Around the House

the road to the house

I did promise pictures in the comments on my last post, so here are a few which might give you some idea of the area around the house.
Clicking on the photograph to enlarge.

This, somewhat overgrown in the rainy season, is what you see as you enter the gates.
The cactus, called ‘tuna’ here, was the first thing which met our eyes when we first visited the finca…but then it stood alone on a bare slope above the house, solitary guardian of the property.
Things have changed somewhat since then.

A view from the front door

This hasn’t though. From the porch we look across a neighbour’s land and the two large trees centre right are ‘higeron’….a parasite which starts from a seed being lodged in the bark of a tree and goes on to strangle and kill it, building itself into a massive tree around the dead body of its host.
In season these are full of parrots…small green ones…tearing the tiny fruit from the branches and making a din like a school outing on the helter skelter.

Moving to the left from the preceding photograph there is a ‘madera negra’ tree….here seen bare in its summer guise and harbouring a frequent morning caller….an iguana sunning itself in the top branches to give it the energy to start its day.
The tree is useful in supplying living posts for fences and buildings….push a small branch in the ground and it will root and sprout in no time at all which can give a bizarre air to small structures whose supports bear green leaves and flowers in season.

Fruit and veg corner

Onthe corner of the balcony a sprouting broccoli plant that stubbornly refuses to sprout anything but leaves sulks alongside the blue flowers of the climber and the tomato plant, with succulents and odds and ends planted out in milk cartons until they can take outdoor conditions. They don’t need to tell us to recycle…nothing gets thrown out here.

Any idea what these are?

Though some pretty strange stuff comes in….these whoppers are grown from a seed given us by Don Melo who buys plantains from us….I’ve seen beans in my time but these take the biscuit…
They remind me of runner beans in appearance…but even when young the pod is very tough so no slicing and putting them down in salt, only the pink beans can be used. Having no broad beans here – they flower but do not set seed – I used them in a paella and the taste differed from that of a runner bean seed…more mealy but very nice indeed.

rainbow at sunrise

This is the only time I have seen a rainbow here, over the hills to the left. The early sun has risen over the top of the mountain behind us to light up the bare top of Grifo Alto, but it will be some minutes yet before the valley comes to life.
This is my view every morning – minus the rainbow – guaranteed to start the day on a note as high as the hills themselves.

Advertisement