nearly the end of July!

The weather continues to be warm, hot sometimes, for at least a week now, looks it will stay this way for a while.
I have had nearly the last of my raspberries and the first of my courgettes, I am having to take out whole lettuces now as the first ones are ready to bolt, my rocket is growing well and I can see the first small pepper :) The garden is doing well. I will be away for a few days next week so I must water well tonight, I am sure I will return to some very big courgettes.

No sign of the kittens over the last few days, first one disappeared, then all of them. The neighbours were feeding them 3 times a day, not a good idea as they just sat and waited for food and were not learning to hunt, and the neighbours are only here for a couple of months but it looks like they have probably died anyway. (I know I gave them milk occasionally but I didn't feed them!) The poor cat has kittens every year, she looks after them really well for a few weeks, then they disappear and she has another set, thankless really.

great expectations!

I heard a chicken during the night, I thought this was strange. There are several people in the village who keep chickens but not close enough for me to hear them during the night. Here's the culprit! A real free range chicken, on the prowl for food, I thought of giving it a lettuce!

I obviously look kind, they all come to my door, I wouldn't have minded if this latest addition had left me an egg:) 



Not again!

I used to keep my front door locked when I was in Barrow, I was worried about people entering and stealing, here I don't lock my door, but the time is coming when I must remember to do so.
I came down stairs to get my lunch and found a lettuce at the bottom of the stairs. I have been eating salads for weeks now, I have loads of lettuce, mine are the varieties where you simply remove the leaves that you want, they are all pretty colours! I am happy with my lettuce but the locals don't see them as lettuce! I don't know who has donated this one, probably the same person who gave me tomatoes last year, just when I was over run by my own, Cherry tomatoes don't count either!!!

middle of July

A cat had kittens in my roof space, they are down now and playing around outside, 4 of them!

 

I give Mum milk in the mornings, now the kittens are coming too. I have no intention of becoming 'cat woman'. I wonder how long the kittens will survive, 'mum' seems to have 4 every year and every year they dissappear.

My lower plot is doing well, I have loads of lettuce, the rocket is growing but something seems to be nibbling it! The first courgettes will soon be edible, the spring onions are OK but not brilliant and I have so many raspberries that I am giving them away to anyone I can find! The peppers have flower buds and there are the first of the green tomatoes. The weather is unseasonably cool, most of Spain is sweltering with an anti-cyclone but Galicia keeps getting one cold front after another. We get a couple of hot days, just to make us feel good then, back come the clouds and, sometimes, the rain.

I saw Duran about my galeria and he has promised to come. He has given me a receipt and told the man who did the damage that I have paid and that he must come and settle with me! I haven't paid but will probably have to. I thought the guy was taking the 'mick' because I am english, and a woman, but it appears that Duran doesn't trust him either, maybe, one day, it will be repaired.

july

The cherry season has nearly finished but I have another large bowl full to keep me going!

The raspberries are doing pretty well too, I am collecting 200 to 300 gms everyday, I have at least a kilo in the freezer and I have given a kilo away. I should be eating raspberries for another couple of weeks yet.

The leeks that I tranplanted have taken well so I can destroy the seedlings still left, then I need to find something else to put in that corner.

I have just had rubbish collected by the man who bashed my galeria last August, he seemed very surprised that it hasn't been mended yet, he must know that he hasn't paid yet! He told me to speak to Duran so I will go there again and see what he says, I was planning to go to the market in Candelas tomorrow, maybe it will get done one day. Talk about Manana, this is 11 months!!