Luis here:As you may know, Ian returned to the UK and after spending nearly three weeks will be returning to La Pasera on Monday accompanied by his dad, Gordon. During those weeks, I have kept myself occupied with different things, gardening, mosaic making, chair restoration and improving the soil structure in the garden in preparation for some serious sorting of the borders which have been used in a way as a holding bed up to now. I have also enjoyed some nice local walks and at times I was joyned by different people from the village. Wentworth and Gawber continue to bring presents- some more pleasant than others.
We have been doing some gardening to encourage a greater number and variety of wildlife. It was nice to see ladybirds in the vegetable plot for the first time this Summer, the butterflies and moths have also been present in greater variety and numbers, the drastic decrease in the cricket population appeared to coincide with us starting to create and alter the garden but baby crickets were seen again this Summer, the glow worms have been spotted more regularly and as late as the beginning of October. The birds are coming closer to the house as the bog garden gets established and acts as a bridge have way up the garden. We are hoping to create a pond in the near future to encourage amphibians, we already enjoy the presence of toads.
As Autumn is well under way, Asturias is experiencing the beginning of the apple harvest to make the famous cider- I recently harvested the Russet apples and intend to make an apple tart to welcome Ian and Gordon- the recipy for the tart is one that Rita gave me and it takes 2 kg of apples, delicious!
In the near future I will let you know about my organic home made pesticides and fertilisers.
The weather remains very pleasant with temperatures reaching the mid twenties in the middle of the day. I hope that you all enjoye the Autumn light and colours.
One of the photos shows the glow from a glow worm
