Oranges at market and Orange BlossomApril is a beautiful time of year in our area of the Costa Blanca. Within a five minute drive we are into the lemon and orange planting areas and in springtime the smell from the blossoms is stunning. We quite often turn off the air conditioning in the car and open the windows whilst driving through the groves in order to enjoy the perfume.
Spain produces over 2 million tonnes of oranges per year and the Valencia or Murcia orange is one of the sweet oranges used for both juice extraction and for fresh-fruit. It is a strange plant in that the blossom which produces next year's fruit can be on the tree at the same time as this year's fruit making for both colour and perfume.
Oranges in the local street markets are quite cheap and one can buy a large bag of say 5kg for just a few Euros. People can be seen packing them into their bags to be taken home for producing fresh orange juice.
Having taken delivery of the apartment we are now anxious to visit as often as possible.
Kathie was determined to concentrate on home-building and so we started to improve the home we had recently acquired. Extra furniture was carefully chosen, security grills were installed, and we called in a manufacturer of awnings to quote us for the installation of an awning to shade the balcony in the height of summer.
It was amazing to see the service we received from two of these companies.
The security grills were fitted by an English company who first of all promised to have the work done within two weeks and to post our keys back home as we were only visiting for the Easter holiday. As it turned out he fitted them within two days as he wanted us to see them installed properly before we left.
The representative of the awning company called and quoted us for the fitting but then advised us that we should wait until El Presidente (the president of the Community Committee) had agreed what colour scheme should be adopted within the whole block. He could easily have sold us the awning but was honest enough to give us this advice and leave without an order.
It is good to see such good service.