News From The Forest 23

Here he comes wobbling across the sky not sure where he’s going but he’s definitely high.  “Hic! who’s there? oh its you. I suppose you’re going to tell everyone I’ve been partying again, hic! Well, I don’t care!!!!”

 He lurched, became round again for a moment then wobbled on his way.  As I said, I don’t know where he’s going but I do know where he’s ‘bean’!

Party Time

It’s that time of year again and the village is in party mood.  Tonight is the villages big correfoc which is followed by dancing and music until dawn.  Yep they certainly know how to party here even the moon gets in on it as you can see from the pictures.  This being the second year I have noticed this event I am quite convinced that no matter what NASA says, this moon is most definitely a party animal.

The Garden

My wife has actually finished one of her projects in the garden, the bulb tyre.   This old tyre has been here for years and she had filled it with earth then planted up some bulbs.  This year it looked very tatty so she dug up the bulbs, putting aside the small ones for planting elsewhere, sifted the earth, then in-filled the rim with stones to strengthen it. Now I don’t know about you, but to my wife plain black tyres are not appealing in a garden, so the next job was the painting.  Two cans of yellow were needed for the top to give it a ‘weathered’ look but because of the effect she wanted it only needed one can of green. Allowing the tread to show here and there gave it a mottled look which I think works well.  All that was left was to replace the earth, plant the bulbs then top it off with compost. However, with Puddytat and the piggy wigs rooting around, she felt it needed something else. So this morning she collected small stones and scattered them over the surface. End result a smart-looking garden tyre.

Work In Progress

This is a project that is part of  a bigger on going garden thing…   It was here that I planted a bay tree that my sister gave my wife and here is where the grubs of black beetles killed it by eating the roots.  So after killing them and cleaning the ground I went to check and re-pot an off shoot I had taken, leaving my wife standing looking at it wondering what to do.

Well she has come up with a good solution.  First she cleaned what was left of the ground then we went to a farming centre and bought stuff to protect roots from these things.  Next stop one of the gardening shops in town for bulbs Gladioli and Anemones, plus more compost.  Once home she mixed the granules into the earth to discourage the beetles, planted the bulbs, topped off with compost leaving about 2-3 inches below the rim to protect the flowers from the wind.

Now I am sure you know this character, he is the cause of the stones on top of the compost, using the hexagon garden as a toilet was not a good idea matey.  All that’s left of the planting is for flowering cacti to be  planted in the holes and it is finished. However, that is her job as I have managed to get an infection in a cyst on my hand. So its off to the doctor’s again this week to see what he is going to do.  As I say it’s all go up here.

And other Things

I am hoping to have a few more pictures of the wild boar next time, they have been making a ‘pond’ on the lower level so I have set a camera up down there. This time I have cut away the leaves, so there won’t be the 600 photos like last time because the honeysuckle was whipping around.

This is the honeysuckle’s new home in the new wall garden.  We did not plant this it appeared on year in front of one of the olive trees so we left it to grow.  But because it’s in the direct line of a camera I decided to move it here, so it can clamber up into the olive tree and play.  Oh and I all most forgot,  the new bird bath is being engineered, yes I did say engineered….

(c) Michael Douglas Bosc

 

 

 

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Where’s Obi Wan??

It has been a strange day, although it started out quite normal. Today was our paella day at petanca so an early start was called for. Up by 7am so we could get ourselves and our things ready and make sure we were there by 8.30 for the traditional breakfast of a boccadillo, black olives and red wine, which proceeds all the festivities.  When we arrived we saw many old friends who had been busy with harvests of various kinds all summer so lots of jokes and commiserations to be shared.

After breakfast came the competition.  For this everyone is given a number. This is drawn from a bingo style cage with each number being written down against a name on the entrance list. Next starting in numerical order from 1 to 28 the names are made up into teams of either 3 or 2.  We then play a knockout style of games and the top teams play each other for 1st, 2nd, 3rd place and so on.  Today I was paired with Pilla and we came top, beating everyone, we each won a leg of dried Hammon, whilst my wife and her partner Salu came 4th and won a dried hand of Hammon so we will eat well this winter.

Whilst all this was going on the men who were not playing began to make the paella, which being inland is made from meat, fresh herbs, rice, chicken stock and saffron cooked over two large gas BBQ’s.  We took our own wine, salad, olives and melon but you end up sharing it with friends and the coffee and whisky do the rounds along with liqueurs.  Then after everything was packed away there were a few more games of petanca before we all drifted home. Wonderful!

But! we found the strangest thing today was not easily answered.   When we looked out of our kitchen window this morning we saw a Storm Trouper standing sentinel like on the south field.

Then we remembered the ‘satellite’ that NASA said had come down, but claimed they did not know where. We all know these storm troopers are tricky people, so I wondered if there are two lost androids wandering around out there and if the ‘satellite’ was in fact an escape pod!!!!!

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