Boxing Day - not here...

Christmas is more focussed around Christmas Eve and Christmas Day itself appeared to be a normal 'day after'. The Spanish have a big family feast on Christmas Eve which seemed to involve eating most parts of a pig and platters of sea food.

Christmas Day itself was such a non-entity that pavement washing duties were carried out as per most normal Mondays. We enjoyed our Lentil Wellington however, safe in the knowledge that we were probably not only the only people celebrating on Monday in the village, but also certainly we were the only ones with a lentil feast!

Boxing Day started with the electric man coming to read the meter! Truly business as normal!!

Ian to the rescue

A game of playing on top of the well post resulted in Ian having to rescue the kittens as they were unable to clamber down.

I don't know if you can zoom in on these pics however take a look at Tib's face in the pic below as Ian manhandles him/her down in a rather undignified upside down manner!

Best wishes for...

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all;”

PLUS

“a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling, and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures, and without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith, choice of computer platform, or sexual orientation of the wisher.”

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• This greeting is subject to further clarification or withdrawal
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• This greeting may not be enforceable in certain jurisdictions and/or the restrictions herein may not be binding upon certain wishees in certain jurisdictions and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wishor.
• This greeting is warranted to perform as reasonably may be expected within the usual application of good tidings, for a period of one year or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first.
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• Any references in this greeting to "the Lord", "Father Christmas", "Our Saviour", or any other festive figures, whether actual or fictitious, dead or alive, shall not imply any endorsement by or from them in respect of this greeting, and all proprietary rights in any referenced third party names and images are hereby acknowledged.

(Disclaimer: This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for her/himself or others and no responsibility for any unintended emotional stress these greetings may bring to those not caught up in the holiday spirit.)

Christmas elf

Orange tree

Pre-broken ankle I was taking pictures of our orange tree monthly to see how the oranges developed. Good job I was looking at oranges and not lemons as we only have three lemons. Anyway - here is our orange tree with our almost-orange oranges. We have tried one and they are Seville oranges - and very bitter too! I've been experimenting and have made some pickle which is the same as lime pickle but with bitter oranges. It is still salting away so it will be interesting (perhaps) to see what that is like.

Feliz Navidad

Well Christmas is nearly upon us and the fridge is full of Dia 3 for 2 cava. Excellent!

One challenge that we are facing is how to cook our traditional Xmas day lunch of Lentil Wellington and all the trimmings. We only have two gas rings and a paella pan. Ian has cooked a roast before successfully however not a Lentil Wellington. What a festive challenge!

We were looking forward to having our Xmas lunch outside however the weather yesterday was horrible - cold and cloudy. So far today there is frost outside but perhaps I can see the start of a blue sky which will hopefully mean that sun is on it's way.

Ankle update - I'm now on one crutch which is a big step forward (boom boom), although still having problems with my fingers, but as ankle is improving I should put less weight on hands so perhaps it will ease up a bit.

Anyway - Feliz Navidad!

My husband and other animals....

Fibs saying hello to Bob, that black blob top right by the plant is Davy and Ian getting bitten by Tibs!

Dookems teaching Fibs how to climb the wall

New olympic event

Should charades ever become an Olympic event then the British Olympic Committee need look no further than the British abroad. Well let’s put a caveat on that – I obviously don’t mean those at either end of the language spectrum; those with good language skills – or those monolinguists without the slightest inclination to speak another language or indeed make any form of recognition that they are in a foreign country.

My Olympic charades team would be formed of people like me – lot’s of enthusiasm, limited volcab and a great deal of arm waving.

Today I had to mime ‘being still’ and this was jolly difficult. I am still attending physio (I can put limited weight on ankle now) and I wanted to raise the problem I am currently having with my fingers – my four fingers on both hands now are ‘locking’ in the morning and my left hand fingers lock during the day after periods of staying still. Unfortunately I had left my dictionary at home, so therefore to mime ‘being still’ I needed to mime activity first. It therefore appeared that my fingers locked after frantic activity which alternated between some form of break dancing and a nasty fit. After rather startling the doctor and several nursing staff someone eventually put me out of my misery – inmóvil… of course.

So, whilst I note that the moral of the story is to continue with the Spanish lessons and never go anywhere without my dictionary, in the meantime I will await my call up to the Olympic charade team.

Jumble Sale

We went to a jumble sale yesterday - I was so excited the night before I could hardly sleep!

It was in Elvas in Portugal and in aid of the British cemetery there. More info here http://british-cemetery.com/index.html . We had a lovely day - well morning really. It started at 11, Portugal is on UK time so that meant 11 for us and 10 for them. Elvas is west of Badajoz, and a very pretty town. It is completely walled - aerial pic here http://www.walledtowns.com/wtfc/towninfo/portugal/elvas.html

Unfortunately it wasn't up to uk jumble sale standards, shame really as I had sharpened the ends of my crutches, however we did manage to come back with some junk - ooops, treasures. And I won a bottle of cream liqueur.

We liked Elvas a lot, although we didn't have a really good look around. That will be on our list of places to go with visitors next year.

I've turned a bit Spanish and have bought an electric brasero to put under the table. It is lovely from the knees down. We are going to start to look for woodburners as we do need something to take the chill off the house. The weather is lovely and clear at the moment and warm enough to have lunch outside, however my workshop doesn't get any sun so it certainly feels cold. I think that we were getting close to a frost at nights though, the lovely starry nights mean that there is no cloud cover for insulation!

Immaculate Conception Day and pigs

Yesterday was a holiday to celebrate the immaculate conception. It also appeared to be the day when pigs are slaughtered for Christmas. We went out for a quick walk around the village and were aware of a lot of chattering and voices coming from garages and the back of houses. We saw the butcher in his full garb too coming out of a barn which we thought was strange. Anyway, we saw Aderlardo later who said that his family had a big get together to kill their pig and prepare the meat. Families get together for the occassion and they start early and continue until all the pig has been made into meat products. Two legs get salted for Jamon, and the other two legs get turned into meat. They also make different types of sausages and other different things. I am not sure if they are doing this for this year, or if it is to replace what is eaten at Christmas.

We went to Carrefour last week and were amazed at the huge section of hanging jamon. A massive part of the store was made over to all these hanging pig legs which seemed to start at 40euros and went up to 100's of euros!

Constitution Day

Today is a holiday in Spain to celebrate the forming of the constitution in 1978. Friday is a holiday too, so tomorrow is opted by most people as a holiday. Except for the physio people who naturally will take out on me out their frustration at being made to work when everyone else is holidaying.

Physio is going well and I saw the consultant who has given me the ok to start to walk again. To start I have to use both crutches and not full weight. I then work to full weight on both crutches and then to one crutch. It is a little frustrating, as I am still finding it as hard as ever to actually move around or carry things - but I knew I wouldn't be running and jumping around just yet! A step in the right direction though (great pun).

We've been busy working on 10000greatideas.com and started to put in our own Great Ideas whilst we wait for ideas to be submitted from families and friends (hint hint) and the wider public.

I'm still stork watching and I noticed that the stork that we saw on the way to Llerena the other day now has a friend. They were both stood up in the nest with their backs to each other so I imagined that either stork number one had nipped off for some food when stork number two took a fancy to the nest, or that stork number one had left their summer grounds early to get away from stork number two who eventually caught up with him. Anyway, they don't look happy together!

I've noted storks in the nests on the church but no where else in the village yet. I did see a field of storks when we went to Merida the other day (still trying to get our NIE identity cards). We've started paying social security so this means that hopefully all my further medical treatment will be within the Spanish system. Hopefully there won't be much call on it.

Dookems has fully recovered from his operation and the two new ones are now fully integrated. I noticed that Doomems appeared to be taking Fibs out and showing him/her how to climb the wall onto the barn. At the same time Bob was showing Tibs the finer points of the art of sleeping. They were snuggled in the cage together (again).

Storks!

You may remember a while back that I mentioned that Ian had seen a stork. Well since then this 'stork' appear to have become invisable and even Ian was wondering whether it was a figment of his imagination - either that or it was one of his pigeon spotting episodes.

Well this morning on the way to the hospital we were having another of our debates about storks and when we will see them again - and lo and behold there was a loan stork say on top of a nest on the way to Llerena. We couldn't see any others so wondered if this was a stork on a reccie - checking out the best nest to return to. However when we returned to the village there were three storks sat back on their nests on top of the church. These must have returned overnight.

It will be interesting to see when the others return. They will have gone for almost exactly 4 months. They disappeared when I was in hospital which was the first week in August - and they appear to be returning now. How interesting. I'd love to know where they have been, how they know which nests to return to etc

Tibs helps me with my spinning

I thought this was quite cute as Tibs was snuggling up in the fleece. However this soon wore off as it turned into a game. Well several games actually. There was the batting bits of fleece all over the workshop game, followed closely by the hanging onto the end of the fleece. All in all it became a bit annoying and kittens were banned from the workshop for the evening.

