Category Archives: Nature

A Sting in the Tale

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Filed under Animals/Wildlife, Nature
"And is there honey still for tea?"

“And is there honey still for tea?”

The world’s honey bee population is in decline, but there seems to be no shortage of bees in our valley in rural Mallorca. Quite a few of the farmers around here have hives and we’re used to seeing bees in our garden, which seems to be the equivalent of one of the all-you-can-eat buffet restaurants loved by the Mallorcans.

Rosemary, lavender, lemon and almond blossom, and various other flowers on our land attract the bees, and – given their important role in food production – we’re happy to see them. We also have quite a few bird baths around our land and the bees seem to like these too.  On a couple of occasions we’ve even had a swarm pass through our ‘airspace’: once, a large dark cloud of buzzing bees passed right over my head. I wasn’t stung but it wasn’t an experience I’d like to repeat.

We don’t expect to see too many bees at this time of year, but on Friday afternoon – lured out by warm sunshine – one stung the back of The Boss’s ear. We were eating lunch on the terrace and a fly had been making a nuisance of itself around us. So when The Boss felt something land on his ear, he swiped at it, believing it was the fly. Sadly for both him and the bee, it wasn’t.  He managed to remove the sting and I applied Betadine liberally to the back of his ear. An Ibuprofen later, to reduce the inflammation, and we thought that would be it.

And so to Bed . . .

On Saturday The Boss’s right ear had swollen and looked red and angry, but he wasn’t in any pain, so he decided to let things take their course. But by Sunday morning, the whole area around his ear, including his neck and part of his cheek, had become swollen and hard. We decided to get it checked at the new Hospital de Llevant in Porto Cristo, and planned to follow our visit with a coffee and slice of cake in a favourite little café there (Magrana). The Boss had expected to be given an injection or a course of tablets, so we were both quite shocked when the doctor told him he was in danger of losing the cartilage in his ear without the appropriate treatment! After a battery of tests – surprisingly, none of them ear-related – The Boss was admitted as an in-patient for 48 hours’ treatment, resting in bed and attached to a drip.

He’ll certainly remember the end of 2013. And, hopefully, he’ll be allowed home in time to celebrate the arrival of the New Year. It remains to be seen whether the oral antibiotics he’ll have to take for a few more days will be compatible with a glass or two of cava to see in 2014. What I can tell you for sure is that we won’t be joining the local community of bee-keepers any year soon . . .

 

On the eve of 2014, I’d like to thank my blog followers and readers for being interested enough to read about our life in rural Mallorca. I wish you all a Happy, Healthy and Successful New Year.

Jan Edwards Copyright 2013

 

Rain stops play . . . and work

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Filed under Countryside, DIY & Maintenance, Maintenance, Nature, Weather/Climate

The Boss is a list-maker. And The Big List is the one detailing all the jobs (large and small) that need to be done at our finca in rural Mallorca. I think he started it before we even moved to Mallorca, and it’s been ongoing ever since.  While recovering from his recent surgery, he sat down to do a full review and update of the list, adding lots of new jobs. If I had a list of my own outstanding jobs I’d be completely overwhelmed, but The Boss seems to thrive on having this list to spur him on. Must be the Virgo in him.

Rain, rain, go away . . . 

Since being ‘fit for purpose'(!) again, he’s worked very hard, striking through completed jobs on his handwritten list with pleasure and satisfaction. But progress has recently ground to a halt: unusually, it’s been raining almost solidly here on Mallorca for the past week and all the outdoor jobs on the list (some of which I was going to be helping with) have been out of the question.  Our plans to paint the persianas (our wooden shutters) on the north-facing side of the house have been scuppered by the wet weather. It’ll probably be spring before they dry out enough to re-paint.

Illuminating experience

The weather’s been so bad that we have barely been outside and that’s sharply brought into focus what we love about living in rural Mallorca: being outdoors and surrounded by nature. And, although we could dress ourselves appropriately for the weather and go out, the indoor jobs are looking much more appealing. Currently, it’s an audit of the light bulbs in the house . . .

