by Helen | Mar 19, 2026 | Lifestyle
To be honest, a mouse in the house, was probably the last thing we needed after the last couple of months of storms and leaking roofs and the onset of a big repaint job throughout the house. But I suppose mice don’t take into account the fact that you’d like a little bit of respite, especially when they discover a very cosy pile of sheepskin (faux!) in which to snuggle down. Thankfully, after rodent adventures of the larger kind in Istria, we knew this one was a mouse and nothing more. Truth be told, when we did spot it, it was actually kind of cute – tiny and chocolate brown, but we didn’t really fancy homing a Andalucian mouse, so it had to be dealt with.
It put in its first appearance when we had friends staying – perfect timing. They had just gone to bed and we were winding down for the night, when out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a flash of brown, and knew immediately what it was. Keeping to the corners of the living room, it ran along the walls – and vanished. As they do. So, a bit of a restless night, being alert to every noise and wondering if it was a solo mouse or if it had brought its family and friends along. The next morning a trap was purchased – one of the old fashioned kind, as it was all we could get, and it was loaded up with pieces of a Snickers bar. Two days later, the trap was still intact, but the little minx had eaten all of the chocolate pieces, including the peanuts! We definitely weren’t dealing with a dimwit with this one, and so we had to have another plan.
Poison wasn’t an answer. I’m not a fan of rodents, however cute they may look, but we definitely didn’t want to use poison. We were also loathe to load up the spring loaded trap again, as I had visions of a bloodbath up the white walls. So, the only answer was a humane trap and I found these on Amazon. (Yes, I know we should try and avoid Amazon, for a variety of reasons, but sometimes it’s quicker for us, being where we are currently).
These traps are made of eco-friendly ABS material, chemical free, non-toxic and odorless, reusable and durable. They are also very easy to clean. They are designed with multiple air holes to enable free airflow on the top and on the left and right sides of the mouse trap, so any caught rodents won’t suffocate.
The traps are extremely easy to use, and with no dangerous metal spring loaded parts, are harmless to people and pets. You simply slide out the food compartment, insert the bait and slide the compartment back in. At the opposite end of the box, you just press the “door” down – the rodent(s) will smell the bait, and enter through the door, and once inside, their weight will trigger the door to spring up and close. The bait is entirely enclosed inside the plastic compartment and so almost impossible, I’d say, for household pets – or small children – to get to.
The pack of four traps arrived at 5pm, and we immediately loaded them with small pieces of kit-kat, knowing the mouse had a taste for chocolate and placed then around the ground floor of the house. At 8pm, we heard the VERY satisfying click of the door of the trap, and there it was – our chocolate brown mouse, inside. The mouse was initially a bit shocked – obviously – but very quickly it calmed down, and after about five minutes was curled up, very chilled, inside the box. All we needed to then do was take the box as far away from the house as possible, away from other houses, and release the mouse. And, off it went scampering into the fields, to join its mates. As far as we know, it’s very happy as it hasn’t returned – the boxes have been left out just in case, but nothing. And no further sightings, either. Once the mouse has been released, the box does need to be washed thoroughly in very hot water, to get rid of any smells, which may attract more mice.
So, a real result. No mess. No drama. No traumatised mouse. And four very cool looking traps – the transparent amber is actually a very beautiful colour, and you could actually forget that these boxes were mousetraps! So, very highly recommended, if you have a mouse (or two) in the house, especially as this is a multi pack, for just €19.99.
This is not a sponsored post. We just wanted to recommend a product that we rate highly, and which has worked 100% for us.
by Helen | Mar 18, 2026 | Lifestyle
We seem to forever buy pots of herbs – hello, basil and coriander, especially – which will often end up withered and only fit for the bin. They’re always bought for a specific recipe, and whatever isn’t immediately used on the plant, never seems to thrive, however much we look after them. We have resorted to buying those triangular plastic packs of fresh herbs – these seem to fare better as one pack usually is what’s needed for a recipe, but I hate the plastic packets they come in. So, I was intrigued by a hydroponic system I saw online, which seemed to be the solution we were looking for.
