So originally it was slightly repetitive, then it was monotonous and now it’s beginning to get ever so slightly tiresome, as it simply hasn’t stopped raining. Month after month after month. It’s not the fucking Beast from the East, it’s fucking climate change.

Anyway, in stark comparison to the significance of that statement, it’s

somewhat frustrating for it to be almost impossible to do anything at the farm. The rain, as you will see, has made doing anything on the build, even on the land, mostly impossible. And as I write, even walking to the land, let alone getting any materials up there, is a struggle to say the least.

I sat for a while, up by the house and just listened to the roar of the river that borders the land. It was a constant, deep, churning torrent of sound. Somehow I don’t think we’ll have a problem with water this year, though it’ll be interesting to see if that’s really the case, with the new water demanding strains of kif that are being introduced.

The major silver lining in the clouds is that at the very least, the water reservoirs are filling.

But I have to say this, and of course it sounds ridiculously “hippy”, but having only been able to visit Loubar once this month, because it was simply pouring with rain the whole time,  on that one visit, through scattered showers, the spectrum of colours and seasonal

changes that there were in one afternoon, was simply wonderous.

It would of course be nice to be seeing it all from the luxury of 4 walls, a roof and sizeable windows. But that will come…inshallah! Keep on keeping on!

Though I am worried as to when and how I’ll be able to plant this years selection of trees.

So what do you do when you’re trying to develop a farm on land with no car access and nowhere dry to lay your head?

You retreat back to Fez and get on with things there, that’s what…. and so I did.

I’m not saying that there were many more drier days in Fez, but

aforementioned physical structures are at least in place and thus it was a time to get a few other projects developed. I’ve had a difficult relationship with Dar Finn, hinted at in my last blog re ghosts in houses, which has been far more the case at Dar Finn, than my own house.

But in some strange way, re designing my house, gave me a boost to extend my self back in to Dar Finn and part of that was to begin redesigning the roof terraces and gardens.

I’ve got a strong desire to focus upon food production even here, but we’ll start with climbing plants and see where we get.

Finn’s also been over again, and amongst our many adventures, was the building of a vermiculture for the house. Having stopped buying meat, it’s been frustrating to have been throwing out so much organic waste and thus I decided we’d spend some of our time building a worm house, via a multitude of tutorials on youtube.

One of the great things I love about Fez, or Morocco in general, is that

not only can you “build your own” quite cheaply, but it’s lovely to be able to get Finn so involved.

You’ll have to wait to see how this project progresses, but I’m excited!

We also visited a vineyard near meknes, where they had the most extraordinary permaculture garden including this set of Hugelkulture beds. The benefits of such a practice can be found here..

https://www.permaculture.co.uk/articles/many-benefits-hugelkultur

And whilst I haven’t yet introduced this in to our land, it’s on the to do list. I love my to do list for Farm Finn. The vineyard we visited created Volubilia wines and it was a joy not only to visit a vineyard with Finn and Friends , but to glean so many ideas from what they were doing.

Here’s a link to their website. Thoroughly recommended.

http://www.domainezouina.com/

I count that as yet another silver lining!