Spring has arrived

We are back to Sardinia and to Locoe land.
On our arrival at Olbia airport we were welcomed by a warm (ish) sunny day. Since our arrival the weather has been very good and except for one hour of light rain the sun has shone every day. Beautiful blue skies are accompanying our stay so far.   Chilly evenings remind us it is still only March, and we have to make a fire to keep cosy.

We have started planting potatoes, onions, tomatoes and lettuces, as well as seeds of zucchini, aubergine, peppers, chilli, basil and parsley. Other greens were already planted by my brother in two green houses prepared in February.

Other jobs consisted in fine pruning small branches of the olive trees which had already undergone their biennial heavy pruning in January and February. Last year the olive crop failed because of the continuous heavy rain. So far we are experiencing the opposite weather as it has not rained since January.

This means that water will be used with more care and a couple of days ago we added more water saving pipes to the cultivated area. Some of the broad beans and peas we planted in November were killed by the heavy frost in January and we had to replant them in an area left empty. More will be planted hopefully next week a long side of French beans and borlotti beans. We are waiting a few more days for these vegetables as during the night the temperature is still too low.

We have introduced 3 chickens to the land ( gifted by my brother) and although I had prepared a house for two, he turned up with 3 and so I have to build a bigger accommodation for them. The chickens settled OK but yesterday the dog ( Rex) managed to escape ( third time) and being a hunting dog went crazy and managed to tunnel under the fence, catch and  bite a chicken, resulting in a mass of white feathers and a semi-bald hen before we caught the dog and restrained him on his usual running cable.

In the end we had to move the chicken compound away from his proximity to a site further upland and hopefully that will solve the problem. Some cats are around that area so we will have to keep and eye on them.
The first Sunday when all of us were here we did some grafting. Some almond trees were grafted into peaches and apricots .Here are some pictures of the job. If they take next year we will have some fruit. Almond trees are good recipients for grafting peaches, cherries, apricots, pears and apples.

Sample of the grafting

The chicken house and its residents

First egg

inquisitive....or content?

Winter draws in

It's now nearly time to go back to Scotland with our second stint of three months here complete. We will end the year in Drumnadrochit and have time to reflect on our experiences in order  to plan ahead for the next round and see where we can improve things and whether we can build something new and interesting. We have some ideas for a new construction but everything has to be weighed up carefully before we start. Considering the very unusual and record breaking weather (i.e. rain)  we have had, we can say that we have managed to enjoy the land, the sea side and 2 or 3 visits in different places. We have prepared partially the grounds ready for next March, and hopefully this preparation work will facilitate the spring planting of crops. A few crops did not perform as expected but everything was affected by the climate. Poor harvest of grapes and no harvest at all of olives. There is little we can do about it but we will try to adapt to the developing situation. We certainly can say that the paradise for vegetables has given us plentiful produce to enjoy and store.  Often there is too much of it.

We say goodbye to these lovely tomatoes

's

And most of these lovely vegetables still growing as we write

At the front of our house there is now a surprise" lawn" growing where there would normally be bare earth. With a bit of sunshine the place might begin to look like the garden of a millionaire's villa!!!

Sunset colouring the Oliena mountain

And sunrise this morning 21/11/18

The wood shed now completed using various leftover materials and filled up with the wood and logs cut from Dule.

Our new experimental apple wine will mature when we are away...and be tested  next March

Quince tree still with lots of  fruit. We made some jam and puddings

In Santa Teresa you can buy wine from a pump: just take your container along and fill it up. This idea should be replicated  everywhere as millions of containers and bottles will be saved from landfill.

Some of the tiling work in the veranda in the seaside house is now finished.

And the little bedroom has now a wall wardrobe.

Traditional dish " Pane Frattau" made with 2 mm thin bread in layers with tomato sauce and grated cheese. Like lasagne  but without the need to put it in the oven.

New plants of spring onions recently planted

 

First lot of 4 rows of newly planted potatoes

First time planting lentils. Harvest should be done  next spring. Hopefully.

The very successful flower bed of nasturtiums. The size is probably three times of the ones we grow in Drum.

All in all the season of harvesting has not really turned out as we foresaw.  I (Lesley) had imagined warm late summer days, working hard in the fields, learning to whack down almonds, followed by a group effort picking the grapes and ending up with sticky, black hands and a sunburnt face.  Then discovering how they pick the olives from our numerous trees.  Somehow everything has been more disjointed, unpredictable and frustrating...... all on account of the weather. 

It seems that the farmers here can better survive drought conditions than days of rain at the wrong time.  It looks as if we are going to have to introduce some diversification and be more experimental with which crops to plant and when to plant/harvest them.

Few pictures to end the October month

We are posting a series of pictures with a little note attached . Time is flying fast and it is only 23 days before we return to Scotland.

