Market day

Tuesday is market day in Los Gallardos. Doesn't my fruit bowl look lovely? I can't resist a bit of everything that's available. Right now that is plums and grapes, enormous apples and pears, and the first of the new season oranges and tangerines. Their skins are still a bit green but the fruit is sweet and juicy. This week I also bought bananas, which are fairly low on my list of likes, but I am told they are full of potassium and will help prevent the cramps in my legs and feet that asail me most nights. I shall chop them up on my cereal. Today I bought another new fruit. I knew what it was but had never tasted one until a couple of weeks ago when I first saw them in the market. The big shiny fruit on top of the bowl is a persimmon. I have a little pot of craft paint which is labelled persimmon and it is exactly that bright not quite red, not quite orange, colour. Here is a cross section of one. They have very little core and no obvious seeds, but there is a star shape area of firm jelly, which I discard as I don't like the texture. The fruit needs to be really ripe, and it is sweet, not very juicy, quite pleasant and apparently full of all sorts of 'goodness'. They are not something I would get too excited about, but they make an attractive addition to various dishes. On the net, they are mostly used either sliced or purreed, set in gelatine with other pieces of salad vegetables, and served on a bed of lettuce. Apparently they are a true 'berry' and are also known as date-plums.

It was quite an adventure getting to the market today. The workmen, who are getting to know us quite well, decided that today was the day to remove the entire surface of the road, just outside our house. This was the view from our gate, and I was glad we weren't intending to take the dogs for their walk today. They are all recovering from the nuetering operations yesterday, but are still a bit dozy and feeling rather sorry for themselves, so a long walk wasn't on the agenda. However, I did need to get to into the village to buy bread, and visit the market. In this picture you can just get a glimpse of our green wall between the posts. I gingerly picked my way along the filled in mud trench by the wall, until I could get onto the bit of road they haven't reached yet. Now the digger is shovelling the broken tarmac onto a lorry to take it away so it will be a bit clearer by the time I go out for my Spanish lesson at tea-time. Needless to say, the car is temporarily parked on the other side of the village! The noise is dreadful. It sounds as though they are bull-dozing the house. And we have had to close all the windows on the front of the house because of the dust. At least it sould stay dry until they have finished this bit and hopefully resurfaced it.

A very special lemon

This is a very special lemonI I can tell you're not convinced. It is small, a bit speckly, but it's my lemon; my harvest. Yes this lemon grew on the tiny tree in my garden. It was an ailing tree in a pot until a year ago, when the previous owners took up a small square of the crazy paving by the back door, so they could plant it in the ground. That was just before we moved in. It had never had fruit on, but I fed and watered it, talked to it every day, and in the spring it produced a few flowers. Just a handful of these set tiny fruit, but one by one I watched them fall off. (As for most fruit trees, this is normal for all citrus trees.) All but one that is. Every day I checked and this little lemon hung on in there, so today I have my own little harvest. I shall make a lemon meringue pie with it for our 'harvest supper'! I read that citrus trees take at least four years to begin fruiting, so who knows, maybe I will have more lemons next year. I think the baby mandarin tree we planted in the front garden, may have a few years to go yet before it produces anything.

We had a surprise when we were walking the dogs last week. They are free to run around but they never stray far from us, but the other morning they shot off up the hill and totally ignored us when we called them back. Then we saw it; a fox, racing up the hill ahead of them. It was not like a British fox. It was much larger, grey/fawn rather than red, with a huge bushy tail. I saw immediately why people think our Foxy is half fox. It looked just like her. It easily outran the dogs and they came back to us quite happy after their chase. It looked fit and healthy. There are certainly plenty of rabbits in the campo so he shouldn't go hungry.

I haven't taken any sky pictures for a while. they are not as beautiful or as dramatic here as the ones we had on the coast when we were in our flat. But last night we had this 'flying saucer' of a cloud, floating over the green area behind us, and I managed to capture it on camera. The red sky signalled another lovely day, and it has certainly dawned clear and sunny.

We are just off to the vet now with Chico, Miki and Paco who are all going to be neutered today. They don't love us at the minute because they don't understand why they haven't had their breakfast! Destino should have gone as well but she has had an upset tummy and the vet wants to wait another week to do her. So we have a quiet day today with just Foxy and Destino for company.