Today we were weeding the aromatic herbs! We set off on the trail to the garden around 9am and the half hour walk too us until 10:15am. We may have been distracted by the beautiful commute and a detour to the spring. There were butterflies everywhere, enjoying the warm stones and the juicy wildflowers.

Today’s commute

At the spring – where Alinya village water comes from

When we finally arrived at work, we thought how lucky we were to have this as our workplace for the day.

At work

Dave working hard

We set to work on the first plot of thyme, digging out the flowers and grasses growing up between the herbs. After about an hour and a half, we stopped for some cake and surveyed our progress. It wasn’t looking good for an afternoon finish! We had done the smallest and least overgrown of the five plots at it was almost midday.

The strategy after lunch was for me to get to work on the lavender and oregano, which didn’t look too overgrown. Dave would get going on the lower plots, which were more weeds than herbs!

By the time I’d got the worst of the weeds out of the top three plots and Dave had cleared a good chunk of one of the lower ones, we were in need of a break and some more water. We headed back down to the spring to fill up the bottles and cool off, then planned to go back to work. But the weather had other ideas!

We walked back to the plots as a few drops of rain were starting to come down. By the time we got back it was properly raining and we sheltered under the pine tree to have some food and wait out the weather. Then a cold wind blew in from the south, where a dark cloud was looming. A rumble of thunder came to us on the wind and we packed up to head down.

Stormy walk home

Just a few minutes later and it was raining heavily – or is that hail?! Huge hailstones were bouncing down, smacking off our raincoats and drenching our legs. It wasn’t too cold though and we quite enjoyed our walk back. I even went barefoot for a bit once we were back on the road. It feels great to walk barefoot in the rain, I can recommend it!

Across scree slopes

Back towards the village

We got back home soaked through and had to have our cold bucket showers in the torrent (much less pleasant than it usually is on a hot, sunny afternoon!). Then we dried off and made hot chocolate and felt a lot better. Time for a yoga class before dinner to loosen up those ham strings.

The chilly water we shower in

All afternoon the rain and thunder carried on and even when it stopped in the evening, it was still humid and the sky was moody. Our laundry is still drenched even though we hung it inside. So different from a few days ago!

Tomorrow I’m not looking forward to wearing my wet clothes, but we are looking forward to spending the day with Aleix talking about vultures!

– Anna