Three weeks on, three very rocky weeks, so many ups and downs and more to come I am sure. The loss of my little Harvey has made such an impact on my life and that of Bella. She seems to have become really frail since he passed away. She is now in her seventeenth year and his loss seems to have really taken its toll on her. I have to say I wake every morning praying that she is still with me.

The weather here on the island is not helping either, it is so terribly hot and humid. Too hot to do anything very much, I am even getting the rubbish down to the bins before eight o’clock in the morning as it starts heating up around nine.

As I can do very little physically I am gathering thoughts and information that I will need once I am in Galicia. I am trying to fill my head with thoughts on what to do to distract myself and I have to say my thoughts are all over the place, one minute on food forest, next on annual growing, next on where in Galicia I will be living, then about how on earth am I going to get there with all my things and my cats and Bella. So many things to consider and some I cannot even think about really until I have sold.

I have been collecting seeds from the window boxes I planted - they are looking so good right now. I also have five little Avocado trees and one Mango growing well and my Kiwi plant has come back and turned into a wonderful little plant with so many leaves. I really thought I had lost it over the winter.

The images above show the little trees growing. The first one has the Mango (the larger one) and one of the Avocado trees, then the next four are all Avocado trees although the last one is struggling at the moment - perhaps I put it out too early, especially with the temperatures we have been experiencing. I will keep checking and perhaps take it inside for a while to keep it away from the direct heat of the sun. The last image is of my Kiwi plant that I planted last year, cannot believe how amazing it is, a long way to go until it is big enough for fruits but it is on its way.

I am also looking into ways to go completely off grid as well as being as self sufficient as I can. Much will depend on the property I buy and whether it has a well or spring so that gathering water can be off-grid. I will also capture rainwater and store it for use all year round. I definitely want to look into solar power, wind power and water power to use for storing electricity in batteries and hopefully I will be able to install a geo-therm system for heating.

Being vegan I feel sure that I can cater to most of my own food needs by growing them myself, my only problem is how to cut down the use of plastic on every day commodities and where to buy to help me do this. Not an easy option in Spain at the moment but some of the supermarkets are using cardboard to deliver goods instead of plastic bags. I will be trying to find information on reusing some of the plastic or transforming it into something new. That should keep me busy.

Lots of research ahead of me I think in all aspects of my current thoughts of the future.