MOULDY OLIVES!

The olives went mouldy!  I'm fed up about that really.  We completely forgot about them due to so many other things going on.  When I lifted the lid of the olive bin to see what was waiting for me...there was  a load of mould! yuk. So we dumped them on the big pile ready to burn at the front of the property.

The weather has been terrible recently, one minute we've got snow on the mountains, the next minute it's 18 degrees! no wonder so many people here have bugs/flu/coughs/colds etc. Here are a few pictures from last week, I went out to see how everything had fared due to having a frost.  We don't get many frosts normally.

Frosty lettuces were the order of the day!

The severely pruned quince bush was covered in ice.  This is because when we have frost the farmers keep their water sprinkler systems on all night to stop the crops from dying.  The quince tree got attacked from the potato field.

The orange trees also got hit by the sprinklers!  We had icicles!

Icicles

This is our nispera tree.  It produces small fruits similar to a pear but with big stones inside.  Not my favourite but many people here love them.

 View towards the snow capped mountains.

Whilst talking with one of our local farmers (rice producers), he stated that rice husks were great for the chicken coop, especially when it is wet and muddy!  So he said we can help ourselves whenever we want to.  We got a sack full, he already had prepared for us and I went about sprinkling them all around the the coop.

Sack of rice dry rice husks.

Close up of husks.

Husks sprinkled onto the muddy earth.  When it rains it is not so nice in the coop, but a little straw did the trick before, now we have husks.

 Me at work in the chicken coop.

Still on the subject of chickens... Our cockerel has now attacked C! This time he cut C's shin - it's darn painful when he does that let me tell you.  So C came swearing and cursing into the house stating that the cockerel was skating on thin ice! Soon for the pot.  He's a beautiful creature to look at, but he likes to attack anyone that goes into the coop, we need a more friendly one I think!

I have made more lemon curd.  The first lot was so good, I'd completely forgotten how good it could be.  It went down a storm at our chief taster's home in the town, so as long as there are lemons, I will make lemon curd.

No new plants are in at the moment, mainly because the weather has not been the best for planting.  So I am hoping in the next week or so we can get some new lettuces/cabbages/cauliflowers etc in.  

To finish todays post here are a couple of pics from a very wet day last week!

A small bird nest found in the old farmers garage next to the finca.

C and J walking across the Albufera, Sa Pobla.  A very wet day indeed.

Rain clouds across the fields.  Albufera, Sa Pobla.