The heavy rain comes

We have just had our first heavy rain since last year, although Joaquin spent a week last year repairing the roof we still had several leaks, although the really heavy rain only lasted an hour the pool filled up a couple of inches, so i had to pump some of the water away, the good thing is the ground has had a thorough saturation which will really plump up the olives and lemons ready for a good crop in November.
Last week signs went up on the road into Blanca as there is a real subsidence at the riverside by the old wash house, this is just as you go into Blanca there are big cracks in the road and Mary always asks me to drive fast over it. i should not think this rain will do it any good and the town hall will need to dig deep to find funds for what looks like a costly repair job. Apparently the rains caused a large rock slide above the town but no  people were hurt or property damaged.
The two new footbridges over the river are still not finished, they  have been constructing them since spring and now they are putting the wood on them, i have heard they cost 250,000 euros.

Snow in the Ricote Mountains

When the cloud lifted from 12 hours of almost continual rain, we were surprised to see a cover of snow on the mountain tops, but then the temperature was 23 degrees yesterday and here today it is 12 degrees with a chilly breeze blowing off the mountains.

Gardening in Spain

If there is one thing we miss about UK it’s a garden. Over the years we have created five gardens out of wilderness in UK and a made over a couple in Australia. It is a very satisfactory thing to do. It takes time and effort of course but its well worth it. When we moved into our apartment in Spain we pretty soon realised we would just have to get some plants. Four years on we have had our successes and our failures but we cannot imagine our outdoor space without plants.
One thing we have struggled with is getting climbing plants to cover the wooden frame we put up on the lower solarium. Fingers crossed two climbers have at last reached the top of the structure and hopefully will start to form a roof of leaves and flowers.
Another problem with this type of gardening is keeping pests at bay. We have had several invasions of aphids, both green fly and woolly. You really need to keep a close eye out and remove them as quickly as possible. They can cover your plants almost over night, the geranium moth is another serious problem, In fact many of us in this area no longer bother to try and grow geraniums.
We are very much of the plant it and wish it well gardening brigade. That is we don’t waste time and precious water trying to nurture species that are just not happy with the conditions we can provide. We water, we feed, home made from horse muck soaked in water, we talk to them. Lots grow some do not. Some of our most successful are self seeders or have grown from fruit pips and seed pushed in the soil of a handy pot. One thing we had never grown before was cacti but we now have a really nice collection. These have been either purchased for 60 cents from Domtis or grown from cuttings. They may well be the only ones that survive if we don’t get some rain here soon.

Wettest month for 20 years

Apparently October this year has been the wettest for 20 years in the Alicante region with an average 148 litres of rain per square metre, this is 15% more than expected, November has started off dry with very little rain so far this month, but with warm sunny days, with very cold nights.