A winter at last!

We are finally experiencing some cold and unsettled weather. We had been looking forward to an excuse to light both our woodburners and now we have it. The cats love it! They give us that 'can we have a fire?' look of an evening and, success, their wish is granted! The mountainside is starting to look white from about 1300 metres upwards and is very pretty indeed. The vegetation is also 'greening up' a little bit, although rainfall is still below usual levels.

The winds we have had have produced some spectacular lenticular cloud formations. They usually form on the downwind side of a mountain range and often look like flying saucers. This is one we viewed from our garden:


We are pleased to say that we have now finished pruning the olives. We got an olive pruner in to do the really tough stuff. To quote Mark, 'he used his chainsaw like a paintbrush', and over three-and-a-half days he transformed the olives into manageable trees. The pruning was interrupted by windy weather and rain, making it too dangerous for him to climb, so the work could not go ahead on consecutive days.  Whilst the olive pruner was taking down the branches and trunks that had become too old to be productive, Mark and I cleared the debris into piles of prunings to be dealt with at a later date. I would recommend this gentleman wholeheartedly and we will ask him to come back next year to carry out a lighter pruning. 

Before: we had let the trees get too tall and they were either unproductive or the fruits were difficult to reach.

After:Yikes! A promise of harvests to come?

After the pruning, Mark and I were left with about 20 piles of 'rastrojos', olive prunings, each measuring approx 1.5 metres high by 3 metres wide, that needed to be processed in some way. Most local farmers burn theirs. You need a permit to burn (which we have), issued by the Town Hall and valid until the end of March. Various guidelines are set out on the permit, including size of fire, size of clearance around it, times of day to burn and weather conditions (i.e. no wind). We had already had a couple of small bonfires to dispose of the prunings we had previously taken off by hand from some smaller trees. The heat coming from these little fires was so great that they were visibly smouldering two days after we had left them. However, as it had become windy recently, we felt we were going to struggle with getting through a schedule of burning all the rastrojos before the end of March.

To add to our apprehension, there had been 3 quite serious accidental fires on the other side of town, in the direction of the town of Lanjaron. People were evacuated from their homes and one of the fires became dangerously close to a butane and propane deposit at the BP gas station (that is where we buy our bottled gas for cooking and hot water). According to the provincial newspaper 'Ideal', the fires had been caused by 'negligence'. Someone had had a bonfire on a day when there was no wind but then the wind got up speed whilst the fire was still smouldering and blew hot ashes onto the surrounding countryside, which was very parched and ignited. We didn't actually see the fires although a very dirty yellow cloud appeared in the sky above us and there was plenty of activity from the forestal defence helicopter. From the various discussions that took place on the days that followed, it seems as though the fires really shook up the community.

Following what had happened, and as a solution to our reluctance to burn owing to the volume of material, the timescale and the risks, we have a new addition to our family: a small gasoline-powered wood-chipper! It wasn't a bit of kit we had budgeted for but I think it will bring us many hours of happiness!  We had a chat with our neighbour first to get his advice and see if he had any objections regarding cross contamination of plant diseases through not burning cut branches (not that we have any serious problems with the health of the plants). He had no objections and his concern appeared to be over the cost of the equipment, because, after all, it doesn't cost anything to burn. We have also found out that chipping, rather than burning, is endorsed by the Comite Andaluz de Agricultura Ecologica (the Andalusian Committe of Organic Agriculture). So, off we popped to a shop in Granada and Bob's your Uncle. It will take some time to get through all the prunings, what with the other projects we have on the go, but we hope to be finished by the beginning of April. The machine is small enough for us to wheel to some of the other levels of our land. We will use the chippings as mulch around trees to minimise evaporation of irrigation water, add them to the compost heap in small amounts, and I bet our future chickens will love having a pile of chippings to scratch and nosey around in, and their manure will help to break it down into valuable compost more quickly.

Here's Mark getting ready to fire up 'The Daddy'

Olive logs left to season. It would be a waste to chip this, we can burn it to heat the home in a year or two. There are going to be quite a few piles of logs stacked up around the land!

Almond wood from a dead tree, ready for the fire. 

Whilst enquiring about chippers ('biotrituradoras') we also invested in a coarser chain with more rugged teeth for the chainsaw. That will make shorter work of any dry almond trees we may need to tackle. As a result of our activities, we are learning some very unusual Spanish vocabulary, words that I didn't even know existed in English. 

