Harvest Time

We have had a complete change over the past 6 or 7 weeks. So, no blogging has taken place, although there is plenty to write about.

Firstly, I returned to the UK at the very end of July for 10 nights to visit our grown up children and our friends, whilst Mark looked after our home in Spain. During this time, our daughter returned to England from her year-long stay in the USA, where she had been working and enhancing her CV for her chosen career ahead. She is now starting her 4th year at Uni. Following my return to Spain from the UK our eldest son came over to visit. It is always a pleasure to have our children to stay and we spent some time relaxing together in our home and some time out and about.  Then, on 19th August, Mark and I started our holiday together, which involved driving to the UK, as far north as The Wirral, crossing on the Ferry via Santander and returning via Bilbao. We are very thankful to the previous owners who came to stay in our home for their break whilst we were away, and for taking such good care of our cats, land and home. It is the first time Mark and I have been away together since we have lived here as it is difficult to leave our home unattended for any length of time, especially in summer when the land dries out so quickly. 

As we were driving such a long way, we needed to make the journey part of the holiday so we made sure we had some fun on the way, including staying at a Medieval-themed hotel. 




We took in some beautiful scenery the whole length of Spain.

Bound for Blighty! I wasn't smiling like this for long -
the Bay of Biscay lived up to its reputation!

During our time in the UK. we spent 5 nights amongst friends at the Towersey Festival and enjoyed some lovely, and lively, music!




When we returned to our home in Spain, our daughter came over to stay with us and we enjoyed taking her out and about and showing her some of the aspects of the life we have made for ourselves over the past year.

Near to where we live a couple open their lovely garden to the public.
They have two llamas amongst their livestock.

A trip out for churros is a must if we have guests.
Mr Sparrow is filling his boots alright!

After seeing our daughter off to the UK, we knew it was time to get back down to living the life we have been living for the past year, and we were very happy to do so, although we loved our rather long break and the physical rest of day to day working on the land. So after 6 weeks of damned good living, we are back to the graft, but physically refreshed and with a clear vision of the way forward.

Before our break started at the end of July, an important event happened here at our Cortijo. Mark made contact through some friends of ours with a gentleman at the bottom of our track that keeps horses and we picked up our first two trailer-loads of horse poo. Those of you that know me well will be aware of the sheer delight I would have got from this. Indeed, when we lived in England, on more than one occasion I sent Mark a 'passionate' text stating 'shit at Dave's', the covert meaning of this being 'we're not sitting down after tea, we are driving down to Dave's stables and taking a load of horse poo to the allotment'. It was really great to finally be adding manure to our compost heap here. We also had a very nice surprise when we collected it: it was a very hot afternoon, 35 ish centigrade, and the thought of shovelling heavy manure was not inviting. However, because it was so hot, it had dried out and flew through the air into the trailer with very little physical effort. Or maybe it was pure elation that made the fork move so swiftly!

Horse -poo Heaven. You can't get any higher than that.

When we arrived back home in Spain, there was lots to harvest. Some of our produce will be preserved and stored for future use throughout the year. We found that we had more melons than we had realised. Most of them were hiding in the shade under the leaves of other veg. 




Our big harvest at the moment is the almond harvest. This will be our 4th year of harvesting almonds and we are finding a method that works for us so that it becomes a bit easier each year. We are using more and more of the harvest ourselves in muesli, cakes, soups and stews.

Mark is shaking the almonds from the tree.

The almonds fall to the ground on nets we have laid down.

The almonds are tipped into a basket.

Once cleaned of leaves and outer husk, the almonds are left to dry for a few days until they rattle, indicating that the nut inside is drying. We take them in every night to protect them from condensation and opportunist fruit rats.

Whilst working our way along the terraces harvesting the almonds, we have also been clearing and tidying a little and starting to discuss our future plans and projects for when the weather is a little cooler.

We have a few very generous fig trees on our land. The figs are delicious fresh, but there is so much fruit on them that it would be a shame not to dry some and store for the winter months. 



We have also tried drying some apple slices to add variety to our breakfasts later in the year when they are not in season.

We have a spectacular pumpkin harvest and it is fairly effortless to grow them.

