Rosie would like me to point out

that since my blog at the weekend she has not made a single puddle in the house - although there was a very small one by the back door yesterday, but she says that wasn't her and that nothing can be proved anyway.

I think that she was obviously shamed into stopping the puddles. She even got out of her pen last night to spend a penny and then put herself back into her pen, so hopefully this is a big step in the right direction.

She was very good at first, but become very much less so. Part of this was when we gave her full roaming rights to the house. She now has access to just one room at a time and has to ask to go out. Which is much better.

Getting Cold

Our favored way of telling whether it was cold was watching the flowers on the jasmine bush outside the window. When it freezes the flowers go brown and drop off. However as Manuel pulled the jasmine up last week, we'll just have to look for ice on the water bowls to see if it is freezing.

We're glad the jasmine has gone and already it makes the patio look lighter. It also used to contribute to the flooding as a surprising amount of debris would get washed out in heavy rain and block the drain.

Talking of the jasmine, seeing that I was recently bemoaning our inability to grown nice looking plants, I was rather surprised to see that Manuel had to resort to using a crane to pull the the jasmine up. Although in fairness, I guess that it has been there for many years and the best we can say is that we didn't kill it. So are good at growing prickly pears and not killing jasmine.

Saying all that, however, I do wonder if they were looking for things to pick up with the crane, rather than actually needing it to pull up the jasmine. They had a small remote controlled crane that they were using to pick up beams, and I think that it was a 'boys with their toys' moment. I was a little surprised that Ian wasn't more excited, even I got the urge to have a go, however I did manage to keep this under control.

So, so far the roofs are off the barns and new beams are coming next week. It is surprising how big they are. We will get some sky lights put in like we have in the workshop to get some extra light in there. Manuel hopes to have the roof back on next week, but I think rain is forecast, so we'll see...

It's been busy on the class front, I have one more young one, two 16 year old girls and one more girl who wants an hour a day for a month as she wants to apply for a job using English. I'm not going to be able to continue with all these, so I'll see how the coming weeks pan out. I did think that I might swap an hour of English for an hour of Spanish with the girl who is coming for a month.

Wilbur and Rosie continue to get on well. They are bonding and continue to exhaust each other. We wonder what Wilbur's background is, as he is very well behaved and appears house trained, he hasn't once gone to the toilet in the house - unlike Rosie who appears to be a constant, quite literal, stream of puddles (but she is getting better). He is also very good at doing what he is told - and he is very gentle and friendly. It does look like he used to live in a family. The one thing that we haven't tried yet is leaving him on his own. Hopefully he is getting settled in the house with the other animals and won't get distressed if we are not here. Our plan is to hide to see how he gets on before we go out for real.

We got a new website ready last week - from start to finish which is a record. Having written our Pullen Plan we decided to change the order in which we do things and launched the stock photo site first, instead of the craft one. This is the one that is a little different to the others, so it will be interesting to see how it goes.

Hanging Basket of Babylon

I was rather disappointed to learn that we couldn't proceed with my Hanging Gardens of Babylon inspired courtyard garden. Surprisingly, my Greco/Roman/Byzantine/Babylonian vision somewhat blew our budget. So now, rather than Hanging Garden of Babylon, our vision has been adjusted down to Hanging Basket of Babylon.

Shame really as I had visions of grape drenched pillars and heady mix of exotic flower fragrances. On the plus side, however, I will be saved the disappointment of looking at a few shriveled twigs with a raisin or two and a brown crispy flower.

However, with the wall in middle of the patio being knocked out, at least we can spend some time in different seasons deciding what will work best. It would be pretty devastating to find that such an spectacular, and no doubt unique, piece of landscape architecture was built in the wrong place.

Who Are Those Safety Hatted Men...?

