Life is made up of so much – things of the moment and plans for the future; dreams and realities; faith and convictions; the serious stuff and the ridiculous.
How am I to catch the moments before they swirl away, lost among the multiple sparks that fly out from our path of existence? This is a starting point, to share with you as best I can the everyday and the exceptional.
I’m hoping for a development like the Peregrino blog, where you become a welcome part of where we are and what is happening.
I cannot, will not, set a schedule – I know that the minute I do that I will have an internal rebellion against the ‘you must.’ Instead I am giving myself permission to write whatever, whenever. Your freedom is just as un-boundaried – to read or not, to comment or not – though of course, we’d love to hear whatever you have to say.
*The website is being shared with friends and family only, and carries a ‘discourage search engines’ tag.
Bueno, the Starting Point:
– set the scene, begin to introduce the characters.
We’ve been in Almeria now for 8 months, long enough to get to know the general feel of the area, to figure out important things like where to shop, and to experience the changes in the seasons.
We are living on the fringes of Europe’s official desert and – as per desert weather reports and scenes from cowboy movies – it is crisp and cold in winter and very hot in summer. The autumn and spring we experienced were a pleasant in-between, reminiscent of southern Africa.
Home for now is a rented house in a country mini-village set among lemon groves. The house is neat and functional, with a really big basement area that serves us well for Andres equipment and all those boxes that have traipsed around Spain with us. A bit of space around, though no garden to speak of.
The dry heat and water restrictions tend to discourage people from having lawns. Instead one sees neatly raked small stones, creatively interspersed with large pot plants – mostly dryland succulents and cacti.
I haven’t tried to revolutionise the garden, settling for now for clay planter troughs filled with herbs, and a row of desert plants named the Arizona line. All mobile, ready to travel with us when next we move.
When will that be? Not sure, but Andrés is already getting itchy for more space. I’m in agreement. Even though this is rural, agricultural and far from being a town, I still hanker for true country.
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It’s funny, reading this, I just get a feeling of ‘home’. You just seem so at home. I can so relate to missing a garden, we have always had one, and for the last 4 years, it has really been something missed! Funny how a few potted plants can make you feel like you have something! I am interested to know what your version of ‘country’ is?
I have 3 different types:
The first being the English country side with rolling lawns and a beautiful stone cottage – which I adore! The second one, a ranch style property with “horse fences”, again with rolling hills, some horses and a New England style home…Which I also love
The third, well, its rural as ever with just sand as far as you can see and well, that is all I am going to say about that!
I love being out in the country, but I really love to have some life around (NYC girl at heart :))
Sigh – country for me was Peregrino, which was “three eagles past the last pine tree.”! I love space, the feeling of no boundaries; and height – the sweep of mountains and distant skylines.