seen the first snow!

About 2 hours after our walk, it started to drizzle, then rain, then there was thunder and a bit of lightning a long way down south, and when the clouds lifted we saw the first snow over the Contraviesa and the hills above Murtas.

fruit and flowers

Went out this afternoon for our usual walk and noticed that the nispero (medlar) trees were in flower. They have a very strong heady scent and are very attractive to bees and the trees hum for weeks on end as the flowers last so long.

This must be the smallest olive tree around here - about a year or so in the ground - but it has 2 really big olives!

autumn chores

this has been a week of tidying up, repairing a wobbly table top, straightening a chair with crooked legs, weeding, moving firewood from the log store up onto the terrace to be handier for the woodburners, raking leaves and putting into the compost - every day - and finally finishing the last raised bed ready for seeds.

yesterday was quite cool for the time of year and we did begin to wonder if winter was coming early, we had a max. temperature of 12 (shade temp) but not much sun either but today dawned with clear blue skies and a high of 17 (shade) - so hot in the sunshine that i was in summer clothes this afternoon. But again, at sunset it's as if the heating has gone off and it's back to winter wear and woodburners!

look at this sunset....wow!

had totally clear skies today, but just before sunset it went hazy and then more cloud came down from the sierras and as the sun set the sky got more and more colourful and this was the result.

where does the time go?

its been a week since I looked at this, I know the sun is shining and there are things to do outside, but we are indoors from about 6pm or so every evening. Once the sun sets it's as if someone has turned off the heating and we go indoors and light the wood burner in the lounge.

Went out for a walk this afternoon with Monty as normal but took the camera too, it makes me look around more, see what has changed, it's all too easy to take this landscape for granted! Here are a few of the pics I took...pomegranates on a tree, our spring and the deposito (for storing the water for the land) and an orange grove.

the robin

this is all new to me so trying to get 2 photos in 1 blog doesn't seem to work! maybe it will become clearer over time so meanwhile here are the robin pictures!

birds

we have been visited recently by a wagtail and even more recently by our robin - when I say our robin it's because one or maybe a pair come every year - so we assume it's the same ones again. The wagtail certainly isn't shy, he potters along the edge of the pool, catching insects that are around, the robin has been much more shy, hiding in the trimmings of the olive treee.

olives and roads

Picked the first black olives yesterday, split, rinsed, rinsed again and then soaked, and then put in brine. The brine will need changing every day to start with. These are lovely big fat olives, about the size of a grape, looking forward to eating them....eventually!

This afternoon we dug a new water channel down the side of the road - from our house down to the first bend - to take the rain water away from the road, instead of going across the road and over the edge, possibly causing damage.

Sun is shining, well it was earlier, the moon is up now!

autumn rain

it's now the beginning of November and we have had our quota of autumn rains. 48 hours of steady drizzle which is good for the land and the olive trees and fortunately hasn't had too bad an effect on the pista (track) from here down to Yator. This time last year the rain was very heavy in very short bursts and washed away a section about 2m x 2m x 2m deep!! It took a JCB half a day to fill it in and repair it. There is a small amount of snow on Sierra Gador which is about 2000m high.