Despite the sudden recent chill, the almond harvest looks as though it will be OK. The trees have finished flowering and the young fruit have set very quickly, even with the petals still attached at the side:

We have had a very nice diversion recently as our eldest son came to spend a week's holiday with us. We picked him up from Malaga one morning and we stopped off in the City Centre (again), this time to visit the Alcazaba (the Moorish fort) and Gibralfaro (Malaga Castle) which sits above the City. The panoramic views of Malaga City are beautiful from this elevated position.

At the Gibralfaro (you don't get grey squirrels in Spain)

One of the Moorish water features in the Alcazaba, being struck by a taser beam

Of course, we Sparrows are proud to take our guests for long walks up hills. Whilst our son was with us, we did one of our favourite and most local walks above us between Pampaneira and Capileira, and enjoyed seeing the white mountain tops. The day before, there had been snow at this level and we walked past snow that had not melted because it stood in pockets of shade. The air was so very crisp and cold.

Euphorbias

Another Euphorbia (I have been told)

Poqueira valley village with snowy peaks of Sierra Nevada behind

We also went on a new walk to add to our list. We drove to a village up above us called Soportujar, famous for having been a meeting place for witches several centuries ago. From Soportujar, we followed the GR7 to the village of Canar and back again, a four hour walk. It was a fairly easy walk, except for the climb out of Soportujar village which is the steepest track I have been on so far whilst walking in the Alpujarran villages.

Witchy water feature in a square in Soportujar.

Looking back at Soportujar from the mountain track.
The road can be seen below snaking its way along.

Whilst walking we crossed the Rio Chico which flows down a gorge (barranco) to the villages below. The gorge is bridged by a dam known as 'Dique 24'.

Looking back on Dique 24

Out for a ramble with the Mister

Arriving at the village of Canar

A walk wouldn't be complete without passing a goatherd, a shepherd and being tasered

We spent the last day with our son in Almeria, as that is where he was flying home from. The last time we were in Almeria City was approximately 12 months ago when we went there to buy a second hand car, an interesting experience to look back upon! This time round we enjoyed the city and its surroundings a bit more. Owing to a cloud of Saharan dust that was hanging over Southern Spain and Portugal at the time, the drive to Almeria and the views were very misty indeed. We enjoyed a hearty 3 course lunch with drinks included for 10 Euros each then explored the streets a little. There is a statue of John Lennon in Plaza de las Flores in Almeria City. John stayed in Almeria for 6 weeks in the autumn of 1966 whilst making a film and wrote 'Strawberry Fields Forever' during his stay. Strawberry Fields was actually a Salvation Army orphanage in Liverpool and had nothing to do with the greenhouses in Almeria that provide the rest of Europe with out-of-season strawberries (amongst other produce)!

Janet and John

Sad to see our visitor go, we left Almeria and headed back to our cats and vegetables waiting at the house......

Peas in February

Carrot thinnings, mange tout and spring onions

Last weekend, our 6 year old tomcat, Bobby, caught his first rat which he brought into the house for us, as cats do. His self-esteem has been elevated by a mile due to his newfound status of chief ratter. Not that he has any competition from the others, who are far too old and disinterested in such activities. I wondered if he could work out why, every time I walked past him for the following few days, I gave him a pat on the head? 

We picked up our olive oil from the mill in return for the second batch of olives we had taken: another 10 litres of oil for the store. When you return to the mill, you have a choice of oil or money in return for your crop. Basically, if you want cash it works out that you get about 50 cents a kilo. It's clearly a hard living if you're an olive farmer for real.

A neighbour of ours recently organised for 10 mailboxes to be positioned at the bottom of our track on the main road, and we have one of these in our name. So now, instead of having to go into town to collect our post, we can just wander 2 kilometers down the track with the key then back up again! Just imagine going all that way only to find there is no post!! In actual fact, I am delighted to have this purpose to take myself on a lovely walk from the house. We can still receive mail in town and we will change over to this new address over the course of the year. 

We have been busy clearing an area before the builders come to do a bit of finishing off (more of that in a future blog). Amongst the things that needed clearing, there was a cubic metre of launa, grey clay that is used to cover the traditional flat roofs. All our roofs are in pretty good condition, but in order to 'lose' this material, we chose a roof that looked a bit thin in places and had a few weeds and spread the launa on top. I had the easier job by far, raking the launa out whilst Mark transported and lifted 70 or 80 bucketfuls up to me until all 1000 Kgs had been shifted. 

On the roof it's peaceful as can beeeee...
And there the world below can't bother meeeee......
Let me tell you now!

Nice view!

