FINCA FOR SALE

I have to write about this finca for sale in Guajar Alto because it has been reduced in price to 89,000 euros from the original asking price of 129,000 euros and it is the only one for sale locally with planning permission from the Junta de Andalucia already in place for a family house

The finca has over 6,500 sq. metres of land, is just 10 minutes walk from Guajar Alto and is south facing, sheltered with superb mountain views and good access. It is mainly planted with olive trees in production but there are also numerous varieties of other fruit trees including avocado, mango, soft fruits and citrus.

Water and electricity are already connected to the land.

The Junta de Andalucia have approved plans for a vivienda unafamiliar (family house) of 227 sq. metres. This took the owners 3 years to get and is extremely complicated to obtain as planning regulations are getting stricter. This is a unique opportunity for somebody to construct their own country house without going through the planning minefield. The owners are selling because of a change in family circumstances.

Please contact info@guajar.com if you are interested.

IN SEPTEMBER THE GRAPES ARE RIPENING

This weekend I thought I would be checking the proof copy of my third children’s book,The Adventure of Princess the Pony. When it did not arrive on Friday I contacted my publishers who traced it to a depot in Jaén, about 100 miles away, where it has been languishing for 10 days. The couriers claim they cannot deliver because there is no street on my address. I have told everybody that I live half-way up a mountain and there are no streets up here. I collect my mail from the little post office in the next village, Guájar Faragüit, but if a packet is sent via a courier, all they have to do is drop it off in Bar Carmen, in Guájar Alto.
Carmen signs for, and keeps safe, deliveries for many of us reclusive camposinos whom a courier van driver would never find.

Instead we have spent Sunday harvesting grapes so we can start making our annual vino de tierra. We have not enough grapes on our own land to fill a couple of barrels, so we normally supplement ours with grapes from neighbouring cortijos. This year we were asked to look after a small cortijo recently purchased by a Dutch lady who has returned to Holland for a few months. Her vines are rampant, obviously unattended for some time, and are climbing all over the rocky terrain below her house, collapsed with the weight of their own fruit. Her soil must be fertile because the crop was heavy and comprised mostly juicy sweet Muscatel grapes.

We follow the traditional process of making wine up here. First, we lay out the bunches of grapes in the sun for a few days in order to concentrate the sweetness and hence the alcohol content. Then we crush the grapes before putting them through a manual press. We simply pour the juice into oak barrels and leave it to ferment. After about 40 days the liquid in the barrel stops making a noise, indicating that it is ready to drink.

DAILY PAINTINGS

I have just created a new blog www.margaretmerrypaintings.wordpress.com on which I hope to feature every day an original painting or book illustration from my archives. I have scanned all my work over the past few years so I have plenty of interesting pictures to show you although these may include paintings that have already been sold. I hope you will enjoy looking at them.

This is the first entry, called December Dawn in Guajar Alto, which is the view from my terrace.

10 MINUTES WITH...

SUR in English is the major English language weekly newspaper in Spain and is distributed throughout Andalucia. They contacted me a couple of weeks ago asking me if I would submit an interview for “10 minutes with... “. This is a regular feature which takes the form of an interview with a local “celebrity”. For example, this week the interview is with Katie Price, aka the glamour model Jordan. Apparently she is making a quick visit to the Costa del Sol.

I willingly accepted to write the feature as I thought it would be good publicity for my books and rushed off my copy to meet their deadline for next week’s edition. This morning I have checked their site again to look at next week’s newspaper which has just gone on line and there I am on page 18. If you would like to read it on line go to www.surinenglish.com/print-edition/.

FIESTA 2009

This weekend Guajar Alto has held its annual summer fiesta in honour of its patron saint Virgen de la Aurora. As usual the village was packed with visitors, mainly emigrants from the village returning to share the festivities with their families. Smartly dressed relatives living in Barcelona and Madrid stood out from their siblings who have spent their lives in this little village.

The economic crisis has had its effect even up here and the mayordomos (stewards) were unable to raise enough money to lay on the amount of entertainment we have had in previous years. Nevertheless, the firework display on Friday night was as spectacular as ever, the band of young musicians from Nigüelas entertained us morning and afternoon, the pop groups kept up their noise all night long and the communal paella today was enjoyed by all.

AUGUST EXODUS

August has arrived, signalling the annual exodus from Granada Capital to the beaches of the Costa Tropical. Most families living in the city own an apartment in one of the coastal resorts dotted along the Costa Tropical de Granada. During the rest of the year these are mainly occupied at weekends, but when August arrives the city is deserted as its residents flee from the oppressive heat to enjoy a month by the beach and a climate tempered by the sea breezes. Photos taken yesterday of the centre of Granada published in today’s Ideal, the provincial local newspaper, show deserted strees with the headline “Dos de Agosto,la cuidad fantasma”.

There is no sea to cool off in up here in Guajar Alto, so summer visitors are few; but we do have our own little beach by the River Toba. Here, the villagers partially dam the river for the summer to create a swimming lake. This year it has been improved as the access road has now been cemented, the area cleaned up and stone tables and benches constructed. This is a favourite place with the village children and a popular picnic spot for families. See photos taken yesterday.

ANDALUCIAN HEATWAVE

It’s high summer and the temperatures have soared into the 40s. At this time of year, the droning of little yellow firefighting planes, carrying water to and from the big reservoirs in the north of the province to extinguish mountain fires, is not an unfamiliar sound.

So far this summer, Andalucia has been the region most badly affected by fires, and in Almeria there have been two serious fires during the last few days, both in the same region. Hundreds of people have been evacuated from Mojacar, a popular resort, and on the TV news, there were startling pictures of the famous hill town silhouetted against a red wall of flame.

The airborne firefighting force comprises co-ordinating planes, helicopters carrying water, including some of large capacity, and a fleet of water carrying planes. On the ground are teams of specialists, fire appliances and experts from the environmnent department. Due to the professionalism of these forces, not to mention their remarkable bravery, fires are rapidly controlled and extinguished.

High up in the mountains of our area is a firewatch tower, permanently manned. From there, the beginning of any fire would be clearly visible. Obviously, the more quickly they are spotted, the easier they are to control. It ought to be mentioned that the worst fire ever in this region, in the Alpujarras, was started by a British person who made a bonfire in a densely forested mountainside. By coincidence, I was travelling from Granada to the coast when I saw the first flames devouring the mountainside.

Photos of my olive grove this morning

Our olive grove, which in spring was carpeted with wild flowers and lush grass, is now sparse stubble, parched tinder-dry by the ferocious sun. When we irrigate at night, the wild boar rootle around the bases of the trees for grubs and insects, churning up the damp soil as they do so.

Although we are experiencing a very hot and dry summer, thanks to the heavy snows which fell on the Sierra Nevada in this year’s unusually cold winter, the province of Granada has enough water to last a year, even if we don’t have another drop of rain.