Chickens

We've been trying to work out the gender of our new chicks. They are now three months old and nearly full size. We're pretty certain that two of the black ones are boys as they are beginning to get ruffles around their neck. There is definitely one white one who is looking boyish and one of the spotty ones is strutting. A few of the others are getting definite pompoms on their heads, so at the moment it looks like we have 50/50. Which isn't too bad!

Manuel has started on the roof terrace at the back. There was a potential hold-up as the town hall were worried about how it might look from the road, but in reality it won't look any different. I don't know how big a job it will be, but I guess it will be in place for the autumn, which is when we'll get the most from it. What fun!

See, we really do go out cycling....

More Bike Rides

We've been on some great bike rides over the past few days. Admittedly, yesterday saw us both stood hanging on to each other in the middle of a stream trying hard not to fall in, but that aside, we've found some great places to go on our bikes. Sunday was the best, when we went out towards Llerena, turned left and headed over a hill and found ourselves looking for miles in every direction. Because everything is so flat here, it doesn't take much of a hill to give excellent views. The main problem that we have at the moment is that it is so hot that we are restricted to going out in the evening, and now it is getting dark earlier, there is quite a short window of time. We've been on 'yellow alert' with the weather, although it is due to cool a bit next week.

A second cotton boll is opening - how exciting!

Cotton Harvest

I was a little surprised to see that one of our cotton buds had burst. I thought that it would take longer, but I think perhaps this was an early one. They should take about 150 days from planting, but this one only took about 90 days. I do have it in full sunshine, however, which is what they like.

I took out the seeds and weighed the fibre from the one boll and it was .7g. I have counted 37 bolls on the plants which will give me an yield of about 25gms. Which is enough for one small sock.

However the plants are still flowering so there will be more bolls - hopefully. It would be nice to think that the yield from other bolls will be greater as this one was premature. Still, it does show that growing (exceedingly small quantities of) cotton is feasible.









The cotton on the left, the seed pod and the seeds from the cotton on the right.

Batman has a Bath and it Rains

Batman has been constipated, he now has diarrhea and he is truly the stinkiest cat that could possibly exist. What's made the situation worse is that he is quite a cuddly little cat - not minding if it is us or the dogs that he cuddles up to, which was rather spreading the smell. So we decided that drastic action was required and that he needed a bath. So we showered him. Luckily he was very well behaved and it wasn't a problem at all, so we were able to give him a good clean and also washed his tail. We'd been a bit worried that there may have been an infection under the scab, however that all cleaned up nicely. He was quite happy to lay in the sun and dry, so if we have to do this again it won't be too much of an issue. To clear up the diarrhea we are not feeding him for 24 hours, which is confusing him somewhat. We'll then start feeding him on chicken and see how that goes. It is very similar to what we did with Sam.

We're not worried at all, as Batman has faced some changes over the last few days so he is bound to be upset one way or another.

I think he is walking further without stopping, but I think that this must be my imagination. Unless, of course, he has more space here so is getting more exercise...

We've had big rain over the last couple of days. The sort of rain that comes down by the bucket. And electric storms. Jesus was supposed to be starting painting the back of the house and we noticed that Manuel had dropped some of his scaffolding in to do the roof of the chicken shed, so I guess that will be put back a few days now.

We went for a cycle ride earlier over the other side of the main road, and were surprised to see the puddles, so there must have been a lot of rain. I'm still thoroughly enjoying getting out and about on our bikes. Ian is very good on his bike, and I am inclined to pant after him while he effortlessly glides up a mountain (well, OK, a slight incline), however we are having so much fun investigating lanes and paths. I'm still using Google Maps and plotting all our rides so we're building up a really good map of the area. It's a fantastic way to explore the countryside and I'm certain we've seen more in the last two months we've been cycling than we have the rest of the time we've been here.

