3. El Parral

(This series of pages “The Move” is from 2016.)

The house is called El Parral, which means the name for a vine arbour. There is no vine in evidence, so either a vine needs to be planted and cultivated or the house is due for a change of name. Yesterday the owners accepted the ridiculously low offer I made and this house and 10,000 metres of land is now nearly my home and the new home for the donkeys. My friend Carl did a preliminary inspection of the structure today and pronounced it very sound, but we are going to pay for a full surveyor’s report, just to be safe.

There is one more thing that needs to be checked: a disused quarry on the adjacent hillside has rusting equipment standing in the middle of of a vast wasteland (thankfully hidden in the wooded valley); but I must get assurances from the local authority that the quarry – which was declared illegal about ten years ago – will never be given permission to operate again. I believe that the reason the property is going so cheaply is that buyers had similar worries in the past and that is why it has been so long on the market. Therefore this question is the most pressing issue in the entire sale. Subject to guarantees about that, and a successful surveyor’s report, I am hoping we can exchange contracts as early as next week.

These terraces will be the initial area for the donkeys, as it is easiest to fence off ad enclose for their safety. Later they will have a much larger part of the estate to explore and enjoy.

DSCN3283 — This will be my kitchen garden: a few short steps from the kitchen.

DSCN3280 — And this is one of my favourite parts of the property! Maybe it’s just a “man thing” but there are six sheds, and this is a view of just two of them. As Plato once commented to his young interlocutor Phaedrus, a man cannot have too many sheds.

It’s all very exciting, and now within reach. I didn’t take enough photos because I was just looking at it all and taking it slowly in. It’s lovely. More news at the end of the week, I hope.