Malaga Trip: Part 3, Alcazaba The Hanging Gardens

Seeing the lush gardens high over the city and the irrigation system built into the fortress floors themselves made me feel like I was seeing The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the original 7 wonders of the world.

Building this place, they obviously had a plan for every inch of its gardens, so that every lil plant was watered by its irrigation system run by nothing other than rain and gravity! It is so simple, it is brilliant, but it proves my original impression that the plan for the Alcazaba was random was wrong!

See how high up we are? And you can see it goes up even higher behind me.

Irrigation crevices in the floor of the entire place bring the rain water down, down...

...And spreads it around...

...Even down steps...

...To water beautiful gardens...

...Trees...

...And reflection pools...

...To curve around John...

...And, er, fill bathtubs (?)...

...then flow through Pan's Labyrinth...

...to the Secret Garden! This was behind a giant gate we could not get past. It looks much wilder than the rest, eh?

We both just loved this place; it is so beautiful. We were only able to spend an hour here, and we had to literally run through it to make the bus home. Hopefully, one of our visitors from the States will give us an excuse to go back!

(hint hint)

John The Liberator!

The other day John came home from work early in the morning and came through the side door. It is a tricky door, and he didn't close it all the way.

So come 10:30, when I got up, I couldn't understand why it was so QUIET!

I went into the laundryroom to feed the kitties and the laundry door was wide open!

I almost hyperventilated, but when I peaked out the door, both cats were walking up the driveway, apparently ready to come back in. I am guessing they were out for a while if they were happy to just walk back into the house.

Thanks goodness they have collars on!

Now Mago keeps asking if he can go out that door!

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One thing they did while out and about was roll all over my Catnip seedlings, squishing them into the patio. *sigh*

Catnip Garden

Before I could stop him, my gardner planted all new flowers in the front and back yard. I am fine with flowers in the front, but I prefer herbs in the back yard.

#1) I just like herbs better than flowers.
#2) Less bees where I sit.
#3) Less problems with the animals eating them.

I wanted to plant all catnip in the back flower garden. I have been looking for planta de gatos as it is known here, but can't find it. So I decided to start it from seed. I have never grown anything from seed in my life, but thought I would give it a try. I have some good luck here.

Well, now I have these tiny lil Catnip sprouts coming up! I love them!!! It is so rewarding to see plants thrive. They are in a place the cats do not go, so they are safe for now. I am hoping by the time these guys are ready to be planted, the flowers in the back will "mysteriously" die.

New Flowers and New Car

Sorry for the long absense. Internet troubles continue. No end in sight, so I am braving that as I type and upload pictures that it will not toss me off.

As you know we finally got a new car. Well, it is broken now. No go.
The alternator needs to be replaced.
Horse and buggy- here I come!!

Our gardner likes to plant flowers and things without letting us know at all what his plans are. Suddenly, we will go outside and notice something new. When he planted these babies in the front, I had no idea they were there, and they were so small, I did not notice them for a couple days and so I did not water them! Ooops! Well, they came back, so no harm done.

Hydrangea

I bought this plant when we first got here, and it had big gorgeous blooms on it. When they had died, I figured I had killed the plant. I am not very good with flowers, but I cut all the dead stuff off and found a tiny new bloom!!!

A Different Kind of Garden

One of the new blogs I have been checking out, Crafty Green Poet, has a post today with pictures from a Green-grown garden in Edinburgh.

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Look HERE to see photos. I thought the greenhouse made from recycled bottles was cool, but the last photo (with a computer monitor used as a planter) is the best!

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The imaginations of people are amazing to me sometimes.

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Garden Kitties

The kitties have a great time outside with eachother. They attack eachother's leashes, eat weeds, and chase bugs.

Even Enigma gets to play!

Panther Kitty stalks his prey.

Both of them love to roll on the patio, but Mago is the one who picks up all the dirt!

See all the photos HERE.

My Last Lily

From what I understand, I am supposed to seperate the bulbs? Does anyone have any info or a site for dummies they can share with me? These are the first flowers I have ever grown, and now they are just stalks.

Moo loves smelling flowers. He is like me. He heads straight for the herb garden and munches on some basil and sits and sniffs the lavender. It has been a trick or two keeping the herbs and lawn and front flower garden well watered. The heat is getting to us all!

My Lilies!

I have never planted flowers before (only herbs), so I was hopeful but not holding my breath on actually seeing these babies bloom when I planted them. That was before we got the new grass, and I think some of them were damaged when the yard was hoed and tilled. But most of the bulbs came up!! Funny how some stalks have 1 flower and some have up to 5! I am so proud of them, and between these guys and the herb garden, my back yard smells like heavan!

See all the pictures HERE.

The Lavender

Today's Thoughts

Well, the kitties are getting along better. Moo even tried to play with Mago this afternoon, but Mago wouldn't run so Moo could chase him. Wonder Why??? (hehe)

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Mago has his first vet appointment on Friday along with Nima who needs his heart listened to again. He has been doing ok. He can sleep ok at night, but he still snores really loud and has attacks through out the day.

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John and I have more than grown out of our DVD case. We have enough to fill 2 cases like the one we have. I like to have movies and seasons of some things, but I hate to have them displayed- like books. They are not as cool looking as books. They just look like clutter to me. I would love to throw the lot of them in a closet, but that's impossible, as I seem to do that with everything else, and all the closets are full.

