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.
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.
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