Hello dear Hivers!
Coming back here in Spain is an awkward feeling now that I am travelling alone. We planned last year to come back in Sept. until the husband suffered his ill-fated cardiac arrest 2 weeks before the flight. We used to come here in Fall around the end of September of each year and spent about four months just to get away from cold Central Europe. I can understand why the Northerners love to have their 2nd home here. I have Norwegian, British, Belgian, German and French neighbors. Although we live up on the mountains of Torrox, we are not really alone. The hills are about 400 meters above the Mediterranean Sea and from our place, it's about 4 Km down to the coast.
The Flight
I booked my flight online, everything here is done online. I arrived at the airport very early at 6:30 AM since I did not know whether there were new rules for outgoing passengers. There are no counters anymore at the airport, everyone needs to get their own luggage tags from a monitor, then drop the luggage at a designated conveyor that would specify if the luggage is a standard one based on the ticket booked. There is a service team that would help out if passengers encounter difficulties with their flights. My flight for 3 hours was delayed by 30 minutes.
Purpose of this Trip....not a vacation
My purpose of coming here is to get documents for the estate of my husband that will be needed to finalize the processing of his testament in Vienna. When I arrived , the first thing I did was to check the house inside. I was so glad that everything was in order during our absence. I was astounded when I saw the facade of the house, it has a brown color, as a result of the Calima/sandstorm from the Sahara that hit Southern Spain for 3 days in March.
The following day, Saturday my friend and his wife came to help me with opening the garage. I am thankful that after 17 months of absence, the car sprung as soon as the battery got connected. I still have to get the car inspected for the 2024 sticker though.
to see them....Henri Matisse
The Succulent Garden
Cactus and succulents are the best plants to have in a Mediterranean garden, the soil here is dry and rocky. It is also suggested by garden centers that these types of plants can survive even without rain. My garden grew so wild despite it not watered all throughout the 17 months.
There has been an ongoing drought in Spain and they all said that the dam in Malaga has only a water reserve of 10%. The farmers here who have avocado and mango plantations have been suffering due to shortage of water and the less harvests have spiked the prices of avocados and mangoes in the market even affecting Central and West Europe.
The spines are deadly and could pinch the tires of a SUV. I got a small example of this from the coast and thought they were beautiful because of their flowers....little did I know that it would multiply rapidly. Ten years after I planted it, I now have hired someone to remove this cactus from the plot. Below is its flower.
The View
It's a 360° view from our plot. We acquired the plot before the house so that nobody could build a house there that would distract the view to the coast. All plots around us are plantations of either avocados, mangoes or olive trees.
once the skies are blue.
State of the Facade....Before and after the Calima/Sandstorm
So this is how the walls of the house look like as of this writing, all brown. It will all be washed up using a hydro-water pump and someone will be doing this coming weekend.
My gosh, I am glad that the internet antenna was not damaged. I have ordered the internet provider to install back the line a day before I arrived.
We get our water from a private community of shareholders who is getting them from top of the mountain. We see to it that our 30K Liter water tank is full before we leave for home every time. Because of the water shortage, I climbed up this ladder crossing my fingers and checked our water last Sunday…. and the level was full, thank heavens.
It is kind of stressy to be here alone with all the work involved, but somehow it is challenging, and I somehow do not worry since we have many Spanish friends who are able to help as well as expat neighbors just around the corner. I hope to be back to home base soon as I am done with the purpose here. I know that I will still come back in a short time.
Thank you for visiting and reading my blog. Enjoy your day!
Xoxo,
Mers
[//]:# (!pinmapple 36.75380 lat -3.95132 long Torrox, Malaga, Andalucia d3scr)
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