Once launa is spread it will set hard over time. It's quite an old material that has been used locally for centuries. Spreading the launa made me think of a story that Gerald Brenan told in his book 'South from Granada'. After after serving in the First World War, Brennan lived for a time in the 1920s in a Yegen, a village in the Alpujarras, writing and generally doing what people from the Bloomsbury Set did in those days. He said that when it rained there would inevitably be a leak somewhere on the roof and he would go up and stamp the clay down hard to try and make the roof watertight. He said that looking across the rooftops in the rain, there would be many other people doing exactly the same as him! Thankfully we have a waterproof membrane and concrete between the launa and the roof timbers these days!

Looking down on launa roofs in on of the mountain villages

Gorra de bruja (witches hat) chimneys

Pruning, pruning, pruning........



 

 

 

It has been a whole month since the last blog as we have been BUSY doing ....... you've guessed it, pruning! The olive trees are usually pruned here when the fruit is harvested or soon after. However, a factor that has added to the current workload is that the trees (and birds) think it is early spring. All but a few almond trees are in flower - about 5 weeks ahead of last year, and many other trees are threatening to come out of dormancy, so we have had to accelerate our pruning plans to get round as much as we can at the correct time of year.

Of course pruning produces mountains of wood and, in the case of olives, branches with leaves. We have had a couple of bonfires to burn the leaves but, since we have only had about 12 millimetres of rain in 5 months the countryside is very dry and we are reluctant to light another fire until there is a little rain to moisten the earth. Our permit to burn is until the end of March. If we can't get through everything,  we will be making copious trips to the tip, which would be a shame, because it would be good to add the bonfire ash to our compost heap.

A gentleman is coming on Monday to help with pruning the large olive trees that Mark's chainsaw is too small to get through. He will probably spend about 3 days with us and it will be all hands on deck to help sort yet more wood and leaves into appropriate piles, i.e. indoor firewood, 'landscaping', bonfire. When he came over to give us a quote he asked us what result we wanted from the pruning: belleza o cosecha (aesthetic appearance or harvest). There are a few lovely old trees on our land that have beautiful trunks and bark and we will sacrifice part of the harvest to retain these trees as they are: for their stature, graceful form within the landscape and the shade they can offer on a scorching day. After all, we don't have to make a living from olives - and these taller trees should produce olives but they will just be more difficult to reach at harvest time. But then we will prune some of the trees harder so they produce young vigorous shoots  that should give us a good accessible crop in a few years or sooner if we are lucky. In theory! We have made a start on both the 'belleza' trees that we are keeping big and some of the 'cosecha' ones that we want a good harvest from.

There are quite a few different shapes you could style your olive tree into: wine goblet, Martini glass, candlesticks, to name a few. The favourite shape in Andalucia is a tree with 2 or 3 main branches and that is the type of tree we will try to emulate. I think olive topiary would create a bit too much of a stir. Imagine an olive tree skilfully crafted to create a peacock or the full cast of Alice in Wonderland positioned up the track! Ha ha! Local farmers prune their olive trees quite zealously indeed, removing any young shoots that grow into the tree and generally bringing light to all the leaves. I find it difficult to cut off what looks to me like a perfectly good branch, but keep telling myself that having the two - both stature and vigorous growth lower down the tree will create stress on the tree and increase its water requirements considerably. So the mantra is 'rejuvenate' where that is the aim of the exercise.

Here are a few of the 'belleza' trees at their various stages of enhancement:

 

Before ....

 

Work in progress ....

 

Terminado .....

 

 

Oooohhhh! What did I say about topiary? It's the very hungry caterpillar!

 

Belleza

 

Mucha belleza

 

Moving on from the olives, we have also made a start of pruning the almonds. One or two trees are proper D-E-A-D and need sawing off to enhance the beauty of the landscape. Almond wood is hard, but dead almond wood is even harder and a challenge even to a well sharpened chainsaw.

 



Is it the grim reaper? Bring out your dead....... almond wood!

 

 

On some of the living trees a few of the older boughs have been removed to enable rejunvenation from younger shoots. Pruning almonds will affect the harvest negatively, this is widely documented in the literature, but we have a lot of almonds to eat through until the next harvest in September and although it's an adventure to go and sell them they only sell for about 1.20 Euro a kilo. Better to have a strong and beautiful tree.

 

 

 

 

Pruned and beautiful. A majestic old almond tree.

 

 

 

 

We have also done a bit of almond grafting. We have cut back the bitter almonds which we identified and labelled last August/September and grafted from good stock onto selected shoots. There is some debate about exactly when almond grafting should take place, and the type of graft to use. The information we obtained from the internet is different from what our neighbour is telling us. Anyhow, we have done the deed and we'll know in a few weeks whether or not any of the grafts have taken.

 



A couple of grafters, of course!



