Thursday, April 30, 2009

Early pruning of fruit trees

I haven't a lot of news today but I thought I would just share two little things with you. Our new house is only a stone's throw from the A7 motorway which makes it a very easy way to get to nearby places fairly quickly. This week we needed to go to Vera, a nice little town which is a couple of kilometers from Vera Playa, which boasts a long stretch of golden sand. Unfortunately the Playa is overrun by the British and other ex-pats, who inhabit the vast new urbanisation of apartments and duplexes built for their convenience, so we prefer Mojacar and Garrucha when we want the beach. But we like the town and visit it quite often when we want a larger supermarket. My craft shop is also there. This time we were looking for the health centre so that we could register with our village doctor who comes under the Vera administration. We weren't successful on this occasion as we were simply handed yet another form and told to return with a copy of our marriage license, so we'll have to go back again soon. Anyway, we pulled off the motor way along a route we have used several times before, but this time I was suddenly aware of the statue on top of a small hill that overlooks the town. It is a steep hill so you don't notice the statue easily and I had not seen it at all until Jonathan was out here at Christmas and pointed it out. You can just see it in this photo but it is not very clear as I took it through the car window. We have now been to Vera at night and it is actually lit up then so it becomes more visible after dark. It is too high to see clearly but we have seen from a postcard that it is a statue of Jesus. I am keen to walk up to it and we have found the bottom of the foot path that leads up there, but it will be a stiff climb so we are postponing it until a cool day next autumn. But I am determined to see it close up one day.

Today I went out to lunch with a group (there were 39 of us in the end), who all attended the little church in Vera where I went while we were at the flat in El Calón. Unfortunately it closed down at the end of Februaury so we have all had to find alternative places to go. But everyone wanted to keep in touch so we are meeting up every month for a meal together. Later this afternoon I was sitting on the porch to do a bit of sewing when I heard the jangle of bells out on the road. I, being somewhat nosy, had a peep over our front wall and saw a herd of goats calmly stripping the leaves off the orange trees in the gar
den across the road from us. It turned out that they had been brought down to a small piece of rough ground further down the road for some extra grazing, but the trees were obviously more tasty than the poor grass and thistles growing there. I don't know what our neighbours thought of having their orange trees unseasonably pruned just as the new fruit is setting, but the goat herd was quite unperturbed and stood watching them with his two dogs at his side. Eventually the goats had eaten all they could reach so they ambled back to the rest of the herd. All in a days fun!!

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