With work well underway inside and out, the one glaring omission became a name for our home. We had mulled so many names over the past year or more, well before we owned the place. We’d even bought a few web domains, before going cold on them later.  

In the end, we tripped over the perfect name. 

Whilst ripping out some old bushes along our boundary we happened to meet the farmer who had originally owned this land. He had planted a number of the olive trees himself over thirty years ago and so was more than happy to whip round his old groves on his tractor again, ploughing open the soil ahead of the spring rains. In spite of a language barrier (more of a language canyon, really), it was clear that he is passionate about this landscape and the olive trees that abound here, and he seemed delighted with our efforts to put the trees back into productive order. 

 

So the name was born – The House of Olives, or Casa de Olivos. What better way to describe a house that sits in an olive grove, surrounded by olive groves as far as the eye can see? From our windows we can see all three local olive-oil manufacturers, and just down the road is a an Área Interpretativa Olivos Milenarios, one of many sites locally where majestic, thousand-year-old (or more) olive trees grow on into yet another millennium, still producing vast quantities of olives for oil. The town of Traigura is rooted in olive production, and the name Casa de Olivos roots our house into the local landscape.

With the name decided, Claire designed our logo and we began to look for someone to make a sign for the front gate to welcome guests. Months ago we spotted a house in nearby Sant Jordi, a brightly-painted riot of colours adorned with wonderful metal sculptures. Well before the name was chosen, we knew the first door we’d knock on to have a sign made!

We met Luis “Ferr” Ferreres without really knowing his back-story and asked him to work our logo up to a sign in sheet metal. Inside the workshop for the first time, we found an Aladdin’s cave of metal sculptures. All varied by size, subject and style, but all were magnificent, and we realised our sign was at the more trivial end of this artists range.  

The language canyon still vast, we managed a first meeting with Luis and had no doubt we’d found the right man for the job. A few days later we were back with the logo blown up to full size, and within the week we had our sign. 

In between commissioning and collecting the sign, we read up on this local artisan. Born in Sant Jordi and working in metal all his life, the body of work locally and internationally is incredible. It’s thrilling knowing that our humble sign has been hand-made by such a gifted local artist.

Putting up the sign has been transformative. Our hitherto anonymous plot now has a name that we have chosen, and has been hand crafted locally for us. We’ve put our stamp on our house and unique guest accommodation in so many ways, but this truly puts the Casa de Olivos brand on it.