Enjoy

Lots of veg still growing but the beans have now finish

We are still planting lettuce, cabbage, fennel and for the first time lentils.

The goji berry plant  is now in full production

The two main vineyards in Locoe land and Dule land are going to be replaced with ( hopefully) new ones next year.

pomegranate are also very abundant this year . here is the flower of the plant.

Courgettes still producing flowers....and fruit

Aubergines still growing well. We will probably have some till the end of November.

Also the Fichi D'india better known in UK as prickly pears are still in production. My experimental wine will be a test in March to see if it was successful or a failure. The wild fruit is so abundant that we need to think how to use it as  most of it is left to rotten.

Our gold fish in the water pool. They keep water free from algae and fertilise the garden....

Same pool....frogs playing with the fish?

Praying  mantis. Very common here and of different colours. Depends on the way the want to camouflage themselves in the environment.

outside our house spiders are probably the most friendly creatures. They are everywhere and the variety is incredible. I lost counting the types. I know not everyone likes them, but in the country side here is an indication of an healthy environment. So we are happy to have them around.

Our visit to Esporlatu and the farm with many different chickens and not only...all with their little  (and  different) home.

This is for Uni. Polish chickens? They keep something like 7 different colour ones.

A seagull trying to be friendly with us when on the beach  on our visit to Marazzino. Asking for food and feeling lonely as the tourist are now away.

New job....or...more tiling in the house in Marazzino

Later on...some tiling done. We will be back there this week end as lesley is back from Scotland on the 3d of November.

Between tiling we did some walks ( not many). Decent weather in a season where all the best weather forecast expert are scratching their heads for what is going on  in the Med. They are now talking of a tropical Mediterranean era....

Our late project. A wood store area which was crying to be build for long time. Job done now.it

half way

We are half way into October and after the wine was made we started to work in " Dule" where we have grapes and olives growing. Here we are cutting a lot of wood from the perimeter of the land in preparation for the new vines being planted. This is a project financed by the European community and involves the planting of around 2000 vines.
Our vines are now too old to be productive and we decided that it is time to inject a new lease of life into our production. It will be a 3 or 4 weeks job and not all will be done when we are here.

In the meanwhile the rain has never left the island and in the last couple of days lots of flooding occurred in the centre south of the island. Not only Sardinia was affected badly, as Mallorca and Spain had lives lost and lots of destruction. This year will be remembered as the wettest ever in human memory.

As the wet weather has persisted for so long the  olive mills have now decided to open earlier so we can start picking our olives to be then made into olive oil. This early start of milling the olives is due to the fact that lots of olives are dropping from the trees and it will be a big loss if we do not start as soon as we possibly can.

But it was not only work as the previous Sunday we went to visit our neighbour village " Orgosolo" .There an event called " cortes apertas" ( open courtyards) was taking place. This event is now in its 23d year and involves the participation of several villages in the centre of Sardinia. The whole event starts in September and ends in December having  different villages opening its doors to people and tourists. (see September Blog post item on cortes apertas in Oliena)

View of Orgosolo from an elevated point

Where is Wally? Spot lesley in the crowd

In the two days around 300 pigs were roasted to serve the few thousand visitors. Street food was literally  everywhere offering local specialities and products from bread to cheese; from pastas to salamis; from honey to a variety of nuts and so on

Artisans from other parts of Sardinia were taking part. Here we can see woven rugs made in the village of Nule. Carpets are made with sheeps' wool and on the old fashioned loom. A big carpet  as shown can reach a 1500 euros.  We were told it takes two people working for three weeks 8 hours a day. Young people are not carrying on this craft, so I guess a carpet of this nature is worth the investment.

An Orgosolo lady working on the cocoon of the silk worm which is indigenous of the area

See webpage below to more information.

www.chasingtheunexpected.com/in-orgosolo-preserving-ancient-silk-art/

The Orgosolo female costume is my favourite amongst the hundreds of Sardinian costumes.

The filament from the cocoon of the silk worm  is only used to make the headdress of this costume.

Containers woven from wild olive shoots

An artist's impression of the Orgosolo costume This artist used to work in the building trade but became unemployed.   Using cement, instead of building walls, he is

now producing beautifully made colourful

pieces of art depicting local characters, architecture and customs.

The " murales " of orgosolo. Orgosolo is famous for its wall art which is anything but decorative. Wall paints here have a strong political and philosophical message, and consequently are frequently updated as you can see here. Then caption sais " Sos dirittos the sos populous non si ottenene in sa barbaridades".
People's rights cannot be acquired with acts of terrorism.

The people are happy when they do not need heroes

Another war? No thanks

No comment.

More information about the murales on web page below.

https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2016/jun/01/street-art-sardinia-myth-magic-murals-orgosolo

The view of Oliena mountain from Orgosolo