Read about a gift from the Mediterranean – harvested here on Mallorca – on my other blog: http://www.eatdrinksleepmallorca.com

Second spring arrives on Mallorca

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Filed under Countryside, Nature, Weather/Climate

Ooh, I do love September in rural Mallorca. After the intense heat of July and August, temperatures are pleasant enough to do some gardening and other outdoor jobs, without us turning lobster-like under the blazing sun.  And as summer morphs into autumn towards the end of the month, something magical happens on Mallorca: it’s what the locals call ‘winter-spring’. Not being a fan of the ‘w’ word, I prefer to call it second spring. And that’s just what it’s like.

Flora bursts back into life

After the late summer storms, which bring much-needed rain to the land, everything in the garden that looked as though it had given up the struggle for survival perks up again. The leaves of the aloe vera plants – we have 17 around the place – have plumped up again, all ready for any first aid duties they may have to fulfil. Shrubs such as the Lantana burst back into flower, dotting our largely green garden with splashes of orange, yellow, and pink, and the lavender plants are poised to produce more flowers.  And, as I mentioned in my last post, the weeds are back to remind me that last year’s back-breaking efforts to remove them finally were a waste of my time.

And fauna too

As I write this – with the doors open to the garden terrace – I can hear recently born lambs crying for their mums in the field across the road. It sounds, as well as looks, like spring out there.

And the butterflies are back in abundance. Which prompted me to spend rather more time than I should have trying to take some photos of them; butterflies, by the way, do not make co-operative photographic models.

Success at last

Success at last

For all the above reasons, and a few more, I enjoy second spring nearly as much as the first one. Except that it doesn’t hold the promise of summer just around the corner . . .

Weed Prevention in the Mallorcan Garden

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Filed under Animals/Wildlife, Building works, Countryside, Garden and gardening, Health and safety, Nature
The Boss deals with the intricate task of cutting the membrane to fit the space.

The Boss deals with the intricate task of cutting the membrane to fit the space

Weeds are just plants that you didn’t want. I’m not sure who said that, but it has stayed in the recesses of my mind – only to come to the fore again after the recent heavy rains on Mallorca. The plants – those we’d wanted – perked up considerably after a soaking, but there are also early signs of the plants we don’t want, that will blight our garden from autumn through until early next summer. The soil that was baked brown and rock-hard all summer, now has a just-visible green mantle: weeds. Oh joy.

But more annoying than the weeds growing around the plants we do want are the weeds that grow in the gravel path. And this year we’re determined to stop the blighters coming up.

Beach Babies

Which is why I’ve been bringing out my inner navvy (who knew?). The Boss and I are in the process of renewing the path that leads down to the powerhouse – and I’m wielding the shovel.

The original gravel we put down was the Mallorcan sandstone known as mares. It was relatively inexpensive and therefore our first choice, given that we had plenty of other bills to pay at the time.

However, being sandstone, in the course of a few years that gravel had turned into . . . a beach! The cats loved it – rolling around contentedly in the stuff. The humans, meanwhile, were repeatedly treading it into the house. Something had to be done.

A Material Girl

So The Boss and I are in the process of scraping away all the sandstone, removing signs of any weeds-in-waiting, then laying down sheets of green material that I hope will prevent the weeds growing through (whilst allowing water to drain through). Then we’re covering these sheets with new gravel – proper stones this time.

It’s hard work. I’m currently the one wielding the shovel, moving stones from the back of the trailer to the ground. The Boss is on slightly lighter duties; he unfortunately sustained a hernia during a previous DIY exercise and soon goes into hospital to have all his bits pushed back into their correct place. I’m not complaining about the work: all the twisting and turning, wielding a stone-laden shovel can only be good for the waistline, can’t it?

