About us

Hello. Hubby and I are an English couple who live with our adult son and 3 dogs in a beautiful rural area of Catalonia surrounded by mountains in an off grid eco friendly house that we both designed and with a lot of help from our son pretty much built ourselves.  We say pretty much because we won't lie to you, we did have what you might call occasional help, (though sometimes it was more like hindrance thanks to folk not always telling the truth about their skillset and our discovering they weren't the mastercraftsmen they claimed to be, with the exclusion of Caleb a man who has now become a firm friend whom we trust to do as he says and what's more can do it without any fuss, but we digress). 

We first fell in love with this place just over 11 years ago and are still as much in love as ever.  Ahhhh!  No seriously, on days when we start to become jaded and tired of the farming life (I know, how can that happen, well sometimes no matter how perfect your life is, you start to want something a little different) we take ourselves up onto the roof and just take a look around. 



The views are truly breathtaking (even on a rainy dull day, which are few and far between, lol). 
We then take in a deep breath, close our eyes and listen.  To the silence.  A silence that honestly sometimes deafens you it seems so complete.  And yet, if you just take a moment to listen you can actually hear a multitude of sounds that all make up the tranquillity of this place.  The birds singing, crickets chirping, chicadas calling, the wind in the trees, the sound of our little water fountain and maybe the odd sound of a tractor working down in the valley.  It sounds noisy when I list it like this but honestly it makes up the silence that we have come to love and appreciate and what's more cherish.  Shortly after taking those brief moments to recharge our batteries truth is we are reborn.  
Is it paradise?  NO! But for us it comes pretty close.  
In total we own around 8 acres (40,000 sq metres).  We cultivate two cash crops they being Olives, for oil, and harvested in the wintertime.  Followed by Carobs which are harvested in the summer time, think Diabetic Chocolate and you have one of the many uses for Carobs.
At present our garden is a work in progress but it is our aim to grow as much of our own food as possible in the very near future, as well as raise our own livestock.  We can think of nothing better than knowing what has been put onto the salad you are eating for lunch (nothing but organic for us) or what has been fed to the meat you have for dinner (again organic).  Our goal is to raise animals ethically, organically as possible and to accord them the respect and kindness they deserve. 

A view of our house from behind our sundial garden, designed and built by our son. 





The arches you can see below are not just for decoration although we do think they look rather nice. They do in fact have a function that is most useful. They actually carry an aquaduct to the balsa you see on the left hand corner of the picture.  The aqueduct and balsa were both conceived and designed by our son. He did a great job, don't you think?.  

When it rains precious water instead of most just simply running off the land is collected from the roof and is carried along the aquaduct.

To a large water storage tank (Balsa) which is then used to irrigate the land and garden during the dry summer months.


The Vegetable Garden at the beginning of the growing season.


And a couple of weeks into it. 




Our son as I have previously mentioned Christopher designed and built this sundial garden for us, it's so tall because he wanted to make our lives easier when it came to weeding, bless.   Shortly after we planted it with loads of different flowers in the hope it would come alive in a riot of colour.  


We got what we hoped for.


Even on a rainy evening the colours brighten up the garden. 


For many alfresco dining is a real draw when living in Spain and for us it was no different.  The thought of spending an evening dining with friends listening to soft music or the crickets chirping in the garden sounded just perfect.  However, because it is so warm and the local bugs being so gregarious we soon learnt that our friends were not the only guests we had to cater for.  From Fireflies to Moths to Beetles we had them all turn up.  And what with us being none too keen on any of them buzzing around us when we are eating we quickly added a fly free area in the shape of this terrace to our home. 
Now we can enjoy a peaceful, insect free dining experience with the added bonus of the local orchestra of crickets, toads and at the right time of year, Nightingales singing to you but not joining in, as you eat.  
Perfect.

Now your probably wondering what gives with the window bars, well in Spain it is a requirement if you want any kind of house insurance that you have them, so after buying them in Saudi Arabia (where my hubby used to work) and shipping them over our son Christopher along with a friend put them up for us.  After at time you don't notice they are there and don't hinder the views whatsoever.

Which means we can enjoy our ever present views in comfort lol!