Happy Easter!

 

  

Although it is not a Spanish tradition, my kids paint Easter eggs every year, and the Easter Bunny somehow does manage to find us.

 

Did you know that the word Hispania, which is what the Romans called Spain, is derived from a Phoenician word meaning "land of rabbits".  In La Mancha, they're everywhere!

They keep Luna entertained, but she's afraid to go after them because they're as big as she is!

 

My garden is slowly awakening.  Luckily, the rabbits don't like eating daffodils....

 

 

 ...nor do they care for iris.

 

The rabbits are also completely oblivious to weeds (I mean, wildflowers).

 

 

Most likely, many of you back home will be having a ham for Easter dinner.  Here in this little corner of pork-loving Spain, we usually have a cookout down by the reservoir...

  with seafood paella for 50 people!

 

 

 Happy Easter!

 

Sage cuttings

Well, while I may have had luck with hands-off rose propagation techniques this winter, I have found that the same lazybones approach has definitely not worked with my sage (salvia officinalis).  Sage does exceedingly well in La Mancha, or at least it does in my garden.  It withstands extreme sun and cold, provides healthy green color all winter long, blooms with pretty blue flowers in spring and is drought resistant but can also tolerate soaking wet clay soil (it kicks lavender's butt in this department).  To top it all off, rabbits can't stand it (although they might take a nap under it!).

So, my careless sage cutting scheme entailed simply shoving a 30cm sage branch into the ground.  The result was this:

 

Not one of the cuttings rooted.  Luckily,  I had so many cuttings that I also had planted some in pots with amended soil, et voilà!

Here you can see our lighter clay dirt layered with nutrient-rich potting soil.

 

Much better!

 

Painless Propagation

If you have ever tried propagating roses from cuttings, it can be frustrating business.  You can, of course, find all sorts of information online about different techniques and theories.  Some sites recommend using rose rooting hormones, while others recommend using plastic bags, greenhouses, cold rooms or even styrofoam ice chests to keep the cuttings from drying out, which is a big factor here in sunny Spain.  I can honestly say I've tried almost everything and have found no clear advantages of any technique over another.  In addition, the added expense and time consumed while following some of these propagation techniques make failures all the more frustrating.

My personal preference is called the "Fly by the Seat of Your Pants" technique, also known as the "Waste Not, Want Not" or the "Shove It In and Forget It" technique (developed, needless to say, by yours truly).  My theory is that the least time-consuming and costly system is most effective, even if percentage-wise the outcome may not excellent, because it provides a Frustration Factor of 0 (if you are unfamiliar with the Frustration Factor, in my world it's a big deal).

In this propagation system, the materials needed are: 1) dirt; 2) cuttings. 

Step 1: cut pencil-sized rose canes into 25-30cm section, and remove any leaves.
Step 2: shove into a pot of dirt moist dirt in a shady area and forget about it.

In about a year, you may be pleasantly surprised with new rose plants, but, if not, you will have invested no money and only about 10 seconds of your time.

Funny thing is, this winter I was so lazy that I didn't even get around to Step 2.  I simply brought home a branch from a friend's red climbing rose in early December, and left it in a bottle of water behind another plant on the porch, to be later cut and planted.  Then came the holidays (which is a 2-week affair in Spain), and I forgot all about it until cleaning a few days ago.

 My forgotten rose cutting

 

It's huge!

 

It now has roots...

 

... and rosebuds!

Now, how's that for painless propagation? 

Barn swallows

When the sun comes up in the morning, I often have 5 tiny visitors outside the kitchen window.  These little barn swallows primp themselves up on the fence while watching the world go by.   

 

We have quite a few around here, and in the summer time swarms of them come out at sunset to compete with the bats for their mosquito dinners down by the pond. It's amazing to see them all swerving around each other, never crashing into each other, although coming hair-razingly close.

 

I especially love their blue and copper coloring, which, when I think about it, are exactly the same colors as my kitchen curtains. Oh, am I being too matchy-matchy again?

 



Spring is coming!

Even though it is still a month away, the garden is showing definite signs that spring is just around the corner.

Here in La Mancha, these are the first little wildflowers to spring up.  Yes, the locals call them weeds, but I think they're sweet.

           

 

Next up are the almond trees.  Our little tree is three years old and still hasn't given us any almonds yet, but this year I'm hopeful.  It smells wonderful!  In other parts of the country, the almond blossoms are pinker, but here they are usually whiter. 

 

 

Another native plant that provides late winter color is Viburnum tinus, also known in Spanish as durillo, or "tough little one".  Right now, it's full of tiny raspberry-colored buds that later open up to miniscule white flowers.  This toughie is also extremely drought resistant.

 

Viburnum tinus, surrounded by vinca.



 

While taking these photos, I was accompanied by this pretty butterfly/moth...

... and my partner in crime (when she sees me digging holes, she starts digging, too!).

 

 

 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day at our house means onion soup for the Man of the House and a heart-shaped chocolate cake for our two little men.  Believe it or not, my youngest son does not care for frosting (who ever heard of such a thing?! I guess I didn't eat enough frosting while pregnant...) but that's fine by his older brother, who gets double servings.

 

I also whipped up some cookies out of some dough I had frozen at Christmas, and lots of these went to my friend V, who is a young widow with a 9-year-old son.   

 

 

And, let's not forget the My Funny Valentine sweater I knitted for my little niece.  I call it "funny", because this is one of my make-it-up-as-I-go-along specialties.  It's a mix of 2 patterns (for gauge and sizing), a heart graph that I copied and tweaked, as well as a completely made-up neckline and edging.  I just hope it fits!

 

 

 

As you can see, I prefer making things myself on Valentine's Day.  This is probably because they don't sell heart-shaped boxes of chocolates in Spain.  Actually, they don't sell any chocolates in Spain.  Russell Stover could make millions here! 

Fauna of La Mancha

While not much is happening in the garden during winter, I thought it would be a good time to upload some photos of the local fauna.  All these photos were taken from our living room.

This Golden Eagle (Águila Real, Aquila chrysaetos) doesn't come around much, but when he does he just takes your breath away.

 

 

My friend, the hawk (Buteo buteo), felt daring one day and decided to perch on the mulberry tree in our garden instead of down by the stream.

I had never seen this little guy before.  Turns out he's a Green Woodpecker (Picus viridis),

but I haven't seen him since. 

This is a Red Kite (Milvus milvus), which is aptly named because they love windy days. 

Here he is at the start of a snow flurry...

... and with a friend a few minutes later.

 

 

 

Not exactly wild animals (but still very much a part of our local fauna) are these soldiers from the Infantry Academy in Toledo.  In our rural area, you can often come across them loaded down with packs and carrying rifles on training missions, trying to get from point A to point B with maps and compasses in hand.  O's cousin, a military helicopter pilot who trained in Toledo, says it's not unusual for them to be dropped off some 70k (around 40 miles) away and be expected to find their way back.

 

Although I'm used to them by now, let's just say that the first time I came across a soldier, at night, jogging down a back road with rifle in hand in the middle of winter and wearing a ski mask, it took me a moment to decide whether to scream!