Our journey continues

At casahalcondiary.blog , also in wordpress, you can now read the continuation of our new adventure in Spain. We are now olive farmers with 5 ha of olive trees.

We are trying to grow our own roots in the province of Huelva, near Almonte, which is our nearest town. Only 15 kms from our finca is El Rocio, a pilgrimage town and an absolute must-see. There is nothing like it anywhere else, I promise!

 

And only 30 minutes from us is the amazing, lovely, endless sandy beach of Matalascanas. We are also only one hour from the architectural, historical and cultural gem that is Seville, or Sevilla, as the Spanish pronounce it.

So we have the best of all worlds. Culture, Countryside, Beach-life, Religious Extravaganza and all year summer; except for 3 months of hell, where the sun beats down mercilessly and roasts everything in a furnace of over 40 degrees Celsius (or so a guy in Merida told us).

But for now temperatures have been rather mild and it has been a gorgeous spring.

Please keep following us as we learn to care for Mediterranean plants, grow some vegetables in a totally different climate and try to get to grips with the local language.

The End is the Beginning – April II

Good-bye Matalascanas,   Hello Almonte !

We have moved into the finca, Casa Halcon, Falcon House!

Finally the day has come where we spent the night listening to a thunderstorm with the drum roll of the thunder and lightning strikes illuminating the Andalucian sky. It was a rather dramatic first night.

So this is the final part of my travel blog ‘From Ireland to Spain’. It will now be continued as the diary of finca Casa Halcon. It has been nearly exactly one year since we set out to find our piece of paradise and the process has taken 11 months from our first viewing of the property in May 2017 to finally moving in on the 24^th of April 2018.

We have worked here since September 2017, harvesting the olives, pruning the olive trees and landscaping the garden. But only since February could we seriously invest and renovate the house and put in place the photovoltaic system that will give us all our electricity without the need to be on the grid. A lot of plumbing and rewiring had to take place to make the house liveable, but it is done.

Did we have a lot of trouble and bad experiences?

Not really. Even though the whole sale and renovation took six months and is still not finished, we think it is worthwhile and made the whole experience more interesting. Cris was of invaluable help, putting us in touch with businesses and contractors and giving advice. Our only disappointment was the electrician that really fleeced us, but he did the work in the promised timeframe and that doesn’t happen too often.

Everything else can be put down to experience and if we had to pay ‘tourist tax’, the bonus on top of the price for locals, so be it. It goes back into the local economy. The real 8% property tax on the purchase of the finca is hard to take but essential. All is documented; there is no hiding of transactions possible if you want to be legally protected. Going by past experiences of people that bought property in Spain a lot has changed and if there is corruption it is in the government, not in the dealings with companies. Even our speeding ticket had to be signed by three officers and we have it in all its glorious details.

The final touches are being put in place, interior painting is finished and now it’s the outside of the house, the terrace and entrance that needs our attention. But with temperatures being very comfortable around 20-25 degrees celcius, it’s a pleasure to work outside. After that it’s back to olive pruning and we hope to open as an AirBnB premises in the summer.

Spring in Almonte – Andalucia (March-II)

 

 

Above: three coloured stream bursts over the road and dark clouds over El Rocio, El Rocio carriage

March has brought an enormous amount of rain and filled our well nicely. More is forecasted during April but this is ok as it will need to tie us over until next autumn or indeed next year. The rain and increasing temperatures (on April 2^nd we had 22 degrees!) brought out every imaginable Mediterranean plant: wild Lupins and Lavender, Grape hyacinth, yellow Broom, Poppies, Marjoram and many more (yet to be properly named).

Nigel has reseeded the lawn as the first attempt to sow Grama grass in January failed. The plot was diligently dug over, raked, seeded and then compacted with a roller made out of the interior tube from the fleece we used to line the drain. And, yes, first shoots are coming up together with the tulips and one of the daffodils I planted in December.

My friend Jani visited to see where we disappeared to and helped with fixing up things in the house and cutting the dead twigs of the olive trees. She loved to ‘stalk the storks’ nesting on every available heights.

We took a day trip to see the delights of Sevilla, most importantly the Real Alcázar with its extensive gardens [ http://www.alcazarsevilla.org/english-version/]. It is an exotic oasis in a city bursting with architectural gems from the Arabic period, the late Middle ages Mudéjar, Renaissance, Baroque and the XIX century and also quirky modern architecture.

