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This is now much more elegant than the original! It has been tiled and has a wall across the front, rendered and painted to match the house. We have added terracotta ornaments and wall plaques, both inside the courtyard and on the outside of the wall, for the benefit of passers-by. And we now have typical Spanish grilles (rejas) to our front windows as they are the only accessible ones. Peter painted them black (under protest) but I think they look lovely. He chose the big curly style for the larger windows, although they are actually Andalucian in origin. Never mind, there are lots of them around here anyway!
We also have a black grille over the front door but Peter is totally opposed to it—he says it makes the place look like a prison and ruins the beauty of the front door. I like it because it means we can lock the outer gate and still be able to open the front door to greet callers and for ventilation through the house in the hot weather. So we have a compromise in mind... At a later stage we are going to remove the grille, and fit double wrought iron doors into the front arch, and a matching fixed screen into the side arch! The best of both worlds!
The osteospermums, which were our first planting, suffered somewhat in the course of the tiling and have been replaced - by more osteospermums! And we also have a lovely lavender in a large pot in the corner of the courtyard, guarded by a big ceramic lizard. The tree in the centre is a carob and is protected by Spanish law—so, although it drops pods and leaves and smells rather strong at times, we have to keep it!
The Japanese bed is to the right of the courtyard, and is coming on nicely, although it still needs its bamboo screen. The lilies are absolutely gorgeous, particularly in the early spring, when they seem to flower before the weather justifies it.
At the moment the trailer still lives in the corner, chained to the tree, but it will eventually have a place elsewhere, which should be the final touch to the tidying up! And, of course, having built a wall across the front, we cannot now park the car there! So she has to stay on the road, apart from the odd occasion when Peter puts her in the garage—a feat which is completely beyond me! Have you seen the slope on that drive? So, we have now decided that the bit on the other side of the drive which was going to be a water feature is now going to be a car port!