Basil and Tinkerbelle

We can tell it is getting colder as Basil is resuming rug duties!

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition

Llerena was an important town during the Spanish Inquisition and in 1485, one of the 8 tribunals was set up here. Many dissenters, non believers and people suspected of witchcraft would be bought here for trial and often this would entail torcher in the chambers under the court.

I wonder why, as whilst having my leg and toes being bent in unusual directions during physio in a room in the basement of Llerena hospital, this interesting part of local history sprung to mind.

For more information about the Spanish Inquisition I urge you to revisit Monty Python (NOBODY expects the Spanish Inquisition! Our chief weapon is surprise...surprise and fear...fear and surprise.... Our two weapons are fear and surprise...and ruthless efficiency.... Our *three* weapons are fear, surprise, and ruthless efficiency...and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope.... Our *four*...no... *Amongst* our weapons.... Amongst our weaponry...are such elements as fear, surprise.... I'll come in again.), or failing that wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spanish_Inquisition_(Monty_Python)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Inquisition

Yesterday it was extremely windy, I don't think we had any wind damage, but all of our plastic chairs ended up the other end of the yard. It's not cold - but I am still glad of my gas fire.

We've been working more on 10kgi with a view to having a mini launch next week following on from our friends and family feedback. The mini-launch is going to be an advent event - great Idea for each of the 24 days before Christmas. Nothing like setting a tarket like that to ensure the blanking of minds! I've also been doing some spinning as this is good excercise for my ankle. In the physio room then have a treddle machine where people flex their ankles.

The dogs (led by Basil) excelled themselves in naughtiness, breaking into the kitchen cupboard and spreading a bag of flour around the floor. They all denied this - however with flour encrusted noses the evidence was pretty strong.

Leg Pulling

I am having daily physio, starting at 8 in the morning. This is consisting of excercise, massage and what appears to be leg pulling. The excercise is fine, the massage isn't quite the relaxing peaceful massage that I would hope for, and indeed yesterday when looking for the muscles in the back of my leg it was a tad painful. The leg pulling is because my right leg appears to have shrunk slightly, and there is quite a lot of emphasis in straightening the foot out as it curls slightly over to the right. None of this is anything to worry about, but allows for plenty of literal leg pulling.

I have crumbled and have bought a gas fire for my workshop. I was hoping to wait until the new year, however as I am not particulary mobile I do feel the cold at the moment. Although it is warm outside during the day, my workshop is distinctly chilly and I have been huddled under a blanket which hampers my work slightly. During the summer we welcomed the small windows as it kept things cool - however now we are thinking again about large picture windows which would allow the sun to take the chill off the rooms. Of course had we done this last year then we would have turned the house into an oven, well actually more like a kiln. The key would be to have large windows which can be narrowed using blinds or something during the summer.

I washed one of my last fleeces and needless to say this was the signal for the weather to turn - not cold but overcast. However not the hot and windy weather that had it dry in no time. So wet-sheepy smell again in the workshop.

Rehab

Today I had my first Physio or Rehab session at the hospital. I had a phone call yesterday which was a tad confusing as I was expecting one about an x-ray – however we finally established that it was for rehabilitation and at 8 o clock this morning I reported to the rehab centre. I was prodded, probed, poked around and yet did not feel any pain, at the worst it was a little uncomfortable. They kept telling me to relax which was very difficult as I wasn’t sure if it would hurt when they were bending my ankle. I didn’t like it when they prodded around the pins and plates, I was aware of the sensation which made me feel a little funny.

After an hour and a half we left the hospital and Ian congratulated me on visiting the hospital without crying. He said that was a first. Quite frankly from time to time I do wonder about his sensitivity.

Dookems has recovered from his operation and certainly seems a lot happier. He is quite cuddly and seems to enjoy getting on a lap for a cuddle - normally when we are trying to do something else.

I've been doing some spinning and have thought about spinning some Herdie fleece to make a good strong working jumper. After an afternoon of spinning I plied and washed what I had done and miserably measured the 12 metres which I had managed to produce. The industrial revelution happened for a reason. However I will continue spinning - I have been slow as I am using my left leg on the treddle, once I can use my right leg I will be a lot faster I am sure.

One thing I have really wanted to do is to watch the storks return. I am fascinated by these big ungainly birds who nest in huge bathtub like nests in the most impractical of positions. They disappeared when I was in hospital the first time and we’ve been wondering where they have gone and when they will come back. Do they return to their original nests, are they the same as swans and remain in couples, what do the young do or do the oldies not make it back from wherever they go and the young take the nests…. Ian said he saw a stork on top of the church, but only one and we’ve seen no more. So I wonder what this one did – did he leave a couple of days early to get the pick of the nests?

Needless to say not having any guests the weather has been glorious. It has been lovely during the day, although cold at night. However that has now changed and it rained in buckets overnight. I woke up thinking that someone had left the shower on in the bedroom which would have been quite remarkable seeing we don’t have a shower in the bedroom – anyway, it was the sound of the rain outside. There are rivers again where before there were ditches.


Ian has been working on a new website for a local english estate agent. This is now 'live' and can be viewed at www.crownpropertyspain.com. It looks good.

Cat-stration and mushrooms.

The weather is now a lot cooler and it has been quite rainy. A quick rummage in the wardrobe for fleeces and woollies ensued and of course the weather has picked up again. A good website to check weather here is this one http://www.inm.es/web/infmet/predi/locali/EXB.html.

We’ve just had our last visitors for the year so will start to get back into a routine again. I think that Ian will miss having people stay, as he uses this as an excuse to try out his meaty-cooking. I notice that there are still some revolting bits of offal in the fridge, plus a bottle of cooking sherry so I guess that it will be a day or so before he is embracing lentils once again.

Dookems had his operation on Monday – to neuter him. Obviously this is a tiny and insignificant operation and we took him in and the vet undertook the operation whilst we waited. Ian had to hold Dookes although he was sedated (Dookes that is – although I think Ian would have appreciated a slug of valium) and poor little Dooke’s ‘bits’ were chopped off. Ian went a little pale during this, and admittedly I was inspecting the vets wall charts so as to avoid too much nastiness – although I did feel a little queezy when I realised that the chart I was looking at was not simply an interesting how-to-tie-knots chart – but a best-knot-to-use-in-surgery chart which didn’t really help. Anyway, op over and Dookes was a bit wobbly Monday night but soon back to normal on Tuesday.

The kittens, Tibs and Fibs are now fully integrated with the rest of the household and are eating with Davy. Unfortunately they seem to have a bit of a windy problem – which I have not noticed with the others, and every time they jump, they make a little windy sound as they land. This wouldn’t be too bad if it wasn’t for the following whiff which is quite amazing for such small animals. I think this is a protest on being moved onto dry food. Hopefully it will stop soon.

It is mushroom time of year and Adelardo was telling us about the different forms of wild mushrooms. White stems good, pink ones bad. Get it wrong and you have 4 hours before kidney failure. So I was a little nervous when Tony offered us some mushrooms that he picked. One of them, a rather nasty black looking fungus was highly prized and was shown around the village as it was the first time for four years that one like this had been found. Ian went to Tony and Montes bar yesterday for a mushroom sampling session. When he later staggered home I was immediately struck by concern that he had eaten a pink stemed one – however he is still here so it was probably the beer!

Tibs in a sea of dogs & davy looking regal

Davy update & wall

Although at the most Davy was only lost for 18 hours, he seemed to have scared himself as he has stayed close to the house, and is being very affectionate. In particular waking us up in the night with his padding and meowing letting us know that he is here. A few little dribbles are added for emphasis. We're not sure really what happened as he is very capable of getting over walls - I wonder if perhaps he was out having adventures when it rained and went in for shelter, fell asleep and couldn't remember where he was. We won't know, but it is good to know that he replies when called.

The rain has now stopped and it is sunny. It is cold in the morning - well not frosty cold, but fresh. It gets hotter during mid day - probably 25 degrees or so, which is a nice temperature. Everything is getting greener now - which seems strange. In autumn things get green, in summer it gets brown. The reverse to what we are used to.

Unfortunately the wall at the far end of the rear yard (the one that devides us from the field) has collapsed. Not sure when it happened, it was ok when we went to the hospital on Thursday so I guess sometime Friday. Ian went to the bar to ask about builders - hmmm. However it seems that the rain has caused quite a lot of damage in different houses and the builders are quite busy, but hopefully someone will come and see us to give us a quote. The field sometimes has sheep in it - so we might have some sheepy friends next time we go out into the rear yard.