According to the website, the system :
…requires no plant knowledge or constant monitoring. Click & Grow gardens, equipped with grow lights and passive watering systems, use proprietary Plant Pods that provide everything the plants need. Compared to traditional pot-and-soil or complex hydroponic systems, there’s minimal maintenance and fewer chances for things to go wrong. Plant Pods come pre-seeded with all necessary nutrients, require no water quality or pH checks, and need less frequent cleaning. Simply plug it in, add pods and water, then do occasional plant care for best results…
As the systems go up in price to nearly €3,000 for the Wall Farm Vertical Indoor Garden, I decided to go entry level and test things out, opting for the least expensive model – the Smart Garden 3, for just under €100. This price includes the actual white garden, with water tank, extendable arms, LED lights, three plant cups, three domes for germination and three basil packs. The plant pods – already seeded – are pesticide free and provide everything needed for the plants to sprout. And set up really is as easy as it says on the website – you literally insert the Plant Pods into the chambers, add water to the small water tank at the side and plug it in. Automated grow lights and passive watering take care of the rest. It really does take less than five minutes to set up and five minutes a month to maintain. And the maintenance consists of filling the water tank – we’ve found every couple of weeks – and removing any leaves which are not doing too well. So far, in two months, we’ve removed two or three from all three plants. We turn the LED lights on overnight, and off during the day, and this has worked well.
The system was bought in January and we’ve just started using the basil very recently, so I suppose two months is quite a long time to wait for your first “crop”. And, we’ve now realised that by staggering the insertion of the pods, we can have herbs at different stages of growth, to avoid in future, what we have now, which is a bit of a glut of basil. Probably fine in the summer when we use it a lot more, but I’m not sure if this time around we’ll get through three plants – although we’ll see what a bit of pruning does too, to add to the life span of the plants.
I’m also going to mix up the types of herbs next time around – and this is where Click & Grow clearly make a lot of their additional income. You can’t buy packs of three mixed seed pods – say basil, coriander and oregano. Each triple pack seems to contain only one type of herb, so it seems a bit naughty that to get three different herbs, you need to buy three packs of three. The triple packs are only €13, so not expensive, but I’d much rather have the choice of a mixed box, than having to stockpile. However, a small issue and one which won’t lessen our pleasure of having fresh herbs “on tap”. And, I suppose, once you’ve ordered your seed pods, in whatever quantity, you then have them and can rota the pods to ensure you always have the freshest of herbs.
We planted ours up at the end of January, and have been quite excited to see the initial tiny sprouts (after about 5 days) developing into thick, healthy basil plants…
This is not a sponsored post. We paid full price for our Click & Grow and have not been asked to do a review. We just think it’s a great product, and if you want to minimise your food waste, we’d definitely recommend this great little product.
by Helen | Mar 15, 2026 | Renovation
…deserve a post of their very own. They are now the most beautiful doors, but it’s taken a real labour of love, because when we bought the house, they definitely weren’t beautiful. In fact, they looked so awful and dilapidated that the intention was to have them re-made.
It was obvious that in their prime, they had been very elegant and exquisitely crafted. I say “they” because they are actually double doors, creating a very grand entrance to our townhouse. But by the time we bought it, they had been very neglected. They’d been painted in a very muddy brown colour on the outside, which had faded and just looked like sludge. They were cracked in places. Parts of the carved decorative motifs were missing. The old door furniture had been allowed to rust and a new lock system had been installed, and looked so out of place. All in all, they were horrible, and definitely not what we wanted for the entrance to our home, but as the house was being renovated and every day more building materials arrived, they weren’t a priority. Until we actually moved in.
It had always been in our heads that the woodwork in the house, including the front door, would be a soft sage green. But once the crittal doors and windows, around the internal courtyard were installed, we started to think about matte black for the external doors and windows. A bit of a departure from our original thoughts, but we loved the black metal work and didn’t really think any other colour would work on the new windows looking down into the courtyard, and this then led us to wonder if black would work on the front door and the windows and shutters at the front of the house. And, the closer we looked at the front doors, the more we realised that with a bit of elbow grease, we maybe wouldn’t need to replace them after all. There were just too many components we loved about them, that we wouldn’t be able to faithfully replicate with new doors. The bolts were just amazing, especially the main horizontal bolt to lock the doors. Like something you’d find on a castle door!
