the story of Casa Azul

Long, hot summer

August 29, 2015 Jackie Comments 4 comments

Of course we wanted to live in a country which had a proper summer but I didn’t expect to live in Death Valley. Oh, stop complaining I can hear you say as the rain hammers against your window, but I can assure you being outside when the temperatures go over 40C really isn’t pleasant. May, June and July were hot too, with no rain to speak of, and the average maximum temperature for this month has been 35C, the highest being 44C. Today it’s 40C. It’s eerily quiet when it’s that hot. The village dogs are all asleep, the tractors, strimmers and chainsaws are put away and the birds are hidden deep in the bushes. The gentle breeze feels like a hot hair drier and, bizarrely, there’s a sense of claustrophobia as the heat engulfs you. We appreciate every day the thick walls of the house, no need for air conditioning, just a cooling glass of grape juice and to collapse, arms akimbo, on the sofa.

This has, of course, affected the veg patch. The heat has just been too much for so many things. Nothing from the cauliflowers, broccoli or buttercup squash. A poor show (after a good start) from the first batch of beans, aubergines, tomatoes and butternut squash. But mustn’t grumble! We have had loads of cucumbers, enough courgettes, sweetcorn from the second batch just as nice as the first lot, melons, runner beans and, for star prize, the peppers have been amazing. Red, green or yellow, Spanish padròn or chillies – they’ve all been fab. Three cheers for the peppers! (Richard has made three lots of delicious harissa.)

Meanwhile the leeks will be okay for the autumn and, fingers crossed, the sprouts too so not the end of the world. My biggest disappointment though is the tomatoes and aubergines, I really would’ve thought they would cope with the heat. I have managed to make a few batches of ratatouille and tomato passata for the months to come but not the amount as from previous years. I have a sneaky feeling that the lack of mulch hasn’t helped. I resisted doing that this year because of the vole problem, they like nothing more than sneaking around the plants unseen (and then eating the roots) but once I’d realised they’d gone I didn’t add any. Live and learn.

On a more positive note the figs are going to be great again, we’ve already had many honey-flavoured fruit. We’ve also picked loads of blackberries and grapes, I think Richard is planning on making some country wine. Soon we’ll be opening the elderberry wine from last year that has been silently waiting under the stone stairs. The sloes have also been picked to make our favourite winter tipple.

Meanwhile I’m off to perfect my rain dance, it really isn’t good enough yet…

Up to our necks in plums – again

July 20, 2015 richard Comments 2 comments

Regular readers may remember a post of the same name from this time last year. A slightly different scenario this time around however. Last year we were overwhelmed with yellow plums. They have come and gone already, in much smaller numbers than before. However, this year, the greengages have taken up the slack. Jackie is especially pleased as these are her all time favourites.

Following up closely behind the greengages are the damsons which are just ripening now – so more damson vodka for Christmas,

…and just behind them are the Stanleys.

It should be interesting as we’ve got a proper crop for the first time this year. In previous years we have only had one or two and they didn’t taste that great. They come from a plum tree we bought and planted in November 2009. Here are two photos taken from almost the same spot. The plum tree is still in the black plastic bucket. The Christmas tree is just behind a large rock. You can see the same Christmas tree in the recent photo, but look how the cypresses have grown!

..and after the plums will be the sloes. More Christmas sloe gin!

So of course, we’ve been eating lots of plums in various guises, mainly in desserts – plum crumbles and plum tarts

…and Jackie’s recent favourite – plum leather. It doesn’t look great but it’s an excellent little snack to take on walks.

Meanwhile Jackie has been playing with her new toy (Thanks Sue, Jim and Dick) and taken some great photos of pond life:

You can never have too many seating areas in the garden and here is the pergola I recently made for a corner of the threshing square. I only made it in May but already we have a mature grape vine crawling all over it and providing much-needed shade. Also notice that the apples are coming along nicely as well, but that’s for another post.

The colour of straw

June 30, 2015 Jackie Comments 0 Comment

Crunchy underfoot, alive with insects and pollen, the land is slowly but surely turning a lovely shade of straw. Pale and interesting, hot and dry. It seems almost novel to us after last year’s green and pleasant land, but with no rain and scorching temperatures it’s a different story this summer. Most of the wild flowers have disappeared but hardy souls linger on including this yellow thistle, called a Spanish oyster it seems, and the fragrant, golden sweet yarrow that borders all the country lanes around us.

