Sun, Beach, Visits, Parties.... Sustaining

August is definitely a go slow month in terms of work on our Finca. With the heat of the day starting by 10am we look after the animals and plants from 7am and then have breakfast before either resting through the day or going out for the day. Contrary to certain media claims this is a regular Spanish summer - yes it sometimes gets to 40C but typically it is around 32C and so long as you plan your day smartly all is good. The picture above was taken at 07:30 on the daily dog walk with sun just rising and already at 25C.

Our middle son Sam came over for a 5 week holiday starting in July and then our oldest Josh joined us for the last 10 days before they both left for the UK in mid August. This was the first time we had been together in Spain since 2017 - a combination of our time living in Switzerland from 2018 and then the plandemic from 2020. Their visit coincided with two parties at friends and beach picnics with our community group. Sam also went to Barcelona with Frances and climbed our neighboring mountain La Mola (922m) with Barry, so overall a busy time and quite different which was a pleasant change.

The bonus of the walk up La Mola were the early morning clear, crisp views and the added bonus was that there was no one else on the mountain and when nearing the top there was a cooling wind that made the walk very pleasurable.

This was a contrast to the beach visits, barbeque and house party where it has been lovely to share time with people in the beautiful landscapes we live near and to see other peoples fincas.

In amongst the trips there was time for some experimentation in the kitchen with Frances exploring the world of cakes and Barry making his own ´Nakd´ bars - see picture below. Made with dates, cashews, almonds, currants and blueberries this has provided a much appreciated tasty snack in the continued effort to exit sugar and 3rd party processed foods.

The garden has just about been sustained. We still have water to share to the plants but only just. Rainfall has again been low after some good rain in June and July. Frances has tried to not have too much growing in August to make the gardening realistic and with rain forecasted for the final weekend in August we should be ok. We are just hoping that the rainfall in Autumn is back to a more typical situation so all our water tanks can fill up.

View to La Torre de Fontaubella from the descent of La Molar (922m)