2024, Akeurizar odyssey

On our New Year’s blog entry – written in February, I know – I wrote about our priorities for this year. Top of the list was planting those avocado trees we didn’t manage to plant last year. So, I am happy to announce that we can tick that one off our list. The avocados have

Summer is back

Here it is, in case anyone is doubting me. It has been like this since the last time I posted on 26th Sept. It looks like rain will finally come on Sunday (I believe it when I see it) but in the meantime, temperatures north of 30 C are expected Wednesday to Friday. I would

Upside down world

Talking to friends and ex-colleagues about the latest (third) round of redundancies (since 2017) at the University of Brighton where I used to work, it struck me that the whole saga represents a prime example of some of the thinking developed by Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano in his Upside Down: A Primer for the Looking-Glass

Bilbo the grey

For all of you fans of the Lord of the Rings, this is not an attempt to merge the names Bilbo Baggins and Gandalf the grey. Although, I have to say, for anyone who cares to know about this, there might be a link between Tolkien’s choice of name Bilbo (Bilbao in Basque) for one

The new normal

It seems that weird weather patterns, or non patterns, rather, are the new norm. I was reading about Italy’s continuing drought this winter when I realised that we have not had a drop of rain since I took this picture on 18th January. I know this because we are planting a hedge and the ground

A very strange autumn

I know I go on about the weather a lot. The thing is, when you live practically outdoors and you worry about planting – what, when, how – it is hard to avoid thinking about the weather, checking on temperatures, and wondering if everything you have planted will survive. This time last year we were

Getting ready to face the next drought

Remember that water collecting pond we dug out last September? Well, it is finally completed and on its way to filling up. Hurrah! When it is, finally full, we calculate it will hold over 100 m3 (cubic mtrs). That’s 100,000 litres, or to put it in technical terms, a hell of a lot of water.

A summer of discontent

None of the elders in the area remember anything like this. It has now been seven weeks since we had any proper rain in Akeurizar, the longest dry spell in living memory. Instead, we have had record high temperatures like pretty much the entire continent. However, we have also been lucky so far as there

Getting to Nîmes and back in record time

So, last weekend Karen and I travelled to Nîmes, a town near the Mediterranean coast in southern France, not far from Marseille. We have not been away much in the last year, what with some much going on in the house, with the land, the goats needing looking after and their daily walkabout… Anyway, we