The slow slide into winter…

At the minute it really IS a slow slide, as we’re well into the first week of October and the daytime temperatures are still topping 30C. We’ve been making a list of the projects (sounds better than “chores”!) we want to do over the autumn and winter, and trying to get a bit better organised.

At the minute we’re concentrating on the outside jobs as it will be easier to be indoors in the colder weather. We have quite a big plot, completely surrounded by a wall. I’m not sure that wall has ever been painted since it was built, but it’s getting painted now! We have a dozen houses in our little part of the village, almost all of which are currently being renovated. When you drive up the road towards our house you can see the brilliant white paint on the other houses, while our garden wall looked like it had been sprayed with mud. So,while the husband was away in North Macedonia last week our wonderful builder Nigel came over and spray painted as much as he could in the time available. He’s always very busy but I’m so grateful he made time for this as it was a fantastic surprise for the husband when he came home! I can show you a little bit of the wall which we need to finish, compared to the work Nigel has put in. It’s amazing what a coat of white paint can do.

It’s amazing how easy it is to please old people! Anyhow the husband was well and truly surprised, as well as delighted. We will be able to finish it now and the whole place will look so much brighter.

The garden is the other main project we need to tackle. Most of the garden area needs very little doing, it’s terraced and is quite a big area and there’s not much we can do about it at the minute until we can arrange for proper landscapers to sort the terracing to make it safe – it will involve a bit of heavy machinery! That part of the garden has almond, fig and olive trees. For now we are concentrating on the lower, walled garden, which has grape vines, orange and lemon trees. It’s a really good place but has become terribly overgrown so needs a good clear out.

Now, here’s the thing – we heard about a scheme called Workaway, which is a cultural exchange programme. The idea is that you get matched, as hosts, with people who are maybe backpackers or general travellers, who are keen to see different parts of the world and learn about different cultures. In exchange for board and lodgings and learning about our cultural differences they will help you with work around the place. For example, there are some heavy things that we really can’t manage, but younger and stronger people are more than willing to take on for you. So, at the minute we have two utterly delightful people, Ariane and Edgar, who are doing a fantastic job of clearing all the overgrown weeds and bits in the lower, walled garden, and already it’s looking great! They’re also going to help us finish the painting of the garden wall, and get the metal garage door prepped and painted with Hammerite, or whatever the equivalent is here! Our house is going to look fantastic, and it’s so, so good to have help in getting things done! In exchange, we’ve so far taken them to a tour of a local bodega, which shows you the process of wine making form planting the vines to storing the bottles. The bodega is huge, and the tour is wonderful – also they give you each a bottle of wine and a beautiful Bodega Luzon engraved red wine glass to take home. Definitely worth a trip, as it’s a huge part of the Murcian culture.

Ariane is a registered nurse and is French Canadian so we’re getting the chance to practise our French, it’s starting to come back again. Edgar is from the US and has a background in construction, they both have extensive travelling experience and really enjoy meeting new people and sharing their experiences. I think we’re in for a feast at the weekend – Ariane is keen to make some cookies using the figs from our tree, and also some brandy biscuits. I might make some raspberry and chocolate chip cookies – a little something to enjoy when watching the rugby on Sunday!

It is a real joy having them here, they have made a huge difference to our lower walled garden, it is beautifully clear and looks twice the size now.

I think the next task is to prep the garage door now that the walls are a brilliant white we really need to paint the door. We haven’t decided what colour yet. Well…Peter hasn’t decided what colour, I’ve decided it will be British Racing Green. We’ll see, place your bets now!

I read recently that the “in” colour this season for interior design is cobalt blue. Hah! Beat them all to it, we painted one of our guest rooms just that colour and added a silver headboard, nothing reticent about our design skills. The bedrooms are not huge, so we just went for what we wanted. Well sometimes you just have to make a statement!

We’re having a bit of a bake-in later this afternoon. As I said above, Ariane is keen to make cookies with figs, and I’m going to make wheaten bread to eat with the new lot of lemon curd I made this week, as well as some Paris buns. A bit of a way to celebrate the Ireland rugby team’s terrific victory over Scotland!

We’ll be taking Ariane and Edgar to have a relaxing afternoon at the Roman spa here in Fortuna, then the following day Peter will take them on the tram into the city to show them some areas of interest. They will be moving on from us soon and we’ll really miss them…more about that next time.