Basil's Haircut

Basil is a bit of a drama queen. He flounces, and sighs, and demands attention. He also is inclined to ham things up a bit, and isn’t above throwing himself on the floor with a flourish and if he doesn’t get the attention he requires, he’ll do it again. And again.

We clippered him yesterday –giving him a short back and sides. He didn’t like his new haircut, and whilst he enjoyed the attention whilst he was being clipped, he didn’t like the sensation of fresh air on his skin – and spent the night wandering around sighing. We woke up several times with either basil trying to get into the bed which is a vaguely terrifying experience – or loudly throwing himself on the floor. We got about 2 minutes sleep and whilst Ian and I are blearingly staring at our computer screens, Basil is enjoying a mid morning siesta.

It took about 2 hours to clipper Basil and I reckon that a couple of kilos of fur came off him.

The Incredible Hulk

This green monster was working his way across the yard today. The dogs barked, I screamed, Ian screamed, but we still managed to get a quick pic.

Why oh why oh why

Why did:

a/ I think I was going wine testing and instead I ended up at a painting class

and

b/ when at an art class, why did I not draw a nice apple or bunch of grapes instead of er, a snail.

I am getting used to that startled silence that appears to follow me.

Mum - do you remember the bee that I made in pottery class & the teacher told me off because it didn't look 'realistic'. I don't think some things have changed....

What are you looking at?

Tibs launches herself at Ian when ever she can. She started doing it by jumping off the fridge at him - but now jumps from the floor, from chairs - in fact from where ever she happens to be. She then quite happily sits there whilst Ian does what ever it is he was doing. Here, he is washing up!

Easter, floods and rowing machine

Easter is now over - well it ended last Sunday actually. Holidays here are the week before and back to work on Monday. There is a week of celebrations, I looked back through the blog from last year and I noticed that we marvelled at how quiet it was. That is because the parades normally don't start until 11 at night! This is because it supposed to be too hot to carry the saints around the village during the day - but not this year. There were three parades on Good Friday alone! We didn't see any of the festivities. In fact I actually haven't been out since coming back from the UK which probably isn't good for me. Anyway, we didn't watch any of the parades as it seems a bit intrusive to watch the ones in the village - we would have gone to Llerena and watched the parades there which were probably a bit more of a spectical. Actually we also didn't really know when these things were going on. As we know - things can be a little random on the time keeping front!

Ian managed to miss 5 drum and cornet bands on the Satuday I was in the UK - how he managed not to hear a single out-of-tune note amazes me!

If someone asked when the best time to visit was - I would truly not know. The weather was glorious for the first three months of the year and has been rubbish so far in April. I know that the weather seems to be getting strange everywhere - but it seems to me nigh on impossible to understand what is going on. Wednesday this week, the temperature was 20degrees less in the afternoon than it was two weeks before. It hardly rained earlier in the year - and it has chucked down this week - so much that it came in through our back door and the hall and sitting room were flooded with standing water in the dip of the sitting room. I've got a weather forecast widget on my computer, and it seems to update hourly and this week it has fluctuated between clouds and storms. And it was right (there is no fun in weather forecasts any more). We have had tremendous electical storms - but no rain. Today however, it is nearly 11 in the morning and it is 20 outside with sunshine so perhaps the weather is turning again.

We've got the rowing machine out - well when I say got it out, unburied in the bathroom. Unfortunately I think it is broken. I rowed for at least 200 miles last night and it said I'd burnt 12 calories and only gone 200 yards. Can't be right......

Dad's blanket - almost finished

Wow!

Sock Tops - The Movie

10,000 Great Ideas relaunch

New site is finished www.10000greatideas.com . Take a look and tell us what you think! It does need proof reading...

New Layout

As some of us (Mum) are still on dial-up it, and having been reminded recently of how long it takes to load an image heavy site, I have changed the background here, keeping it plain and simple so hopefully it will be easier to read. The photos look less odd too - however I do know they overlap with the info bar to the right - but I can't work out what to do about that for the moment.

Happy Easter to everyone. Not an Easter Egg in sight here!!

Grey, cold but not damp

One of the first things that struck me when I arrived in the UK and waited in the drizzle for the bus, is that in Spain we don't get the three way combination of grey, cold and damp. We get cold and grey, and we get extremely wet - bucket-over-the-head-ingly wet. But we don't get drizzle.

As if to illustrate, today is very grey and cold, but yet to rain. There are parades tonight for Easter, and my guess is that the rain will start then.

We're supposed to be asparagus picking later, but apparently it doesn't grow in the cold. Hmmm.

I arrived back from the UK relatively in one piece and on time. Yet again I arrived at the airport with my baggage being overweight - and, as this time I was without powdered milk, lime pickle or brown sauce, I was a little surprised. Probably a trip to a car boot sale was not a good idea - and Ian seemed less then enamoured with the glass lampshade that I lugged back for him.

I think the butchers rub their hands in glee as I head off back to the UK. Ian drops me off at the airport and then heads straight to the supermarket and stocks up on as much meat as he can eat. Ian then turns this into a carnivorous curry feast, and from what I can see eats this for breakfast lunch and dinner.

I left Spain in glorious sunshine and returned to grey and cold. The weather forecast shows much of the same over the next few days. Boo.