As the inside of the doors were already a very dark brown, almost black colour, we had a feeling it could work, but there was only one way to find out, as we started repairing and painting them internally…
With all of the builders clutter cleared, the new wall and floor tiles installed, the internal doors painted white and a new light shade fitted, we immediately felt that going black was going to be right. The space and the doors were big enough to go bold, and there was no going back.
And we knew we definitely needed to keep that beautiful Hand of Fatima door knocker. Isn’t she beautiful?
We opted for a matte paint, as we felt that anything with a shine might be a too Downing Street, and that was definitely not the look we were hoping for!
With a new house sign, we think our new/old doors are absolutely perfect. They still have signs of their age, which we love, because they have history and even if new doors were made to replicate these, they wouldn’t be quite the same. So, as well as saving a small fortune, we’ve retained an original feature, and having given it a bit of TLC, we’ve hopefully extended the life of these gorgeously elegant doors. Just need to do something about those awful wall tiles now…
by Helen | Mar 13, 2026 | Renovation
Our kitchens have always been a big part of our previous homes. Big in importance, but sadly, never big in size. Until we bought our Andalucian townhouse, and the footprint of the kitchen was huge, compared to what we had had previously. The kitchen we inherited though, was a bit of a horror show and literally nothing – even the wall – could be salvaged, and so everything was ripped out. Units, doors, windows, the floor, the wall into it, plumbing, electrics – all taken out. Giving us what we realised, was a BIG space to fill…
Having done kitchen renovations previously, we didn’t want a store bought kitchen this time around. We wanted something unique and bespoke and definitely Andalucian. We discussed the design and the layout and materials at length with our builders. Where sockets and plugs would be installed. What kind of lighting we’d have. What the flooring would be like. How the units would be constructed. Would we just have base units or wall units, too? Would the base units have doors? If so, what kind? Where would appliances go and what colour would they be? In fact, what would the overall colour scheme be? It took us weeks to nail down our vision, because between us all we had so many ideas. This meant, lots of design ideas and plans went back and forth by email – don’t forget we were working on this long distance, as we renting an an apartment right out on the western coast of Andalucia, as our renovation, just north of Sotogrande, progressed. So, we had to be really focused to get it right, because we weren’t in the thick of it all the time.
The wall into the kitchen was removed and a steel lintel installed, creating an open plan space which gave us so many possibilities. We really wanted a kitchen island, and with our builder, looked at various ways of doing this, and although we really liked all of the options, none seemed totally right. The island seemed to encroach too much on the open space we’d gained, and we realised we liked the idea, rather than the reality, so we ditched trying to incorporate this feature. Much, much research went into the style of the kitchen. We absolutely knew we wanted it to feel Andalucian, but very contemporary. We wanted it to be uncluttered but a space which functioned well. With appliances to a minimum – and because we had the luxury of an additional space which would become a utility room, we could design a kitchen without having to take into account a washing machine, a dryer, a freezer and a small, extra fridge. We felt that white was the colour we wanted – a bit risky in a kitchen, but we’re in Spain, and so didn’t want to go dark, as we had done in Istria. All of our ideas and inspirations were pointing towards natural and organic, and we made sure we had a good bank of ideas to share with our builder.
The more we researched, the more we were coming to the conclusion that micro-cement was only route to really go down, to get the effect we wanted, potentially with reclaimed wooden doors. Simple, unfussy, clean lines. With new wiring and sockets fitted and the plumbing completed, we were ready to go with the build of the micro-cement. (Reading that sentence back, does make it sound like it all happened in a couple of weeks – not quite, as while the kitchen was being renovated, so was the rest of the house, and so work was a bit stop start, as the builders worked their way around it all). It was all very exciting, once we have the go-ahead, to see it all beginning to take a shape.
Working around our builders, the window fitters arrived and within a couple of days, our beautiful black crittal doors and windows had been fitted. The propped up tiles above, are the ones we chose for the whole of the open plan ground floor, and with beautiful sage green stars, this gave us the accent of colour we wanted in the kitchen, but keeping to the idea of natural and organic. Once the base unit has been built, they were concreted and the floor tiles laid throughout, immediately giving us a feel that the kitchen was actually coming together.