The clocks changed today. And we remembered for once...

Davy's big adventure (and Ian's)

We had not seen Davy today and this is unusual. So Ian started to have a bit of a hunt around, we checked the house first off incase he got locked in one of the rooms, and then the barns. Whilst Ian was out looking and calling he could hear a cat responding - and thought it might be Davy. But the meow was coming from over the wall in one of the yards further down. So armed with a ladder Ian scaled the wall into the next door yard, and then over again into the yard next door - and there Davy appeared. Davy was smart enough to climb the ladder that Ian put down to him and Ian then man (cat) handled him over into our yard. Not sure what happened - perhaps he got in but couldn't get out, but luckily he was fine. Ian says that the yard where he found him was full of sheep - so good job really that no one found Ian wandering round this yard in his wellies with a ladder otherwise I think he would have looked very suspicious. As it was I think someone looking out of their rear windows would have wondered about the loco Ingles. Or perhaps not....

Checking in

What a long time since my last Blog. So much for regular updates.

We are in the midst of Autumn which is not quite the season of mellow fruitfullness that we are used to. The only fruitfull things we have are two ugly fruit which we've been nuturing. Luckily as it turned out, these were not melons as Ian kindly treated me to 9 melons from the nice man who came knocking at the door. It is also the season of visits and unfortunately this week has turned into the week of rain - so poor M&D have seen Spain in the rain again.

It has also turned a little cooler, still not cold, but definately with an autumn feel. We will soon be thinking about heating, and working out where to put stoves and heaters etc. How quickly the summer seems to have passed. It is noticeably darker in the morning and evening too. I am writing this at 8.15 and it is still dark outside. Of course the clocks will change at the end of the month, but it is still a little strange to wake up in the dark at this time.

Ankle is now naked, having had the plaster taken off when I was in hospital. As I was just laid down anyway the consultant thought I might as well have the plaster off so that I could flex my ankle and also to give the incisions some fresh air to aid healing. Having had a fever for quite a period, my plaster was insulating my ankle nicely and turning it into an oven. Fresh air was quite a novelty and it was quite shocking to see my ankle in all its glory for the first time. For about 24 hours it was quite mishapen and looked sorry for itself. However it soon came back into shape and with a bit of scraping off of dead skin (Ian impressed all the nurses by helping me wash my foot for the first time) it soon looked presentable. The incisions have been healing really well and the large one on the right is now partially invisible and the one on the left which is slightly swollen is coming along nicely. I have noticed that my right leg has started not to have the muscle definition of the left (ha - and that is saying something) and that when I am sat down the left leg looks normal whereas the right looks like blacmange. Heyho.

I had the ankle x-rayed when I was in hospital and the left bone is healing, however the right one is not. This means another few weeks without putting weight on it and therefore more time on crutches. I am glad of the wheelchair. Unfortunaltey it also means a few more weeks of anti-coagulant injections. Boo.

Tibs and Fibs are growing up, and are now little cats. It seems a long time ago since I took the picture of them climbing up my plaster. They are now allowed out into the big wide world and are very confident around the dogs. In fact Tibs is quite happy to snuggle up on Bob although Fibs is a bit nervous when the bark and hides under the kitchen table.

...we both visit the surgery

Yesterday we had a two hour wait at the surgery. However this time it wasn’t for me, it was for the person we shall just refer to as Divot Head, who not believing when I said he needed two hands to push wheelchair – needed to prove it to himself by tipping the chair and falling under it. I had little more than my pride (the little that is left) bumped as I led there legs in air looking at the sky. Divot meantime managed to give himself little-boy knee grazes and a nasty chop in one of his fingers. As I laid there looking at the sky a number of things went through my mind. ‘Poor Ian’ was not one of them.

So it was with slight satisfaction that Ian had to drop his pants in front of the nice nurse and she rammed his backside with a needle. I also felt a tad smug at his whimpering, and indeed his scream as she came at him with a needle – and he had not even been jabbed at this point. He now looks slightly ridiculous with a bandage round the top third of his finger. I think the frosty silence – and the fact that he was threatened with loosing some of his vital and not so vital appendages should he ever come close to me when I’m in the wheelchair again might have made my feelings perfectly clear.

I felt a little embarrassed as we went to the surgery yesterday – not just because of the above, but also because my bandage was such a state; kittens and general wear and tear over what had become a week between changes had taken it’s toll. The nurse always sends me out looking neat and tidy with the top of the bandage neatly folded, and I return with some unravelling mass looking like something that has been found in an Egyptian tomb. The end of the plaster is decomposing a little too - but I'm not too worried as I am at the hospital tomorrow.

The nurse normally gives my foot a little wipe too, however because it was a week since my last visit it had gone rather crusty. A bit like what is left in the bottom of a Greggs Cheese and Onion Pasty bag after the pasty has crumbled whilst eating. Uuuuuuuugh. Embarrassingly large flakes of skin fell off in a heap. Poor nurse. I think that it was more apparent as the swelling has gone down quite dramatically and this made the flaking worse.

I am getting quite good at hopping down the stairs from the workshop. Going up is crawling, but going down is getting easier. The trick I found is have my bad leg forward rather than back and to hop on the count of three – not let momentum step in. To start of with I had my bad leg behind me which didn’t give me my balance easily after each hop.

I was a little surprised at the thunder and lightening we had again on Saturday, I think as a weather forecasting tool seaweed is probably more effective than my ankle. It cleared the air and it is not has hot as it has been.

Tibs and Fibs are settling in well, they spend quite a lot of time playing and the rest sleeping. Last night they were sat on the back of the chair and both hitting Ian on his head. And they say you can’t train them……

Tibia and Fibia and thunder

We have our new additions to the family - Tibia and Fibia. They seem to be settling into their new life - and we have been very surprised that Dookems hasn't taken more to them - but I think it is the big animal / small animal thing where big animals are actually scared of kittens/puppies as they don't know what they are. I think in a couple of weeks they'll be able to play so they'll be more 'normal'

Yesterday I woke up, felt a twinge in the ankle and knew it was going to thunder. It did - but not until 12 hours later, wonder if that means I am going to have a weather-forecasting ankle now. I didn't really rain, but the thunder and lightening rolled around for quite a while and into the night.

I got a prescription from the doctor for calcium supplements, they are huge - so I checked the packet to make sure they weren't horse tablets or something. They are chewable ones - lucky I checked it out as I could foresee a horrible tablet-stuck-in-throat accident otherwise.

I am back in my workshop, and am navigating the steps by shufting up on my backside and crawling to the table, and getting back down in reverse. Not elegant but it is good to be back in there again (particulary as this is where kitties are living).

Tibia and Fibia

A wheelchair arrives...

Ian wondered if we may have said yes to a Belgium cat – or any variation of cat/wedding/Belgians ,but the next morning the doorbell went and there they were with a wheelchair – Hoorah!

Within the first 20 seconds I drew the first blood – mine unfortunately as I wheeled myself into broom handle. Not too bad – but enough for me to spend the day looking as if I had dribbled tomato ketchup – not a look I was aiming for. I then managed to wedge myself into a corner and unable to reverse out. As I was randomly bumping off walls and doors, Ian told me I looked like I was playing solo “coches locos” (bumper cars) and that it might be easier to ‘drive’ if I imagined I was a tractor reversing a trailer. No doubt excellent advice had I been a tractor driver.

The other thought that I had was remembering when Dad was in hospital last year recovering from the removal of his brain tumour – and one day when I was visiting we ‘lost’ him. Somehow Dad had taken himself off around the ward in his wheelchair – apparently much more adept than I am. And this was a time when Dad was still getting confused as to who I was so quite remarkable really. I realise quite how remarkable now I am trying to negotiate corners etc.

We then took our first trip out into the village. Because it is such a hassle to get the car out for such short journey’s I’ve not been out – however it was great to be able to get to the health centre without messing around with the car. Ian pushed part of the way and I self –propelled the rest. However we did stop for a small ‘debate’ as to whether he thought pushing me with one hand over cobbles at what appeared to be 50 miles an hour seemingly out of control, was a responsible way to push ones already slightly damaged wife, and he, in turn, wondered if my screaming ‘watch the car/house/curb’ was completely justified (which it was).

On Friday night we went to a birthday party. It was a surprise party – which was lucky really as we didn’t know the surprise bit and could quite easily have let the cat out of the bag and for it to have been a not-such-a-surprise party.. We didn’t take the wheelchair as the party was in a house by the castle and I had a horrible vision of doing something similar to the cresta run back into the village. My theory was yet again proved correct – get 3 spanish people together and a guitar will appear. There were 10 people there when we arrived with three guitars and a couple of bongo drums. I should have bought my guitar – I am sure that everyone would be delighted!

