying that there are now 71 landslides in the 12 km stretch, 66 of them due to this years rain. But the surface of the road is very bad, the edges are washing away and there are cracks in the middle. If anyone wants the link and can read/translate the report it's here

http://www.ideal.es/granada/20100119/provincia/desprendimientos-kilometros-20100119.html

And now for something different, we think Spring is springing as the almond blossom is coming out! The tree opposite the front gate has started to bloom in the last few days.

Talking of springing, Pip has discovered that she can jump up onto the kennel roof from a standing start, not a problem you'd think except the first time she did it was 2 days after her operation, then she slipped off and got wedged down the back of the kennel between it, the fence and the (very spiky) bouganvillea. When I managed to get her out there seemed to be a lot of blood so I thought she'd burst her stitches but luckily she'd only cut a paw on the spikes. We have now moved the kennel to a safer place for her.

Sorry to mention it again!

But today the Alcalde (Mayor) from Yator came up to see the land slip and to decide what to do. The JCB won't go any further because the balsa (water deposit) is full - well, half full now due to its leaks, and he doesn't know quite what he's going to find when he starts digging. Obviously he doesn't want to sink down into a bog! So John and Mariano went down to talk to Antonio and they tried to open the balsa to send the water onto the nearest land, but not downhill as that would wash away the land that is still here. Unfortunately the exit pipe was blocked and the only person who knows how to sort it out was working today (he's a paramedic in Ugijar) so he's coming tomorrow to empty the balsa and when it's drier and safer, the digger will come back and dig/divert the road by removing the bend and the acequia that runs above. At a later date, when we have a proper new road, the acequia will probably be piped from the balsa down towards Yator.


I took the dogs down at 8.30am and J and Mariano were there at about midday, I took photos and so did they, there is a difference in the collapse even over that 3 hour period. It's now possible to see water down in the cracks, probably due to the leaky balsa, and I suppose the heavy rains have been the final straw.

Mariano came for Sunday breakfast, yes we had it at about 1.30pm but we usually have eggs, bacon and the like on Sunday for brunch, it gives us a reference point for the week otherwise we aren't sure what day it is! He has heard about a full English breakfast because 2 of his sons have worked in England, a brother was married to an English girl and he has a nephew in Bradford. But this was his first proper breakfast and he ate the lot (and had seconds!)

Took the dogs out for a walk in the sun this afternoon and then met some friends who'd walked up to see us. It's been a lovely sunny day, 18 this afternoon, long may it last. Yator's fiesta this coming weekend - this will be our 7th and never had anything but sun so far.