This visit needs to be booked in advance to avoid the queues and really visiting any one of the monuments in Sevilla on one day is enough for the brain if you also want to wander about and enjoy the city’s streets and bars, or the Parc Maria Luisa with the Plaza de España, which was built for the 1929 Ibero-american exhibition and maybe stroll along the promenade of the river Guadaliquivir with the Torre del Oro [https://www.visitasevilla.es/en/monuments-and-culture/torre-del-oro]. Better give the interior of the monumental, awe-inspiring Cathedral with Cristopher Columbus (aka Cristobal Colon) another full day, which also requires booking tickets for your time slot well in advance. Parking is expensive but many underground car parks provide secure parking and are signposted.

Dangerous Times in Andalucia (March I)

 

Just when we thought spring will come, Emma arrived.

Storm ‘Emma’ and in its wake ‘The Beast from the East’ bringing snow storms from Sibiria. Ok, we have little to complain after much of Western Europe was beaten about by torrential rain and gale force winds and much of Britain and Ireland blanketed in snow not seen since 1991. Here the rainy season started early and hasn’t abated yet, 10 days later. It’s rather Irish, with air humidity up in the 80% and every day brings showers, and the wind is bowing over palm trees and toppling flower pots.

The beaches and harbours in Cadiz and Huelva got badly damaged and our lovely beach in Matalascanas doesn’t look so pretty anymore.

last summer on the beach in Matalascanas (above), after the storm now (below)

But there is always a silver lining in every cloud and our well is filling up. This rain is badly needed here in Andalucia as last year there was little of it and the olive harvest suffered, so the eating olive harvest and olive oil amounts were down.

The ground under our olive trees is carpeted with Common Yellow sorrel, wild borage and wild white rocket or arugula, Eruca Sativa. Unfortunately I only discovered it was the spicy flavoured plant when it was in bloom, so a bit late for harvesting.

 

 

 

 

Our lemon tree however isn’t doing so well. In fact I have not seen lemons on it last year and there are very few flower buds. It got burned by the frost earlier and looks yellowish.

Another discovery is a pretty green spider. Now I am not a spider lover and rather have them at a distance but this one is a more elegant species and is called green huntsman spider, Micrommata virescens (I think). According to the website (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micrommata_virescens) ‘a bite from this spider on a human may cause some local swelling and a little bit of pain, and would be gone within 2 days’. Well, even ants bite so we can live with that threat.

 

Walking the beach yesterday I came across many little what I thought to be blue jellyfish with air bladders strewn across the beach. They are in fact the Very Venomous Portuguese Man O’ War (Physalia physalis) – ‘also known as the bluebubble, bluebottle or the man-of-war, is commonly thought of as a jellyfish but is actually a siphonophore, a colony of specialized polyps and medusoids. The Portuguese Man O’ War has an air bladder which is an internal organ that contributes to the ability of a fish to control its buoyancy. It enables the Portuguese Man O’ War to stay at the current water depth, ascend, or descend without having to waste energy in swimming.

Below the main body dangle long tentacles, sometimes reaching 10 metres (33 feet) in length below the surface, although 1 metre (3 feet) is the average. They sting and kill small sea creatures such as small fish and shrimp using venom-filled nematocysts. The sting from the tentacles is dangerous to humans. These stings have been responsible for several deaths, however, they usually only cause excruciating pain. Detached tentacles and specimens which wash up on shore can sting just as painfully as the intact creature in the water for weeks after their detachment. The venom can travel up to the lymph nodes and may cause, depending on the amount of venom, more intense pain. In extreme cases medical attention is necessary’ [see https://animalcorner.co.uk/animals/hydrozoan-jellyfish/].

 

So I hope to never meet one when swimming in the Mediterranean.

Ending on a positive note, here are some of my pretty ladies, Camelias and a Kumquat tree:

 

 

 

 

Spring In Spain – February 2018

My readers will by now be wondering why this is still titled a travel blog. It started out in March 2017 when we left Ireland by ferry to Cherbourg. We then travelled through France and started to explore Spain, until we finally arrived at Matalascanas. There we rested our weary bones at the splendid beach, tired from all the driving. And we decided that this was as nice a corner as any to look for a permanent home. But as we have not yet moved into our finca, I still consider it to be a travel blog. We are still living in rented accommodation in Matalascanas but our finca is close to Almonte. We still have to bring over all our belongings from Ireland, with which I will finally be making a new home. We still only have our clothes and a few bits and pieces that fit into the Toyota that we drove all the way in September to Spain.

Sometimes we drive the scenic way through the country-side to our finca. We can get a good look at the tunnels with millions of strawberries ripening nearly all year long. This is an area which is covered with over 1000 ha of tunnels for these soft fruit that are being exported all over the world. But unfortunately even though they get some sunshine they still do not taste like a juicy, sweet strawberry should taste, what a shame. Often we see herds of goats grazing the fields left and right or horses. Some of them are being tethered at the fetlocks and left grazing on their own devices. This is part of the Donana National Park and so anybody can use it for grazing livestock.

