When there’s a dog about, an early morning walk is required. I have just spent a week looking after my friend Ruth’s adorable Tibetan terrier Lotti. I think I do miss having a dog but this is a gentle reminder of the responsibilities. It was one of those glorious sunny early mornings. There was so much frost on the ground too. So I set off with dog and camera. At times no one believes how cold it can be here at night in Southern Spain but we are high up at 740m and on the north side of the Sierra Aracena. I have lost some good plants to the frost; an hibiscus, kalanchoe and aloe vera. However, the native plants are the survivors and the viburnum is always half in bud and flower at this time of year.
We walked up to the Era where the grain used to be threshed. It’s also where I have taken photographs of the butterflies in May. It was very frosty. Lotti was eager to walk on but I was busy trying some close ups of frosty plants.
We moved on to reach the gate. The sun was beginning to get a bit higher and warmer.
The Project.
Trevor has been working on a method to heat the water when the weather finally warms up in Spring and lighting a fire will no longer be necessary. Hopefully then I will also be released from the endless trips to the wood pile and the relentless work with the many branches of wood, fallen or from pruned trees. Over the last week he worked with a friend and plumber on putting a radiator, painted black, on our roof. It needs quite complicated controls and a pump. The two worked together discussing the intricacies of this system and the financial markets. Most people we encounter in the Sierra have interesting histories and ideas! Hopefully the solar radiator will add some heat to the tank. It can reach up to 100 degrees so the system has to prevent boiling.
The sun has been brilliant the last few days and warm during the day. This has been welcome after quite a few cloudy and cold February days. Now with clear skies the stars are also very visible. Saturn is in the east, Sirius bright and just below Orion. Polaris and the Great Bear as always in the North! The flowers and birds will be the subject of the next post. Although still wintry there are signs of Spring. Thanks for reading and hope Spring is soon with you if you abide in the Northern hemisphere of this amazing planet.
Enterprising as ever….trevor….wish i had a techy bloke in my life x
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Thanks Judy and he is both tetchy and techie? Yes, it has been quite a project on a shoe string!
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Please send some of your extra frost here! A pleasure reading about quotidian living at 7400m in S Spain.
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Thanks Inigo, have you changed your blog? I like the poems but sorry I can’t send you some frost. We do need more rain here too!
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We’re still burning our cherry tree. It lit up our back garden for three decades – now it’s lighting up our sitting room and warming the house. I’ll miss it.
It’s not frosty here – but it’s cold and dank.
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Dank doesn’t sound good, but here it is mainly cold but bright. We have chestnut to keep us warm!
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Very interesting, Does the solar heat the entire house?
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There are three ways to heat the tank for hot water; the most effective is the wood burning stove boiler and this gives us heat to the radiators. In summer our main solar panels can provide power to an immersion heater in the tank for hot water. In between times we are hoping this radiator on the roof will help supply some hot water! There is a gas heater too but this is very expensive and is for when we haven’t lit the fire or been away and the tank is cold.
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Great idea to use the black-painted radiator… warm water should be free in summer… Up here it’s a little bit more complicated, but we are soon going to install a new heating system in our house… It will bring down the need for energy by at least 60% but more likely more… Keep the planet beautiful
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Yes, there are lots of ingenious ways to heat homes and to insulate. Our yoga teacher has a small but warm olive pellet burning stove!
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Our English word plumbing is related to Spanish plomo because water pipes used to be made with lead (yikes!).
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Indeed but here we had a Dutch fontenero helping install that solar system. And he doesn’t like copper pipes! Seems so easy with the latest plastic ones? Fontenero, anything to do with fuente?
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Yes. Fontanero is from fontano, an adjective that originally meant ‘having to do with a fuente‘, from the similar Latin fontānus that was formed from the noun stem font-. Compare fount and fountain, which English took from French.
Installing a solar system sounds like a cosmic task.
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2 solar systems; one for our electricity and needed our German ingenerio and the other for heating water! It’s been easier than some of the bureaucracy to get electricity 500 metres away from a road! Spanish culture here is not keen on living in the countryside except for weekends. Thanks for being the fount of info on espanol.
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A great testiment to creative thinking and the lengths we are prepared to go to to recreate the comforts of home, which I know from past experience has the locals scratching their heads in disbelief!
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Indeed, we are considered strange. It’s mostly ‘other European Nationals’ living in the countryside. But the Spanish do have weekend Casas en el campo!
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Indeed they do, but don’t you find that they mostly head for the mountains in the summer to escape the heat?
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It’s Seville folk who come to our area to get into the countryside and it is cooler where we are but most have to go to the coast in August!
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Hi 🙂 Cute dog and pretty photos of the frost. 🙂 I think frost crystals are very interesting. I am happy it is spring now, though, and the flowers are starting to return.
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My friend’s dog and because I need to back in the UK often to be with family and friends here I keep postponing getting a dog. I miss both my dog and cat but am more free!
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