Aliens….

On April 21, 2014 By janeIn Extras, Majorca, PlantsLeave a comment

I don’t want to worry you….

But you know that scene in the first Alien film – the gut busting, stomach wrenching, ohmygodwhatthehelljusthappenedtoJohn Hurt moment – that had me scraping myself off the ceiling of the cinema the first time I saw it. Do you remember the way poor John had no idea that anything was wrong until his belly exploded….?

Well I’m sitting on my sofa nursing a vastly expanded waistline. And I’ve got a worrying feeling that I too may be about to explode. And while it might be all the chocolate I’ve eaten this weekend, I’m a little bit scared that there might be another more sinister explanation….

Because I was out in Puerto Pollenca for a few days last week. And there is something weird going on out there at the moment.

First off there’s the alien on our terrace….

I knew something was up last year. The Cycad, which has dutifully put on new growth each year, was behaving very strangely.

It appeared to be growing a head.

I told myself that it would all be fine by the time I came back after the winter. All that wierdness would have settled down and we would be the proud owners of a perky Cycad with a lovely new set of leaves.

…. But I was wrong.

What’s that all about……? I lay awake in the night and wondered about aliens invading my inner space.

Because it wasn’t just the Cycad….

There was also the spooky beeping….

We heard it the first night as we were going to bed. Sounded like the battery on someone’s fire alarm had gone flat. So piercing beep every few seconds for half an hour or so. And I’m beginning to wonder if earplugs might be the answer, because the owner of the house with the dodgy fire alarm is clearly not there. And we could be in for a long night.

But then the beeping stopped.

Ok – owner must be back, batteries replaced – we can all relax. I turn out the light and prepare for a good night’s sleep. And the beeping starts again. And then a while later it stops. And then starts again. And continues onning and offing throughout the night.

The next morning I heard it joining in with the dawn chorus. What was going on?

On our walk home from dinner in the port the following night, as we walked beside the water’s edge along Pine Walk, we heard the beeping again. And that was when we discovered that it was coming from somewhere above our heads, in a tall pine behind the villa on the corner as we turned away from the bay towards our house.

So we went straight home and we looked up ‘weird beeping in Puerto Pollenca’ on the internet. And you know what….

…. it’s a Scops Owl. Only eight inches high. It’s sitting up there in that tree. And it’s beeping. If you want to know what it sounds like click here

At first we thought it was calling to a mate. Because in the distance we could hear a faint reply. But then it hit us. It wasn’t another Scops Owl…. It was an echo….

So ok – the beeping is a lonely owl story. And the waist expansion is probably just down to overindulgence. But I’m keeping an eye on that Cycad….

Let them eat cake….

On October 25, 2013October 27, 2013 By janeIn Majorca, PlantsLeave a comment

You know that proverb ‘you can’t have your cake and eat it’? Well here’s a question…. who says?

And another question…. why not?

I mean for crying out loud, you can’t get away from cakes at the moment, whether it’s baking them, eating them, having them, trying to stay away from them. And I bet you a tray of chocolate butterfly cakes with butter cream icing that with all the cake making going on at the moment there are plenty of people out there who are having and eating at the same time. No matter who says you can’t….

And you know something….. I reckon I’m one of them.

I came to this decision a couple of nights ago as I sat in a short sleeved shirt at 7.30 in the evening, guzzling a vast gin and tonic, with chilled out music wafting through the airwaves around me, looking out across the millpond water of Pollenca Bay. So Graham and I turn to each and grin and say ‘how lucky are we?’ And that’s when we have the ‘cake and eat it’ discussion. Cos someone has said to him that his trouble is that he wants to ‘have his cake and eat it.’ And after giving this a great deal of thought he has decided that his reaction is…. yeah, too damn right, you bet I do!

And this week we reckon we got it just about right.

We weren’t supposed to be there. I was meant to be hard at work, nose to the grindstone, garden designing my butt off. He was meant to be hard at work, nose to the grindstone, doing whatever it is he does when he isn’t having a wonderful time with me. But thanks to me putting my course on hold and him deciding that there is more to life than playing it safe, we booked last minute flights and went out to shut the house up for the winter.

