May 10th, menorca

It’s a rainy Sunday afternoon (first rain in over a month) and I am attempting to make marmalade.  This is a first for me so it’s a grand experiment.  I noticed on one of my walks that one of my neighbours (who is stuck in the UK unable to come here) had a Seville orange tree groaning with fruit, and it just seemed such a waste… So I emailed him and he graciously gave me permission to pick them… I’ve used but a fraction of the oranges – if it works I will make more – unless it proves too complicated, which is quite possible…

The rain is blissful – it started yesterday afternoon, about an hour of gentle mizzle just to soften the earth, then this morning just before dawn it began in earnest, but still pretty gentle, pretty much straight down, with pauses to let it sink in and not flood – the land and gardens are supremely happy (I have not gone out to check to see if the huerto plants are still upright but I can only hope – the tomato plants already have flowers, which will not be so happy, but hopefully they will survive…)

We have a cleaned and repaired cisterna, and a new water filtration system, including an osmosis filter, a UV light and a special drinking water tap at the kitchen sink… Oh the joy of good water, and the prospect of not having to buy all those plastic bottles!  I watered the garden to a fare-thee-well on Tuesday, to drain the cisterna as far as I could (about a foot and a half of water left), and the following morning Sebastian and I spent two hours bailing out the remaining water by hand – oy! Then he cleaned it with a pressure hose, let it dry, painted it with a mixture of cal and cement, let it dry, we refilled it, bled the pipes, and voila… the miracle was that he figured out how to keep the water running in the house during the 3 days of work by running a hose from the neighbours’ house into our system – very clever, and it made such a difference – 3 days without water would have been very tricky for sis…. And we are now finally drinking our own water again, after decades off not being able to – hallelujah!

All things being equal, on Wednesday next week we empty the coach house and paint it – another 3-day job (hopefully not more) – and then all the major jobs will be done.  I have decided that on May 22nd, the day I was due to fly to CA for BIRD rehearsals and performances, I will go into the studio and spend the next 6 weeks – when I would have been working on the piece in CA – really finishing it.  Seems like a good idea.  Hopefully I can do it… I will certainly try… I am still totally enamoured of The Park, all I want to do is sculpt trees, but my shoulders and hands are starting to object very strongly and I need to listen to them. if I ever want to be a musician again…

On May 1st I started swimming – bracing but wonderful… “Hooray hooray the 1st of May, outdoor swimming starts today” is the new updated mantra…. the huerto grows apace, as do the malas hierbas – this rain is meant to be over this evening, so tomorrow I will do a massive weeding – insh’allah…

They say that as of tomorrow we will be able to start socializing in groups of up to 10 people (with the usual 2m distancing) so maybe we will have a few friends over for an outdoor lunch – wow… I think the re-opening of everything is happening too quickly, but money talks and they desperately want to reboot the economy… I would prefer that we stay locked down until the end of May, then very slowly open up to maybe letting folks in from outside by August, but then I’m not in charge… Also, as long as we’re locked down I don’t have to think about what the hell I’m going to do…

I thank the heavens every day for the garden and the land… and my bicycle… and my sister, who in spite of all her difficulties is at least reasonably agreeable company for the most part, when I see her which is not really that often (she spends so much time in her cave) and when we’re not spatting… and tho’ I do pretty much everything both in and around the house, she does do dishes occasionally, and cooks the occasional meal, and when she is not moaning about the pain, she is at least decent company – otherwise I’d be going stir crazy I think, being here completely solo…. and I love her to pieces… family is family…  and talking of which, so far the news from the kids in CA is good, ditto the tribe in NYC – other than Hal of course, the big, gaping hole… folk seem to be adjusting to music making online, with more or less ease – wish I could, but I am still stuck in the analog world… so I am “doing a Morris” for now – creating an environment for me to work in…