Perhaps the biggest transformation, for us, came with the professional painting of walls and ceilings. We had had the idea that we’d do the painting ourselves, but I can say, hand on heart, getting professionals to do it all, was one of the best decisions we made. It would have taken us forever, but within a couple of weeks, all the internal and external walls and ceilings were painted and lifted the house in the most magical way. Just prior to the painting, the sage green spotlights we’d chosen, to complement the floor tiles were fitted, also fitted. We spent quite a long time researching the light fittings, because again, we didn’t want to get these wrong. We knew we didn’t want the recessed silver or white round spotlight fittings, we wanted something a bit more of a statement, and when I spotted these beautiful cylindrical, ridged, sage green holders, I knew they were the ones. Perfect. And once the ceiling fans were installed – well, my word! These had been boxed up, sitting in amongst the chaos for a year – they were the first things we ordered as there happened to be a massive sale on, so we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to buy them – so when they were fitted, it was the first time we had seen them in the flesh. And, wow – they were everything we’d hoped they would be.
The next step was the actual micro-cement finish, but we had to wait a couple of weeks for our builder to be able to do it, so we were able to have a kitchen of sorts, giving us an idea of how the finished room might be. The main appliances remained boxed up and we had to rely on air fryers, a microwave and our electric two ring camping hob for our cooking, but at least we’d had the foresight to have dishwasher fitted, as the sink also hadn’t been plumbed in. However, after no kitchen at all for a good few months, this temporary set up felt pretty much like we weren’t far from the finish line.
The micro-cement finish of the base units was nowhere near as messy as we thought it might. I think we had in our heads it would involve lots of sanding, and whilst our poor builder seemed to spend days with sandpaper in his hands, it was light and fine, rather than industrial. The compound was mixed and applied several times, to create the finish we wanted to achieve – white, with very fine grey lines/marks to resemble a very subtle marble effect.
It did take a while to achieve the colour and effect, as we needed this to be right first time. Luckily, with micro-cement, you can keep sanding/applying until you get the finish you want, but I know we absolutely did our builder’s head in! However, the attention to detail was seriously worth it, as what we have now is absolutely stunning.
The During shots…
So, how is it all looking now? Well, I’m going to save that for the next kitchen blog…
by Helen | Mar 12, 2026 | Interiors
There weren’t many original pieces of furniture left in our house when we bought it. Plenty of 1980s stuff, mind you, that the previous owner obviously no longer wanted, and couldn’t be bothered to get rid of. No, we weren’t lucky enough to be purchasing one of those old townhouses, still packed with elegant old furniture, ripe for restoration. Instead we inherited largely a pile of junk – apart from this beauty. We’re not sure why this was left, but it wasn’t going anywhere, and our builders were under strict instructions to keep it safe throughout the renovation works.
It’s been a godsend of a storage space, since all of our belongings came out of storage, as we’ve been able to pack lots inside. But we knew we wanted to spruce it up, because the wood, as beautiful as it is, was just too dark for us. The house is now very light and bright, and we definitely wanted to take this piece of furniture a whole lot lighter – not white, but something that would complement the white walls and ceiling of the bedroom. I’d bought a chalkpaint called Frappe for a mirror, and really liked the creaminess of the colour – light, but warm. So, it was decided that this was the colour. And, what a result. A beautiful new wardrobe, which looks a whole lot better.
The difference a second coat started to make.
I love results like this. Transforming something for very little expenditure and ending up with something very beautiful. For the price of two pots of chalk paint, we now have a huge wardrobe/cupboard, with hanging space, shelving and internal drawers. It’s very, very nice not to have spend sometimes!
by Helen | Dec 5, 2025 | Interiors
Lighting – and pendants – have been a big consideration in the renovation of our house. Initially, we’d thought that we’d go down the route of Moroccan/Moorish style pendants, but to get what we wanted, for all of the rooms, would have cost a small fortune. So, we decided to have coloured glass pendants in only some of the rooms. And then, as the house went white, we changed our minds again, and veered towards all white. It just meant sourcing white pendants that we liked, would suit the style of the house and didn’t blow the budget. In Istria, we had two IKEA Maskros pendants – the ones that look like dandelion heads – which we loved, and so I was sad to discover that they had been discontinued, as we did consider these again.
