Pruning and Poetry Idleness

Master Eloy, a professional pruner in his late 60's came to help us salvage the vines and trees yesterday. He worked like a trojan - up and down ladders, sawing, ducking under branches...we had to literally beg him to take a rest. We've now got the pruning done and the holes dug around the trees for the water. Our bonfire is becoming monstrous - it will become a skyscraper-bonfire if we wait till June!
Lots of photos taken which are up on flickr.

Poetry-wise, nothing is happening nor cooking, nor in the pipeline. I have work out with Irish magazines and it takes up to 9 months for a response ...I'm just into the 3rd month of waiting so will have to resist the urge to finger tap : ) I've also entered a few comps and the results should be out soonish ...but I reckon there will be no joy there - have a premonitiony/gut-feeling type of thing.

Poetry is trying to come but am so excited about Juancito's project that I cannot settle to lure it in ...I get a bit too up-in-a-heap and the poetry gets scared off...at least the ideas are coming, if only I didn't clap them out of my head like a madwoman chasing bees out of her summer kitchen. : )

Oranges, Blackbirds and Kitsch

Juancito's farm is just full of the unexpected - we bought it quite sporadically and are just finding bits and bobs of land we didn't know were ours!! One terrace we finally reckoned was ours, and when confirmed, we counted 8 orange trees ---believe me, I never thought I'd see the day when I would be coming upon orange trees that ended up being ours : ))

Another nice thing was that a blackbird came to visit - omen or not, I'm not sure, but fingers crossed it's not a bad one. I had never seen a blackbird here before so am looking on it as good luck. : )

And the kitsch element to the place is sassy - today's kitsch photo is a door handle attached to a piece of wood that is holding up a branch of vine.

The flower is called 'The Bird of Paradise', the symbolic flower of the islands.

Juancito's Little Farm

Yep we have gone and got ourselves a little Canarian farm : )) It's about 3500 metres squared and has fruit trees, vines and an old cave house with built on bits. It needs loads of renovating and work and money invested in it but we thought we would go for it - the view is tremendous and it is only a few minutes walk from where we already live. There is so, so much to do but we are in no hurry - it's a project so we will try and view it as that and not get stressed out! ; )We decided today to salvage the trees first - they have been so neglected - we did a major watering job today and tomorrow we will get a friend to guide us with the pruning - there are something like 16 orange trees, 5 lemon trees, fig trees, and other fruit that I don't know the english words for....! : )We discovered loads of teak wood and hope to salvage it to use for the roof or whatever. The place is tumbling down - one major thing is the stone walls, they fell two winters ago and will need lifting - it's an almighty job but it will be fun planning a whole new place to live one day! Here are some photos of the terraces - it is all laid out in steps.

Can't believe we have gone and done this - we are very excited. : )

Touch Down

Making crosses with rushes on Saint Brigid's Night - Me and Dad


Mum and I on a girl's day out : )


Guinness and snow - what a combination! : )

I arrived back to the Canaries yesterday amidst a mini-hurricane, the likes of which is rarely seen here. Thank goodness I didn't know about it while up in the air - the pilot said it was going to be quite 'choppy' and 'choppy' it was ...the plane shook quite a lot and I held on to my book for dear life as I knew the minute I focused on reality and what was happening I would have been in deep deep trouble. Thank God all ended up well and most people reacted as if it were normal so that helped so much even if they actually were scared to bits inside.

On the way home the destruction was evident - trees were down and broken flower pots were scattered every where. The sight that greeted me on the door step was a torn-to-smithereens canopy and smashed terracotta flower pots - it could have been a lot worse. The door to the dog area was off its hinges and of course Dick took advantage and went to hang out with a tiny little pipsqueak of a dog. We let him stay out all night and he was quite stroppy when we put him in this evening!

It is wonderful being back even though it really pulls at my heart strings to have to leave mum and dad.

I've spent the day with Vladi in dream mode as we have got ourselves a little project to sort out - will blog about it later as it is super exciting and I am so bursting to get working on it. : )