We have moved

Our new home

Last week we finally moved from our villa in Las Negras to a little cortijo near Alhabia in the Alpujarra Almeriense about 30km inland from Almeria City.  The villa in Las Negras was too large for us.. Too much housework and too expensive to run with high rates, electricity and water charges plus  a mortgage. Besides our previous properties were cortijos and we wanted to get back to rural life.

Entrance to the house

Naturally we have been very busy over the last few weeks preparing the move and settling in so there have not been many posts on this blog recently but now we can start again with some photos of our new home.

Front terrace right

Front terrace left

The move was traumatic. The hired a large van with driver from Almeria city which was late turning up but at least the pair of strong young men to do all the lifting, our neighbour Gilberto and a hippy friend of his Daniel turned up on time on time at 0830. All the large stuff was accommodated in the big van and the rest in a medium size VW  van we borrowed from another neighbour, Davide with Gilberto as driver. There was still some stuff left over after we had filled both vans, including Digby’s ancient, battered, squeaky wheelbarrow which he insisted on taking. Daniel who lives in a tiny caravan in the municipal carpark went home to fetch his van which turned out to be an antiquated little Citroen, painted pink and white, in the very last stages of terminal decrepitude. Everything went in and the wheelbarrow was tied on to the roof., where it reposed in splendour. Meanwhile we loaded our three cats ,who were creating in their baskets, and the four dogs into our car. The cat baskets were on the back seat, big old Rubi stretched along the floor in front of the seat and the three smaller dogs, Blanquita, Daisy and Bobby jumped into the hatchback.

Swimming pool towards our olive groves

Shady spot between house and pool

Eventually we set off, in a slow-moving convoy, and must have made a strange sight on the motorway, with everyone overtaking. When we came off the motorway and reached the winding mountain road, we had a queue of impatient drivers behind us. It took a little over an hour to reach our new home and we had the vans unloaded buy 1430.

Living room

Bedroom

Daniel turned out to be a real treasure and volunteered to return the next day to sort out the positioning of furniture, etc. He did so well that there was even time to get the pictures up so that everything looked nice and homely after just 24 hours.

Annexe

Chicken run

The cortijo in Alhabia comprises the main cottage which is 85 square metres and has 2 bedrooms, living area and bathroom, an annexe of 30 square metres, large tool shed, greenhouse and chicken run. The chicken house came complete with 5 hens, a cockerel and 2 peacocks.

Oranges and olives

Gardens and terraces surround the house and annexe and there is a decent swimming pool. The rest of the land is planted with olive trees and all manner of fruit trees.

Fruit from today

Here is some fruit from today – green figs, black figs, grapes, mulberries, a strange fruit that seems to be a cross between an apple and pear and almonds.

Peppers

Tomatoes

We also have peppers and tomatoes from the greenhouse.