Mowing Over Oranges: January 2020

Christmas lights in Malaga

I rarely struggle with words, much less with vocalizing them but for days I have sat staring at a cursor flashing on an empty page, mirroring the emptiness that seems to have crept in between my ears! The cause of this recent impasse betwixt poised keyboard finger and brain has an obvious culprit. I went "off piste" to talk about it before and it's also why I opened the fridge door the other morning to reach for my porridge after the microwave 'pinged' to let me know the piping hot contents were ready! Oh, if only that had been the only act of forgetfulness in 2019! Any confidence I had in the belief I was getting an easy ride through this menopause thingy is vanishing faster than the sight of my toes beneath my expanding waistline! I'm not entirely sure if one is meant to encounter all 40 (apparently there's that many!) symptoms before reaching the promised "light at the end of the tunnel" but my deteriorating hormones are giving it a bloody good go, as if they think there's some kind of gold medal award at the end of it? My GP peered over my blood test results and uttered that I'm "arriving" at it. I conjured up an image of a donkey, a stick and a dangling carrot as I pondered over his latest dateless diagnosis. Ah, but so what if I'm suffering the afflictions of women of a certain age? It happens and its coming is unavoidable. I've got a small army of social media acquaintances to compare notes with and together we're helping each other muddle through, at times with chortling amusement.

All things considered, I have nothing to complain about because things are otherwise good. That said, sadly in October one of our dogs (Alfie) escaped. His disappearance couldn't have come at a worse time. I'd returned from the UK without Scott who'd stayed behind to be at his father's bedside. All seemed fine when I returned late in the evening. Reports from our house sitter were good and I made a fuss of all three dogs and gave them a biscuit before retiring to bed. By morning, when I prepared the morning feeds Alfie was gone. Despite appeals on social media and endless searches, his disappearance will forever remain a mystery and we must assume he has met his end. We are not the first people to lose dogs in this manner, regrettably it's quite a regular occurrence as others can testify. Carelessness is seldom involved; dogs simply escape through boundary fences that cannot be dog-proofed in spite of all efforts to make them so.

Alfie

With Alfie gone but not forgotten, life on our little corner of paradise continues. Scott was finally able to plant the winter veg at the end of October. We have broccoli, cauliflower, red and white cabbage, peas, broad beans, onions and garlic that have all taken root and growing nicely under his watchful care. We'll have to be patient for a few more weeks at least before we can start to enjoy a steady harvest and then, just like before, we'll have fresh organic vegetables to last us well into late Spring.

Vegetables coming along nicely

The weather has been a little crazy and the warm days of autumn have blended into unseasonably warm days of winter. Most of our fruit trees produced their blossom in November when, in fact, it should come in March/April. We have to pray that winter doesn't arrive late to kill the Seville oranges, mandarins, lime and lemons that are now growing. Our Navel oranges, on the other hand, are safe. Grown from the last Spring blossom, this variety comes in to its best in early winter and we're juicing these almost daily. I'm trying not to mow over the windfall as they're just too good to mince under the blades. Mowing season has been a little slow to start due to the lack of rain but now that we've had a little, we're underway and the meadow and orchard once again resembles a well manicured lawn, at least from a reasonable distance!

If we didn't have enough to plant, weed, mow and ultimately sculpt to a landscaped haven, we decided to tackle the steep bank to one side of the Finca which until now has been left to wild abandon. It all started with a conversation about where would be a better place to re-site our beehive. Maybe it was just bad luck, but our hive didn't attract a swarm this year which was disappointing to say the least, and thinking that maybe its previous siting in the orchard was a little too close to humans and animals, we set about planning where we might have better success. The bank seemed a likely candidate, suitably tucked away from unwanted attention, but we'd need to level it in one or two places first. Following a phone call to a friend with a digger, in just a few hours on one crisp December morning the overgrown unusable steep slope was transformed in to terraces with steps down and is now a new blank canvas ready for planting. We're planning on bee friendly wild herbs and grasses which should be easy to maintain.

The steep bank gets leveled and Scott sets about setting in sleepers to hold the newly created steps in place

The remainder of December was of course dedicated to the usual build up to Christmas. As I wrap up my last blog of 2019, Christmas Day has come and gone, as has our New Year's Eve celebration. Both occasions were held at home surrounded by family and close friends. There is something rather satisfying about preparing a celebratory feast at home and Scott and I have the sharing of the kitchen down to a fine art. It's something we love to do and I can't imagine either of us being happy to spend Christmas doing anything else (I know for a fact that he wouldn't). Now that the festive excesses are over, I'll be picking up where I left off in November with my personal trainer to work on regaining the "body beautiful" but since I struggled to find one of those in my 20's that ideal might just remain wishful thinking!

A pre-Christmas night at the ballet in Malaga for me, Julie and Karen

'The A-Team scrub up well for a Christmas Charity Dinner

Home made Christmas Cake : Mr Forbes wins another Jamon Serano in a raffle : and, my first Christmas Pudding

The table is set and is soon demolished and the girls must have all got dressed telepathically on Christmas morning!

With No. 1 son, walking off some Christmas excess!

Reflecting on 2019, the passing of Scott's father Duncan and the disappearance of Alfie has taken some of the shine off of what has otherwise been another great year. Scott and I are both looking forward to what 2020 may bring. Be it planning a trip abroad or a weekend of catching up on the weeding, you can guarantee we'll be equally enthusiastic for both. It's proof enough we have all we need and happiness in abundance is top of the list.

Wishing you all a very happy and prosperous 2020!