The people in the DIY shop were very confident in the weed-proofing powers of the  material we bought. I didn’t like to tell them that, six months after proper tarmac was laid down on the lane past our finca, weeds were sprouting defiantly through the black stuff . . .

Jan Edwards Copyright 2013

Wildfire – the most feared hazard of rural life

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Filed under Countryside, Garden and gardening, Health and safety, Nature, Weather/Climate

Living in rural Mallorca is wonderful, but country life has its hazards. And the most terrifying of these is wildfire. During the island’s long hot summers these fires occur far more often than they should, causing serious environmental damage and endangering the lives of firefighters as well as the people, animals, and property in their path. Last year there were more than 80 such fires on Mallorca – some started deliberately.

Airborne aid

A few years ago we had first-hand experience of the frightening unpredictability of fire, when a blaze ripped through our valley. A neighbour (a local, who must have known about the illegality of bonfires in the summer) had been burning some garden rubbish, and believed the fire was extinguished when he left it. However, the fire had travelled through the roots of wild olive and re-ignited, spreading quickly onto our land.

It was a very dramatic day, with a helicopter scooping up water from neighbouring swimming pools and water tanks to dowse the erratic flames (fortunately not too close to the house). We were extremely grateful – and in awe of – the airborne and ground firefighters who extinguished the blaze.

But the fire in our valley was but a spark compared to the one that’s devastated almost 2,000 hectares of forested mountain terrain on Mallorca – the worst wildfire here for some two decades. The fire broke out last Friday at around lunchtime (the result of human carelessness) and, only today, has it been reported as being finally under control.

Help from the mainland

It affected three municipalities in the southwest of the island – Andratx, Estellencs, and Calvia – and more than 700 people had to evacuate their homes because they were at risk. Firefighters and equipment were brought in from the Spanish mainland to assist the teams here, along with members of the military emergency unit, UME. Seaside holidaymakers – not in any danger from the blaze – watched in amazement from beaches in some of the southwest resorts, as firefighting planes and helicopters scooped water from the Mediterranean in front of them.

Thousands of amateur photos must have been captured and emailed by holidaymakers, but here’s one of a number taken over the past few days by Warwick Upton, a respected professional photographer on Mallorca.  www.warwickupton-photography.co.uk

Taking water from the Med to the mountains

Taking water from the Med to the mountains

And for a chilling account of how it feels to be so close to a raging wildfire, here’s a link to a blog post written by my friend and fellow blogger/journalist Vicki McLeod.

http://familymattersmallorca.com/2013/07/29/our-nit-de-foc/

The Luxury of Finca Life

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Filed under Countryside, Garden and gardening, Nature

A web within a web?

A web within a web?

I write for a luxury lifestyle magazine on Mallorca, which may seem a little odd, given that rural life on the island – as we live it, in an old finca – is far from luxurious, as the word is generally interpreted.

But I certainly do appreciate and know a bit about the finer things in life. Someone once accused me of being a bit of a hedonist: I love top-notch cuisine, fine wines, travel (not that we’ve done much of that with all the expense of keeping a finca going and all our cats to look after), and going to the theatre and concerts. But, of necessity (all those finca bills!), these pleasures are very infrequent – and more appreciated by both The Boss and me, I believe, as a result.

The Yucca-wide Web

Since coming to live on Mallorca, I’ve written about, or interviewed people in, some fabulous architect-designed homes on Mallorca. I’m not jealous at all . . . much. But I’ve just seen the most amazing accommodation this morning. Rising before the sun and finding a serena (sea mist) blanketing the valley, I ventured out with my Nikon D50. And saw this intriguing spider’s web in one of our yucca bushes – a kind of web-within-a-web. An inner sanctum? A mezzanine? Who knows.

Without wishing to sound too fingers-down-the-throat cheesy, it’s experiences like this that make us appreciate finca living: being sufficiently without the distractions of busy daily urban life to have the time and opportunity to notice what nature gets up to while the human race races about its daily life. And that’s a real luxury.

Jan Edwards Copyright 2013