Except for it was still summer out there. The weather forgot to change and we had blue skies and temperatures in the eighties. So you see what I mean – cake, have, eat. Simples.

So Pollenca this week was chocolate and coffee and carrot – all my favourite cakes rolled into one. Some had pink icing….

Some had red….

Some orange….

Some even had blue…. There were multi coloured cakes…. And cakes with no icing at all….

And I’m going to leave you with this image. Spotted yesterday as we walked along Pine Walk beside the water’s edge. You can’t see them all but there were actually three dogs in the boat with this rather gorgeous girl.Who knows where the four of them were going….But I thought you would like to share them with me. Because they’re fab. And when things are as fab as this, having and eating at the same time are…. well it’s obvious isn’t it…. they’re a piece of cake.

Where would you be…. Part III

On September 15, 2013December 14, 2014 By janeIn Favourite Places, Majorca, Most Popular Posts, My Favourite Posts10 Comments

Phew….

I’m back….

Back to earth, feet on the ground (I think!) after time away and stuff to sort out when I got home. And the long hot summer of 2013 feels like it’s drawing to a close. Might have drawn to a close already if the rain this week is anything to go by.

And you know what I say…. Bring on the autumn. Because the great thing about contrast is the way it allows you to appreciate the differences. Between the seasons, the moods, the good, the bad and the ugly. And one of the wonderful things about a really good summer is the way it leaves you ready and waiting for a really good autumn.

But I can’t let this wonderful summer go by without a last post dedicated to its fabulousness. And it’s another one of my ‘where would you be’ tributes to the most ‘where would you be’ place of all the ‘where would you be’ places I know.

My family started going to Pollenca in 1984. It was my parents who first went there and they liked it so much they went back. So then we went with them and the whole thing took off. Things out there have changed a bit over the past thirty years – mostly good things: the beach in the port has got bigger, the centre of the old town has been pedestrianised, buildings have been cleaned up and rebuilt, restaurants have opened and closed. And we’ve changed our allegiances as we’ve discovered more places to go and things to do.

But there is one thing that hasn’t changed. There is one place we have always gone to, and still always go to. And that is the bar at the Ila d’Or hotel. Three generations of my family have sat under the umbrellas with a drink in their hands, gazed out across the blue water of Pollenca Bay, and been at peace with the world.

We’ve gone with the children when they were small, and they’ve swum in the sea while we sat under the pines and ate calamari rings and french fries. We’ve drunk our coffee there in the mornings, we’ve eaten toasted sandwiches and drunk beer there at lunchtime, we’ve had a last thing on the way home night cap there. We’ve taken friends there, presenting it to them with an ‘aren’t we clever to have this on our doorstep’ flourish. We’ve laughed there, sometimes we’ve cried there.

And the thing is that it’s not because it’s really cool, or serves the best cocktails, or is where the beautiful people hang out. Because it isn’t any of these things.

It’s because it’s not any of these things that we love it so much. It’s tucked away at the far end of Pine Walk so most people who go to Puerto Pollenca don’t know it’s there. To get to it we leave our house and walk the hundred and fifty yards or so to the edge of the sea.

Turn left away from the centre of the port, stroll along Pine Walk. And there it is waiting for us.

The hotel is charming, easy, slightly old fashioned, in the same way that the family hotels we used to go and stay as children were. The waiters stay the same, same faces greeting us, same drinks appearing in front of us as soon as we rock up.

The view is always amazing….

Whichever way you look.

You should be there when the sun is going down…..

And there’s no better place for cloud contemplation….

So we sit down by the edge of the sea, and we pick up our drinks, and we look around us and we say……

Where would you rather be?

So what happened to garden design?

On July 14, 2013December 14, 2014 By janeIn Majorca, Most Popular Posts5 Comments

Hs anyone out there noticed that this blog is drifting away from the original subject matter? (Does anyone out there care?) Gardens, gardening, garden design….. That was where this whole thing started. So what’s gone wrong?

Well I’m still right on it with the whole garden design vibe. But there are other things out there that just seem to want me to write about them. So…. I’m going to.