Many of the meadows have been cut, leaving unruly hay bales, reminiscent of autumns from yesteryear in the UK. Only the other day an old boy and his donkey cart tottered by. Meanwhile, the veg patch is also sporting the colour of straw. The first of the plums is always the yellow ones, not such a bumper harvest this year alas but we have put them to good use.

The courgettes as always put on a golden display, such a nice way to be greeted in the morning. Peaches and plums have been bottled.

My sister gave me some seeds for climbing yellow courgettes, these are doing well, as are the round lemon flavoured cucumbers. We’ve also been eating one of Richard’s favourite crops, the oh so delicious sweetcorn. It’s always a success and this year I have planted a second crop which should be ready in late August or September.

The final word goes to our faithful labrador, who is blending in nicely with the colour scheme:

Berry nice

June 23, 2015 Jackie Comments 0 Comment

The heat is on, temperatures have soared well over 30 for many days (and over 40 for a couple!) making gardening a morning task only. But while the weeding remains chore number one collecting raspberries with the sun on your back is not. The so-called summer raspberries are coming to an end although I’m still getting a large handful most days. The birds also appreciate them, huge locusts like a nibble too and the hens go mad for the manky ones I throw them. Most of them are frozen, they still make excellent jam. We’ve had them with our porridge, Sunday pancakes and with yoghurt. My favourite though, just nudging out raspberry ripple, is clafoutis, a simple French recipe that I look forward to making each summer.

Luckily, we also have autumn raspberries and we’ll be having those in the not too distant future. Fairly fuss-free, reliable and spreading each year they are the perfect soft fruit to grow.

Our first flush of strawberries have come and gone although the later lot are tastier. And this year another good crop of gooseberries. We bought a small bush from a stall at a local monthly market quite a few years ago now. Only after harvesting the first lot did I do the research – there are dessert gooseberries and cooking gooseberries; the former sweeter and can be eaten from the bush, the latter more sour. Well, it seems we have the dessert ones which is just fine. I like making a sweet goosegog relish to go with our barbecued mackerel but this year most ended up as gooseberry and elderflower jam.

The redcurrants, after being fantastic last year, were disappointing but we still have the blackcurrants to come. I managed to propagate some baby bushes from last year’s pruning. So now we’re waiting for the big one: the plum harvest. Meanwhile I bottled some peaches from fruit growing over the wall (yes, I stole them from our neighbour’s tree) but that was How a Small Task turned into a Big Faff and is a story for another time…

The fruits of our labours

May 31, 2015 richard Comments 2 comments

Although the fields round here are still crammed with spring flowers, summer is just around the corner. We had a downpour in the first week of May but since then it has been unrelenting sun with most days peaking at over 30 degrees. But never mind summer we also have half an eye on Autumn and the coming harvest.

The cherries are the first to arrive and have in fact already done so. We bought a young cherry tree a few years ago and it has always been a bit odd and remained very small but it has produced its first cherry. And second cherry. But that was it! Meanwhile our old tree is full of little gems which should be ready very soon. Around the time we bought the cherry tree we also got an apricot tree. Unlike the cherry, this tree is magnificent. Last year it produced its first fruit but none stayed the distance. This year we have two. Lets hope they will hang on and grow to maturity. Our garden is full of plum trees and fingers crossed it will be another good year for these fruit of many hues. Also it looks like a good year for the walnuts and the apples but we will not have a single pear. We also have a number of peach trees. They start off with loads of fruit but they either fall off too soon or if they ripen they are full of worms and/or are inedible. It’s strange how these things work out. The first of the soft fruit, the raspberries, are also ready but I’ll leave Jackie to fill you in on veg patch news next time.

Cherry number 1 and first of the yellow plums

At the moment, whenever we walk through the garden or indeed wander the village, with the gentlest of breezes we are engulfed in snowdrifts of confetti. The olive trees are now in flower and after last year’s disaster we are hoping for a good crop this time around.

On to another type of harvest. I can’t believe two years after we killed the pigs they keep on giving. Last week I found a liver at the bottom of the chest freezer and that means pâté. According to supermarket practice the liver may have been well beyond its sell-by-date but I can assure you the pâté was delicious. I’ve also killed this year’s first crop of roasties and so made some more pâté out of the chicken livers. Much smoother than the pig liver pâté but just as delicious.

pig liver and chicken liver pate — pig liver and chicken liver pâté

Soon we will be getting to the end of the spring flowers but the orchids keep on coming. Here are a few more found within metres of our house.