Oh yes, on Sunday we went for a cycle ride towards Llerena. We come out of one track and join another, and these are small tracks wide enough for one vehicle, so when we saw a van coming up the road we waited for it to pass. The van passed us, stopped and reversed back at speed. The two men jumped out and proceeded to tell us how to get back to the village. They recognized us and thought we were lost! The kindness of apparent strangers is still as strong today as it was when we moved in.

Batman and Sam

Batman

Batman, as Fragel is now called, is settling in nicely. His period of introduction lasted for about two minutes as he wasn't fazed by the other cats and dogs and they were pretty unimpressed by him. I think they can tell he is poorly.

He is very skinny and the tip of his tail - or where his tail used to be - is still raw. We are cleaning it three times a day and hopefully it will start to heal. The vet said to get back in touch if it hadn't healed in a couple of months, so she is obviously expecting it to take some time.

He is very friendly and has already snuggled up with Sam. He can't jump, and wobbles when he walks. He also falls over a lot, but hopefully as his tail heals and he gets stronger he'll get better on his legs. He's a bit stinky as he can't squat to spend a penny, however that has got a lot better in just the two days he's been here as we've been wiping him down with a baby wipe - and he's spending a lot of time in the fresh air too, which is good for him.

He's a very cute little cat and hopefully we'll be able to get him to a reasonable level of fitness. A bit of TLC is really all he needs and I think he'll be a little character and fun to have around!

Tomatoes

Ian's birthday present from Mum arrived yesterday. Mum said to open it, which we did - and what good timing....

Fragel

aug_11, originally uploaded by ian_pullen.

or Batman as I think he will be called. In his new home....

Rain

We were on orange alert again yesterday, however the weather has cooled today becoming overcast and it's even rained a bit. But not enough really to be called rain - a few drops but not enough to wet the yard. The result is that it is very humid and I think it was better when it was just hot rather than being cooler and humid as it is quite oppresive.

Babbity was funny with the rain, she kept trying to chase the raindrops - it would be the first rain that she's seen! Miss Moppet was obviously much too sensible.

We cycled into Llerena today and out the other side along a path towards Casas De Reinas. I think that the path was created for bird watchers, as there was a sign which showed all the birds that you could see. We were able to identify a bird that we've seen quite a lot of when we've been cycling around here - its an avutarda and quite impressive looking - particularly as they seem to hang out in groups.

We're starting to think again about the kitchen. After nearly two years of not having a kitchen we're used to it, however it would be nice not to feel like we were permanently camping! The summer sales are on at the moment, so the plan is to - well, make a plan.

Amazing Insects

There are some waspy-fly type things that fly around my workshop. Their legs are about four times the length of their body. They look rather strange, like their legs are falling off as they just dangle beneath them when they fly.

I also found a luminous beetle in the bedroom. I woke Ian up to share the exciting news with him and the beetle switched off its luminousness. Remarkable!

We've also had an ants nest in the house. We blocked it up straight away, having seen the organized way that they go about raiding each others nests or dissecting a lizard, there's no way that I'd trust them not to have carried us outside and changed the locks by tomorrow morning.

Fun Fun Fun

I thought that my classes might be getting a little boring and I might be in danger of losing a couple of them. I've been working quite hard with the children and there's probably not been that much fun, so I thought I'd step up the fun content this week. This mean that I needed to drag Ian in, whose expression clearly illustrated his view on the 'fun'. I did half an hour of hiding coloured sweets under plastic cups, plus a Jenga type game of stacking sweets (with the aim of speaking colors and learning placements) and then half an hour on the computer playing some games. Ian had two of the children on his computer and judging by the noise, - and the look on Ian's face when the children went home - their fun quota was met.

I'll plan another fun class for next week and then get back to the boring stuff again. I might do cooking with them.

I am quite pleased with how the class is going. When we had a group of youngsters call round to see Basil recently, my class was saying 'Basil, we love you', whereas their friends were saying 'Basil, we lo-bay you', which is how it would be pronounced in Spanish. So at least they are learning something - even if it is only to tell a large Pyranean Mountain dog that they love him!

