TV Cabinet In Holland, months before we moved here, we decided it was a good idea to have a TV on the porch. For evenings when it is still nice and warm out and you feel like watching a movie, but it would be a shame to move inside, to the living room. We also didn’t want that TV to be in sight all the time, or worse still, blocking the view from the porch. So, it needed to be either easy to move, or somehow ‘hideable’. A roll up projection screen perhaps, with a projector hanging from the ceiling? We looked into that, but it was quite an expensive option, because of the need for synchronous sound from wireless speakers. In the end we decided on a TV on a lift in a cabinet, so it can come up from the cabinet whenever we wanted it. We bought a TV and a lift in Holland already. All I needed to do in Spain, was build the cabinet. I had never built one before and this one had a few specific requirements: It had to be strong enough to hold the heavy lift and it had to be on wheels, so we can wheel it into the house in the fall and back outside in the spring. Since there is no electricity in wall behind the cabinet, we would run an extension cord from the opposite wall. I also decided to add an electrical socket to cabinet, so that the fan can stand next to it and can be plugged in. The cabinet needed to be water resistant as it might get a few drops of rain on it. And finally, it needed to have the right measurements; not too tall, or we would lose the nice view from the couch on the porch and not too deep, or it would become too bulky. It took me a while to build and would have taken even longer if Mirjam hadn’t helped with some of it. I am quite proud of the result. All the wood was found in the shed. The top of the cabinet is part of an old table top, the rest of which I used for a table outside. To make it water repellent, we stained the outside and lined the inside with self-adhesive plastic. I used the same hinges and door knobs as Mark used for the other cabinets on the porch and I used the same stain as well. This makes it look like the new cabinet has always been there and has been part of the porch’s furniture for years. I sent the video below around to many of you already. The video is inspired by a Dutch beer commercial that shows men making things with their hands, just like the brewers of that beer, ending with the slogan “Craftsmanship is mastery”. I used the same music, but my slogan is “To do is to learn”.
Almonds Beginning of September, time to harvest our almonds. We have 13 almond trees, but some are too young to produce anything worth mentioning. There are 2 ways to harvest almonds: One, shake the tree really hard, which is how most of the almonds around here are harvested, mostly using tractors with special attachments. And two, pick them from the tree as if they were cherries. We opted for the second one, mostly because we don’t own a tractor nor the special attachment. You can also tap each branch, for instance with a rubber mallet and the almonds will fall out of the tree. We tried that and Mirjam got one in her (open!) eye. That hurt! Luckily no permanent damage.
Once the almonds are harvested, they need to be taken out of their fuzzy hull and then dried for at least 2 to 7 days. Next, you need to crack the shell, to get to the actual nut. Quite labor intensive, but worth it, because we use almonds quite a bit.
Lights We improved the light plan outside. We fixed the lamp post, so that it now has a better light, and can be switched on and off using a remove control. The light plan now also includes solar lights that shine on all the cypresses along the drive way. It looks really good, but is hard to capture on film or photo. Below is a video of the area in front of the porch, taken august 22nd.
Mirjam’s cooking I could make a separate blog about Mirjam’s cooking and baking. It is absolutely fabulous and never dull. Here’s a few examples:
Chili oil. From chili peppers we bought at the market and our own olive oil, Mirjam made chili oil, which she now uses to spice up dishes. It is a really nice way to make sure you use all the peppers you buy and to always have the flavor available without having to use chili flakes.
Courgette walnut cake. Our neighbor Angel gives us tons of vegetables. He has so much that I think he is supplying not just his family and us, but quite a few other households as well. Broad beans, red and green sweet peppers, courgettes (or zucchinis), potatoes, eggplant, tomatoes and more.
Not the biggest fan of eggplant, we gave the last batch to the mechanic at our garage, when he repaired a faulty windscreen wiper for free. And Mirjam found a great recipe to do something new with the overload of courgettes we are getting: a Courgette walnut cake. It is surprisingly nice; sweet, but not too sweet and moist, but not too moist.
Greek salads. This summer we had quite a few Greek salads, with black olives, nice feta cheese and red onion, seasoned with just olive oil and vinegar and some oregano. Yumm.
Sun off a Bench. The only thing that didn’t come out of the moving truck in 1 piece was a wooden bench that used to serve as the “we can sit in front of our house and watch the world go by”-bench in the front yard in Breda. I now had time to repair it. I took it all apart, sanded it down, replaced all the rotten wood with new bits, glued and screwed the whole thing back together again and then Mirjam whitewashed it. It now sits in a wonderful spot in the front garden. A good place to have your first cup of coffee and watch the morning sun play with the flowers.