Yesterday we took the chair out again and went to one of the bars. The ‘quick drink’ developed and we spent a pleasant afternoon – there was quite a group of us around a table and people stood around the table. I hopped off to use the loo (we took the crutches as well as the chair) and my almost-worse nightmare was realised. I didn’t pull anything off the wall, but the chain came away in my hand and I could not reach up to put it back. So I hopped back to the table with the chain discretely in hand to give to Ian to sort out, who was unfortunately choosing this moment to be particularly dim and thought I was giving him a present. Quite why I would give him something resembling a toilet chain, I have no idea, but whilst Ian was waving it around wondering why I had given it to him, he gave everyone the opportunity to see what I had done – and as he went off to fix it, the bar erupted into more laughter. So much for trying to be discrete.

However – all in all the wheelchair is a Great Success!

Belgium, cats, wheelchair and wedding

No - I have no idea either.

Earlier tonight a couple of people came round - they said they had not seen us recently and wanted to know if we were ok.

The conversation then developed along the lines of Belgium, Cats, Wheelchairs and wedding, the context of which I must admit was lost on me. It might have been that someone was away in Belgium getting married and now has a wheelchair we can borrow and they saw our poster in Bar Gato (cat), and they'd come round tomorrow.

Or it might not - we'll find out more tomorrow (perhaps)

Little lizard

Davy was chasing a little lizard tonight - perhaps 1 inch or so long. It dropped its tail in the chase - but with help from Ian it escaped next door.

Schnukems and Dookems are getting more confident with their jumping, but it still goes wrong, and Ian has been entertained by the fact that they regulary slide down the wall having got their aim slightly wrong.

We went to get our Almendejo to get our NIE numbers yesterday. I am not going to the healthcente until Friday so we had a clear day and it meant we didn't need to rush. Almendejo is bigger than Zafra, and we were surprised at the number of hotels - but I don't think it is as pretty as Merida. There was a bit of faffing at the police station - but no where near as bad as we expected. We didn't see much of it, just the parts where we were looking for the police station, I think it might be worth a further explore - if nothing else to find out why it is so big. We asked Adelardo and he said it is an important wine producing town, we did notice the number of grapes around, and indeed got caught behind a couple of tractors towing trailors full of grapes - however at 30,000 people it did seem like a big town to just live off wine business.

Ooh, another thing - you might remember in an earlier blog I mentioned about the evil doctor - well, I thought that perhaps I thought he was so bad as everyone else has been so good. However, Adelardo said today that the village is raising a petition as this doctor is so 'strange' - although he is a locum they want another. So it wasn't my imagination! I couldn't pass comment on his ability - but my first experience (when he locked his door) was definately odd! Luckily I don't have much to do with him and we've bonded with the nurse and I guess the proper doctor will be back on Monday.

We've been wondering about the man and the lamb - and we think that the shepherds 'train' a lead sheep and this is what this one is. it would explain why he had a corgi as a sheepdog - with well trained sheep probably less need for a proper sheep dog...?

Man with Lamb

Walking down the road this morning.

Sunny sunday

All the staples are out of my ankle. It was painful Friday night, and quite painful yesterday, so I spent as much of the time I could with my leg up which definitely eases it. I’ve also got back ache which is a bit of a pain (pun intended), I am sure that this is something to do with sitting with my leg up as I think I slump a bit in the chair. I tried a new shower technique today, but it was unsuccessful and required me needing rescuing as I has sort of ‘set’ in position with my bad leg stuck over the side of the bath.

Well, Schnookem and Dookems have both grown quite significantly. I thought that they seemed to have doubled in size when I was in hospital – but that is unlikely. Dookems has grown upwards, with very long legs and a hugely long tail which trails along the floor. Schnukes however has grown, er, outwards. Dookems has developed as we expected – he is turning into a rather sleek and handsome cat. He is very shiny and fine featured – a bit like an egyptian cat. Schnookems is more cute and like we would expect a british moggy to be.

Although they are now more cat like than kitten like, they still like playing, with each other, dogs tails, jasmine bush etc. When Emma was here she made the cats a cat toy – namely a peg on some wool. They were delighted and Dookems in particular had great fun developing a game which entailed him ‘wearing’ Ians sandal with his front legs out of the toe end, tapping the peg. Petal and Tinkerbelle were fascinated and have been trying so hard to see what the fun is. They both sit there and watch as S&D roll around playing with the peg, and Petal or Tinks give the peg a little tap and seem so disappointed that they are apparently not having the fun that the cats are. Petal, being horrible, took the peg and wouldn’t let the cats have it back – she obviously didn’t want anyone to have more fun than she did.

Davy is a bit fed up as he has always had a safe haven on top of the fridge – however now Dookems can get up there too, much to his chagrin. Schnukes can almost get up there, but via a chair, trouble is Schnookems jumping is a bit random and sometimes he/she (still not sure) ends up going backwards, much to his surprise.

We trimmed Billy yesterday and he was quite well behaved, they do fidget so when we are trimming them, and if that wasn’t bad enough I have to put up with Ian flinching every time I get within a foot of him with scissors. If only they understood that the trimming was for their own good and that they must feel so much better afterwards.

I think that the evenings are beginning to draw in. We noticed last night that it was getting dusk-y at 9.30ish. We’ve been wondering what autumns will be like. Everything is brown now anyway so I am not sure that we will see the great changes we would be used to.

Tomorrow after we have been to the health centre we are going to almendrejo which is north of zafra to apply for our NIE cards (identification number). We ought to have done it ages ago, but didn’t for one reason or another. Apparently it is a long-winded process which entails a lot of queuing so that will be fun!

All the staples are out of my ankle. It was painful Friday night, and quite painful yesterday, so I spent as much of the time I could with my leg up which definitely eases it. I’ve also got back ache which is a bit of a pain (pun intended), I am sure that this is something to do with sitting with my leg up as I think I slump a bit in the chair. I tried a new shower technique today, but it was unsuccessful and required me needing rescuing as I has sort of ‘set’ in position with my bad leg stuck over the side of the bath.

Well, Schnookem and Dookems have both grown quite significantly. I thought that they seemed to have doubled in size when I was in hospital – but that is unlikely. Dookems has grown upwards, with very long legs and a hugely long tail which trails along the floor. Schnukes however has grown, er, outwards. Dookems has developed as we expected – he is turning into a rather sleek and handsome cat. He is very shiny and fine featured – a bit like an egyptian cat. Schnookems is more cute and like we would expect a british moggy to be.

Although they are now more cat like than kitten like, they still like playing, with each other, dogs tails, jasmine bush etc. When Emma was here she made the cats a cat toy – namely a peg on some wool. They were delighted and Dookems in particular had great fun developing a game which entailed him ‘wearing’ Ians sandal with his front legs out of the toe end, tapping the peg. Petal and Tinkerbelle were fascinated and have been trying so hard to see what the fun is. They both sit there and what as S&D roll around playing with the peg, and Petal or Tinks give the peg a little tap and seem so disappointed that they are apparently not having the fun that the cats are. Petal, being horrible, took the peg and wouldn’t let the cats have it back – she obviously didn’t want anyone to have more fun than she did.

Davy is a bit fed up as he has always had a safe haven on top of the fridge – however now Dookems can get up there too, much to his chagrin. Schnukes can almost get up there, but via a chair, trouble is Schnookems jumping is a bit random and sometimes he/she (still not sure) ends up going backwards, much to his surprise.

We trimmed Billy yesterday and he was quite well behaved, they do fidget so when we are trimming them, and if that wasn’t bad enough I have to put up with Ian flinching every time I get within a foot of him with scissors. If only they understood that the trimming was for their own good and that they must feel so much better afterwards.

I think that the evenings are beginning to draw in. We noticed last night that it was getting dusk-y at 9.30ish. We’ve been wondering what autumns will be like. Everything is brown now anyway so I am not sure that we will see the great changes we would be used to.

Tomorrow after we have been to the health centre we are going to almendrejo which is north of zafra to apply for our NIE cards (identification number). We ought to have done it ages ago, but didn’t for one reason or another. Apparently it is a long-winded process which entails a lot of queuing so that will be fun!

Henry

Henry sitting under the Jasmine bush.

It becomes horribly clear...

Mike came round yesterday. Schnookems and Dookems came from him, and they were busily showing Mike how they get their food - ie squeeking at the top of their voices, when Mike told us that his cats do the same - until they get given sausages. His cats get a frankfurter sausage every morning. No wonder Dookems has been off pinching sausages, he was obviously genetically programmed to have a sausage quota every day. Ian has been trying to fix a lock on the fridge to keep Dookes from raiding his sausage stash.