8 long years....

It was our 8 year wedding anniversary on Tuesday. Ian was in the middle of a web crisis, with one of our sites having been hacked and this needed urgent attention. I don't really understand the ins and outs of it, but it was potentially quite serious (all sorted now). I did try to understand, however I felt myself getting that glazed expression that I know I get sometimes when I've lost the thread of a Spanish conversation (or Ian starts to talk Camera).

We did go out for a picnic, however, on the assumption that a couple of hours here or there wouldn't make a difference. We went to a small reservoir near us. It is much smaller than the one we went to earlier in the year, and it was a couple of years since we were last there. So we were very surprised to see a large building there. While Ian was taking photos of pebbles I went to investigate and saw that it is a visitor centre and that the reservoir is part of a bird reserve. It wasn't open yet, but looks like it won't be long.

To celebrate our anniversary we thought we'd have a mexican tea, inspired by the meal that we had at Mum's birthday weekend. The fact that we were unable to get nachos, sour cream, fresh chillies limited our options somewhat. However we did have home grown coriander and beans.

I asked Ian what the best bit about being married to me was. Judging by his silence and pained expression, there must have been a large number of things for him to pick from. Wait till he finds out I am knitting him a pair of socks....

Tomato Thief

We've done much better with our tomatoes this year. After growing what must have been one of the world's most expensive tomatoes last year - the one tomato being the sum of our total harvest, this year we've done markedly better. However we're not the only ones who've noticed this and we found Bob one day eating his way through the tomatoes on the vine. After Basil ate the one peach that the birds left us, I will be glad when we have the back yard dug over so we can have a proper kitchen garden out there.

We're still going out on bicycle rids, and still enjoying it. Ian fell off his bike on Sunday, it was difficult to feel too sorry for him as he had slowed to almost a standstill so he could admire a bale of hay and assess it's photogenic qualities as a photo opportunity. So far, we've both fallen off when we were at an almost standstill, not the most impressive site for onlookers. What we're really enjoying is the way that we are discovering the countryside and areas that we'd never otherwise see. We found a bee farm, well a lot of bee hives, the other day. There was a 'warning, bees' sign. I'm mapping all of the lanes that we are taking on Google Maps. We had planned on going to Llerena on Sunday, however I had problems with my bike. On closer inspection the problem was actually my thumb - believe it or not. My bike wouldn't change gear, however it was where my thumb was too weak to switch the leaver across. Amazing!

The weather has cooled over the last couple of days. We were on orange alert again last week. It was very hot. The advice as always was to drink lots of water, wear a hat and loose clothing and - surprisingly - to use public transport. I didn't quite get this, however thinking about it, I think it might be telling people to use public transport rather than walking places. I remember when we first moved here how people used to pull us into the shade - and how Ian had a hat given to him a couple of times. I think that we probably do this as second nature now.

The hot weather has meant that we are definitely in the semi-nocturnal life style. Well, obviously we're not, but everyone else is. On Sunday we went for a walk at about 8 when it wasn't too hot for the dogs, and thought we'd stop for a drink. All the bars were still shut! We went to the swimming pool bar which was open, and then went to Bar Gato, which had just opened at 10. It started to get busy with people pre-dinner pasao-ing (promenading) as we left about 10.30, and it would be another couple of hours before things started to get properly busy! The village is actually a hive of activity this month with families from the big cities coming back for the month. 'This is my cousin', ' this is my aunt/uncle', 'this is my niece/nephew' are commonplace as we get introduced to people (all of my class have bought selected relatives round to see Basil). However, because of the semi-nocturnal lifestyle, taking a walk round the village during the long siesta it would be very easy to think that we were here on our own. There are some young children's activities going on in the 'afternoon' - however being Spanish afternoon they are starting at 8 in the evening. I don't think that we'll ever get completely used to this!