We harvested this pumpkin a little early as it had split. 

This is our biggest pumpkin. It is going to be a struggle to cut through this. 

We have made some delicious pumpkin soup and pumpkin bread (which is really a cake). The pumpkin bread was our daughter's suggestion, influenced and inspired by her stay in the USA. 

Pumpkin bread with a Philadelphia cheese-based frosting

Mark was speaking to a couple he met yesterday who informed him that pumpkin leaves are delicious. He has done a bit of reading up and I think pumpkin leaves will be on the menu tomorrow night. Maybe Mark's new signature dish!?

All this produce is largely thanks to our goteo irrigation system working so well for us and taking some of the hard work out of watering. As it is such a valuable addition, we have modified the system further today by adding taps at the ends of many of the pipes so that we can flush the sediment out of the pipes to prevent the irrigation holes from blocking (we hope!).

This year's wine has had its first fermentation and is racked off and sitting next to me as I type. Having taken specific gravity readings before and after fermentation, we reckon it is going to be 12.5% upwards!! 

We are in the process of looking at our solar power system and have upgraded one of the instruments, the charge controller. Now, amongst other things, we can see exactly how many Kilowatts we are harvesting every day. Our charge controller is connected to the wifi router via an ethernet cable so we can get a comprehensive display on our computer of what is going on. We are even going to be able to log in remotely when we are not at home to see what the solar system is doing. Freud would have had something to say about that. (Sigmund, that is!). Alongside this we are measuring our daily consumption of energy and taking the gravity of the batteries. We have a very good system which was installed by the previous owners and we want to keep on top of it so that it remains this way. The information we get from the charge controller will enable us to decide when we need to replace the batteries. Solar batteries are expensive and we don't want to replace them until we need to. Ours are top quality and we think we can get another 5 years from them. We are considering a further shorter-term upgrade : to add a further 2 or 3 solar panels to our array. We have had excellent advice and instruction from a local gentleman who owns a solar energy company.

So what are the bees doing? Flying in and out of the hive that's for sure! An inspection is long overdue and what the bees are getting up to will have to be for the next blog. We're not expecting any honey this year but who knows what surprises may await us! We do need to get our Varroa treatment in. Just as in England, the beekeepers here say 'If you don't treat for Varroa, the bees will die'. Some things do not change. I guess we are holding back because we are not entirely sure of when the honey flows are, and we don't want to taint any honey there might be with thymol. I did ask my neighbour, a very experienced beekeeper, where the bees get their nectar from at this time of year. He said they get sugar from grapes and figs. Sure enough, there are loads of bees on the fallen figs on our land. Earlier this week Mark spotted many bees taking the sap from the leaf axes of young poplar saplings. Propolis gathering, maybe, now that Autumn is coming?


Yesterday we had a lovely surprise as we found that one of our compost heaps to which we had added horse manure was rotted and ready to use: lovely, crumbly earthy-smelling stuff like you read about in text books! I added it to one of the beds and planted out some leeks and onion sets. Then I gave a bit of a top dressing to the summer veg - tomatoes, peppers and aubergines, to extend their life a bit. The things I want to do with that compost! 

We have a poorly performing strawberry patch. We used to grow strawberries effortlessly in the UK but our crown is slipping (no pun intended). I only ever purchased one lot of plants - from Woolworths in Birkenhead - 12 or so rather dried up specimens which subsequently thrived and have survived for generations. Our current strawberry bed in Spain is rather a different story. I have moved the plants once and they are slightly happier although the fruits are tiny, almost like alpine strawberries, a far cry from a Cambridge Favourite and an even further cry from the very large Spanish strawberries you see in the shops in the UK out of season. So I am hoping the newly-rotted compost will come to the rescue and today I scraped the mulch from around the strawbs, dressed the bed with compost, added some all-round organic fertiliser and then replaced the mulch. The plants have a lovely goteo watering system as well so what more can they need?!  I can see this is going to be a challenge! (I may also consider making a screen to shade the plants from the sun).

Happy to be back home after our road trip.