Evil Doctor

Yup, today was evil Doctor day at the health centre. We knew as there was this huge black tinted window BMW parked over the disabled ramp. Oh joy.

However he wasn't quite as bad as last time ie he didn't lock his door and did let me in. And he did give us a presciption for the new drugs. We then saw the nurse - Rock Chick as I will now think of her. With skin tight jeans and large leather studded belt heading towards me, I started to wimper softly. Ian however started to blow out his chest and play air-guitar hoping to impress. Anyway she wasn't too bad and did take out some staples. When Ian finished playing the lead guitar with Black Sabbeth she said she'd see us tomorrow. All in all a Good Day.

PS - the storks have gone. Parents and young. Don't know when this happened but I guess sometime over the last three weeks. Where have they gone....?

More ankle...

Ian has been injecting me with the anti-coagulants - you can imagine the scanario although he does have an advantage as I can't run away. As he was away on Monday I was going to go to the health centre. I must admit that I had a rather strange idea of how far I would be able to go on crutches. The baker is about as far as I can get and this entails resting on the way back. It was impossible to get to the health centre when Ian was away so I gave Emma a note and asked her to see Tony and Montse in their bar and see if they could ask for a nurse (any nurse) to come round. Tony has a bad back and is also going to the nurse regulary so he was going to ask when he went to the health centre. However a nurse didn't turn up which left us all a bit high and dry.

Tuesday was a Spanish holiday and Tony came round to get me and we went to the emergency clinic in Llerena to be injected. Me with the anticoagulants and him with his painkiller. We must have looked a right pair and we got injected at the same time, so we were stood there me exposing my stomach which now looks like a pin cushion and him his back. We buy our drugs from the famacia and keep them here, so I was amused by us sat in the waiting room with our hyperdermics clutched tightly.

The normal village doctor is away and I had a not-so-good experience with the locum doctor who didn't seem to want to answer my questions about getting my ankle checked. He told me to go to the hospital who sent me to Llerena health centre. he actually locked the door when I was in the waiting room - however the Spanish girls in there were not having it and banged on the doctors door until he opened it!

The first day at the Llerena health centre was ok - but the second day was horrible. Ian thought I was going to hit the doctor with a crutch. The dr read my 'enforma', was muttering and shaking his head about my muy mucho malo torbillo (very bad ankle) and then as if to double check started prodding it so roughly that I screamed and clutched a crutch. Apparently neither the two 4 inch scars, nor the fact that the fracture is classified as severe did not suggest the pain that I might be in! He was also prodding around the staples at which point I was going to either faint or leave, but he was actually seeing if they were ready to come out. I am hopefully going to have half out next week - but what half.... If it is the same man then I am definately leaving, I can imagine him coming towards me with a staple remover.

I've run out of anti coagulants which we will have to get tomorrow. I have to take these for another few weeks. Ian is very gentle and quick, but my whole middle is feeling very sore. He keeps telling me that these are a lot smaller needles than he used to inject the goats. I did point out that goat skin is likely to be a bit tougher than me. Well hopefully.

When Emma came back from Tony and Montse's on Monday she was armed with a huge platter of cakes. Cream cakes, chocolate ones, biscuit cake etc. These were from a group of people in the village and go with the quails eggs which I have also been given.

We went to have breakfast at Tony and Montse's bar on Friday. We didn't have churros (I have enough problems without a major churros-induced seisure), but had tostada with tomato and oil. It was lovely and very simple but very refreshing. The tomato is pulped with olive oil and it is spooned onto the toast. This is the first time we went out for breakfast and we really enjoyed it - sitting and watching the world go by in the square. Needless to say Ian made us tostada and tomato the next day for breakfast.

Adelardo is back from his holiday and I asked him about the locum I saw. Ah yes, he replied 'you saw the strange doctor'. Apparently he is famous in the village for being strange. I think locking your door so you can't see patients is very strange and it was obvioulsy the same doctor.

It never rains...

Title can be taken both ways - literally as I cannot remember the last time we had rain and metophorically as we are in the middle of a bad luck down pour.

Quick recap> tenants refusing to leave Bridge End means that the sale which has been lined up has been significantly delayed > agent and solicitor show amazing amount of incompetence further snarling up the process > too many things out of our control so we decided that one of us needs to get a job > clever Ian gets interview.

So Ian had interview on Monday 31st. We talked about the issues about him working away during the week etc and decided that although not ideal, as it would only be for a few months we'd just live with it. Ian gets train to Seville and hires car at Seville. The day started in a bit of a flakey way as the car hire people did not have his hire details and I could not call 0800 numbers from here. Luckily a quick SOS call from Ian to Jim and things were sorted.

Ian wasn't sure if he was going to drive back from Marbella or not, as if he drove home he would need to get up at 6 to take car back to Seville. However at around 9 he was in Seville and realised he'd be home not long after 10 so decided to come home.

We had a nice evening together, went to bed and I fell asleep with the light on - got up to switch lihgt off with pins and needles and fell over. How lucky Ian was home. When I eventually managed to shout louder than his snores he picked me up and we looked to see what I had done.

Quick action with a bag of frozen sweetcorn reduced the swelling and I could move my toes, so I thought that it was a sprain. I knew it was something quite serious as the pain had actually made me sick (sorry for the detail), but thought muscle as opposed to fracture.

We discussed a bit what we would do as Ian still needed to get car back and we'd be facing a 80 euro fee if he went over the time, so we decided that Ian would take me to the hospital at 6.30 on the way to Seville and I'd get a taxi home.

I was treated very well and was exrayed within an hour. It started to go downhill then as I was told by a doctor that I had to stay in hospital until I was seenby a consultant. I still thought at thsi time that it was a sprain - or a minor break, but when they made me take off my clothes and put on a gown, and start to get details from me, I started to worry. The consultant then came and told me I had an 'unlucky' ankle with complete breaks of the bones. This still confuses me though as the x-ray showed three broken bones but the internet says that your ankle has two.... Anyway, surgery was on the Thursday and I experienced 6 days of spanish health service. An experience which was actually excellent, but I was glad to get home.

I have plates and screws fitted and two months on crutches to look forward to.

Anyway, I am writing this in installments so will write more over the coming days.

Welcome back Blog.

Summer Nights

As the days have got hotter, we have got increasingly into continental (well at least Spanish interior) life. We took Basil and Tinks out for a walk VERY late at night - 11.30ish? Well late by our standards - however the streets were full of dog walkers, and sitters. Outside most houses were groups of chairs populated by people of all ages. We saw the baker talking with her friends, older and younger people sat on the pavements, children were playing etc etc - the end result meaning we had to walk in the road to avoid basil getting tangled up with anyone.

We got as far as Bar Tuna and we were all welcomed inside - drooling animals too - and of course Basil. Basil had his picture taken with a few people, Tinkerbelle was congratulated on being called 'Campinilla' - 'small bell' which they found endearing. We left the bar at about 12.30 - and had to dodge about the same number of chairs on the pavements all occupied by people watchig the world go by. I guess you are probably either a watcher or a watchee. The watchees being the people who walk up and down being watched, whilst the watchers mumble 'they are english you know...'.

I like to think I can embrace the two, and whilst being a watchee - I can also cop a quick look into the houses of the watchers as we pass. All the houses we see are of a similar layout with the long hallways going through to the back doors. the halls seem to double as sitting areas - although this is only based on a few quick glances when we have been out walking.

We asked Adelardo about this - and he said that he has to sleep with earplugs because of the street noise during the summer. He also said that sitting outside and watching the village go by was recognised as more exciting entertainment than watching the television. Apparently this is very typical in villages and not in towns. I probably agree - I cannot imagine the streets of Madrid full of deckchairs with people watching the world go by.

Ian spent today trying to convince himself that the sausage appeared in our yard by act of god. Well either that or a stork that might have taken it, had a nibble and dropped it on Dookes head. Another idea was that a hungry spaniard might have taken a munch out of the middle of a rather large sausage, decided he didn't like it and put in it the bin which Dookems managed to scale and retrieve. Personally I think that Ian is plucking at straws and is in denial. Saying that we have kept a close eye on Dookems today and have kept feeding him food - hoping that this will stop him hunting food off of our neighbours table!

Thief

Ian and I are still realing from the shock that we have a thief in our midst.

Doubly shocked as the thief in question is no other than Dookems. Dookems, our cat burgular.

Today, just before we went to Adelardo's, we couldn't find Dookes, and we both had a good look in all his normal hiding places - the dogs cages, in Davies special hiding place, in the Jasmine bush, but couldn't find him. Ian was just about to look over the wall into next door to see if he had got over there and couldn't get back when we saw him. Strangely he seemed to have a bit of sausage in his mouth.