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have also purchased 12 new almond trees - Marcona variety - the king of the almond, whose nuts fetch the best price when sold, and we planted these last weekend. The aim of planting them, as well as to replace the dead ones, is to make optimum use of the piece of land they are on,  to add to the beauty of the countryside and, most importantly, so that the roots can grasp the soil and prevent erosion and falling soil on the terraces. Consequently, the new trees are planted at the edge of the terrace, next to the vertical drop. You don't normally water almond trees but the young ones will need watering for about 6 months until they get established.

 

Baby tree planted

 

 

When I was at the garden centre last week to buy the new almonds, I noticed that they had 1 year old fruit trees in stock. At the price of only 4 Euros each, we succumbed to temptation and bought a pear and apple (to keep our other ones company), a nectarine, a peach, and a plum. So, more youngsters to look after. Then to add to the growing family, we popped back and bought two kiwis, a male and female.

There are a number of vines on our land from which we obtained our grapes to make the summer wine. We have untangled these a little and tied them into cane supports in the hope of increasing their yield. This has involved yet more pruning. Probably, we haven't been nearly as hard as we should have, although the vines produced grapes last year, and many of them had grown into the supporting trees and hadn't been pruned for a while. If the vines come to anything this year we may put up more sturdy supports.

 

At the end of our land next to a neighbour's house, a vine is being trailed over supports.

 

We have been pruning some of the orange trees as quite a few of them are already in flower. The bees have so much choice of forage at present! Some orange trees just require a little dead wood removed whilst others are a bit sickly and have required hard pruning to rejuvenate, followed by intense TLC.

Much as we enjoy the pruning and forming of the landscape, we are excited about the prospect of  constructing our chicken cage and house so we can move forward with getting our hens. But the olives above where the cage is to go need to be pruned first and then the area needs to be cleared. There is a shop in town that sells hens and I asked the owner about a cockerel, as we have seen the odd one there from time to time but not on a regular basis. She told me that she does have cockerels but she cannot keep them at the shop overnight as the people that live around get woken up! So she has asked me to let her know when we want one and she will bring him in on the day. We haven't had a cockerel before for the very reason that in England we lived too close to other households. We are looking forward to this development as the spring unfolds.

The explosion of blossom has been accompanied by intoxicating perfumes: orange blossom and white jasmine and the gentle fragrance of almond blossom.

 

 

Hibiscus (doesn't smell)

 

Winter jasmine

 

 

 

 

Fragrant white jasmine

 

We did take a couple of days off in January. Our younger son came and stayed for three nights before going off to see his friend in Madrid. We met him from Malaga Airport and headed straight for Malaga City Centre, where we had been only recently on Christmas Eve. Heading back to the old town, we visited the Picasso Museum, to fulfil one of the promises we had made to ourselves on our last visit.

 

Whilst our son was staying with us, we went out on a walk up one of the hills across the valley from us in the Sierra de Lujar mountain range.

 

The Sierra de Lujar range visible across the valley

 

We frequently look across at this 'hill' in the evenings and can see a red light far up and often car headlights / tail lights. We have heard some sinister tales about the activities that are taking place up this hillside, but it is actually a fluorite mine, the only active one in Andalucia, and the lights are probably the 'miners' driving to and from shift! The walk gave us some beautiful views across the valley to where we live and the Sierra Nevada beyond. This was a different view from when we normally walk, as we are usually hiking on the other side of the valley in the Sierra Nevada foothills and our views are towards the Sierra de Lujar range.

 

Guadalfeo River in the valley, flowing into the Rules Dam

 

Looking towards Orgiva and the Sierra Nevada beyond

 



Some sort of Genista (broom)



 

 

The weather continues to be calm and sunny and we are basking in midday temperatures of approx 20 C. However, it was overcast for a couple of days two weeks ago. I had rigged up a propagator on an overnight timer (15 minutes on, 30 minutes off throughout the cooler hours) to give seed germination a head start. Mark woke up one night and noticed the electric clock wasn't working. Our battery was completely out of juice and I think the propagator was the culprit. Next morning we fired up the generator to give the system a boost. We could have waited a couple of hours and it may have started up without resorting to fossil fuels. However, I had cooked a few double and triple batches of dinners which were in the freezer and I didn't want them to spoil.so Mark twiddled with the generator whilst I cleaned the solar panels, which induced a good sweat as they are situated on one of our roofs. We went a bit careful with the electricity after that and Breaking Bad had to be left suspended for a couple of days somewhere near the end of season 3!

 

 



Future ratatouille maybe?



 

 

However, before abandoning the use of the propagator, some tomato, aubergine and chilli seeds managed to germinate. Just the red and green peppers didn't sprout but the seed was old so I have bought some more and have fingers crossed!