The house gets its whitewash

The limewash arrives in the same week every March. The house closes its shutters while Manuel and his sons work along the walls with wide brushes. Eleven days, weather permitting.

Limewash is not paint. It breathes and disinfects, and it fails beautifully. That failure is why the house looks the way it does, instead of the way a render would.

Guests sometimes ask for the colour code. There isn't one. There is a bucket, well water, and Manuel's eye.