Almonds in August?

Over the past couple of days the almonds on one of our trees have been opening and I have started to pick them.  It's a tiny tree, more of a bush than a tree, about 1.5 metres max, but is absolutely laden with almonds.  We don't remember ever having almonds ready to pick quite so early - sometimes there's a tree with almonds that start to split  in  early September but August?? 

Once upon a time this particular bush-tree was a proper tree, tall and leggy, but totally unproductive and prone to greenfly and nasty sticky stuff all summer.  So late one autumn a few years ago, it was cut down to the base, and a very large base it was.  Took ages to cut through it, even longer to cut the trunk into chunks and longer still to log the chunks.  But it made wonderful firewood!  The next year nothing much happened apart from some new growth but this year all that new growth flowered beautifully and each flower made an almond and now we are picking them. 

The end result from today's picking was one bucket of almonds and two buckets of husks, the husks will be dried and kept for the wood burner.  When the almonds have dried out and have been shelled, the shells also go in the wood burner.

Outside now there is thunder rumbling away down south and lightning flashing - lighting up the garden.  Not enough clouds for rain and nothing is forecast but we quite often get this happening in late summer.  Maybe a build up of pressure?  Rain would be quite nice, not had any since the first week in June when there were a couple of showers. 

A few more fiesta photos

The most enormous paella!

After lunch, waiting for the foam. Me, talking to son.

Bubble girl, Airi.

John and Mat with womble feet!

Outdoor living.

One thing neither of us really enjoy doing in this hot weather is cooking indoors.  The kitchen gets hot, we get hot and it's not nice.  But earlier this year some friends who were redoing their kitchen offered us their cooker and sink unit - if we could find a use for them.  'An outside cooking area'  we thought and put the cooker  in the shade of the olive tree out by the pool.  It's a 5 burner gas cooker and as gas is bottled here the cooker can live anywhere, doesn't need fitting near a socket.   I made it a cover for when it's not used and to keep the winter rains off it, John made a frame to fit the sink unit into and we started to cook out there.

We prepare food in the kitchen,  then bring it up to cook.  There is a spare set of china, cutlery and assorted other things stored in the caravan - salt and pepper, olive oil, glasses and such like.   The sink can only be described as functional - it's obviously not plumbed in as it's outside the caravan on a frame, so after washing up when you pull the plug out you must make sure there's a bucket underneath to catch the water otherwise you get splashed.  Then the water goes onto the plants, it's not wasted.

Made a wonderful pizza for lunch last week, well 2 actually as there were 4 of us,  and the oven needed to be very hot to get a crispy base - the thought of that indoors didn't bear thinking about but outside in the shade was fine.

So, a panorama of photos from around the pool.  

First is the drier for fruit and vegetables,  a kindling store,

a sunny sunbed, shaded seating area, shady sunbed

shady cooking area and caravan with sink outside.

Sunrise

Just a photo of this mornings sunrise as we went out for a pre-breakfast walk... not as early as it looks, this was taken at  7.39.

A rat run.

A little light pruning this morning to stop the rat run.  Yes, even this far up off the beaten track we have a rat run, but with a difference as this is a real rat which has decided to do it's daily commute via our palm trees, olive tree, terrace roof, grape vines and across the top of the garden gate.

The day before yesterday we heard it pattering over the terrace roof, presumably it had come from Carmen's, up the wall and over our house roof first, then it went down a palm branch, along the ivy-clad fence - but very cleverly the outside so although Pip tried her hardest she couldn't get it - then over the gate and via the olive tree onto the far fence and away.  

In the evening it came back along the fence, up the olive tree, jumped onto the grape vines, down a palm branch and back along the ivy-clad fence.  Chased all the way by the dogs but again it was outside so they could only bark and scrabble at the fence.  Don't know where it's going to - we did see a rat going up into the mulberry tree when that was full of fruit back in June, maybe it's eating the figs now.

So we took the loppers to every palm branch that came anywhere near touching the olive, grapes and house in the hope that it can't jump the gaps and will find a new route home - hopefully further away. 

Unfortunately  Pip, in her desperate attempt to get at the rat, has scratched her eyelid on a bush and  it's all swollen and she can't see from that eye.  The good thing for her though is that it's her bad eye and we're not sure how much vision there usually is in that one,  and she can still see with her good eye.  Has it slowed her down?  Not at all, still careering around before collapsing in the shade.