Garrido October

Hey,

now we are in what they call the "second spring" here and in regards to building we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, stronger and stronger. And I have checked and checked and it does not seem to be another train coming. I hope I am right in that. Autumn here is pretty nice as plants start flowering again, green grass come up, and it is really strange sometimes to convince yourself that winter is coming. The dew is plentiful, the nights cool and the days hot and sunny, and we get some rain - you can't blame vegetation for giving it another shot, really. Pretty nice from the scorched earth of august and september...

Hello Jean!! Good to hear you are back safe and sound and hope to see you soon! xxx Mijo

And then one evening there was hail, so big they hurt. Mad.

Garden is going for it, got courgettes, French beans, carrots, parsley, dill, sweet peas, sweetcorn, spinach, tomatoes, garlic, rocket salad and radishes going hell for leather, and the artichoke and cauliflower and broad beans will be for later unless some freak frost kills them. So I am happy.

Bit of the garden.

As for building I am pretty happy too, it seems that everything that we do or someone else does now seems such a big visual step towards "a real house". Today we put in some glass and windows - wow how much more like a "proper house" it all looks, not just an empty shell with gaping window and door holes!!! Not to mention the guttering - perhaps sadly Paul and me were just grinning last time it rained, thinking that finally it was all caught by guttering and put straight into our water supply - yey!

Look, the kitchen, with glass in the kitchen windows!!

Pool looks nice, shame it's way too cold to swim in by now...

Bedroom with glass in the doors!

Living room shelves and fireplace taking shape as well...Today the woodburner got into place and the firehood was built and it looks GREAT - too dark to get a picture, next time.

Lots of gravel does the trick.

Marley eating, comfortably lying down...

Paving from large house to small looks nice, eh?

My little puppy and me. Hrm.

Paaaving paaaving

Paul the quality control man

Starting look like a house someone is going to live in, isn't it??

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!

Fiesta de Fuego in Rasquera...and more building

Hello all, on holiday so just uploading some pics...

Wall is all pointed now

Stairs from casita!

Paul putting final touches to casita. Just as well as we're moving out in a few months...Looks darn good though!

Pomegranates doing well. Soon ready - apparently they are the new wonderfood, packed with antioxidants. Lucky us.

More stair shots. This is our new evening hangout, when we finally make it outside about seven in the evening, when it's cool enough and the flies are not so bothersome.

Reckon it's starting to look like a pool of sorts.

AND more stairs going down to front door of casita - nice not to slide down rubble with heavy shopping bags anymore to get to the door.

Kitchen ceiling in the big house - has come out pretty good, eh?

Ceiling beams up in the living room.

We went to a fiesta in Rasquera (the nearest town, population 864). Fire and dragons, loads of death-defying fun and singed hair. Bless the Spanish - a fiesta ain't a fiesta if there's not a rather good chance you'll die celebrating it. I wouldn't have it any other way - where's the fun if it's not a little bit scary? Went with a bunch of friends and I am sure we all felt like kids for a while, screaming and giggling, running away from the scary fire-belching monster and the little devils with their firesticks who chase you, especially if you're blonde. Everyone was really excited. But then perhaps we should get out more...The photos are pretty crap but you try taking them with

Paul's stupid camera when there's fire and screaming and banging all around you...Guess I'll never be a photo journalist.

Never seen Rasquera like this...

This thing here below, far left, is being hauled up with three other scary things by a crane, really high. We couldn't decide whether it was a ghost, angel or a jellyfish. And those are Tracy's and Domingo's heads, just...

Sam wasn't scared of the dragon.

Garrido july

Paul on the balcony with lovely Marley. Trying to give him a lovelick, after just having vigorously licked his genitals. The dog, that is. We can see his little balls moving back to drop (in about two months). I sometimes wonder if it itches or something - he seems very preoccupied with them. Or is it just the male thing?














A little view (sort of) through the small guest room window, looking out at the almond tree.




Coming up the stairs, door to small guestroom, seen from where my work desk will be.




Marley again - tried to capture him in same position as puppyshot in last post so you can appreciate how he's grown...and grown...










From balcony. The hole below is to be the pool. Funny how it all looks much flatter in pictures - in fact the land falls quite steeply down towards the valley.










The gorgeous agave which was a kind of a defining feature on entering the farm is now flowering and will, sadly, die after that. Until then, we are enjoying it in all its majesty. These things are like the dinosaurs of the plant kingdom - huge and seemingly indestructible. Until they die.









Piccies of our new steps from small house to big house - isn't it all starting to look so CIVILISED??? The border will be filled with cacti and other hardy plants - in fact Paul just put some in an hour ago - pics in next post!











Coming up the stairs from front entrance, we have saved a bit of the old wall without plastering, just to remind ourselves. And it breaks up the stairwell a bit.










Downstairs guest bedroom, looking towards bathroom.







Seen from door to dining area/kitchen towards living room.


The boys coming up the stairs.
Ceiling in master bedroom.





Poolhole.












Hole, dirt, hole, dirt, dust, dust and a few tonnes of stones...All put to good use though, filling in and evening out bits and bobs.