I got sick No pictures, because no fun, but I got really sick. Mirjam thought it was odd that I was feeling really cold and was shivering on a day that wasn’t really that cold. I wanted to go and do some work, but decided to lay down on a bench on the porch first. Not normal. My left leg started to hurt and I decided to go back to bed. I slept for a very long time, waking up every now and then with a high fever. My leg hurt so bad I was unable to stand on it and could walk only with a cane. This went on for a few days before the fever broke. Mirjam was quite worried and took care of me like a true Florence Nightingale. She insisted I’d go see a doctor. This was the first time we needed medical assistance and thus our medical insurance. We called around to find a GP (=huisarts in Dutch), but they are hard to find and when we did, they didn’t do emergencies and could see me 3 weeks later. And the local hospital turned out not to work with our insurer. In the end we found a clinic with a general medicine practitioner in the next town to the west, 40km from our house. The doctor and the assistant were wonderful. Bonus was that we could speak English with both of them. I was diagnosed with a bacterial infection of a wound on my leg; erysipelas (wondroos in Dutch) or perhaps cellulitis. The treatment is the same: an antibiotic and rest. We picked up the medicine on our way back and a week later I was my old self. The doctor however wanted me to continue with the antibiotic a little longer and assess again after 10 days. All was fine and Mirjam was happy again, and yes, me too.
Letterboxes in rural Spain In rural Spain you used to be responsible for putting up your own letterbox. This is why you can find a variety of them huddled together on a street corner.
Now they are trying to standardize them and replace the old happy mix with bland grey ones.
But because there was no standardization the post office doesn’t know what size a letterbox might be. Will a package fit or not? They don’t take the risk and whenever they have something that is larger or thicker than an envelope, they keep it at the post office and drop a note in your letterbox to come and collect it.
In our case, packages do not get delivered to our house ever. The address is too obscure. As I mentioned in the previous blog, even Google doesn’t know our address. What many people do who live out in the country is have package delivered to a commercial address, such as a supermarket. We use the Ideal British Supermarket in town for our parcels.
Our 2nd wedding anniversary We had our second wedding anniversary and celebrated that with a dinner in the best restaurant for miles around: Los Lucas. It is hard to get a table at this place as they are booked solid for weeks out for both lunch and dinner. We were lucky to have booked well in advance.
Ria & Anton We had our first visitors! Mirjam’s mom Ria and her husband Anton. They stayed for 2 weeks. It was really nice to finally show them our new home, life, rather than in a video call. I think they enjoyed their stay and managed to get some rest.
Ria even took a dip in the pool. It was October 17th and the water was 220 C! She is a trooper!
The next day we played some petanque on our petanque court behind the pool. A lovely time was had by all.
Van Gogh Loes, Ria’s oldest friend, sent us 3 candle covers featuring Van Gogh’s Almond Blossom. Sitting on the unused log burner in the living room, they brighten up the place.
† Mother. My mother passed away on November 2nd. Mirjam and I drove back to Breda for the funeral. She was 89 and passed away in her sleep. We have peace with that. She was loved and respected, not only by her family, but also by 100s of people who witnessed her work and leadership in so many places in the community.
Sunny November 16th, back in Spain and having breakfast in shorts, outside in the sun.
Flora & Fauna Like I do in every blog, here are some pictures and videos of the beauty nature provides us with:
Yuccas The yuccas started to bloom:
Pomegranates We harvested our pomegranates. We have 3 pomegranate trees. One barely gave any fruit, but it is young still, one had most of its fruit eaten by the birds and one we managed to net just in time to have its fruit for ourselves. We are quite happy with the amount and will be eating them with soja yoghurt for breakfast for some time to come.
Eagles It happens that we see 1, perhaps 2 eagles circling overhead or over the mountain across the way, but one day we saw dozens of them. Very rare, since they don’t live in groups or migrate together. I was very spectacular.
Grapes Just in front of the porch we have lots of grapes growing. Unfortunately, they are too small and mostly eaten by insects and the birds. Perhaps, one day in the future, we will work on improving the quality, but not this year.
Snake Saw my first snake (not counting the one stuck in the unused water tank next to the petanque court). I’m surprised I didn’t freak out more.
Catjang Cats…
Bougainvillea Mark and Jacky gave us this bougainvillea. We gave it a new pot and a new spot and it seems to love it there.
There was a bird trying to get in between the roof tiles and the roof.
Thank you again for taking the time to read and watch all this. Feel free to leave a comment below. (Only constructive criticism please, I am very sensitive.)
So lovely to read this blog… we are counting the days to come to Spain and see you both.. xxgreetings Astrid and Gerard