So, our second year out here has begun well for us with many plans in the pipeline and probably a fair few challenges in store. We hope and are optimistic that the forthcoming year will be as enjoyable and successful as the one that has just passed. Certainly, as we are becoming more accustomed to living here, we are less preoccupied with the new and unfamiliar and are finding more space for thought and a little more time for relaxation and the activities we promised ourselves we would do when we moved out here. I am currently re-reading 'As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning' by Laurie Lee, which is a real-life account of this young man's travels through Spain just before and as Civil War was breaking out in the 1930s. Last Friday afternoon, as part of our vow to relax a bit more, we went to a lovely cove on the coast for the afternoon. The cove looks across to Almunecar, which is where Laurie Lee was picked up from by a British Ship to escape the Civil War. What better way to read Laurie Lee, overlooking the land where his feet trod some 80 years ago?

A bit of cat-fancying in one of the mountain villages.
Thankfully this kitten had a loving owner, or else we may have been expanding our family (!)

Chilling 

A tale of three melons

Well, it has certainly turned warm! A sign that things are warming up is that the cicadas have started 'that cicada sound'. Their chorus gathers momentum when the sun rises above the hill, bringing the warmth of the day. The sound is quite loud indeed at times, and the only let up is when a cool breeze sweeps across the land and they are momentarily muted. The cicada nymphs shed their exoskeleton and we have been finding them here and there on the leaves and trunks of trees:

The exoskeleton of a cicada nymph on a runner bean leaf

We have continued to get up early to get the more strenuous work out of the way before it gets too hot. In fact, I also often get up at about 3 am for a quick dip in our alberca so that I can get back to sleep!

Mark went back to England for a week at the end of June. He went to the Glastonbury Festival with his sister and our niece and her fiance and he had a great time there. I enjoyed a week of feline company plus a few trips into town so as not to become a total recluse! I find it very comfortable to spend time alone in the house and on the land although I was pleased to see him when he got back. 

Mark, his festival T shirt, and lots of mud

One of our current tasks is strimming the land to tidy it up a bit. Just an hour or so a day to get through all the areas - poco a poco (little by little). We have left the strimming rather late because we were waiting for all the pretty wildflowers to finish flowering, to give them plenty of opportunity to set seeds. Our land looks a bit wilder than some of the land around us. The Spanish use the word 'cleaning' for clearing the land.  It is good to keep the grass down at this time of year to reduce the possibility of spread of fire, and it will be easier to harvest when the time comes. Up to now it has been quite nice to have long grass around the trees to prevent evaporation when irrigating, but now it is so warm and with no recent rainfall, the grass is reduced to a frazzle.

Mark's finger is still very painful and the traumatologist said it will take 4 or 5 months for the bone to heal. It would be too uncomfortable for him to use any machinery that vibrates so I have been doing the strimming whilst he tidies around: raking up grass, moving irrigation pipes and uncut branches. It does look like we are starting to get on top of things in places and the land is, in my opinion, looking proper reet bo at the moment. The olives that were pruned hard in winter are starting to recover and have put on a lot of vigorous new growth.

Look at this beautiful clematis climbing up a tree stump above our irrigation alberca.
And the bees are lovin' it

Mark is currently having daily physiotherapy for 20 sessions in Motril. The physiotherapist is using microwave, infra red, laser and something that sounds like TENS to help reduce the swelling. He is also having the finger manually manipulated to help release the tendons and has exercises to restore mobility. 

Another of our current projects is to modify the irrigation of the vegetables so that the task becomes a little more automated.  The vegetables are starting to snowball! Yesterday, I was able to get together a whole gang of veg to make a ratatouille all from produce on the land: onions, garlic, tomatoes, aubergine, chilli, peppers, courgettes and some basil leaves to add to the aroma. Even the olive oil was from the proceeds of our own olives. It tasted divine. I have a much-used and much-loved slow cooker which uses very little electricity so I just put it on and when it was tea-time the dish was ready and waiting for us.

The ingredients for a fully rounded ratatouille

Our veg are a little small but perfectly formed. We are proud to call them organic and, with the promise of horse manure in the offing, it may only be a matter of time before we are growing prize specimens!


