It's a year or there about's since we moved in to our cortijo, we have seen the seasons come and go , the heat come and go the wood pile come and go and come and go, but we're still here.
During the winter we had our almond trees pruned by one of the guys who did the picking, so our almond wind fall was reinvested all except for the price of a menu del dia . This now seems to be paying dividends with the recent rains just after the flowers we seem to be on for a good crop.
Our first load of wood was home grown, we made it right through to mid March with out buying any wood . This was a combination of us removing the dead trees this making the bulk of our wood followed by the trimmings that gave us an extra month after our wood was getting low.
We have piles of twigs around the place as we didn't get around to getting a fire licence to have a bonfire or two so they'll have to wait until the autumn now, although the fire risk is currently low As the campo is lush and green after all the rain we've had recently, this will no doubt change.
As its about a year now since we moved in and this is the first time we have seen the variety of wild flowers that are now all around. If you remember we had only had 5 days rain from July 2013 to oct 2014 so the whole area was snuff dry and bleached out, the most common sight then was a dust devil. Even our olives were a complete loss as they had not been watered turning out small and thin skinned .
With the flowers came the bee catchers to brighten your journey up the rambla. The local rabbits and mice , shrews etc but be thriving as there's a increase in Falcons around and even the odd sighting of Eagles gliding over the campo.
That all sounds very rustic but how goes our ambition to cover parts of the lush campo in concrete?
Well the pool is getting tiled in the non classic deep blue tiles and looks stunning the terrace has been built and the surrounding wall is done and Mojacar blanco'd with a tile top , within these walls all looks very smart , over the wall not so smart as its being used for storage and dumping / mixing .
In doors is now well on the bathrooms are all done and the dinning room is finished now the floors are all tiled. I had a bit of a wind fall of sorts as our interior designer ( the lady wife ) had a change of mind , unusual as normally the lady is not for turning ! Her change was to the floor tiles in the bathroom, originally they were to be the same as all the down stairs but style dictated that they should now be charcoal ( grey / black ) , liberating 23 m2 of the others , just enough to cover the workshop floor , result.
So goodbye uneven concrete hello level tile floor looks too nice to get dirty stripping chain saws etc but it's a real upgrade when sweeping as the concrete was very flakey and dusty As it turned out there was just enough tiles with no spares, the tiler thought he might have to use the left overs from the bathroom to have a charcoal door mat !
DD the dog and Baggy the cat are now tolerating each other in what looks like an uneasy truce, baggy struts her stuff whilst DD watches her walk past some times it's As if she's taunting DD fully aware that if she makes a lunge towards her she'll get told.
Reading too much into it ? You should watch them some time, that's all I can say.
Recently we went to ikea in Murcia , I know I keep saying never again but the lady wife is very persuasive. I draw the line at the car park, by the time I've got that far I'm ready for a bit of peace and quiet.
The lovely wife being made of sterner stuff still joins the conga line as it winds its way around the store. We ( the royal we ) decided that the kitchen needed the addition of some decorative end panels on the island, so there she was back in the kitchen dept as they need ordering.
Three weeks later the lovely wife received a text that appeared to say they were ready for collection, the store was closed the next day as it was good Friday so late Saturday morning we set off again, as predicted the usual level of driving insanity was surpassed. I was unable to find a parking spot so dropped the lovely wife off and cruised the car park like a demented kerb crawler until I finally found a spot. In the mean time the lovely wife had joined the conga line and made it to the kitchen dept only to be redirected to the info desk and then to the collections desk , two hours later she's on the phone asking to be picked up.
The lovely wife was empty handed and seething apparently collections are not made from the store like in the UK but from a warehouse down the autovia a junction or two. So optimistically I said well come on then and then back to the Kentucky ( the best part of what's usually a poor day ) I looked at the time as lunch seemed a good idea it was 2:15 . The lovely wife then passed on the full reason why she was seething .
After queuing at all the various desks and explaining what she wanted and a few turns on the conga line the info sheet and map they gave her says that the warehouse is closed 2 - 5 pm.
Right then lunch first seems to be the order of the day, once near to the Kentucky it was clear that that too was a prime location for the 2 o'clock club , my orders were clear just go home !
No doors , No Kentucky and the prospect of doing it all again next week, I can't wait.