This was strange - however behind him was the evidence of a whole sausage. One of those 'horse shoe' shaped ones which are held together with a piece of string. Behind Dookes was the piece of string with the ends of the sausage still in place but the middle missing. When I picked Dookes up his tummy was surprisingly large. The dogs were around & would have demolished this had it been there for longer than a second or two, and we had checked the yard a few minutes before so it must have been Dookes. Well that and the fact he had quite a lot of sausage in his mouth and a tummy that suggested he was either pregnant, auditioning for alien or had just ate rather a lot of food.

Ian has noticed that next door isn't as derilict as it looks and has wondered if some of the houses further down the road extend next door. Our first neighbour that we know is Joaquin (jim and Viv you know him as he is theone that offered us sausage and wine when we were in the campo). It is likely that Dookems got over there and helped himself to sausage.

Ian has kept the sausage - he says so we can take it to the neighbours and see if they can identify it is theirs. i hope he is not going to sneakily eat it later.

Anyway when we were at Adelardos we thought we would ask him how to translate 'we think our cat might have stolen your sausage', and he then asked his Dad the same of our neighbour (even though we new) and a long discussion ensued about how today is in fact our neighbours saints day - it is the day of Santa Joaquin.

We are sat here now, with everything crossed hoping that they hadn't laid out a special saints day feast which Dookems chose to liberate the sausage course. Lets hope that there isn't an ancient tradition of the sharing of the sausae on St Joaquins Day.

We will have to call and explain, as it will be around the village now (remember word travels fast here!). However at least if 'word is out' it won't look quite so strange when we go round waving a bit of chewed sausage muttering something about 'gatos'.


PS. Ian says he will have nothing to do with Dookems and he is no cat of his. He says he did not bring his cat up to have such little respect for his parents. I of course cooed softly and said that he was my little boy and could do no harm. Note: You need to have listened to the Archers tonight to understand the witty pastiche of the last sentence...

Fly Swats and Mildew

The man in the supermarket looked rather startled as I mimed 'fly swat'. It probably didn't help that he had drawn close to me to look in the dictionery I was holding just as I went into full 'swat' mime. I think he thought I was going to attack him. Anyway, he didn't have any - or so he said as he fled from the shop, so we went to another shop and it was Ians turn to ask, so we are now the proud owner of a fly swat and Ian has single handedly declared war on flies.

It is now very hot and I've had problems sleeping, so I thought perhaps it was time to shed the tog24 duvet and look for something lightweight. We keep our bedding in the cupboard in the bathroom, and when I started looking I was horrified to find that we had a bad case of mildew. Admitedly I had noticed that things felt a little damp in there - but at the bottom of the boxes things were ringing wet. That little room is very cool, but I guess it heats up during the day and hence our damp. So our yard is now a riot of colour - although not as I imagined, but instead from sheets etc all washed and drying. Some things were beyond saving and others now will only be usable for rags etc. Something to watch in the future.

We have recorded temperatures of 50 in the yard, we get no breeze there which is why it gets so hot. Ian is quite cool in the house, but my workshop is getting hot so I am going to have to get a fan (there are two words for 'fan' in spanish, I've been going into electical shops and been asking for the wrong one ie hand fans that ladies have - which indeed I have just bought and I think is a underated feat of engineering). The temperature outside with a breeze is 42/44c although it is going to get markedly cooler next week to 35.

One of our favourite times of the day is at night when we sit outside and watch the kittens playing. They spend ages chasing each other round and round a plant pot, followign each others tail and Dukems is fascinated by the jasmine plant and we watch as he climbs up and then falls out, Billy was rather suprised when Dukems fell once on top of him - seemingly from the sky.

Last night we went to Adelardo's family's caseta which is on the Bienvenida road. We were invited to take our swimming costumes which Ian did and I took photos. I think they were suprised when I wanted to take pictures of vegetables etc. They have about 500 olive trees and a small kitchen garden.

We are getting spoilt at the moment with a lot of fruit and veg from our neighbour across the road and also from Adelardo. Marrows seem the be the main one - but we also have a lot of figs too. We are going to sun dry some tomatoes, but need to make a frame first to keep them fly and dust free. Suprisingly we've not seen any sun dried tomatoes, however in mmy gardening book it says that they are harvested all year round so perhaps traditionally they have not required preserving.

If you're happy and you know it...

Ian is delighted that I have bought a guitar back from England. He is not so happy about the fact that my guitar playing repetoire is left over from my girlguide days - but what fun we are going to have.

I bought the guitar, a rucksack full of beer, cider, marmite, lentils.... back with me and must admit as I toppled over for the umteenth time I did wonder why I make things so difficult for myself.

I had a lovely time visiting family and will remember to put up a pic of our feltmaking which was fun (although I am not sure that baby Olly will think so when he wears his hat).

Ian looked after things here and all the animals seemed pleased to see me - in a laid down, its too hot to move sort of way. Dookems seems to have grown, well his legs have and I am not sure that I was right about the ugly duckling growing into a beautiful swan. He now has these huge great big long legs and a small body. He is a real climber - he climbs like a monkey, I've not known a cat like ti before.

We went out for a drink last night as I bought back some english comics for the son and daughter of one of the bar owners so we thought we'd drop them off. They bought me out a baby turtle, which worried me as I hgought it might be tapas! They also bought me out a hamster to look at. We were chatting to Tuna and his wife and we were talking about the confirmation services. All children in the village are confirmed and this is followed by a major party (of course). The children get given a lot of presents - and bit presents too. We have seen the dresses and the outfits for boys in the shops and I can see now how important it is to them.

One strange thing in the bars is you have to keep your own tally of what you owe. This can get very confusing when people buy other people drinks, as sometimes people don't physically buy you a drink they pay for one which you have already had - if that makes sense. It also means if someone has bought you a drink and they leave before you, you can't thank them which seems a bit rude. last night Tuna's brother (who runs another bar) bought us a drink and it would have been nice to have said 'thankyou'. We were complimented last night on the fact that our spanish had improved. This was good. Interestingly we had commented earlier that one of the people that we had thought spoke quite good english seemed not to speak good english now. I think that is because our spanish is improving and we can exchange words in spanish with him. Mind you his english is still better than our spanish and interestingly he picked his english up only from the internet and television.

Temperature around 42c. It is hot!

Sweeney Todd Strikes

One of the down sides of having 6 dogs is cutting their coats, we've unfortunately chosen breeds that all require trimming.

Back in the UK we could take them to the agricultural college to be trimmed quite inexpensively. Basil used to love the attention showered on him there, though he used to whimper like a Chihauha (is that how it's spelt?) when I went to leave him there. By the time I returned to pick him up, he'd generally deny knowing me and suggest that he live at the college from now on.

However here there are fewer options here on the dog trimming front, and though we did get given a phone number for someone from Bienvenida who trims dogs, there's a communication problem that we're not yet up to overcoming.

Hence we've been trimming the dogs ourselves. I say we, though in fairness it's rather more Kate who does the trimming. She has a more patience than me as the dogs do tend to fidget. She's also more confident with a pair of scissors.

I constantly find myself cringing when I assist Kate by holding one or other of the dogs as still as possible, and I cringe almost as much if I'm using the scissors, which can be a bit alarming for the dogs, as I wave the scissors around with my eyes shut.

On Friday though, in Kate's absence as she visited family back in the UK, I decided to do my bit and give Petal a trim. She was looking a bit in need of help on the hair front.

Having trimmed her back half on Friday, this morning I trimmed her front half. She still looks in need of help on the hair front.

I was going to post a picture of her post trim, but she's refusing to pose for the camera until her hair has started to grow back and she looks less daft.

Churros

We have just come back from buying Churros for breakfast. A new Churros shop has opened on the square by a couple who we have become friendly with and we went down to harden our arteries and support their venture. Churros are like fried donuts, which are made by squirting this stuff into hot oil into a shape like a big cumberland sausage and then snipping it into bits with scissors. it is flour, water and a 'special ingredient' which they are not allowed to divulge.

They are also opening a bar next to it, that will be the 11th bar in the village. We had a quick look inside and it looks really nice. I think they are planning to open during the day and not in the evening. She is the sister of the wife of bar tuna's brother who runs Bar Gato, their other brother running one of the other bars too. He is the cousin of Gemma the lady I did the 24km hike with (I think that one of my toe nails has been terminally damaged by the way) and brother of..... I think a village family tree would show that everyone is related somewhere down the line!