There are a lot of squashes on the land at present. I think I overdid them! They start off small but those pumpkins get everywhere.  They do provide good ground cover and the leaves may stop water from evaporating but I think they are thirsty devils. Some of them have grown as weeds from pumpkin seeds I put on the compost heap. I didn't have the heart to pull them out at first but now they are certainly showing who's the boss. Maybe one morning I may wake up bound to my bed by a pumpkin that has crept in and pinned me down overnight!

Another member of the squash family is the melon. We have had close encounters with three types of melon over the past week. We had been nurturing one that set several weeks ago. Yesterday, the melon felt like it was ready to harvest and, sure enough, if broke away easily when lifted.

The proud bearer of a Galia melon.

The Galia melon was delicious......

The melon was harvested at the peak of ripeness

The plant from which the Galia melon was taken has not produced any other fruits and it has stopped flowering because the pumpkin leaves have swamped it. I am thinking of putting up a vertical trellis made from canes and pulling the (lush) melon leaves over the canes in an attempt to rekindle its desire to produce offspring. We have already put a melon plant on a vertical trellis in another location in the garden. This time it's a piel del sapo (toad's skin) melon. This plant has a fruit almost ready to harvest and is continuing to flower and set one or two fruits more. It won't be long before we eat this melon. The skin is just starting to 'give' when firmly prodded. 

Piel del sapo melon. I have put it is a net bag hung onto the cane trellis so that the weight does not detach it prematurely

Finally we have rubbed shoulders with the big boy, the watermelon (sandia in Spanish). Our friends had acquired a very large watermelon. When they came over to lunch they brought half of it to share with us. 

Sandia water melon. We have seen fields of these growing in Castilla La Mancha, south of Madrid.

We enjoyed some triangles of the melon in a salad and on our breakfast but we were clearly making very little impression on the fruit. Finally, after trawling the internet for ideas, we put it through a food processor together with some sprigs of mint, then strained out the rogue seeds and bits of mint leaves. This left us with a refreshing juice which we have enjoyed watered down with sparkling mineral water. It was also very nice drank in 3 equal parts of white wine, melon juice and sparkling mineral water.

And talking of squashes, the cucumbers are now coming into their own. Tonight we ate our first cucumber with home-grown lettuce and tomatoes. The cucumber was quite small but we need to get on top of the cucumber-eating schedule as we may be in for a glut. There's not an awful lot you can do with a cucumber glut is there? It's a shame we are a way off building a composting toilet!

Cucumber (pepino in Spanish)

Aaaahhh, this cucumber still has the flower blooming on the end.

Mark and the three sisters

The three sisters' planting of sweetcorn, French beans and (yet more) squashes is now as tall as a man. Our friends who live close by told us they had a plot of perfectly formed sweetcorn on the verge of being harvested. However, one morning they awoke to find that the jabali (wild boars) had had a midnight feast - not a single sweetcorn left. Maybe it was the same family of jabali that visited our neck of the woods about a week ago. Our neighbour shot one of them (which he estimated to be about 85 Kgs). We didn't see it but we heard a lot going on late one night, laying wide-eyed and awake in the darkness. We are very pleased that he takes this matter into his hands as we are naive about, or lack the skills for, some of the more grizzly aspects of living in the countryside.


We are having a few other little surprises pop up on the land. It is very unlikely that a mango tree would survive where we live because the temperature dips slightly too low in winter. The trees grow very happily on the coast which is only about 30 kms away as the crow flies. However, I have managed to germinate a seedling from a locally-grown mango I bought at the market.

Mango seedling

We have also moved a few plants that have not seemed very happy in the places where we originally planted them. I have moved the pittosporum from a very sunny and hot position to a more shady location. Either the plant was too hot or just couldn't get enough water were it was. Fingers crossed, it will start to look a bit healthier.  

The Pittosporum has been moved to a new home.

We also moved a blueberry which has become increasingly sickly but is trying so hard to 'hang on in' that it deserves a chance. Our soil is quite alkaline and blueberries like acidic soil. Down our track and towards the road there are some pine trees and I have collected a sack of pine needles to put around the base in an attempt to lower the pH of the soil. Time will tell!

We have harvested the onions we grew from seed. There are some more growing that are from purchased sets.

