Rustic Escapes brings Can Toni Pera back to life! We´ve started planting! At last! Having waited for five long years for the well to be dug and the water to be found,deep, deep down under the Ibizencan soil, we have finally started to plant our crops and bring our lovely Can Toni Pera back to life! You can´t believe how satisfying it is to see the 200 baby olive trees soaking up the sunshine, in their new home; in the [...]
I love cleaning! The Grand Spring Clean in Rustic Escapes Every year, at about this time all the local representatives (and most of my family!) join in to help do a Grand Spring Clean all of the Rustic Escapes´properties in Spain and England; making sure they are tip top and ready for our guests this year. I love cleaning. I don´t have a cleaner in my own home and am always ready to roll up my sleeves and clean other [...]
Busy finding our next Rustic Escape. Watch this space! How busy I´ve been these last two weeks; travelling up and down the Costa Blanca looking for beautiful rural locations near the sea where we can create our next Rustic Escape. I´ve struggled up a number of very bumpy lanes, emerged through thickets deep in the countryside and wandered through quiet and peaceful rural villages in search of distinctive rural properties for our guests to enjoy. Rustic Escapes. Comfort and style in [...]
Look at those beautiful daffodils! January in Partida de la Mar Valencia Aren´t they lovely? Personally I never pick flowers, preferring to enjoy them in the lovely gardens we have in all our Rustic Escapes properties; these were picked for me and were a lovely surprise. Can you believe it is January and they are already in flower? Beautiful yellow beacons of hope and good luck for the coming year. Here they sit lit by my lamp and illuminating the [...]
Can it really be January? … It´s so beautiful here in Ibiza! Oh my gosh. I always get emotional when I step out onto the terrace in Ibiza, and see that beautiful blue sea and the blue, blue sky. It never ceases to amaze and delight me! It is just so beautiful. I often burst into tears when viewing the countryside of this island that is so dear to my heart. I just get overwhelmed with the beauty of it [...]
No rest for the wicket I said I was retiring not resting! Sitting quietly in the sun is not for me. No sooner was I out of the classroom, my passion for the farm to fork movement took over and I was in the fields, starting the all important preparation of the soil, ready for planting this spring. In our lovely two hundred year old farm in Sant Josep in Ibiza we have waited for this moment for over five [...]
Trepidation. Panic. I´m retired! Finally. I can`t believe it! After 35 years at the chalk face, following a brief spell in Fleet Street (the first ´girl´in London´s then renowned Press Association) more of which another time; I have finally left school behind. It has been very difficult, immeasurably so, an unimaginable wrench, leaving what was literally my home for all those years. Literally thousands of children ´sown´, ´nurtured´and ´harvested´; days and nights of toil, laughter and tears and the [...]
If you´re a Rustic Escapes sort of person, as I am, you will, I know, be feeling increasingly aghast at the advertising on television. as Christmas time approaches, by the large supermarkets; earnest in their drive to make us believe Joy at Christmas will be found down their aisles, with rows and rows of packaged, mass produced, highly processed Christmas fare. I went to the market and I just had to share with you real Joy. Food markets in [...]
Wow what weather! And how beautiful it is here in Finestrat! I popped down to La Casa de la Campana, our Rustic Escapes´ property in the little mountain village of Finestrat, Alicante, yet only 7 km from the beautiful seafront of Villajoyosa and the bustling metropolis of Benidorm; and it was glorious weather-mid-November and yet like summer! You have just got to come here this Christmas or New Year! Look how sunny and lovely La Casa de la Campana [...]
As promised here´s how to prepare delicious dates ready for Christmas. You can eat them straight off the tree. However, as parrots and all sorts of undesirable rodents also like dates it is best to pick them when they are still orange. Also, should it rain heavily the dates can be ruined overnight. Once you´ve ¨shimiedup¨ the palm tree (rather you than me!) you can use a sort of metal rake to remove the dates from the branches. Once [...]