Because IKEA prices are reasonable, we decided to have a good look at their pendants again, given we’d been so happy with the ones above, and that’s when we started to seriously consider the Krusning pendants. I’d previously liked them in-store, but because we weren’t considering paper shades, had not really taken much notice of them, but when I checked online, the prices did pique my interest. As we needed about fourteen of them, the prices were very appealing and so a couple were bought initially, just to see what they were like. And they were gorgeous. Just gorgeous. Although the first one was a bit tricky – each pendant has about fifteen sheets of quick thick waxed paper, which you need to assemble, one on top of the other, then fan out into a kind of star shape, then scrunch up the edges. It felt a bit weird to be scrunching and crunching up the layers, but you soon get used to it, as the shades take shape. The beauty of constructing the shades in this way, is that they all look slightly different. Despite being made of paper, they are sturdy and robust, and have enough weight to them, to make them just sway gently in the breeze. A couple of ours are positioned near ceiling fans, and even these are OK. The one thing to remember about these Krusning shades, is that the cord set, to attach it, is sold separately – so don’t forget to pick these up, too.
The result? Very personalised lights which produce a very soft, diffused light, creating a very cosy ambience. We liked these so much as central ceiling pendants, we purchased the smaller versions for the lighting at the side of each bed. These lights are on dimmer switches, and so the effect is even more magical, as you can adjust the intensity. I’d really recommend these shades if you’re budget conscious but want something quite unique and elegant.
This is not a sponsored post. We paid for all of the products. We are just sharing and recommending products we like and rate.
by Helen | Dec 4, 2025 | Interiors
Not that long ago, if you told me we’d own a chaise longue, I’d have thought you were mad. Not only would we not really have had the space – or the kind of house – for such an item of furniture, people like us just don’t own things like chaise longues! Well, by a twist of fate, we do now…
When our furniture was in storage in Manilva, we got to know the guys who owned the units well, as we visited quite frequently. They often had furniture which people had left in storage as they no longer wanted/needed it and we’d be shown bits and pieces to see if we’d be interested. And this chaise longue did catch our attention. The fabric was pretty awful – a bit chintzy, with a shiny pale blue background and embellished with gold swirls. But the shape of it was lovely, and it was very sturdy. It felt like a really well made piece of furniture, with an old fashioned sprung seat, which felt as if it was stuffed with horsehair. The legs were super cute too – small, but beautifully carved, with little swivel castors. We knew it had potential but would need recovering – so we agreed a price and put it into storage with all of the rest of our belongings.
We had a good idea where this sofa would go, and luckily, we were right, as it’s now in place, on the first floor landing. But, we never did get it recovered. Instead, we decided that we’d use Fabricoat fabric paint on it, as we’d been very impressed with this product. This time, we opted for beautiful chocolate brown – applying the paint was really just like applying melted chocolate. The coverage this time was absolutely excellent, because the fabric wasn’t overly soft – it was also very taught, so application was incredibly easy and if I am remembering correctly, it only needed two coats. Overall, we’re delighted with the new look of this really elegant chaise longue, which now looks as good as new. At a fraction of the price we’d have paid for the recovering option.
The embossed pattern has taken the colour well, but you can still see it, and this adds texture to what might be otherwise a very flat colour, so it’s worked out well. It still looks very elegant, and the carved legs are more prominent because they are no longer competing with the blingtastic fabric. Now that it’s “dressed” with a couple of cushions and a throw, it’s taken on a lovely new look, and is very much at home in its new space. And, yes, we do now feel very comfortable being the owners of a super gorgeous chocolate brown chaise longue…
by Helen | Dec 3, 2025 | Interiors
Although we have a lot of space in our renovated house, one thing we are short on, is actual storage space. Apart from what is now a rather lovely pantry – another thing ticked off the wishlist – there is no original storage, and so we have had to be creative with shelving and cupboards. We sold the furniture we could not easily disassemble and then reassemble, when we sold our house in Istria, so we’ve had to buy quite a lot of storage. We’re lucky that we have a large roof terrace, where boxes and crates still sit, waiting to be unpacked and dealt with.