We had dinner out last night - the first time since we have been here. It was at Disco Tony's which seems to open for food in the summer. It is very spanish food, with hamburgers which are the first Ian has seen in the village outside of a fast food can which turned up at San Juan. Nothing vegetarian at all of course, so I had salad, Ian had burgers and we all shared patatas frita. We sat up on a roof terrace so we could see the moon. They are quite proud of the moon here and it is suprising the number of people who mention it. It is also interesting the number of people with telescopes to look at the moon and stars. We had a nice night, we were with the churros people, Baaaarrreeeeeee (Angel), and the girl from the supermarket. It was a 'tranquillo' night, ie calm.

The other night, rarely Ian was in bed before me and when I went into the room he had a monster on him. on closer inspection it was an extremely large locust. I screamed, he screamed the dogs howled and the locust just sat there - obviously waiting for a few friends before he could swarm. Ian took it outside but it spend yesterday sat on the wall. it was so big that I can see it clearly from my workshop. We tried to communicate this (sometimes I start these conversations and then regret it when the miming becomes to sureal). My mime and communication involved the bible and plagues. by the time I finished this the actual story was quite boring in comparison.

By the way, I am sure you have been wondering what happened to Pidge, our pigeon friend who arrived in the yard on my birthday. Well I know he survived because recently he appeared again in the yard and had to be rescued. We know it was him - either that or we have a family of birds living here with heads at rectangles.

Pics

Above left: Dookems. He doesn't often get photographed as being all black makes him difficult to take. But here he is walking with purpose towards me.

Left: Kittens with Tinks - they are getting quite big now

Below: Oranges - July 1st. Although quite a few have dropped off now, we still have plenty there. Unfortunately only have 2 lemons!

Swimming Pool

The opening of the swimming pool was very much a BIG THING. We wandered up about 3 in the afternoon and it was packed. The bar that is. I think that everyone in the village was there, again, all the generations were amply represented. The party continued and there was much drinking and eating. The spanish have a different attitude towards health and safety. proper glasses were being used and beer and wine was being drunk outside on the grass where people were walking bare foot, huge picnics appeared and were consumed followed by immediate swimming etc. I commented to someone that this would be unheard of at a british council pool. 'Why', he said 'are British people careless?' Of course no one drowned or injured and a good time was had by all.

One thing that was interesting is that given the relaxed attitude to the above, the spanish are extremely concious of the sun. The bar was packed and outside all the shaded areas were packed. People were stood packed like sardines under umbrellas or under the shade of the building. If you happened to expose even an arm into the sun you were grabbed and bought back into the safety of the shade. I needed to go to the bank and was going to walk and this was greated with shock and invitations to drive me. Actually that is another thing we have noticed is that the villagers do drive very short distances. In fact someone made a joke about this saying that they drive to the shops and then drive home to go for a walk. Meaning I guess that the evening 'paseos' are completely different to a walk to the shops.

I lost Dookems last night. Couldn't find him anywhere, I looked outside, inside, everywhere I could think of. Just when I was really starting to worry, I saw Schnookems looking into the dog cage, and there along with the pups was a little kitten head looking out at me. Dookems was obviously in the cage when we put the dogs away and was quite happy to stay there. He is a funny little thing!

White Rabbits

First of July and I remembered to say White Rabbits. Actually I remember most months, my last failure being when Ian made me say 'oh bugger' instead, however on reflection I think he realised the error of his ways.

We survived the rest of the fiesta last weekend - a strange mix of nocturnal life. There was a big band playing and the dance space was full of pasadouble-ing couples. I left at 6 on the Sunday morning, and had to squeeze past a dance floor still full to bursting, including the Mayor and his lady friend, and walked back with the butcher and his wife who were having an 'early night'. It started again later on the Sunday, but I must admit it was a little quieter.

There is a mini fiesta this afternoon (fiesta just translates as 'party'). The swimming pool opens and everyone is looking forward to a party there at 2.00. We walked past it earlier this week and it does look very nice.

Spain got knocked out of the world cup. We decided not to watch it in case they didn't win. The village descended into silence. We don't know if they partied afterwards (their last opportunity in the world cup) or not. England play this afternoon, however I don't think that there will be much (any) interest.

It is getting hotter and we can see why people lead these strange 'split shift' lives. After 2 in the afternoon it is too hot to do anything and the water from the cold tap is now coming out warm.

We have just finished listening on radio 7 to Day of the Triffids and have thoroughly enjoyed it. However - I wonder if such a book could be written now, the people who were blinded by the green lights were described as being helpless and the responsibility of the few sighted people left. I wonder what 'In Touch' (radio 4) would say about this....

Schnookems and Dookems are both doing well. Dookes has grown more and is not too far off of Schnookes size, but not so rounded. I don't think that S is showing any problems from his accident and in this heat all the animals are drinking a lot of water. We were worried that they might be part feral or barn cats - however I think it is a long time since any of their ancestors have had to track down food. I have never known cats make so much noise when they are hungary. They make Davy, who I always thought was vocal, appear quiet. When they are hungary they both stand there and throw their heads back and sqeek at the top of their voices. Ian says that in the wild things would throw themselves out of trees to avoid having to listen to any more of this noise. One morning I woke up thinking that there were pigs being killed in the house, however it was the kittens 'asking' for food. Dookes has taken to sleeping in the puppy cages during the day, he squeezes in along side Bob and Tinkerbelle, however if he gets in there before the dogs they won't go in, and just sit out side looking very sorry for themselves.

Our Spanish lessons are coming along slowly. it is bloomin' difficult. It amazes me that we can speak English seeing we know such little grammar. What is a present pluperfect for instance.... It also doesn't help that tenses seem to recycle the same words so for instance 'I speak' is the same word as 'they spoke'. We are doing some revising at the moment and going to concentrate on a single tense a day. Today is present tense.

Witches!!!

We went to the 'show' last night which was a representation of the Inquisition in Llerena and how the witches came under the protection of the Village of Villagarcia. It was excellent. We didn't understand much, however it was apparent that it was very well acted and lots of the village took part. The village band played Templars, and most women appeared to be witches.

The first half took place in the village square, with a large stage under the clock tower and big banners and torches (with real flames worrying close to the banners!) decorating balconies. It was to start at 10, so we were not suprised when it actually kicked off at 10.45. The second half took place in the courtyard of the convent (the one which has been rennovated) and included dancing, as well as the acting out of a story, and also the raising of the devil which appeared to be a goat.

It was highly impressive, however was a long time to sit still when we didn't understand much. Typically Spanish, the break between the first and second half was long enough for people to eat dinner and the bars were heaving. It finished at 2.00 (yup - at night) and we went to Bar Tuna and then down to Bar Extremadura. By this time it was 4.00 and the place was buzzing with people young and old. I think we are getting the idea of why this strange nocternal activity takes place. It has been very hot and impossible to do anything in the afternoon, which is why people take to their beds to reappear later.

Tonight there is a band, the village band and also 'coches locos' which translates as 'crazy cars' ie bumper cars! Apparently people from all the local villages come to this fiesta so it will be interesting to see what happens. We have met some more people who speak a little english, which is both good and bad as it means we have other translators, but also it is 'easy' to speak english rather than spanish.

Last night I saw a young lad wearing a football shirt which had 'jesus' on the back, the common usage of jesus as a name still makes me chuckle. The other thing that made me laugh was we found out that Baarrreeeeee's real name is Angel. So it was Angel who was knocking on our door in the middle of the night trying to get Ian to sing Kareoke!

Petals on pavements

Sunday it rained and was cool-ish in the evening so we thought we'd take Basil out for a walk (it has been too hot recently) and that we'd stop in Bar Tuna for a drink on the way back. Bar Tuna is the bar by the Pillar (water troughs) at the Llerena end of the village - so we could have a drink and so could Basil. Our new drink of choice is 'Tinto do Verrena" which is 'red wine of summer'. This is red wine and lemonade served with lots of ice. Basils drink of choice was water with fish in it. When we walked back at around 10, the streets were blocked by alters and lined with plants. We'd only been out for about an hour and there had been no sign of anything when we went. Anyway, we were a bit nervous about walking through the alter-blockades so we walked around the village and came back the other way, only to find the streets strewn with petals. Apparently it was a celebration for Corpus Christi, not sure where the petals came in though.

Monday, being Spain where people are very clean (not satified with just washing their own floors and their door steps, they also wash down the pavements outside their houses), there were little piles of petals swept up ready to be taken away.