We have Mediterranean house geckos here, which I am really happy about. They look like small lizards and are very, very fast. They are only about 10-15 cm long and are usually to be found along the walls and behind the shutters. This species, (Hemidactylus turcicus), has spread from Turkey to all Mediterranean countries and Africa, the Far East, South America and Southern USA [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediterranean_house_gecko].

Because they eat insects and do not do any harm to anybody else they are tolerated and even kept as pets. It is taboo to harm them in Turkey and Cyprus.

During our tidy-up phase we disturbed a few of them but I hope they have settled down again. One poor fellow drowned in the olive tub after a nights downpour.

Another resident creature is a snake. During our first month here I nearly walked on one and found a big old skin of another specimen and now we dug up the rubble heap and found this little baby snake. She wasn’t really happy to my trying to have a good look at her for identification purposes, but I had to rehome her anyway. I am not sure what type it is. It could be the Smooth snake Coronella austriaca.

I found some info’s on Spanish wildlife on this site: https://www.iberianatureforum.com/index which I hope will help me in future to address creatures and plants by their proper names. I also ordered three nature reference books on Amazon to help me with identifying what grows, flies and walks or crawls around me.

Our bamboo or rather caña fence project is now finished, complete with pillars. All that is needed now is a little gate.

But we are on to the next project, which is landscaping the drain around the lawn area. This involves white stones and a barrier fabric. And then hopefully it will be time to sow the grass seed which several people have warned us against. I do understand that a lush, green lawn is not practical in this sun-burned corner of Spain and we will be slaves to the watering needs of the grass, but this is what Nigel yearns for and so we will go forth and make our experience, be it gratifying or foolish.

We are just after showing off our new-found home for a second time. Nigel’s sister Elaine and husband Ian were here to have a look how we are doing. This gave me the opportunity to visit Seville with them, which Nigel and I have so far neglected. I did try to book tickets online for the Cathedral, but sadly the link to the payment page was broken and so we just took a chance. Well, don’t do what we did if you ever want to see this imposing, impossibly ornate and grand building from the inside yourself. Plan well in advance and get tickets to avoid the long queue. Even on a Monday morning in February it is amazingly busy. And so is the Real Alcázar, a fortress with walled gardens in a merger of styles from the Mudejar to Renaissance. So get tickets in advance, for example here: http://www.catedraldesevilla.es/ Read more here: http://www.spain.info/en/que-quieres/ciudades-pueblos/grandes-ciudades/sevilla.html.

But even if you don’t visit these grandiose, beautiful and ornate buildings Seville has a lot more to offer and it was nice to just discover some of its charm walking the medieval lanes and find lush inner gardens and parks. We found the Parc de Maria Luisa [see https://www.lonelyplanet.com/spain/seville/attractions/parque-de-maria-luisa/a/poi-sig/411866/360736 ] with the Plaza de España, which is another of Spain fantastic architectural gems and it has the advantage of having no queues and is free to visit.

 

I really have to point out that Spain does architecture really well. For it does not only have artefacts, bridges and vast buildings from as far back as pre-roman times, it also does modern architecture very well with astonishing results. I always admired Gaudi’s quirkiness and colour schemes but the inventiveness and bravado of Spain’s other architectural heros can be admired in most Spanish cities.

Of course we also paid a visit to Aracena because of the mountainous backdrop and very different landscape to the flat expanses near Huelva. From the Castle on the hill you have fantastic views in all directions and the very friendly guide will give you a great historic overview of what happened in this corner of Spain. The curiosity about this hill is that you stand on top of the limestone caves La Gruta de la Maravillas (the Cave of Wonders), [see http://www.andalucia.com/province/huelva/aracena/gruta-de-las-maravillas.htm ]. Normally you would expect caves to be underground; these here are above sea-level inside the hill that towers over Aracena. You don’t need to pre-book tickets but be early to get tickets for one of the daily group tours that take 50 minutes.

View from the hill: Aracena Castle and the Priory Church, together known as the Castillo-Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de los Dolores

Church on the hill:

More see  http://www.andalucia.com/province/huelva/aracena/home.htm  .

2018 January THE BEST IS YET TO COME

 

The lovely green carpet under the olives. Can anybody tell me what this pretty flower is? It belongs to the clover-like leaves, but is not a clover.

