SANT ANTONI, SANT SEBASTIAN AND MORE PRUNING

It has been a busy week.  Now after all the festivities we can settle into a more 'normal' routine again.

Between the correfoc, which is really the start of the Sant Antoni celebrations, and Sant Antoni itself on the night of the 16th and day of the 17th January, we began quite a lot of pruning.  We have some overgrown bougainvillea, which we began to prune a while ago, it seems to be a continuous job as it is such a tangled mess.  Also some old pear trees, which didn't look as if they had been touched for years, I de-tangled one, which was overgrown by some flowing, climbing plant and have pruned back some of the branches and spurs.  I will tackle a little more of those later this winter.  

Samuel Sprat helping me prune the pear tree!

Pruning pear trees (on right) and bougainvillea (ahead)

Whilst pruning the dog rose I found a large grasshopper.  It maybe a locust or a cicada, I'm not sure, I haven't looked him up yet.  But he was very green so I think he had probably only recently molted.





All the rose bushes (bar one!) are now pruned and ready for new growth to begin.  The old infested apple tree roots etc have now been dug out and we had a fire on the earth it was in to kill off any bugs there.

Starting a fire where the old infected apple tree was.

On the day of the 16th, J went to school as usual, but all the children from all the schools in Sa Pobla go on a traditional walk to and old area of land called Sa Llebre, where they collect wood and eat various Mallorcan delicacies such as sobrasada and botifaro, both are types of sausage and are made at the time of the matanzas (pig killings).  We collected J from school at around 1pm today, and went home to have lunch.  At 2.30pm we whizzed back to the town to the church where J waited with his devil's pitch fork for the dimonis (devils) to come out of the vicarage.

The Dimonis come out of the vicarage and begin their walk/run around the town.

All the fires are ready to be lit this evening.  Older children play with fireworks and firecrackers/bangers by placing them in the fires before they are lit.  

All around the streets are bonfires built close to the buildings, on cross-roads, by the bars and restaurants, and many are wrapped in herbs, olive leaves and various leafy brush, these are not lit until the evening.

The devils appeared and everyone screamed in excitement because now the children chase the devils around the town and the devils chase the children and go into every bar/restaurant along the way.  Some kids are terrified, understandably, even some of the adults run away! But it is all part of the tradition and it is great fun.  I met several Mallorcan friends at the bar where I was having a drink and they were supposed to be having siesta but were too excited so came out to join in instead - excellent.

A couple of hours later, we caught up with J, who was exhausted and thirsty.  This year we gave him a mobile phone so he could keep in touch with us, we lost him last year, and it was a bit of a panic.  Then we went home for a rest.

That evening, C, J and I went into town at about 9pm, we made our way to the main square (Placa Major) and were met with thousands of people.  It was packed and we couldn't stand where we wanted to, so we ran round the back streets and stood at the top end of the square where we had a better view.  Not many photos to put on here for this night.  The first thing we saw were the caparrots doing their traditional dance, and the devils did their dance also. C lifted J up so he could see the dances and we were told later that evening that he was seen on the local TV channel - fame at last.

 The devil lit up on the top of the town hall in Sa Pobla

Fireworks from the top of the town hall.

All lit up

Then at the end of the dances, the lights went out...The music began and a big pyromusic display followed.  It was wonderful.  However, poor J, just before it ended, was violently sick, by a tree we managed to find amongst the crowd - oh dear, not a good way to end the evening.  It took a while to escape the dense crowd of locals and tourists but we got him home to bed eventually.

The next day he seemed fine and we were due to see the Caparrots dance and watch the blessing of the animals (Beneides) at the church, but once we got into town he was unwell again! so off home we went again.

After all the Sant Antoni celebrations all the fires were rebuilt ready for Sant Sebastian.  This fiesta is held on the 20th January and on the night of the 19th, we were invited to a party held by one of our good friends, Sebastian.  Here in Spain (Mallorca), if your name is the same as a Saints, you have what is called a Saints day.  A bit like a birthday, so you often have gifts and a big meal.  It was an honour to be invited and very much enjoyed.  After eating, we said our goodbyes and left. We looked at a few of the fires still burning and went home.

Now the year can really start.  Next big fiesta I think is Easter, but there always seems to be something happening here, so I expect there will be celebrations going on between now and then.

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.