TO PRUNE OR NOT TO PRUNE.......

Woke up late this morning, C got J ready for school and took him - bliss. I made myself a cuppa and prepared for the day ahead.  I knew I had a lot of pruning to do around the garden, but this cough is dragging me down and I was not sure if I'd have the energy to do much!

C came back and we started work in the sunshine.  I began with the quince shrubby/bush thing in the turkey pen, which was all over the place and obviously hadn't been attended to for years!

I pruned it to within an inch of it's life, I hope it comes back.  There was dead wood on it also, I have pruned according to RHS Wisley guidelines.  I don't currently have a photo of the final stub!



















Once done, I left the pen and went for a mug of tea! Aah, lovely, needed that.  Then I went out again to attempt to tackle the bougainvillea!! What a mammoth task that is going to be.  The plant is quite old I think, but again, it hasn't been pruned back for a good few years.  I need to cut it  back hard so it can bush up again with fresh growth.  I began on one side of the fence, some of the branches actually grow through the fence and they are ones I don't want to cut back!  Then I got fed up with getting spiked by the massive thorns, so I went around the other side.  The tangled mess was awful! it's going to take me a few days at least to tackle this.

The tangled web of bougainvillea.

I have made a small dent in it all, but it's a start at least.  More to do tomorrow.

Samuel Sprat (right) in the bougainvillea.

After trying to tackle this I felt completely worn out, so it was cuppa time again!  I can't wait to shift this cough, perhaps I will have more energy in a few days.  

whilst drinking my tea and nibbling on a biscuit I suddenly realised that we hadn't done the darn olives AGAIN..!! They'll have to wait till tomorrow. Groan..

Later this afternoon the chickens were let out of the run to peck around the veggie plot, whilst C lopped down the apple tree, which was, unfortunately, rotten.  It hadn't produced any decent fruit since we moved here, and it looked like it was suffering from about 3 different diseases!  So the landlord said get rid of it.  We are hoping to replace it with two new fruit trees - species to be decided!

Once C had cut it right down, we could see that the rot went right through the tree.  It had damage on the trunk and the leaves have always been in a sorry state, the apples it produced were small and always plagued with insects etc, so bye bye tree, you will be good for fire wood.

A sad moment, we found our hedgehog dead today! it looked like he'd been poisoned, the local farmers put all sorts of nasties on their fields around here.  Shame.  C said we should keep the next one we find so it doesn't get poisoned! We'll end up with a hedgehog farm next!!!!!! 

A QUIET DAY OF PLANNING

I woke up late this morning.  Having been suffering with a really awful cough for the last 8 days, and with no signs of it shifting, I didn't rush out of bed.  C bought me a mug of tea - lovely, then I got up, ready to face the day.  After a wonderful cooked breakfast (another double-yolker), I set about blitzing our bedroom.

After being rather unwell I let things slide a little, but found some energy this morning.  Sadly, living where we do, we get mould on the walls during the winter months.  There is a lot of damp on Mallorca! There isn't really anything more you can say about that, but it is because most of the Island is built on caves and there is a lot of water underground.  Our water comes from a natural well, which is why we cannot drink it directly, they spray the fields with goodness-knows-what so I am certain it must trickle down into the water supply at some point.  Anyway, the mould and damp is always a big problem and not a pleasant one.  So this morning, I did a quick tidy, dust, hoover and mop and then came the tackle-the-mould-moment!! I usually use bleach to spray on the walls and then wash down with water, but I cannot stand the smell - it makes me heave! so after a little advice from our 'chief marmalade taster', I used cilit bang! It worked pretty well, I managed to do most of the areas that needed doing and got C to finish off the job for me.

This afternoon I cut J's hair then took a stroll around the garden, only to discover that the apple tree is having a problem with various diseases, I took some shots but at dusk this evening and they haven't come out well, I will retake the photos tomorrow.  So whilst I was walking around the garden I noticed several things that need attending to urgently. Firstly pruning...  the bougainvillea, the grape vines, the quince tree/bush/shrub thing - it isn't an attractive thing yet and needs some tlc, the rose bushes also need attending to.  So I decided that tomorrow I will do these things, I believe it will be another sunny day which is good.

The overgrown yellow rose bush.

The other thing I noticed was that we hadn't harvested the olives!!! OH NO!!! they were beginning to rot on the trees or just drop off.  We only have two trees, one of them hardly has any fruit left on it, but the other (behind the rose bush above) still has plenty, I only hope we can salvage some.  I have the salt ready so we will try to gather some tomorrow.

Yesterday I received a call from one of our local farmers (they produce the Sa Marjal Arròs Pobler, bombeta variety) basically they grow a special variety of rice, which I have to say is delicious.  The farmer suggested that C & J go to one of the local farms and pick some leeks.  Off they went, on their bikes, and returned about 30 minutes later with a bagful - fantastic.

Leeks from another local farm.














So off to bed early tonight, probably after a lovely home-made pie and a film in front of the log fire.  J is back at school tomorrow after the short Christmas/Three Kings break.  The next big fiesta here is Sant Antoni - can't wait for that one.

Just a few extra pictures.

 Our small lemon tree, final giving us lemons.  Must remember to plant another one at some point.

 Jess, the pregnant mummy cat, peering over her shoulder at the Corsican and his girl.

 The glut of oranges.  Some are good for eating, some are great for juicing.  You can tell by the guixa (navel), if they have one then it's an eater, if not then it's a juicer.

The rosemary bush is in flower.