Hello there,

after a few comments by acquaintances and family regarding my blissfully jobfree status at the moment, such as "What are you going to do all day?", and "Are you just going to be sort of a housewife/lady of the manor", etc., etc., I just feel like giving you a small example of parts of the many to-do-lists my writing pad is taken up with (lists are graded by importance, this is just this week's daily/for-the-next-two-weeks must-get-done-list):

• Organise workers - what are they doing, what will they do tomorrow, what materials will they need
• Wheelbarrow more broken tile bits to garden to make more garden paths
• Build a compost
• Mix mule manure in with the soil in garden
• Order soil and then get it distributed into flower beds
• Pick more carobs and sell them
• Prune the base suckers on 450 olives and put them into nice piles to be burned when we get fire permission again, clear other stuff under the trees to facilitate harvesting
• Cut and sew up the cloth for the kitchen cupboards
• Measure the upstairs floor and go and see the floor man in Tarragona
• Go and try to find lights for the big house so that the electrician can come and fit them
• Speaking of electrician, get ingredients for the squash chutney so I can use the ones he gave us before they go off
• Go to Tarragona and get Marley's certificate from Sanidad Exterior
• Pick more carobs
• Plant out about 100 plants before it gets cold
• Clean and treat upstairs terrace floor (only about 50 sq m)
• Clean and treat the window sill tiles again
• Find out where that leak comes from in downstairs shower
• Clean grouting off and treat downstairs tiles (only about 100 sq m)
• Sand down and treat all doors
• Pick more carobs
• Clear forest and fire corridor
• Design the base for upstairs and downstairs bathroom furniture
• Design living room shelves so that Dougie can start building them
• Find and buy a log burner

So, basically, there is more than enough to keep us busy :-). And this is the small list, for now. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE it. And to be able to see this place taking shape, stone by stone, plank by plank, tree by tree, plant by plant and tile by tile. with the hard labour of a bunch of workmen and Paul and me all together, creating it, is amazing and so rewarding. Do I sound like some sort of Oscar winner, waffling? Probably, but I think we deserve to be stoked about this after so many months (14 to be more accurate) of mainly nightmares both day and night. There is a light at the end of the tunnel - and it's most probably NOT a train, so there :-)

Hello all,

late summer season has provided us with carobs, figs, beans, almonds and chillies. Some of the tomato plants (the early ones) are definitely on last legs and looking pretty depressing, while others, planted later, are still going strong. Our greywater goes straight out a few meters from the house and some tomato seeds must have been washed down from the sink as we suddenly discovered five monster tomato plants right around the inlet. We have given them no attention whatsoever and they are the biggest tomato plants I have ever seen. Food for thought and a nice indication that using greywater for irrigation is indeed a good thing..!

August was supposed to be a holiday from builders and building work but that plan somehow didn't happen and we have only had a few days "off" from bish-bash-boshing...However, I don't mind as things are moving really fast now and "the end" to all this (as if there is ever an end to a house like this...) seems more discernible. August has been mainly about the pool and fixing up "Zone 1" around the house, levelling and making ready for stone laying and gravelling. We're trying to find a balance between comfortable walking around and being outside and keeping the place as "natural" as possible. I hope we'll get it right. Still - getting some paving in will be great - we stumble when we walk on level streets in the village as we are so used to totally uneven, gravelly, slippery, stony ground everywhere. Pool is finally in and we have had some swims - the water is fresh indeed, sure to wake you up - but it has to be done :-). Electricity is ready to be connected, gas pipes are dug down, we are done designing the kitchen, Simon is going to lay the floor next week...Gosh!!! This could become reality after all! In the meantime, I am busying myself sanding doors and windows and pondering colours, harvesting carobs, picking lavender to put with the linen, gardening, and mopping mopping mopping the floor. The digger machine having been here for days has pounded the earth to a fine dust that the wind picks up and puts down - everywhere...The mornings are getting cooler, with a fog in the valley in the early hours - a telltale sign of autumn moving in. I've been clearing the forest at the end of each morning walk with Marley and Viva, ripping out pesky, flammable gorse to be able to get to those yummy mushrooms that should start popping up at the end of this month.

We also went to a place about 45 minutes drive from here, Font de Calda, which is an amazing gorge in the mountains, filled with fresh water even during the driest summer. The drive there is something else - not for the faint hearted. A real gem, see pictures below.

We are off for dinner at friends' shortly, here are some piccies:

Back of house cleared

Hangin' by the pool

A few hundred kilos of carobs ready to take to the cooperative.

Pool and house

Pretty blissful...

New steps to front and kitchen doors.

Paul and Alex spotting something at Font de Calda.

Font de Calda, cool, sweet, swimmable water - niiiice!