Spring visitors

I have had my first spring visitors and I'm NOT referring to the golden orioles or the cuckoos. My sister Karen, her partner Gary and my niece Hannah popped out for a few days hoping to catch some sun as they escaped the vagaries of the English weather. Unfortunately, the very same vagaries have extended to Spain this year (blame the jetstream) so, while the weather was a tad warmer than at 'home, they had a mixed time. One afternoon we had chosen for a picnic was glorious however (though somewhat windy) so some sunburn was achieved.

Below are a few snaps from their stay.

Colostrum and cuckoos

Since the last update,  the house/land juggle has continued.

While all the vines have been pruned,  I do need to revisit each one and clear away the lush growth which has sprung up them.  This involves strimming, often on very steep inclines, an area of about a square metre around each 'parra' without damaging any of the emerging leaves. 

With temperatures this week reaching a ridiculous 27 degrees, the trick is to get out in the fields by 8am and then call it a day around midday.  This then allows the afternoon to be dedicated to working on the house. 

With the arrival of the first visitors of the year looming and the house resembling a building site,  ground clearance then had to take a back seat as I embarked on a massive clean-up operation. The spring cleaning did result in my finding some rugs the previous owners had left behind in the workshop (the cleaning of which involved a bath, a wall, my motorised barrow and 3 days of sun) plus some pictures and ceramics which had been in store since August. I was pleasantly surprised at the huge difference that covering a few floors and walls made to the house.

I managed to escape the house occasionally and witness another transformation as Spring covered the hillsides in new growth and a myriad of flowers. With the calls of cuckoos and bee-eaters ringing round the hillsides, winter has certainly been banished.

There have been some adventures on the food front, notably the delivery of some colostrum pudding. I had had a previous conversation with my neighbour, Pura, as my friend Kylie in Cadiar had been given some colostrum (first milk) by a local shepherd and didn't know what to do with it. Pura had told me that a pudding is made from it. She'd obviously remembered the conversation and, as we had a new baby goat arrive this week, a bowl duly arrived one morning. Resembling a curd cheese, it tasted very nice although, as the way here, a lot of sugar had been added. I read up on colostrum and apparently it may become a super-food as we start to run out of antibiotics. I can't imagine what could top it in terms of food 'surprises' but I'm sure something will.

Wine, women and ... doughnuts

 After a busy time over the last few weeks plastering and painting,  I planned today to catch up on some domestic tasks. The olive wood delivered yesterday needed cutting up and the backlog of washing needed doing.

A knock on the door first thing dictated a change in plan as José had arranged a visit to our 'higher up' neighbour, Antonio, to check out this year's wine.  As Antonio was the man who had sold me the grapes to make my red wine,  I was interested to see how our wines would compare and took along a sample.

Arriving at the cortijo at the set time, Antonio was nowhere to be found. José eventually tracked him down pruning vines about half a mile away and we headed off to his bodega.  Now the term 'bodega' can mean lots of different things from a full-blown winery to,  as in this case,  a shed containing a couple of tanks.

First up was his Tempranillo and,  while a little stronger than mine,  I was pleased to note that there wasn't a huge difference.  Antonio then tasted mine and pronounced it very good, commenting especially on the clarity of the wine.  At 73, Antonio has sampled quite a few of the local brews in the past so I was quite relieved that my wine had passed the test.

 There was a very old looking ham hanging in the shed from which a number of dry chunks were cut to accompany the drink.  Having tried the red, we went on to taste his 'Costa' wine which is made from a mixture of old local varieties. This kind of wine is to be found everywhere in the region and is typically very sherry-like so I was pleasantly surprised to find Antonio's to be more like a rustic rosado and very nice too.

We had brought some 5 litre plastic containers and these were duly filled with Tempranillo for José and Costa for me.

 Heading home,  the alcohol had put José in a very chatty frame of mind and he spent the whole trip back giving me a full run-down on Antonio's three daughters covering names (can't remember),  ages (25, 28 and 35),  eligibility (all single) and 'condition' (all very good-looking) culminating in him promising to introduce them to me at a fiesta to be held in the lay-by at the bottom of the track on the last Saturday in May. Having previously been told by Antonio that I 'need a woman in the house to do the washing and cooking' (!), I feel a plot is under way.

Arriving home, I was invited in for lunch (extremely late at 3.45 as it is normally always bang on 2). Pura had prepared a splendid dish consisting of rice & broad beans flavoured with fennel and accompanied with pieces of wild boar rib. We chatted afterwards for what seemed ages covering,  it seemed,  every topic under the sun.  (One useful piece of information was that José confirmed that I have 5 olive trees hidden deep down in the barranco below the ruin and that I  should be able to get 25 litres of oil from them each year.)

Returning to base (with half a goat's cheese) for a short spell of wall scraping,  there was another knock with José asking if I had a lemon (which I had). Knock number 3 of the day a while later brought a plate of hot doughnuts.

While today has been one of relative inactivity (though some wood did get chopped), my needs in terms of food and drink have been more than adequately met through my very lovely neighbours and, as I often do,  I  thanked my lucky stars that I live where I live and not in complete isolation. They colour my time here in so many ways and overwhelm me with their generosity.

PS Forgot to mention the half dozen eggs they gave me this morning!