Twenty seven years ago, when I first started going to Majorca it was all sombreros and sangria. Magaluf’s reputation for sun, sea and twenty four hour drinking cast a long shadow, and even now there are people who raise an eyebrow when I tell them where I like to go for my holidays. Which is fine by me. The fewer people who know about the bits of Majorca that aren’t all about nightclubs and bars (which is most of the island) the better.

The northern corner of the island, where we have our house, grows in style and substance year by year. Signs are that other people are catching on to what a special place it is. And I’m getting rather worried that our secret won’t be a secret for much longer.

A big cause for concern is that the best home interiors shop in the whole world ever just happens to be up the road from us in Pollenca. It’s called Mestre Paco and it’s an Aladdin’s Cave of totally fabulous furniture and fabrics. I go there regularly – regardless of whether I need to buy anything – and wander from room to room, drinking in the gorgeousness, and wishing I had the money to buy everything I see there.

Things are displayed with effortless style. As if they just happened to come together without anybody really noticing how it happened.

Round every corner there is something to die for, another one of those ‘I want one of those’ items that makes me want to throw out everything I’ve ever bought for my house and start all over again.

The friends who come to stay look rather bemused when I tell them they’ve got to go to my ‘favourite shop’ while they’re out there. Especially when they find out I’ve dragged them off to look at furniture. But once they’ve been there they join the fold and become converts.

Mestre Paco rules ok……

Where would you be?

On July 11, 2013December 14, 2014 By janeIn Majorca, Most Popular Posts, My Favourite Posts24 Comments

You know those places…. there aren’t many of them…. The places that are top of the list when somebody says to you where would you rather be? Well where I’d rather be is wandering along Pine Walk in Puerto Pollenca.

And when I find myself somewhere I wouldn’t rather be. Like stuck on the M25 in a traffic jam. Or wide awake in the middle of the night. Then I take myself on an imaginary walk.

I open the front door of my house and step out into bright sunlight. Past the red hibiscus by the side of the path, out through the gate, and I turn left and walk between whitewashed apartment buildings. Wave at Tony as I pass the little supermarket, that sells everything from lilos to local wine, cross the road and take the turning that leads down towards the Ila d’Or hotel.

But at the end I don’t turn left towards the hotel. Instead I turn right, taking the path that runs behind the old stone villa with the shady garden of pine and palm trees.

Only a matter of fifteen metres and I turn left again. And no matter how many times I do this walk, (which is a lot), I always have to stop. Because here, framed by the wall to the left of me and the stone building on my right, is the best view in the world. The blue water of Pollenca Bay, stretching out in front of me like it knew I was coming and has been waiting for me.

Pine Walk. Half a mile of pathway that meanders under the ancient pine trees, along the edge of the bay, into the centre of the port of Pollenca. I walk by the edge of water so clear I can see fish darting away from my shadow. Past the graceful old villas owned by the Spanish families who can be seen sitting out on warm nights, gossiping and laughing together, their children playing by the edge of the sea.

In recent years some of the villas have been crumbling, the paintwork on the wooden shutters cracked and fading, their balconies propped up by acros. But the past couple of years have seen a transformation – those villas that have been left to decay have had a facelift. They’ve been restored to utter gorgeousness.

When the Spanish do style they really do style. Elegant, understated, fabulous.

As I walk I get a stiff neck craning, trying to peer in and see what new wonders have been introduced while I’ve been away. Things might be tough in mainland Spain but you’d never think it on this island.

From where I stand the horseshoe bay seems totally enclosed, more lake than sea. The water stays shallow for metres out, tempting even as unenthusiastic a swimmer as me to paddle, sand reassuringly firm under my feet, until I take a deep breath and plunge forwards. And you know what…. it’s not cold at all. Of course it isn’t. What did I tell you? It’s blissfully wonderfully warm.

I know I’m coming to the end of Pine Walk when I reach the first of the restaurants and hotels that look out across the bay. But I don’t stop. I keep going until I get to Cappucino. The bar that opened a few years ago in the old Sis Pins hotel. Cafe con leche, (or, if it’s that time of day, Gin and Tonics so big I could swim in them), chill out jazz playing softly, and a view to die for.

To quote a couple of Irish doctors who shared the walk to Base Camp with me: ‘Where would you be?”

Old Dog. New Tricks

Category: Majorca

Aliens….

Let them eat cake….

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