Magic water from the mountains, birthing bed for the cat & new garden for the family. Oh, and an earthquake!
Back in the 14th century a pure water source was discovered on this land and an entire village grew around it. In 1864 the fountain received an upgrade, seen here.
30 years ago however people stopped caring about the spring (content now with their fluoride-filled tap water) so the area was left to nature and quickly became inaccessible and forgotten. Even I had no idea of its existence untill yesterday and I am very grateful for its appearance because the nearest unpolluted water spring was a 10min drive away prior to this moment. This kind of water isn't just drinkable, it is extremely good for you, packed with minerals from the mountain and still very much alive (in constant motion from its source) so from now on we will be collecting this water on a daily basis.
Our village gardener learned of this story last month and took it upon himself to clear the area, digging out the river bed (helping the water level drop to where it should be) to make sure the natural spring was available once more to anyone who wants to use it.
He has created this lovely walkway down to the spring, where before it was an impassable jungle.
He's not done yet but is basically making it look more like it did in the old days with a good wide access point.
Which runs back down into the river.
At the end of which can be found this little dam and canal diversion for the farmers further down the valley.
Pretty cool hey!
Fifi's Birthing bed
It's that time of year again and our mama cat is around a week from giving birth. The children were keen to create a special place for our new family members and also for the birthing process. Though something tells me she won't actually give birth in this as last time she preferred to move from room to room throughout the experience.
Glue gun and lollipop sticks for the front gate!
Interior design was Luna's department.
Size check all good. If a little boy can fit, so too can a family of cats :)
A lot of creativity going on here. Sabrina making clothes in the background.
I use my laptop for tracing purposes, as demonstrated here.
The results of which are always impressive.
The finished bed is waiting now for its time to shine.
While the current baby cat enjoys his final moments before he is no longer the baby cat!
New garden
In the evening Esteban & I seasoned another five pots of olives with garlic & rosemary before cutting our potato seeds ready for planting out the following day in our new garden.
Potatoes can be cut in half to effectively double the number of plants, though technically that's not what is happening. The multiple seeds within each potato are just being spread out better.
Each seed wants to have a minimum of two growing points so you could potentially cut them up even more.
After one night out to harden up a bit...
...they went directly into the new garden.
So, this land belongs to a friend who doesn't mind us using it. For over a decade it has remained fallow, so it is good and ready now to give back all those nutrients to our vegetables.
Esteban can be seen here preparing his own personal growing space. Something he is very excited about. He has already planted mange tout peas which will grow up the fence.
Here he can be seen watering them...
...in his own special way.
My intention with this path (which my friend would like me to keep clear) is to grow peas, cucumbers & beans up one side and Nasturtium on the other. Love the taste of those spicy red flowers!
We still have much to do but I am enjoying the fresh air while bitcoin does it's thing back home on my computer.
By the way, the magic water spring is just a 30 second walk from this new garden so you can be sure we will fill our bottles from it with ease!
My first European earthquake
Knowing what I know about Grand Solar Minimums I should not be surprised about the heightened seismic & volcanic activity going on all over the world at the moment but certainly I did not expect to feel such a strong quake as I did the other night, shortly before sleep.
The one on the left was a magnitude 1.4 while the one on the right was a 3.7.
We live somewhere in the middle and didn't notice the 1.4 but certainly we felt the 3.7. Amazing experience. This is something I had previously associated with the tropics and I am wondering now what this region has in store for us over the next few decades as we move deeper and deeper into the GSM.
So, that's it for now. I leave you with a shot of our lamb's lettuce from the more developed of our two gardens. We are eating a lot of it at the moment ;)
Love & Light everyone 🌱
'Baby Cat Princess Protector' by Luna Stonehill (age 5).
