Frosty blossom.

chris — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 08:21:17 +0000

Dear Friends of Cortijo de Rosa,
I am not sure if you are ready for a photo of the White family replete after Christmas dinner, so to compensate I have added one of Almond replete after his! Anyway it makes a change from boat pictures. ( Hope you did not mind the circular I sent out in January about sailing crew wanted in Greece, still some places left!)
I had a plan to send out a photo of our little strawberry patch which we were still cropping in January, but was caught out by the weather which descended upon us with a succession of heavy frosts about three weeks ago. It is not just the strawberries, various semi hardy plants, including our poor succulents have taken a hit. It did not however seem to put off our guests who left on Sunday. They arrived for a week and stayed for two. Of course warm sunny afternoons do help compensate for the cold nights and chilly mornings.
Now we are looking forward in the next few days to temperatures rising to 20 and maybe a trip into the Sierra Lujar to admire the almond blossom. Our own Mimosa is looking magnificent at the moment , as if the whole tree were one brilliant yellow flower. I posted pictures on last February’s blog.

With good wishes, Chris and Sarah

Almond Digesting

Merry Christmas

chris — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 13:26:43 +0000

We wish you all a very good Christmas and New Year. We are looking forward to having our children home for the holiday and maybe will go for a picnic on Christmas day, saving a roast dinner until the evening.

I am not sure you would want to see any of the faintly bizarre Xmas photos I have (mostly taken on delayed action) so I thought I would share a photo of the Bougainvillaea that covers our front patio.It still has many flowers as we have not had any frosts yet this year. I also wanted to show a picture of our vegetable patch with a variety of neat rows of young plants. Few of our visitors see it in this condition.However I was most captivated by the Marigold, which Sarah says is a companion plant to repel unwelcome insects, so I have included this as well as two rows of peas!
We wish you well, Chris and Sarah

Finally Rain

chris — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 11:18:35 +0000

Dear Friends of Cortijo de Rosa,
Before I tell you about the photos I will just mention that one of our long term cottages is available shortly. It is Casita de Ron named after my father whose inheritance enabled us to buy the cottages.
Last time I shared a picture of a succulent flower newly emerged despite the dry. Now here is another, popping up its rather strange head up in the new flower bed by the side of the apartment. It did this before the rather heavy rain now falling arrived. This is the first proper rain since the spring so we are glad to see it but always hope the more delicate plants survive okay.
The other picture is me on the lane from Orgiva d own to Cortijo de Rosa and was taken by some couchsurfers we had to stay recently. If anyone wants to come and stay here for free for a couple of nights do join! www.couchsurfing.org
No one I assume wants to see a picture of a fridge but I wanted to tell the guests who have mentioned it that there is now a new self defrosting fridge in the the apartment kitchen!
Our best wishes to you all, Chris and Sarah

Five Months Dry

chris — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 14:26:28 +0000

Canoeing has been on my mind lately as I am looking for others to venture on to the water with me. So here is a picture of me afloat. The sea here is often very calm so lovely for canoes and other water craft which can be hired on local beaches.
We were very pleased to see on our return from our usual Summer visit to England that our new waterer had done a good job and pretty well everything had survived the Summer heat. It has been nearly five months now since it rained properly so we are looking forward to the first Autumn downpour! None appears on the 7 day forecast so far. However the good attention means a few flowers are out and the second photo shows a cacti that has just burst into bloom today.

Snow in June in the High Sierras

chris — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 09:45:51 +0000

Summer has really kicked in now with the pool temperature a pleasant 29′c and most of the snow on the high sierras gone although you will see from the photo that some fair size drifts remain. Sarah and I ventured up by bike above Capileira. As soon as the snow has gone from the track the park service will operate their minibus on this route so the summit of Mulhacen becomes an achievable objective for the reasonably fit in 6 hours walking or less.

We have just returned from Orgiva where we have been posting up leaflets about our one bedroomed cottage which has just become available. As we are off ourselves on 21st July for our Summer break we have reduced the rent and so if anyone wants it for two months or more we are asking for only 245€ a month. Details are on this website.

This Area (April 2011)

chris — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 09:43:12 +0000

Dear Friends of Cortijo de Rosa,
I thought this time I might give a couple of views that show a bit more of where we are. Thus I have taken a photo from the Motril road looking North across the olive covered terraces with Cortijo de Rosa centre right. You can see a track in the centre bottom and we are some 100 or so metres up that track. There are so many trees it is difficult to make out the house but those that have been here and have very sharp eyes may just be able to see us. I have put in an extra large copy to helr you!
There is also a view looking westwards to the highest and nearest end of the new reservoir (Embalse de Rules). Actually it is hardly new anymore. It has been some nine years in the making and is, I understand still not finished in terms of the hydroelectrical connections! Various rumours have circulated about water sports centres etc. but so far it remains a completely undeveloped and picturesque feature.

With Best Wishes, Sarah and Chris

February

chris — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 11:43:43 +0000

The Winter rain has this year swollen the Rio Chico ( ‘little boy river’ ), which flows near Cortijo de Rosa and our stone cottages in Bayacas, beyond what can be crossed in leaps or with wellies. The local Subud group decided that since their members this side could not get to meetings across the river, they would build a bridge! Seven men spent two days in manly (!) activity, talking , leaning on shovels and occasionally moving stones and mixing cement and the smooth and very proper bridge you can see in the photo is the result. Many local dog walkers are delighted!
The winter rain has at least behaved as it is supposed to and come in three day intervals every two or three weeks. One such interval has just ended and we have warming sunshine again today. The blossom has now spread to more trees and our Mimosa on the front drive is heavy with its rich yellow flowers. I have made it this February’s second photo.

January 2011

chris — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 11:59:12 +0000

RoundtheWorld Bikers

: Almond blossom

We british are not the only ones who love to talk about the weather, the Spanish do too. Last time I told you about the rain, this time it is the sun. We are on our fourth sunny day in a row and it is warm enough to sunbathe. Sun is also forecast for the next seven days. The first Spring flowers are emerging as is the almond blossom. (If skills allow I will attach a photo of them!) It is such a contrast to the snowy mountain which frames the view. One can drive up to play in the snow!

Today we are expecting our second warmshowers.org guest, a german cyclist travelling the entire length of the Med. The last came in December and were cycling round the world (see 2010tilwhen.com and photo above).They were lovely people and they did not take much persuading to stay three nights while they maintained their bikes using the olives trees as bike hangers!They also chopped a good pile of firewood for us. By the way our last helper, from Israel did turn out to be a woman with strong opinions!

November/December2010

chris — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 09:45:59 +0000

The dark clouds are gathering, rain is forecast. We are excited. Yes we get excited when proper rain comes for the first time each winter. We have not had any serious rain yet and have had to irrigate at Cortijo de Rosa and at our Bayacas cottages. Although if it lingers for long we’ll have to pospone the Olive picking.We do sometimes get 4 or 5 cloudy days in a row at this time of year and occasionally it rains on 3 or 4 of them.

We have a volunteer coming to help harvest so we wait and see. Now we have said goodbye to our last guest, a translater from Italy and Switzerland via Uk (Its a long story) and so we look forward to our volunteer coming. This one, a woman of 26 from Israel may well have some interesting views on the world and we usually share meals with our volunteers so get to hear about their lives, their views and travelling experiences.

New Blog coming soon

admin — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 20:23:14 +0000

Our new blog for Cortjo de Rosa is coming soon…watch this space.

Chris & Sarah