Local stone was used extensively to rebuild the high stone wall which surounds the house and garden, and to build a large external chimney to match the old farmhouse.
The old 'finca' is preserved as it was built with some
re-roofing with the original tiles.
Although currently usedas a store-room, it's old living room, with a log fire roaring up the chimney, has proved popular with guests at our annual Bonfire Night party. (There is ample parking for the 100 guests who attend). The old house could well be used as offices, workshop, storeroom, or indeed to provide additional accommodation.
A large tiled patio of 80m² joins the old house to the new, and a 6m², grapevine and bright bougainvilla covered, pergola provides shade between . An old animal pen of the old house is our log-store, and the old pigsty, although no longer roofed, has a good floor of old sandstone slabs and adds to our storage area.
Two large pomegranate trees and a vine receive rainwater from the roof of the old house and flourish. The vine produces about thirty bunches of sweet, black grapes each year without any special care, and the pomegranates are delicious.
There are other old pomegranate trees elsewhere on the land and we have planted another on our lower terrace,
which is our orchard. We now have a good harvest of
apricots, figs, pears, nispero and apples. We saw our first peaches and paraguays last year. The olive tree we planted produces juicy black olives in increasing quantities each year.
Another cactus plant, trailing over our wall from our neighbours's house, produces huge white flowers, sometimes as many as thirty at a time. They open one evening and, sadly, die the next day. We have planted palms, yuccas and other trees, some of which are now as high as the house. On one rocky outcrop we have planted local pines. One mature pine on our land givesoff the most lovely perfume at times. We have
four old carob trees; we give the beans to our
neighbour for his goats.