Plaited onions waiting to be hung

Garlic and chillies. My garlic-plaiting leaves a lot to be desired!

This week is special to us as it has been a year since we arrived here to live permanently. Yesterday we noticed that the almonds are opening and starting to fall off one of our trees ( a little ahead of our expectations), and it was when we arrived here a year ago that we launched ourselves within a very short time into collecting the almond harvest. So the year has turned full circle for us.

And what an amazing year we have had! The learning curve has been massive as each season has brought its challenges. It has been such a relief to finally put to use practical and spatial skills that had been locked away inside and fighting to get out! We are both physically stronger, lead a healthier lifestyle and actually feel healthier.  

This year has been very much a 'setting up' year and whilst this is far from complete, we feel that we have laid some firm foundations to build upon. Whilst reflecting recently on our past year, we drew up a list of significant things we had achieved over the past year, anything from pruning trees to doing our own tax returns, and from identifying various services and businesses to meet our needs to starting to get the house straight (a very difficult job for two people who love to be outside so much!). It didn't take us long to list 100 things which, Mark pointed out, is something new every three and a half days.

As our first year out here draws to an end, we will take what we have learnt to influence how we go about our plans for the next year. We may do some things differently in the future due to our greater insight, and I think that on the whole we will be more relaxed and have greater confidence as we make plans and bring them to fruition. But then no two years are the same, so there are bound to be a whole new load of challenges awaiting us. That's what keeps life interesting, isn't it?

Lisa is reflecting on the past year and planning her next year on the mountainside

Figs at breakfast

This last week it has turned HOT, the warmest so far this year. A couple of days ago the temperature reached 33 C in the shade at our house and yes....... we are starting to get a few figs to put on our breakfast or eat with cheese at lunchtime. 

At the end of May there was a fiesta at a little chapel on our part of the mountain. The timing was perfect: just after a bit of heavy rain and just before the heatwave. We knew there was going to be a fiesta in May as a neighbour had told us about it when we were over visiting a couple of years ago - but we had never been. Thankfully, another neighbour reminded us one Friday that the fiesta was to be the next day. So, on the Saturday just after mid-day, we set off walking up the hill to the church where the fiesta was to be held.  

The setting was beautiful......

and Our Lady was carried from the church and carefully placed in the shade, adorned by flowers......

A giant paella was being prepared for all to share. Once the gentleman had cooked the paella, he played the accordian and sang whilst people danced in front of the church. 

And there was a free bar. All day!!!!!

After paella and dancing, the priest arrived and gave mass (it would have been rude not to have stayed). An altar was set up in front of Our Lady. The gentleman switched his accordion music from dance tunes to religious songs. A few cars arrived on the track and a party of cyclists, surprised by the fact that a religious service was blocking the track. They were welcomed to the bar.

After mass and after some of the people had taken communion, the priest came into the congregation and attempted to shake everyones' hand. Then Our Lady was carried for a way down the track whilst we followed in procession.

 And then the party turned round and carried her back.....

 After mass there was 'una merienda' (a snack): a chorizo roll, and many more trips to the bar!!

We obviously had a chat to our neighbours during the afternoon, but we were new faces to many people on the mountainside. We also got chatting to an English WOOFER (a volunteer worker) who works for one of our neighbours and we acknowledged with him that this fiesta was so uniquely Spanish and unlike anything we had ever encountered in the UK! What a lovely carefree day!

* * * * *

We have continued to turn more of the cut timber into useable logs. Mark has been very nifty cutting them and I have been making the log piles.  And we are even doing a line in garden tables and chairs!!!

I call this area in our garden 'teddybears' picnic'. I wonder why?
Of course, it may get re-named 'ants in yer pants' at some time in the future.

 It took quite an effort getting these logs into position as benches. Rolling them wasn't too much of a problem, but swivelling them was heavy work. 

An olive trunk flower pot!

 During the hot afternoons, I have been indoors making fitted jackets to cover our water deposits and protect the plastic sides from the ultraviolet rays.

