After a week or so of cloudy and rainy weather, some semblance of spring has returned to the village. That said, the temperatures were warmer here in March, and any time Toronto is registering a higher temperature on the thermometer than the Costa del Sol seems just WRONG to me, but nevertheless we persevere. :-)
The days seem incredibly long, with the sun setting just a hair past 9:15 these days. Of course, this means that after our work is done, Big Jim and I still have plenty of time to putter in the garden, which is getting top priority this year. To our usual mix of various flowers, herbs, and chili plants, we are growing a few vegetables of our own. The reason for this is twofold: first, the fabulous organic farmer is no longer making deliveries to the village (despite our many attempts to convince people here that pretty shiny identical-looking pesticide-ridden tomatoes may NOT be the best to eat, we were unable to drum up a sufficient group of regular customers to make his hour-long journey to the village worthwhile), and second, the prices being charged for certain vegetables in the markets are bordering on extortion. "5,75 euros/kg of red peppers, you must be joking!" I shrieked a couple weeks ago to the horror of Big Jim and the greengrocer. And the peppers were rather sad looking to make matters more insulting. Seriously, five years ago for less than 10 euros Big Jim and I could buy more than enough at the Saturday market to keep us both veggified for the coming week (and Jose Luis, the bio farmer, charged only 2,20/kg, btw, for his bio red peppers). In the end, we bought a couple peppers for eating but more importantly for their seeds, which I have since planted. I am way too cheap to continue to pay these insane prices. And so I also planted Italian green peppers and Roma tomatoes, and fingers crossed the Asian eggplants are successful this year. If we had more space on the terrace, I would grow even more of our own food, but alas we are quite limited in square meters these days. (And already have 120+ pots on the roof alone!)
hasta pronto,
mylifeinspain
3 years ago: Frankfurt recap: part I
2 years ago: No entry.
1 year ago: No entry.
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