Song of the day: “Joan of Arc” by Katie Melua. Had it once or twice before, I think. I really should start going through the past blog posts soon and see if there’s a pattern yet. I’m having a lot of repeats after all.
So yeah, yesterday time was short and something had to go…the blog got elected so now I’m going to have to rack my brain in an attempt to remember everything of the past few days for the usual recount. Rather difficult, I’ll admit, for some reason details always slip my mind.
Let me think…well, grandpas little wall (we’re doing an old English courtyard thing, just for the heck of it) is basically done. All it needs now is wooden poles and fence against it. There was some more rock hauling involved in the endeavor, cement, concrete and dirt, but it’s looking good. I can’t wait for when we can remove the temporary fence that has been there for the past five years or so. Hah.
Gardening: we did quite a bit of it in the past few days. There was turning the earth, tossing around seeds, putting in plants and weeding…boy, did we do a lot of weeding. The fun bit is that we found several clusters of what appear to be leek and onions. We actually have no idea how they got there, there’s like hundreds of ‘m, but whatever the cause it was a nice find. Means we’re going to have to plant a lot less of those, considering we’re all onion fiends. Hah.
Took stock of how all the new stuff is doing, and noted that iceberg slaw will soon be ready for consumption. The cauliflower is looking well, and so are the red cabbage and pak choi.
The new strawberry plants appear to be working, so are the tomatoes, and since we fully plan on getting a lot of our produce ourselves this year, we finally tied the knot and went to our favorite local Vivero (plant nursery) and looked around.
Ended up buying several fruit trees: Golden Delicious and Fiji apples, two kinds of cherry trees and navel, and blood oranges; also got two sweet lemon trees, one lunar lemon tree (this one gets new lemons every month, apparently), an almond tree, and two mango trees.
Added to that the owner gave use a couple of white grape plants, a fig tree and several herbs, such as mint and parsley, which is always a nice treat, hah.
The old guy, a true local Spanish dude and friendly as can be, informed us that this was, according to him, the wettest winter in sixty years. Oh my, is it ever! I swear, stuff is so wet these days that I sometimes fear I might actually be growing roots. Hah.
We do plan to go again next month or so to get raspberries, brambles and maybe a couple of plumbs and pears. If we’re going to do this “home growing” thing we might as well do it well and go for it the full hundred percent. Nothing worth having is done right if you do it halfheartedly, after all.
There was lots of planning going on. Though the new septic tank is one of the first projects on the list when the rains stop, we are fully planning on putting in the outside kitchen before then. Pizza oven, grill and stove all included are included in the design, along with a nice patch of roof for shade in the summer and dryness in the winter. It’s going to be an old fashioned, artisan kitchen, really, very basic and robust, and I can honestly not wait to see if it will look remotely like I’m imagining it. We’ve got a lot of the materials already…except chamotte, that is. That’s going to need some thought, as to where to get it *sigh*…though another trip or two for flat rocks will become a necessary thing in the near future.
Had two more sand hauling trips…we’re going through the stuff as if it’s water, for some reason, and every time we decide there should be enough for at least one big project, we do a small one and end up replenishing the supply. Got more rocks, too, which had to be “it” in light of exercise; there was no time for the actual thing. Hah.
Writing: One or two more pages for this scene and then we’re at the last one for the book. Crossed the 100.000 mark last night (the reason for not blogging last night; it was late and I had to prioritize in the last few hours of the day) and I’m balancing somewhere on the border of thrilled and sadness about the approaching ending. It’s not like I am going to twiddle my thumbs afterwards, or anything. There’s the edit, looming near like a friggin’ tsunami, and lots of other stories that still need to be written. I do hope I’m not going to fall into the post writing blues this time, ‘cause that is bloody annoying to say the least.
Did some cooking, naturally…nothing really special so let’s just say that food was consumed, hah. Some more exercises with our tenant happened, and considering I do not want her to feel obligated to mount stairs if she should be too tired to do it, I spent yesterday afternoon with the jackhammer, going through the bumpy rock surface of the path that leads to the courtyard. Now, if she decided that she can’t handle the stairs after her “visit” we will be able to get her back up the mountain in her wheelchair.
The new handles for the Land Rover arrived today, which meant that I went for an early morning trip to the village with grandpa. The weather has been downright atrocious since yesterday afternoon. It started right after we got back from the plant nursery: The wind suddenly picked up from the east and rain started pounding down…or in our case in. Literally had horizontal rain that was downright chilling on the skin. The wind has been howling and the rain has been pounding ever since…which is why I took grandpa to the village this morning, rather than let him risk life and limb on the moped.
The dogs are, of course soaking wet again, and Knight II, well, he's not liking it any better than the others. Heck, he's even staying inside at times now. Chaos' stitches are doing well, by the way, and the others, well, they're making the usual nuisance of themselves. Hah.
Well, it’s time for me to start on supper, so I better wrap this up and get to it. I do hope that the sun will be out by the time I need to write the next blog. Hah.
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