Los (ex) Olivos

Below are some Armageddon phots taken in teh top garden after the heavy pruning of the olives and almond trees. the intention is to make the olives more ornamental than productive.

Brrrr

The temperature has certainly dropped here in Spain and there is rain in the forecast but we have not seen any in 2012 yet. The heating has been on, hot water bottled filled and the log fire blazing. Straight after my hash on Sunday spits of rain started and developed into a shower. It appears not to have rained overnight but today is overcast and it is drizzling. This is unusual in Spain as when it rains it usually does so in buckets. The garden is long overdue a good watering so this is not unwelcome. However the blossom on the almond tress is way too early and does not bode well. This is the first time since a week in November that I have been confined indoors.

To do list getting thin

I have organised the garage which included sorting through tins and jam jars of mixed screws, nuts & bolts and 1001 other items I have hung on to over the years thinking that they might ultimately come in handy. Some of these items might indeed have been useful in the past had I known where to find them. Ironically, now that they are sorted and catalogued I will probably no longer have any need for them. I have enough to start my own hardware store. It was nevertheless a satisfying task. I also sorted through the garden, car and sports cupboards. The garage is now a haven of peace and organisation. There is a great deal more space too!  I donated a lot of stuff to a chap called Aubrey Irving who supports (single handedly) a school in Kenya. He is an inspiration. He also hashes.

Internet No More

Wow,  we woke up this morning to discover we had no internet connection at home and not only that no data connection on either of our iPhones which run on different networks.  I called Telefonica who confirmed a general outage in the area but were surprised that it extended to mobile networks too. I had an email pending for a few hours in my iPhone outbasket and about 10 minutes ago I heard the tell tale sound of it being sent and looked at the router which simultaneously switch from a red to a green light! What more proof is needed!  I always assumed that the mobile networks were independent of the Telefonica system but I have just been proven wrong.

More jobs at Los Olivos

Graciela (our Argentinian cleaning lady) has shamed me into leaning out the garage.  This has resulted in me having to sort out 35 years orth of screws, nails etc which have resided in a large in and in various other hidey holes!  One of Irene´s  quilting students is a Herbalife  representative and had given us a load of small plastic containers of differing sizes, ideal for the job in hand!  It is strangely satisfying to sort, catalogue and label. I can see that as many times as I have bought something I already had it. I just did not know! It is a little late to be doing this as there are fewer jobs to be done around Los Olivos but better late than never! I now need to get some additional shelving to be able to line up all 50 of the containers, label to the font of course!

Los Olivos

There have been no major project at Los Olivos for several months. The emphasis has been on maintenance inside and out. Mike has installed the PS2 in the master bedroom so Irene can now use the dance mat there and take her exercise in the mornings without fuss or upheaval. An ethernet switch has been added to the upstairs wireless router such that the media and back up drive is now located there, away from the three computers it is backing up daily and thus safer in the event of a fire downstairs. Today Mike and Irene set about reordering the study. Since moving Irene´s desk there earlier in the year it has been a bit cramped due mainly to the position of Mike´s desk. The new layout has Mike´s desk against the wall and this has added significantly to the floor space.  In fact a dance could now be held in it as these photos  demonstrate.

Winter?

The week we were away in Hinojares saw torrential rain with thunder and lightning on the coast and inland, including Coin. The evidence was plain to see on our return. I had left a bucket outside and this was full to the brim; the pool needed emptying rather than topping up and the garden was flattened! The temperature also dropped and we have put the downie on the bed, and have started lighting the wood burning stove in the evenings (although more for ambience than heat!). Still we are managing to heat the hot water by solar power thanks to the warm, sunny days… although I doubt for much longer. The next step is to decommission the pool; put away the garden furniture and declutter the quincho.

Water, water everywhere

The water problems in Las Delicias are back to haunt us. Throughout the summer the supply has been intermittent but we now have a 2000 litre deposit so we can ride out most of the storms. The downhole pump was placed deeper in the well a few weeks ago and this appeared to alleviate the situation and with the visiting population set to reduce and the summer heat diminish and onset of rains we hoped to ride the rest of the season even though the pump is not in tip top condition and we have no spare.  Additionally, there are illegal connnections and leaks which probably double the size of the problem and the mains pipework is substandardWe are also in dispute with Coin Council over who is responsible for what and who pays.  The Coin Council was declared bankrupt not long after the change of ruling party after elections and now has no money to spend. In fact the power company Endesa is owed so much they have taken to switching street lights and power to public buildings off and wages of council workers go unpaid.  Today the well is reported to be dry and the President and I together with the Administrator visited the Council and had a very unsatisfactory meeting.  The problem is now grave and major investment is required in a new well and larger pump. Ideally we need to put meters and valves in at various loxcations so we can isolate areas or introduce selective rationing. Charles, the President, will be on holiday for all of November and has asked me to deputise so it looks like I will have my hands full. I am now praying for rain

Wasps

If it is not ants it is wasps. Most years they penetrate the keyholes in the quincho and jam the locks with waxy stuff in which they must I assume lay their eggs. Recently I have spotted them over by the whirligig and lo and behold they have found some holes in the top and were entering it presumably with the same intent. Unfortunately they spotted me and one of them stung me on my thumb! This is probably only the third or fourth time in my life I have been stung! Irene swung into action and hatched a plan to invert the whirligig and immerse it in a bucket of water. This seems to have confused them. We will reassess the situation tomorrow.

Los Olivos Status

The weather has been hot, hot, hot and frankly this means that little work is done outdoors other than the basic cleaning and tidying. The pears are ripening and the citrus are growing. We have enjoyed some tomatoes and peppers also. We had the sprinkler system overhauled professionally and it now seems to be working much better. We discovered that we had accidentally disabled the sprinklers to the orchard which was not helping matters. The water pressure has been low due to supply not meeting demand but our buffer tank and pump have made us impervious to that. We relocated the big umbrella to provide shade in front of the patio doors. The outstanding maintenance is to spray paint the doors to the boiler house and fuel store. I may also repaint or at least touch up whitewash on folly before the family arrive. The hedge to he side of the villa in the stepped garden is also due a trim.