Work hard, play hard

Forgive me, audience, for I have procrastinated. It has been 4 weeks since my last post.

More additions to the light plan Mirjam and I both have a thing about lights. The lighting in any area has to be just right; Not too bright, not too dim and preferably adaptable to the situation. One of the first things we did when we moved into this house, was changing the lights to suit our taste. It makes all the difference. In the past weeks, we made two additions to our light plan:

Lanterns on the outside of the porch There were two floodlights attached to the porch, but we feel these lanterns look more inviting. The lanterns outside match the style of the lights inside the porch and they were spare lights we found in one of the sheds!

Lights over the kitchen counter A wish we have had since we moved into this house 5 months ago: to have countertop lighting that comes from the wall side, so you can never stand in your own light, like when it comes from behind. We had found lighting strips with a remote control at Ikea. I made two shelves and stained them with the same stain that is used in the rest of the house. Together we fixed the lights to the shelves and hid the electrical wiring in the wall. It worked out quite well and it makes all the difference.  

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Power up! So far, to get the desired lights in the garden at night, we ran extension cords from one of the sheds, which was less than ideal. To fix that, I decided to get electricity from the porch and run it to a few sockets in the garden. As usual, I wanted to show as little of the work as possible. On the porch, you can’t see anything; I used a junction box in the wall and drilled a hole to the outside as close to the ground as possible. On the outside, you can see about 15cm of cord, but then it disappears in the ground. I was very careful to save the gravel on a plastic sheet, so I could put it back after burying the cable about 15 cm in the ground. The result is exactly as planned and it does away with the extension cord that ran over the driveway.

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Mirjam’s culinary delights Homemade yogurt ice-cream. Mirjam made both blue & blackberry and raspberry yogurt ice-cream and they are absolutely delicious.

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Chocolate cake, with a chocolate ganache topping

We are maximally protected On may 11^th we got our first shot of the Moderna vaccine against Covid-19. Two weeks later we both received the invitation by SMS text message to come get the second jab on June 8^th. In our region, the vaccinations are done in a drive through tent. Three rows of cars pass through the tents at a time. You stay in the car and they just vaccinate you through the car window. It is quite efficient. However, you don’t get a document nor a stamp in your vaccination booklet to prove that you have been vaccinated and if you don’t ask what vaccine you are getting, they don’t bother telling you. They do tell you however to wait 10 minutes before driving away, in case you have an allergic reaction. People who are on the National Health plan can get the QR code from the National Health App, that you need to get the EU Covid app to show that you are vaccinated. But we are privately insured and will need go to the local Health Center at some point to get that QR code to prove we have received two jabs. Right now, we are just happy to be max protected.

We covered the carport When we came to Spain to view the house in July 2020, just before buying it, we were very surprised to see Mark (the previous owner) had just built a carport. We were wondering why he did that, knowing he was going to sell the property and this week he told us he had the timber (or lumber) and wanted to do something with it. It turns out the wood came from an old onion drying shed and he salvaged the wood when that shed was taken down. He intended to cover the carport with split bamboo typically used for fences, but before the bamboo was delivered, the Covid pandemic started and the vendor cancelled the order. And then we bought the house, so he was in no hurry to finish the job. We however wanted some shade for the car and found mats of willow twigs that could do the job. The first place we saw these mats was in Almería and the company wanted €100 to deliver the 6 rolls we would have needed. That was just a little too much for us, so we didn’t get them there. We found a similar product at a local hardware store in town and decided to buy it there instead and drive it home ourselves. Last week we went there to place the order, but then they had them in stock, so we could take them with us right there and then. We hadn’t really anticipated that to happen, so we had to improvise and work out a way to get them home in our little convertible car along with the groceries we had just bought. But we managed! Mirjam drove, we put the back of the passenger seat all the way down and piled the mats on that seat. And I got to ride on the 30cm2 that was left on the backseat.

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The next couple of days the weather forecast told us there wasn’t going to be much sun, ideal to put these mats up. So, we did:

Yet another place to sit Mark and Jacky came over the other day and asked if we were interested in the table and 6 chairs they used to have on the patio. Of course we were, it is a lovely set. And it looked so good on the patio, that we decided to put it there again, in its old place. The only thing is that they kept the granite table top, so we are going to have to buy or make a new one. No rush though.

The set we had put on the patio now has a new location, in the grass between the trees on the north side of the property. It is a great spot and gives us yet another view of the property.

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Dressing up the pool area Now that we spend more time at the pool area, we wanted to dress it up a little.

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Time to harvest the apricots We have two apricot trees and we netted one of them to keep the birds from eating the fruit, but left the other one uncovered so the birds wouldn’t starve. The one we netted produces 60kg of fruit every year.

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We were probably a day too late picking them and many apricots had either fallen already or were blotted and not suitable for human consumption anymore. Still we ended up with 20kg. The next day we sifted through them again and selected only the best. And then we halved them, remove the stone and ended up with 6kg of good fruit. And then we made jam. Twenty three jars to be precise.

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Enjoying the Flora and Fauna We see so many things here that we don’t see in Northern Europe. This unit of a frog for instance. Or is it a toad?

We also see a lot of birds you don’t often see in the north:

And all around us, in the garden, near the pool, next to the driveway, we see the most beautiful flowers and plants.

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Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for more blogs soon.