Storks

Well the storks have started arriving back. So far two have arrived at the nests on the church, I haven't seen if any more are here today. We still don´t know whether they are the same ones from last year or if it is the case that first one that arrive back get the best nests!

Brrrrr

The weather has started to get cold. There was frost on the ground the other morning. It is still warm during the day, but as soon as the sun goes down it gets cold. We´ve put the under table heaters in our offices. Oh, and I have moved into the smallest room of the house (not the bathroom, the small room off the dining room. This is a lot better than my workshop and just the heat from the electrical equipment keeps the chill off. Under my table there is often a pile of cats and dogs who are enjoying the warmth!

No price from the builder yet, but we did get our well water checked on Sunday, results will come back in a month. Just getting new windows will help keep the house warm, we´ve also asked for quotes for fitting wood burning stoves, so that will certainly be good.

I´ve mentioned that there is a lot of building work going on in the village at the moment. The latest development is an olive washing facility which will be run by a village co-operative. I will be interested to see how it works, I think it is as simple as a hole in the ground with a hopper that pours the olives in to get cleaned. But I´m not sure.

It is olive harvest time. The black olives are still on the trees and these will be turned into oil. I´ve noticed a lot of very fat birds around and I wonder if this is because they eat fallen olives. They look Disney-like, little round balls of feathers.

Fibs has her operation this week so no more kittens.

In case you are wondering about the pic, this is part of what I´ve been working on over the last two weeks. I've got a new job writing about rubber stamps and this is a mobile made from stamped images. More news soon.....

JigSaw - Move the Pieces Around to Complete

Builder Update

Hey - howabout this then. Last night there was a knock at the door and a builder and wife were there with a flyer describing their services - that they had translated into English! How good is that!! We don´t know them, but think they are new to the village. Anyway we´d seen their flyer around the place so they seem to be actively seeking to build up a business and would hopefully see us as being a good project to demonstrate their work.

Needless to say, having a builder on our doorstep asking for work made us want to hug him and declare our undying love, asking him never to leave us. We resisted!

Cat´s Chorus

We are now understanding the term cats chorus. In the morning they all stand on the fridge calling for their food, with Bob running up and down by the fridge hoping that a tasty morsel will pass his way! All the animals get on exceptionally well and in the evening there is one huge pile of dogs and cats on the dog blanket. It is still gloriously hot during the day, but chilly in the evening. There must be a temperature swing of 2o or so degrees during the day. I took Petal and Tinks out for a walk yesterday lunch time and had to shorten the walk as it was too hot for them. It also hasn´t rained for several weeks and that has the potential to cause a problem as we are dependent on October rains to replenish the reservoirs. Everything is starting to get dusty again, and people are wetting the pavements and streets to keep the dust down.

Which makes it all the more strange when the sun goes down and it immediately gets cold!

I´ve been given a piece of software to review. it is a knitting and crochet garment designer and last night I took part in some virtual training. The trainer was in America and we were linked up via the internet with phone, chat facilities, interactive screens and the lot. It was very impressive and really was no different to being there. Another example of the internet at its best. The only problem being she had problems understanding my pronunciation of Crochet. Americans say cro SHAY, with all the emphasis at the end.

Things are moving on with the windows. We´ve now given up on Noodles and gone straight to the carpenter. Ian is going to pop into his workshop next week. We´ve also given a list of the work that needs doing to Montse whose father is a builder and has been redoing a house at the end of our street, and her brother, who lives in Madrid wants to move back here as a builder, so we are hoping he will be keen for work. There is just so much building going on here that it seems that every building team has months of work lined up. It is renovation not new building, it seems that this is the time of year when everyone gets a new roof!

Phew

We´ve been in the middle of an Indian summer, or perhaps a Spanish autumn - I´m not sure. Lunch times see us outside in t-shirts, shorts looking for shade, the evenings in fleeces. Monday evening it was over 16 degrees centigrade at night and today during the day it was over 30. I´m having to water the plants again. Apparently this is exceptional, however we´re not complaining.

We´ve had a quarters water bill which was about 30 euros, I was in a bit of a panic as the lady had said our reading seemed high, so that´s a bit of a relief.

lessons are still going well. Not only can I tell someone where my elbows are, I can spell them too!

It worked

We spent last night with the lights out, hiding from crowds of ´brujas´ (witches). None actually came round, which left us with a pile of sweets. I think that last year our tactics were all wrong, Ian paniced and emptied his pockets to the first lot that came around, meaning that word got round the village that the English were giving away loads of euros. This year we were told to give them patatas - potatoes, which we found a little confusing, however this in fact was supposed to be crisps.

Today is a holiday, Day of the Dead. People will be heading off to the cemetry later to decorate it with flowers, and then there are big family meals.

We´ve started to become more interested in Spanish wines. Mum and Dad bought us a book last year about Spanish wines and we noticed that there were several wines that the book suggested sold in the supermarkets, so we´ve been trying to learn more. Our favorites at the moment are Rueda wines which come from Valladolid - in next principality on the right. Ian has realized that not all wines are the same and is in danger of becoming a bit of a wine buff.

Now it is getting cooler we are disappearing under mounds of cats in the evening. It is still very warm during the day, but cold at night and the shorter days mean that things don´t heat up like they did during the summer. The house is getting colder - we are sat outside during the day with t-shirts and shorts on, and come inside and wearing fleeces. We open the windows to let the warmth in! Autumn is new to us really, as last year I was not long out of hospital and not doing much.

I think that a wood burning stove will be moving up to the top of the agenda (again!).