Monday also was Spains second football match. They started off badly 1 down to Tunisia. Ian is doing a bit of bonding by watching the football matches. Sport is a good way to break down language barriers as it is quite easy to communicate about what you are watching, so it is a good way to meet people. I said I'd come up to the bar towards the end - however it was still 1 - 0. The village was silent when I walked through - until a sudden uproar which echoed around the place. Spain had scored - phew. When I got to the bar Spain was winning - double phew. There were two televisions in the bar, all the men were watching the big one, and there was a small portible which some others were watching. I kept having to check that the same game was being shown on both, as there was much cheering and shouting and table banging and whistling... coming from the big television, when the little one just seemed to show a few footballers stood around. Goodness knows what it will be like when (if?) they get into the next round. After the football a huge mound of fish came out and the tables were pulled together whilst they tucked into a pretty horrendous amount of things with eyes.

England play tonight. Ian is going to watch it at Pepes. This is our favourite bar, but it is difficult to talk to people, in Bar Tuna there are some people who speak a bit of english so we can communicate, in Pepes it is all Spanish speakers so it is less easy. So anyway, the England game will be a good way for Ian to exchange some words with the clientele which is largely our neighbours.

People keep telling us about the three day fiesta this weekend. It starts 'quietly' on the Friday, ready for a 'big' day on Saturday with a quieter day on Sunday. Oh dear...

Kittens wearing crowns

Why is that kitten wearing a crown??

This is Schnukems modelling the crown that I have been commissioned to make for 'Posh Pooches' a forthcoming book to be published in the US. Really.

This is the small version, I also need to make another two - spaniel size and a larger one which is Labrador size. Any self respecting labradors watch out...

Dookems isn't quite as photogenic as Schnukems being all black, and also regards anything as being a game and therefore isn't a great model. I think that Dookems is going through an 'ugly duckling' stage at the moment, and he will turn out a very attractive cat, but at the moment he is looking a bit gangly. Dookes has no fear, and he very happy to play with the dogs at any opportunity - even if it means that he is licked till he is soggy.

Massive electric storm on Tuesday night, we found a bedraggled pigeon in the yard. We put him in a box and kept him in the bathroom until he had dried off, and then put him in the barn. Thursday we put him out the back and I am sure that I can see him now, sat on the barn cooing a thankyou at me. Or am I getting confused with a Disney film.

Oranges

I was going to take a picture of our oranges on the first of every month. Unfortunately I forgot – so this is a pic a week late (bottom of page).

Talking about harvesting (last post) we are going to be harvesting carrots soon. Unfortunately our tomatoes never really got going – not to worry though as we can buy the most fantastic toms in the shops. it is hot again, we had another heat wave earlier this week - where the wind is like a heat gun, today it is more normal - hot but with a breeze which doesn't blister paint.

We’re getting a better and better idea of what village life is like for all ages. On Thursday we went for a walk with Adelardo and we saw the local ‘Pensonistas’ going out for a meal. There was a coach picking up 40 or so at 9 in the evening. Goodness knows what time they returned. We also noticed that one of the bars down the road by the bus stop had tables on the pavement. So last night we thought we’d go there for a drink. At Midnight the pub was busy with young children as well as adults. I think this is how they get children in training for later. Anyway we were sat there and two coaches turned up, and off came half of the village who had been to a wedding. As most people seem to be related one way or another then this was probably one family. It was like a fashion parade as the people filed past our tables, the ladies in their typical Spanish fineries.

The village seem quite often to go away together, they arrange holidays and weekends away to other villages fiestas. I suppose that if it is too long between parties it makes sense to turn up at someone elses.

Talking of fiestas there is a three day fiesta soon (sob). All activities starting at 24.00 of course. This is in celebretion of witches. Apparently the mote nombre (nick name) of people of village Garcia is ‘Witch’ this is what they are known by by the people of Llerena. It is something to do with the Inquisition (which apparently Llerena was an important part of) – might be something to do with people escaping from Llerena to Villagarcia. I think the fiesta entails a play which will be interesting. Ian is hoping that it will also entail a bit of song and dance.

Harvest

The farmers are harvesting. One the way back from Llerena we saw combines and donkeys working along side in the fields. Last week it rained very heavily, extremely so, however now we seem to be in the throws of another heatwave. Despite last weeks rain the fields and countryside is now brown and looking much more like the traditional Spain - brown fields and olive trees.

The kittens are well,a nd Schukems suffers no ill effects after his accident. We've noticed that Dookems is growing much more slowly and I guess is going to be a small cat like their mum. Dookems makes up for his lack of size with an extreme amount of interest, and flies out of the workshop when the door is open only to get pounced upon by the dogs. When I pick him up he is covered in dog lick which doesn't seem to phase him at all.

It is very warm over night and Basil is fidgeting, throwing himself on the floor trying to find a cool place. the best place for him would be the bathroom, however he doesn't like to be too far away from Ian.

We have three lemons on the lemon tree, so not going to be self sufficient this year - however seem to have quite a healthy number of oranges. Wonder if they will be the bitter seville oranges or sweeter eating ones??

Eeeaaan - It is I, Barreeeeee

I forgot to write about Friday night. Unusually for us we went to bed very late - 12.30 and as we turned out the light we congratulated ourselves on how 'Spanish' we were getting.

Until that is about 10 minutes later when a car pulled up and a banging on our front door was accompanied by the cry of Eeeeaaan, it is I, Barreeee. Barry was on his way out and inviting Ian up to the bar where there was kareoki (how is it spelt?) which was soon to be starting at around 1 o'clock! We hid under the bedclothes until he went away. Perhaps we've still got a way to go before we get truely into the Spanish way of life!

Last night we went out for a drink. We are getting brave and are visiting different bars, so we went to Bar Extremadura for the first time and to Pepes on the way back. The total cost of our night out was 1 euro!!!! On Saturday night we went to 'Disco Tony's' - a late night bar, in the uk the sort of place where you would pay an entrance fee and a lot for your drinks. Our bar bill came to 60 cents!!!!!!!! for two glasses of red wine! Now we are getting a little more confident we are happy to go into the bars, there are more faces we know and we can exchange a few words. We also realise that we are not going to break the bank!

I had my hair cut yesterday - I asked the lady in one of the supermarkets where she got her hair done and she told me that her friend did it and she would introduce her to me in Bar Tuna that night. Which she did and for one horrible moment I thought that the entertainment that night instead of Ian singing was going to be me getting my haircut, but no, she came round here and luckily given communication was all by mime, I had the nicest haircut I can remember. Ian says I look spanish.

We had a nasty shock on Sunday. We let the kittens into the bedroom, the first time they had been outside of my workshop. We were changing the bedclothes and of course for kittens this was great fun. Anyway, Schnookems got stood on, and we thought was badly injured. He couldn't move and had blood coming out of his mouth and nose. You can only imagine how we felt. Anyway, we went to the vet (an emergency appointment) and it turned out that he was probably just badly shocked. Today he (we know he is a he - the vet told us) is running round quite happily. Still perhaps a bit quiet, but quite happy to jump on Dookems and have a little rough and tumble!

We have been introducing the dogs to the kittens. Dookems has no fear - quite happy to sock basil on the nose. We have let Bob in here with them and he was quite happy for them to snuggle up against him - in return for them sharing their food with him of course.

Today we are going to Llerena with Aderlardo - we are going to try and get the electric bills sent to us and not Jesus and Selena.

Kittens, lessons and fleece

The kittens have settled in nicely. We think we have been very fortunate as they are friendly little things, actively seeking out laps to sit on and quite happy to play around our feet. I am not certain that my workshop is the best home for them. We did have one cartoon like moment when one of them help onto a spoke on the spinning wheel and the other one jumped on the tredle. They've not really met the dogs yet, but we'll introduce them soon so they get used to each other. Davy still treats them with distain - and for most of the time pretends he can't see them.

Our lessons are coming along. We had a practical lesson on Tuesday - going to the market and asking things. Until we can roll our 'r's we are going to find it difficult making ourselves clear, but at least we are on the right track.

I think we are in the 'dry period' now with not much rain expected. This means we are watering our plants twice daily - I wonder how the gardens which we see which are an abundance of colour keep watered. Some form of irrigation I suppose. The temperature is now really quite nice. The heatwave of a week ago has disappeared and the breeze now is cooling as opposed to the heat-gun like wind we were experiencing.

I have been washing fleece. it seemed sensible to take advantage of the dry weather to get the fleece washed and dried as it can take an age otherwise and gives off a rather special aroma!

We are going out for lunch tomorrow. At 6.30!!! How strange. We are going to lunch with Adelerado who is our teacher and his family at their 'country house' which is about 1.5kms away. We went for a walk out there the other night and although the house is only on a very slight hill, the views were amazing. it was suprising what a difference just a small rise in hight meant.

Schnookems and Dookems again

Dookems is the black one and Schnookems the tabby. Must admit we had a bit of a debate this morning on how to spell their names. They are settling in well and seem a couple of happy kittens.