Broad leaved Helleborine and the Bug Orchid

The orchid on the left is a hypochromatic form of the woodcock orchid (normal one seen on the right). This is a genetic abnormality and there is much discussion in the orchid world about why it happens!

More controversy! The flower on the right is a Mirror Orchid. We thought the one on the left was also a Mirror Orchid but recently it has been identified as a species in its own right – the Iberian Ophrys. It is quite rare and only found in Portugal and some parts of Spain.

And our final orchid is Ophrys Lutea. Very pretty.

And finally a photo of Jussi – sporting her socks in an attempt to stop her licking her paws!

The sun has got his hat on

May 19, 2015 Jackie Comments 0 Comment

The rain has decided to have a holiday and it’s been sun, sun, sun. This means mornings are spent watering the veg patch and evenings watering the garden. The well is still surprisingly full but with no rain forecast for the next ten days that’ll soon disappear.

I have finally discovered what has survived the relentless winter frosts. A week or two ago I would have said everything except the bougainvillea but even that now has new shoots. However, along with some of the lavender that is looking very sorry for itself, I fear we’re going to have to make some replacements. But overall I’m pleased that we didn’t really lose anything, even the lily in the pond has lots of leaves.

Frost-wise all survived in the veg patch too, even the runner beans that lost their first leaves are now climbing their poles. Another plant to survive the frosts are the lettuce. I bought a collection of them for one euro and they do very well. They are a fantastic cut-and-come-again plant, I can cut one every day and they’ll have grown back in no time.

But all is not well. One of the first years here I lost a number of brassicas but then boasted in this post from last year that I hadn’t lost any because I’d placed plastic collars around each one. Well, I did that again this year but alas I have already lost quite a few. One day the plants are all perky and the next one will look very droopy. Removing the collar you can see ants have made a nest under the plant although I don’t think it’s the ants themselves which are attacking the plant. There are moths that lay eggs around the base of the plant, which is what the collar is meant to prevent, but ants help them, like they do the aphids, because they eat their larvae, which in turn eat the plant. Something like that. I’ve tried to clear the stems of any bugs but they never look very good again. Very annoying.

The asparagus is enormous, and we have two beds of it. I wish I’d known how large they grow although in the intense summer heat they provide some welcome shelter. I have had to severely trim them all, it was impossible to walk past them.

Richard has been away and was due back yesterday but a cancelled flight means he’s back a day later. He has two jobs waiting for him: strimming and killing. The garden is becoming like the wild meadow from the previous post, sort of shabby chic with all the flowers, charmingly scruffy (actually a bit of a mess!)

The dogs will be pleased to see Richard but the roasties are making the most of the delay. Fat and lazy, they waddle around on huge legs, a far cry from their baby selves. There is one cock among them who has started a very pitiful crowing – he’ll be the first for the chop!

Finally, continuing with the floral theme, I have been busy doing inside jobs once it gets too hot outside. I have made some more soap with marigold flowers and, my favourite, some elderflower cordial. I’ve discovered another old house in the village with a large elder tree in the courtyard that catches the morning sun. How I’ve missed them both I don’t know. The flowers smell wonderful and the cordial is really the taste of summer. Oh, and I’ve made some strawberry ice cream too, we already have a bumper crop!

Time to sit in the garden with a glass of cordial topped up with fizzy water to enjoy the flowers (and ignore the weeds). Cheers!

The merry month of May

May 14, 2015 Jackie Comments 2 comments

It’s my favourite month of the year here. Not too hot, not too cold. Not too wet, not too dry. And the flowers, oh the flowers. Some of you will remember my lament a year ago when the old boy who has the olive grove at the end of our garden sprayed it with some horrid stuff. Well, it was a poor year for the olives and we haven’t seen him since and, remarkably, the flowers have made a wonderful recovery and thanks to equal measures of rain and sun have literally blossomed.

In fact since taking this photo I’ve had to go out and cut a swathe through it, the path had all but disappeared. I’m not sure the dogs, however, appreciate the pastoral beauty…

Holes, voles and poles

April 26, 2015 Jackie Comments 0 Comment

It’s raining. So much for spending all day in the garden, let’s hope the little couve galega plugs will be all right until later. It’s been a busy few weeks in the horta, however, and things are shooting up everywhere.