Our olive harvest is now finished, the pressure is off. It is hard to believe that we only started at the end of September for the first time ever to get close up and personal with this ancient, celebrated fruit. For over 4,000 years olives have been cultivated and used for nearly every aspect of life: as medicine, cosmetic ingredient, lamp oil, preservative, massage oil, lubricant for tools, furniture polish, leather treatment, paint remover, culinary additive and many more uses.

And we have had a steep learning curve in the past 3 months and developed a very intimate relationship with ‘our’ olive trees. Because they have been neglected for a number of years they have grown suckers and innumerable side shoots to the detriment of producing fruit.

Collecting the olives has been hard, but rewarding work and we hope it will be that much easier in the coming season. Payment however will only come when the olive oil has been sold through the Co-op, so we have to wait.

‘Blanca Paloma’ is the unfiltered virgin olive oil produced in our Co-op in Almonte. But they also produce wines from the local grapes. Reds, whites and sherry. So no need to ever run out of a good drop….

We now have to go back to every single tree and do some more pruning and ‘cleaning’, so that the trees will maximise fruit production and we get a better return on our work. We will also have time to learn and figure what is the best way to water the trees, when and how much.

We also took time to design and lay out the back garden. It is now populated with some flowering plants and some vegetables and herbs, the start of a wonderful friendship. I am so happy to invite these lovely beings into my life again. I did miss having a garden for the past year. Here, with the daily sunshine, it is even possible to sit and enjoy it in January.

Forgive me if I sound dramatic, but in my mind I have the past few years as dreary and rainy in memory. No sooner did I venture out in my cottage in Ireland I had to abandon my gardening ambitions and retreat inside again for the rain. The summers did seem to get ever wetter and duller and the winters marginally drier but still cold and dark, as winters are due to shorter daylight hours. Here in Andalucia we have sunshine every day and it does not feel like winter at all but rather like springtime, as the ground under the olives is a green carpet with dainty yellow flowers. The birds are chirping and everything is ready to spring to life again.

At Schipol Airport, Amsterdam, where we had a stop-over for 4 1/2 hours. We discovered the delight of the ‘Park’, complete with bird song and plants.

After a few days in Berlin to see my mum we are back in the finca.

Our neighbour expressed his horror about what we have been doing to the olive trees by making a cut-throat gesture with his hand. Even though looking around the other olive groves our trees look similar bereft of foliage. This discouraged Nigel to continue the work with the chain saw. But scrub at the base of the olive trees has to be cut. We will take a break until we get the promised expert to show us exactly how to prune overgrown trees and which of the branches to cut out.

We have now the start of a citrus fruit grove, with one mandarin tree and three orange trees fruiting at different times, together with the already in place lemon tree.

Our next project is a bamboo fence. Because it cost us nothing as the stuff (not sure what it is but it looks like bamboo) grows along the drain at the entrance. And also building a stone wall was not feasible as no natural stone can be sourced around here. We would have to haul stones from some distant quarry in the mountains. And so daily we gather, cut and stick bamboo sticks into the bricks that Nigel laid out. These will then be tied together with fine wire, my job.

We also did some experimenting with our olives. The first batch has now been in brine for 2 months and is ready for consumption. A jar full is now marinating in a Mediterranean Olive Oil Marinade for a different flavour and a second batch is now steeping in the brine. These olives are more of the riper stage, more black than green, as they were left-overs from our harvest. First tasting proves them to be rather of a strong flavour. Suited to inclusion in stews I think. We should try this again when they are still green when they are harvested for eating.

Nigel took a small quantity of black olives from the last tree and proceeded to squash them in a container and pound them to re-enact the very first humans making olive oil. I laughed seeing his efforts, but no more. To my utter astonishment these approximately 5 kgs of olives have already yielded a 450 ml jar of pure oil!

And that without any sophisticated equipment. The average yield is supposed to be 5 kgs of olives to one litre of olive oil [see http://alloliveoil.com/production.html ], which can vary due to variety, season, time of harvesting and numerous other influencing factors. We already brought home 20 l of unfiltered virgin olive oil from our co-op. And it looks more or less like the stuff Nigel patiently drained from his container. This makes us hopeful, although our area is dedicated to eating olives, which need more management but will give a better financial return. But when we watch our neighbouring olive farmers rattle their tractors through their olive groves to spray, plough, harrow and fertilise, we wonder about the actual return or profit of the crop. Cris’s father admitted that his 10 hectares of olives only give him ca. €5,000 after he has paid staff, machinery and input costs, which makes me question if it’s worth the effort. But at least he provides employment and can be proud of his excellent olives.

Storks nesting in Almonte.