One thing we really need storage for is bedding. I don’t know how other people deal with their bedding situation but we seem to be forever in a bit of a pickle with duvet covers, sheets and pillow cases. We always think we have the bedding to fit perfectly, but because we have no system, it all gets mixed up and what I thought fitted a particular bed/duvet etc, often doesn’t and it drives me insane. So, we’re working on getting it all sorted and knowing what goes where and with what. And whatever no longer fits, will go into the painting/dust sheet box. We’re planning on floor to ceiling shelving in the little recess that has been created in the passageway to the main bathroom, and once these are up, and long drapes fitted, we’ll be good to go in terms of bedding/towel storage.
Another item on our long list of “things we’d love to have in the house”, included some kind of chair/seating arrangement, under the window in our bedroom. We’re working hard to make this a really comfy, relaxing room, that is a bit of a haven. The en-suite has been created and our beautiful black sanitary-ware installed, and because it’s recessed slightly, as well as the double doors into this room, we’ve also added a long stretch of duck egg blue velvet curtains across the wall, softening the entrance, and therefore softening the feel of the room.
But I’ll come back to the curtains and the bedroom, because they are not what this about. No, this about finding that perfect something for underneath the window. Out of which we have the most gorgeous view, over the terracotta roof tiles of the houses opposite and away to the mountains to the east, towards Malaga. The view changes throughout the day, and as we’re discovering, across the seasons, and this little space is the perfect place to just sit, and take it all in. So, instead of being perched on a random spare chair, I wanted something beautiful, which would add to the bedroom, not be a spare part. A lot of online searching led me to this beauty – a slightly off-white, soft boucle bench, with big thick, chunky legs, and which is the exact size for under the window. And when I say exact, it couldn’t have been any more perfect. Snug. Perfect. But best of all, it also has a hinged seat with quite a good sized bit of storage – meaning that the bedding for this room can be stored in the bench. So no confusion going forward!
This was such a find on amazon.es – and therefore presumably available on amazon.co.uk, and comes in three colours – white, khaki and green. It’s super soft and beautiful to the touch, as well as being very robust and comfortable. We didn’t want to have a window seat built as I’m not really a fan of these, so this is absolutely ideal, as it can be moved if we fancy it somewhere else. Enjoying the view has just become a whole lot nicer. With the bonus of a view with storage…
by Helen | Nov 27, 2025 | Lifestyle
As winter takes hold, this is a super delicious winter warmer – Fresh Pea & Mint Pesto with Butter Beans & Roasted Tomatoes. And, as far as I can tell, it’s vegetarian and suitable vegans if the Greek yogurt is omitted and maybe an alternative used – although I do stand to be corrected on the vegan front.
what you need :
- Cherry Tomatoes
- Butter Beans (2 cans)
- Frozen Peas (about 300g)
- Fresh Mint
- Fresh Basil
- Garlic
- Spring Onions
- Cashew Nuts & Pine Nuts
- Lemon Juice
- Olive Oil
- Seasoning : Chilli Flakes, Salt & Pepper
what you need to do :
- Roast tomatoes with olive oil, chilli flakes, salt & pepper
- Soak the nuts in boiling water and leave until ready to add to blender
- Sauté the white of the spring onions with the garlic for 3-4 minutes
- Strain, rinse & add the butter beans and a smallish quantity of water and then crumble in a veggie stock cube
- While this is simmering, add the peas, mint, basil, nuts (strain water before adding), lemon juice, 2-3 tbsp of olive oil, a splash of water and salt & pepper to a blender & whizz. Add more water if consistency is too thick.