A the family of jabali (wild boar) have been in the vicinity recently. One night there was a right kerfuffle. Our neighbour's dogs were barking and growling for a long time. Finally, there was gunshot at 4 am and all went quiet. We passed by his house the next day and he confirmed that there had been a family of four which he had scared off. They come onto the land to take the crops. The next night the heat woke me up. I lay awake in bed considering going down to cool off in the alberca. Then I heard the neighbour's dogs starting off their barking again and I decided to stay indoors as the thought of meeting a jabali in the dark was not very enticing! 

About a week ago Mark had a  mishap working on the land and has broken the tip of his right index finger, probably the worst place you can break a digit. I drove him to our local health centre where they have an 'urgencias' department and they took an x-ray to confirm it was broken (we knew that anyway judging by the way it veered off at an angle). The doctor sent us to the University Hospital in Granada where it was stitched, splinted and dressed. This evening we went for a follow up appointment with a traumatologist at another hospital in Granada. The bandage and splint have been removed, making Mark feel rather vulnerable. We have had to use our medical insurance for this follow up appointment as it is not urgent and therefore not covered by the EHIC card. Thankfully we have a comprehensive insurance policy! So, for the last week Mark has not been in a good place due to a combination of pain, swelling, taking antibiotics and frustration.

So we have had to take a bit of step back from doing some of the tasks that were on our list. Things will just take a bit longer to get done. Last weekend, it was time to prune the Philadelphus as it had just finished flowering. As Mark was out of action I got to prune it myself. Suffice to say that if I were a hairdresser there would be a few disgruntled clients!

And of course, the garden keeps on growing and the plants don't go 'on hold'. They look glorious and seeing the 'fruits of our labour' gives us immense pleasure.....

These are not giant sunflowers, they are intended as cut flowers - put I couldn't possibly cut them., they are too beautiful just growing there!

Grapes are developing (not my best photo!)

Decorative rockery area

Fruit setting on olives - we will definitely have some to take to the mill this winter. 

One of the pistachios (the male)

Pomegranate in flower

Orange fruits setting for later in the year

A few fruits have set on the recently planted kiwi

The lawn is coming on a treat!

The strawberries like their new home and are starting to produce reasonable fruits

I grew these onions from seed

The leaves of these pumpkin plants are beautiful

Pepper in flower

Pepper in fruit

There were about 50 little peaches on our peach tree but they have all dropped off. It's a very young tree and looks otherwise healthy. Maybe next year we'll get our own peaches.

Aubergines (now in flower)

Young figs

A baby melon

Baby butternut squash

Baby avocado

 We are doing a three sisters planting. This is a method used by Native American Indians and it sustained them nutritionally and spiritually. Firstly, sweetcorn are sown. Once they reach about 20 cm, French beans are sown at the base of the sweetcorn and will wind up their stems. Finally, squashes will be sown around the beds. The squashes will scramble over the ground, reduce weeds, conserve moisture and, as the theory goes, the racoons of North America find the squashes prickly to walk over. However, I can't imagine they would deter a jabali! 

Three sisters planting (just sweetcorn at this point).

 As well as the plant life, we are finding some lovely fauna: birds, butterflies, insects. One afternoon we went up to our irrigation alberca and there in the heat of the afternoon were dragonflies flying over the water, two snakes enjoying a swim, fishes and tadpoles.

Beautiful wild flower: flor de la viuda

Talking of wildlife, I have been seeing a few lizards around without a tail. A friend informed me that they have the ability to detach the tail from their body as a last resort to get away from their prey, and the tail which has detached keeps on wriggling to distract the prey from pursuing them. It is a procedure known as autotopia. That will explain why I saw a wriggling tail disappearing into Bobby's mouth. I thought for a moment he had swallowed something head first. Apparently, the lizard has the ability to regrow the tail. 

Oh Bobby, what have you got now? You clever boy!

Our growing of vegetables is a little held back at the moment by the lack of organic material we can incorporate. We have compost, but never enough. You can buy rotted goat poo locally but I really would rather not have to pay out money for a pile of shit! And we are not going to get our chickens until next Spring as we ran out of time to build their house. So there's no poultry manure to be had. However, we have had a couple of leads for some horse manure - gratis - and, as it's heavy work to shovel, we'll be picking up the scent of the trail again, so to speak, once Mr Sparrow's finger is on the mend.