The Long, Hot Summer of Sheep

Not my sheep.  I didn't know whose, but I learned a thing of two about these beasts over the course of the summer.  First, they are not as stupid as they appear.  When it comes to getting at lush, green vegetation while all around is dry, they are pretty determined and resourceful.  Second, they are prepared to take reckless leaps down vertical drops of up to four metres to grab a meal of bean plants and citrus leaves.  And third, once they know where to come, they are very difficult to keep away.

So it went all summer; periodic stripping of the vegetable garden and trees, hasty erecting of fences, dawn vigils to chase off the intruders, lightning raids from unexpected quarters.  And, ahhh, a fatally injured young sheep.  Souvlaki, shwarma, curry, and meat to share around.

The odd thing was, no-one appeared to know who they belonged to.  On one occasion I managed to get them penned up - all except the ram that is - and called the policia local.  They said they'd call the appropriate department and call me back.  They didn't, and meanwhile the flock escaped to join the ram, who was happily browsing my peach trees.  Incidentally I learned that this can be quite a dangerous animal; the origin of the verb to ram something.  Not one to turn your back on in this vertical terrain.  Eventually they did enough damage to the garden of some better connected neighbours that the owner was identified and the animals securely fenced in.

The upshot is that I got a good fence round the core area of pip and stone fruit, citrus and veg garden.  I didn't actually lose any trees, though the growth of some was set back a bit.  And I have almost enough individual tree fences for the figs I plan to plant this winter, outside the fenced area.  Since they did not eat aubergine plants (too spiny), I got to experiment a considerable amount with the king of vegetables - this year I just had the Mallorquin black ones, but ten plants produces a lot of fruit.

In the tree department, all the new pip and stone from slow food did really well, as did the figs.  A few figs sourced elsewhere, mainly because they were cheap, were a mixed bag, some failing to sprout at all.  We even had some fruit from the coll de dama blanca planted last year.  A problem on the lower terrace though: the cyprus trees are proving tough competition for the citrus I planted, sending up roots where the water is.  I know this because my two avocados failed to survive February's freeze and, when I dug them up, there were the cyprus roots.  I also noticed that the citrus seemed to be getting thirsty quicker than in their first year.  Not at all sure what to do with this terrace.  I thinned the cyprusses, which looks better, but don't want to remove them as they look good and block the view of some ugly houses on the Muleta hillside.  As a windbreak they are ridiculous, tagasaste would be much better, but they do look classical.  Will have to think about this one.