You remember those times I prayed for rain and lamented the fact that drought was killing everything. You do; good, but forget that, we now have too much, stop praying. Just when the U.K. is sweltering in the hottest Easter for decades, we in Spain who normally laugh at the British Rain are suffering storms and terrible rain. The weather system we are currently afflicted with is called a “gota fria”in Spain (cold drop). This phenomenon normally only arrives every 10 years or so and causes considerable damage.
Most of our famous Easter processions have had to be cancelled, local towns are cut off, trees have blown over, roads are blocked, airports are closed, my neighbours roof has sprung a leak, other friends houses are flooded. But mostly I am fed up being stuck indoors and I am worried about the garden. Cruella (my wife) says I am being selfish but she hasn’t got seedlings to worry about.
20th April. Things I have been doing lately:
🚑 Saving my seedlings. The disaster of the Gota Fria has destroyed my little mini greenhouse where I raise seedlings. I had to rush out in the pouring rain to move them into our Games Room. The first photo below shows my tattered little greenhouse being battered by the storm. The second photo shows the seedlings sitting at the door of the Games Room looking out and contemplating the storm. It’s not ideal but Cruella won’t give up her bedroom which was my first choice.
🌳 Assessing fallen trees. We have a wild wood garden where we have guest accommodation. So if ever you visit that’s where you will be staying. The wood is mainly Mediterranean Pines which are quite hardy, but unfortunately all that drought then followed by torrential rain has loosened the soil and at least one of the trees has blown over. There may be others but it is not quite safe enough to go down there. I tried to persuade Cruella to go down and have a look, but she selfishly refused. The photo shows the fallen Pine luckily it fell that way and not into the guest accommodation.
💨 Rescuing the potting bench. In addition to the damaged mini greenhouse, the homeless seedlings and the fallen tree, the potting bench plants got battered. When I emerged bravely this morning all of the plants on the potting bench had fallen over, swapped places or were just drowning in excess water. The photo below shows the rearranged cuttings and seedlings. The rain is due to continue for a few days so tomorrow I will stand all the pots on raised wire mesh to ensure they drain as best they can.
💦 Water, water everywhere. The one saving grace is that we have plenty of water. My big water tank and all my large water butts are full to overflowing. Even my emergency system of dustbins and boxes are full up. Hopefully this will last me through till early July. Even the swimming pool has been overflowing and I have had to drain it back twice today already. The first photo below shows some of my new water supplies, whilst the second shows the swimming pool ready to overflow again. I don’t want to worry you but it is pouring again, we may need an Arc!
Spanish Garden 
I love the idea of Redwood stumps providing other uses when the tree is gone.
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Those are exquisite guest accommodations! Seriously though, my outhouse was built on top of a rotten redwood stump with a cavity that extended deeper than I could see into the ground. I built my shower inside another burned out redwood stump. A third hollow burned out stump was wide enough and hollow enough that I considered making into a guest room. When I need to go to Beverly Hills (in the Los Angeles region) I stay with my colleague in Mid City Los Angeles, where his guest accommodations are on the roof of the garage. It is SO rad!
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