Holes have started appearing in both the garden and veg patch. Big holes and lots of little holes. First of all, I noticed very tiny holes at the base of all the broad bean flowers, every single one was affected but not a bug in sight. Hmm. Off to the computer to find the answer: bumble bees. Apparently, they’re too fat and hairy to get into the flowers for the nectar so they bite into the base and get it from there. Which means the ants and other creatures use the the holes as well and the flowers have less chance of being pollinated. These flowers are amongst the first to appear which is why a bee-line (hee hee) is made straight for them but it will be less of a problem once there are others to tempt them away. We do have plenty of pods now so no harm done really but certainly a much smaller crop than otherwise.

Other holes have been appearing in the ground. We thought it was mice first of all, we seem to have even more than usual scurrying around, and they love the straw in the potting shed. But mice don’t make holes in the ground. Off to the computer to find the answer: voles. Initially, I was relieved, voles won’t come inside the house and make themselves at home. But it seems that they are far more destructive than mice in the veg patch, devouring more things. Hmm. With the barn owls around the last thing we want to do is use poison so we set up loads of traps around the holes, covered with upturned plant pots. Nada. We have caught plenty of mice and shrews in the boiler room but not a single vole has been caught in the garden. Nature though has a way of sorting things out. We have spotted a large ladder snake plus, this morning, diving under the holes in the olive tree, a weasel. Both of these eat small mammals. Whether they are responsible for the bigger holes (pictured) we don’t know. And I’m not complaining that a cat has been coming in at night, they’ll put the voles off too. Not to mention the mongeese which we know lurk in the undergrowth.

In anticipation of runner beans, climbing courgettes, melons, cucumbers, aubergines and of course tomatoes the poles are going up in the beds. It looks like an assault course at the moment. They’re mainly eucalyptus poles so they smell nice as well as being straight and sturdy!

What are we eating now? The leeks are finished and purple sprouting broccoli just gone so only the onions at the mo, and the first of the broad beans. We still have potatoes from last year though (and the frozen garlic which turned out to be a great success) but that’s it. It’s the only time of the year when there is such a dearth of crops, no wonder it’s called the hungry gap. Meanwhile, I’m not alone while gardening, there’s often a couple of supporters:

Rejuvenation

April 10, 2015 richard Comments 2 comments

Spring is the time for rejuvenation. The trees are full of blossom, bushes are sprouting and the grass just grows, grows and grows. It’s also the time for some man-made rejuvenation and now is the turn of the polytunnel.
Here it is just finished in January 2011

Although we have replaced the plastic once before, four years have taken their toll:

So time for repairs

and now, good as new

To continue the thread of our local orchids, the Early Purples and the Giant Orchids have all but disappeared to be replaced by the Naked Man Orchid and more recently quite a few Sword-Leaved Helleborines have appeared.

Now you see it…

March 30, 2015 richard Comments 0 Comment

When we moved into Casa Azul, one of the first things Luis our neighbour told us to do was chop all the olive trees down. They hadn’t been looked after and were quite frankly looking a bit sorry for themselves. We didn’t want to do them all in one go, so we have been slowly chopping down a few here and there. On the right of the photo below is the first one we chopped down and as can be seen, it has grown back pretty well.

However, we were more reluctant to chop one of the trees right in front of the house but this week was its time.

Over the last few weeks we have uploaded photos of the orchids as they have appeared near us. First was the Giant Orchid, then came the Early Purple. More recently a couple of Naked Man Orchids have appeared and a few Sawfly Orchids.

Jackie mentioned in the last post that we had bought some more roasties and ducklings, as they were quite a success last time, so here they are. Already fattening up nicely!

One of the joys of living here is observing the birdlife. Recent visitors were a pair of Cirl Buntings which are quite rare – at least in our garden. Although we hear the Barn Owls which live next door all year round, recently we have heard this year’s chicks and I spotted one at the window. I didn’t have the camera with me but here’s a photo I took last year.

In other bird news, a wren has decided to build its nest in a candle holder in our courtyard. Hopefully we’ll have a few tenants in the orange tree as well like last year. We haven’t picked all the oranges yet though.

Although we didn’t get a fantastic show for this month’s lunar eclipse, I did manage to get a decent photo thanks to the clouds.

And finally, here’s a different view of the disappearing tree.