Now We Have Two Gardeners ....

We didn't mean to end up with two gardeners but it seems that we have. Jose was the original gardener of this property. He did more than just cut the grass. He also pruned, planted bushes, sprayed for bugs and so on. Just after we moved in, he showed up and spent an entire day with a helper cleaning everything up because the house had been vacant for a couple of months so the plant growth had really gone wild.

Then Jose moved too far away to come here every few weeks or at all. Enter Luis, who was walking around the area looking for work and we exchanged phone numbers, which was about all we could exchange at that time given our poor Spanish skills. Some time later, we get a phone call from our Canuck friend John.

Turns out Luis phoned John to tell him he wanted to work for us, John phoned us and it transpired that Luis also does work for John - a truly amazing coincidence.

So all is fine. We have a grass cutter. Then Jose turned up at our gate not long ago to say he would be back in a few weeks to do landscaping, and he was here yesterday as promised.

There is/was a very old lime tree at the front of the property. It was on it's last legs (roots?) partially because of it's age but also because the canopy was covered in a life smothering vine that grew right into the wood of the tree. Luis said, and another gardener had confirmed this earlier, that the tree was dying and did we want it cut down?

We said, or thought we did, we want to check with the owner first. So, as I was frantically emailing the owner, Jose was happily chopping the whole tree down in front of me. But he did leave enough stubs to put flower pots, bird feeders, orchids on what is left of it.

Thank goodness our landlady has a good attitude: "It is what it is"!

Here is a dove, or a pigeon, at the new unexpected bird feeder.