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I was sitting on the lawn today and smelling my backyard: lilies and herbs. It smells so heavenly. I love it when Moo goes out to the garden and comes back smelling like Basil and Lavender!! I just want to stuff my face in his fur--something I don't recomend, by the way ;0)

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Hope you are all enjoying Summer as well.

Surprise!

John brought home flowers!

(No, he was not in trouble!)

Happy Spring!

Brand New Yard!

Our old grass.

First, they hoed all the grass away. Little carpet pieces of new grass.

Along with Spring, most of my lilies have pushed up and are growing tall, and crazy rain storms have been keeping my herbs happy. Also, we had our front and back yard sodded with new, fluffy grass pieces. It looks like carpet.

It is so clean, I don't want the dog to go on it!

It looks gorgeous and most of our neighbors still have all the crabgrass stuff-eww! We are definately the envy of the street. People want to get it, but the waiting list is 8 months long. Luckily, the people who were here before us, put in the order, then moved suddenly, because they had another baby. Yeah us!

Now we just have to keep it alive. It needs to be watered everynight through summer.

New Grass w/ Herb and Lily Garden.

Front Yard Grass and Flower Garden

Herbs and Grass

My new herb garden.

Rosemary, Marjoram, Lavander, Parsley, Basil, Purple Basil, and Thyme.

I am going to put a bird bath in the middle, and bordering around both edges of the dirt circle. Those were all the herbs they had at the garden place here

(which is the most massive plant place I have ever seen.

It is almost an amusement park for gardneners).

I wanted Catnip, Oregano, Sage, and maybe something I have never grown before. Hopefully, they will have more. I left some room for maybe 4 more plants- depending on how big they get.

The other night, John stood in the middle while I ran around and squished the plants a lil. The smell was so strong and yummy!! The basil is especially fragrant.

I do not know if you can tell, but our "lawn" is only crabgrass and weeds.

The housing office just called today (right now actually) to say there has been a work order to sod it with real grass for a year. So they want to start tomarrow.

I am a lil scared they may ruin my lilies and herbs. I would just cry!!! I have 9 lily plants coming up right now. The big ones are probably over 7 inches.

Lil lily plants on the right

Sunday Seven

Or Monday Seven, if you will.

This week is the Monday Seven List of Did Ya Knows

Did ya know:

1) I start school tomarrow night?

2) Rota is infested with Magpie birds and rollypolly bugs (or is that just my house)?

3) Third and fifth gear can be (and by me ARE) used interchangably?

4) I have over 1000 hits on my blog and have two comments by strangers who were interested in a post?

5) Hockey's regular season is almost over?

6) I hoed a big circle in my backyard for an herb garden (the herbs go in tomarrow-yay) and have the blisters to prove it (I am hard core when it come to gardening-haha)?

7) Nima has an appointment tomarrow for his breathing problems (wish us luck)?

Well, now ya know!

Spring Marches On

Front Yard

When we first moved into this house, the flowers in the front yard were tiny and widely spaced. Now thaey are so fluffy, you can hardly see the dirt between them anymore. They were put in by our gardener, so I don not know what any of them are, but I am pretty sure there is a small rose plant at the very end. It has thorns, so that is my guess.


They are going to get much, much larger than this, but I am so happy I have even been able to keep them alive. I have never groen flowers of any kind before.


In the 2 front windows (which are bedroom windows) there are flower boxes. Those flowers I picked. I have never had window boxes before either. So wish them luck.




Back Yard





My lilies are getting big. There a few that have not come out and I am thinking that they were probably bad bulbs. I am going to wait until the plants start to flower, then I will buy lilies plants that are already that size to replace the dead ones.


John and I have finally decided where the herb garden is going to go. It is going to be a circle with a birdbath in the middle.


I plan on getting to work on that very soon.

Garden!!

We went back to the garden place on Friday.

We spent 111 Euro (about $150) on plants, herbs, flowers, flower boxes, pots, and soil.

Of course that was not enough, so today we went to the exchange and bought more soil, pots, and also a shovel, hoe, borders that look like bricks, and of course the new Stargate Movie!!

I want to put the herbs in the ground in the backyard. We have naturally AMAZING soil under all those weeds!! I wondered about it, but in my class, our leader said that the land the base is on now had been farmland for like a gazillion years- figures! She said that you will never have better tomatoes or oranges than the ones grown on this base because of that.

Maybe in years to follow, I will care to try veggies or fruit, but for now, I'm satisfied with my herbs.

I have some flowers and plants and lavender in pots, then I have thyme, rosemary, marjaram, basil, purple basil to go in the ground. Luckily I am such a herb nut that I know exactly what they are- because the Spanish names are nothing like ours. Kinda wierd, as I though we all went off the latin names. Oh well.

Easter Sunday is a Running of the Bulls in a nearby town. It is not as big as the one in Pampolona, but we will definately be going to see how it all goes down. We are going with Juan and Tiffany. I will be taking notes, as I intend to participate before I leave here. John says he can't, as it is against Navy Rules to be an idiot or something like that.

Whatever.

Baby. ;0)

Halloween is here!!

Enigma was a bumblebee this year. He loved his costume. We went for a walk in it to show it off. Everyone thought he was so cute! Then we spent most of the day at the vet getting his health certificate to fly to Colorado with me tomarrow. I will have to bring all his sweaters, so he does not freeze. Nessa said it was 38 degrees tonight! Brrr!

Also, John sent me this gorgeous bouquet!! I love it. The vase is beautiful, and I love the soft orange roses and gerber daisies!! I only wish I was going to be with them for more than a day. I hate to leave them behind!