- Add to butter beans and simmer for about 15 mins
- To serve, scatter the chopped green parts of spring onions (tiny pieces so texture isn’t too rough – our slices could have been smaller), roasted tomatoes and seeds of your choice – we used nigella seeds & these gave it a bit of an oniony kick
- A dollop of Greek yoghurt & pitta bread, to mop it up, finished this off
It sounds a bit faffy but it’s honestly not – just do it in three parts : tomatoes, then butter beans, then minty pea pesto. It is absolutely delicious! The minty pesto is also a fantastic base sauce and I’m thinking next time, served over charred chicken breast or salmon. Seriously make this if you like fresh & healthy & tasty. It’s a winner.
by Helen | Nov 26, 2025 | Lifestyle
Over the years we’ve been finding that, especially over the summer, our use of plastic water bottles increases significantly. We always recycle plastics, but we were creating our own small mountain of bottles and often our plastics bin (which was only collected every two months) would be full to the brim and we’d end up taking excess plastic to the municipal waste. We’ve used filter jugs in the past, which have helped – but when family and friends came over to visit, these jugs just weren’t enough, and the plastic waste increased. One thing that we did find very effective – although only when it was only the two of us – was a Black and Blum water bottle with activated (specifically Binchotan) charcoal filters, which purified tap water by absorbing contaminants and releasing minerals, and resulting in cleaner, better tasting, water. The charcoal was replaced every couple of months, and the carafe style bottle was a good size to keep in the fridge door, keeping it cool. To make sure we always had purified water, we’d decant the water from the carafe into another jug, making sure the Black & Blum bottle was always full.
However, this still wasn’t ideal as often we would forget to re-fill and so plastic bottles were usually still bought as a back up, meaning we weren’t really tackling the problem. Our tap water in Istria wasn’t great and even though we had a filter fitted on the tap, we rarely drank water this way.
Now that we have moved to Andalucia, we have decided once and for all, to resolve this issue. Summers will be hotter than in Istria, and we want to ensure that both us and our visitors, have a regular supply of good drinking water but without the plastic waste. We know we won’t be able to eliminate it all, but we’re definitely going to reduce it, now that we have bought a wonderful Ecofiltro Water Filter – the self proclaimed 100% biodegradable sustainable water solution…
Not only do these look quite beautiful – and come in four colours (pink, mustard, white and matte black) – they also come in two sizes, 5 litres and 20 litres. We did a bit of working out, and quickly realised that if we bit the bullet and bought the more expensive 20 litre option, it would still have paid for itself in less than three months, if we looked at the amount of bottled water we get through. We opted for the white unit, and also bought the wooden stand – an expensive purchase, but one that is already, two months later, paying dividends.
The filter unit, which sits inside the white chamber, looks like a big terracotta plant pot. This is constructed from a composite material comprising three natural elements: clay, sawdust, and colloidal silver. The pot is filled with tap water, and slowly it starts to seep through the walls of the pot, into the chamber – initially, the filtration process is quite slow due to the pores of the ceramic material opening, and this does result in a clay-like taste in the water. It is recommended that this initial water is discarded – we filled it three times, before the clay taste really dissipated and now, the water tastes great. We do drink a lot of water, and we do keep it topped up – but if we’ve been away for a few days, we will empty it (great for watering plants), just so that we can fill with fresh water. As it’s getting warmer, too, we’re finding that adding ice, makes a difference.
So, would we recommend an Ecofiltro unit?
Yes, without hesitation – and, we are NOT being paid or sponsored to write this post or recommend this product. A 5 litre unit would certainly be more than enough for a couple and at €144 is a whole lot more affordable, especially if you forgo the stand (which retails at €26 for the 5 litre model). But, living where we are now, and with hopefully lots of summer visitors, we decided that the 20 litre option, with stand, was better for us. It was a bit painful hitting the “pay” button, but it’s done now, and we’ve bought no bottled water since our kitchen was fitted and we could fill from the tap. We don’t anticipate buying bottled water going forward, so for us, it was ultimately a good decision. It’s definitely a style statement, too, with its slightly off white colour and pale wood stand. It’s a very simple design, so although it is quite large, it doesn’t look bulky and over-bearing. The initial taste of clay has indeed worn off, and the water does have a very different taste – cleaner and fresher, would be how I would describe it. It is recommended that the filter unit (which should always be kept wet to maintain its effectiveness) be replaced every two years – and when you do replace, as long as it’s not damaged, you have yourself a plant pot.