Apparently Manuel is due a Health and Safety spot check today. So they are wearing helmets and looking earnest. We kept the dogs away from them, as we thought an ever exuberant puppy, a blind dog, Basil who is never the daintiest of animals and the rest of the gang chasing around, all milling round under their ladders might not construe the highest of health and safety ideals. Ian also wanted to go out, however as this involves using a hairdryer on the car engine - and this would mean standing outside with bits of beams and tiles raining down around him, he thought he's leave it. Quite wise as I am sure this would give the health and saftey man something else to worry about.

We've also asked for some prices for doors for the kitchen cupboards. We went to see Disco Tony who suggested aluminum doors. I was a little sniffy about this, as I thought it might look a little, well, aluminiumy. However, he had some with a black finish, sort of like cast iron. This will look great with our kitchen and we'll look for some bright and colorful handles.

We continue to be delighted with the granite we chose for the work surface. While it is just plain old grey granite, it has a surprising amount of color and sparkle. There's every danger we'll have a fully finished and functional kitchen soon....

Project Enforced Comfort

Wilbur spent most of the first couple of days outside which we were happy about (as that is what he would have been used to) except for the fact he barked overnight. The first night he barked and got distressed, however that was probably because he didn't know where he was and everything was unfamiliar. The second night he also barked, but less and without getting distressed. However because he was outside, it meant we kept having to go to quieten him. We tried bringing him in, but this resulted in him becoming distressed. He seemed to prefer the cold outdoors to a blanket in front of the fire.

We wondered if he was picking up on noises and smells at night which he wasn't during the day so - as we couldn't keep him if this was going to be an ongoing problem - we decided that drastic action was required. We decided that what he needs is a place that he feels safe, and that outdoors was probably just too big. So we have bought him into the living room where he will stay for a few days to really start to feel at home and already it is working. Last night he only barked once unprovoked - and once more when Tinkerbelle got growled at. Yesterday he spent the day down by the door or trying to get out. Today he is much more relaxed and is playing with Rosie in the house.

Wilbur is now happy to lie down in the living room and not trying to get out. He is also walking around in a more relaxed way - not pacing quite so much. We were aware of the pacing as Sam used to do this. He'd walk up to the door, stick his head in and then turn round and walk away, repeating this over and over again. It took Sam ages to come out of Ian's office which was his 'safe space'. Although Wilbur is bigger, it is easier to take drastic action with Wilbur as Sam was injured and we had to be careful carrying him. Wilbur, on the other hand is a big softy and is quite happy to be carried, so we've been carrying him into the living room rather than trying to force him. He now wanders in quite happily so it worked out quite well.

He is playing with Rosie nicely and the sigh of relief from the other dogs and cats is audible. Rosie has lost interest in them completely and immediately heads off in Wilbur's direction when she wants to play. One thing that we've noticed is that he is teaching Rosie to regulate her biting, which because she was so young when she left her siblings, she was never taught to regulate through play.

They are very funny with their toys. Rosie is not at all destructive and just collects piles of toys (or their food dishes, pieces of wood ...). Wilbur raids her toy pile, but unfortunately Rosie grabs them back off him before he manages to play with them. She then moves her toy pile somewhere else and it takes Wilbur a bit of time to find them again. We need to sew some bells onto their toys. I am glad we have a use for the bells that Ian refused to wear for Pirata.

Meet Wilbur

Ian with Wilbur with Basil claiming his place in front of the fire and Pirata heading under the table to say hello. Sam looking on guardedly. Bob and Henry are more interested in the likelihood of dropped crumbs.

Rosie and Wilbur - I think she has his tail in her mouth.

---------------

On Sunday Ian and I were talking and agreed that we'd wait a couple of years before introducing any more animals into the home.

So I wasn't really surprised to find us, less than 48 hours later, with a new addition. Last time we made one of our similar pronouncements, within about 30 minutes we'd found Sam.

Wilbur, originally Olar, is a 9 month old mastin cross. He is also blind. He was a stray taken in by a lady in Hornachos who couldn't care for him so she was looking for help. Actually we're only fostering him at the moment, however I am sure that unless he suddenly shows a change of temperament we'll be keeping him.

We didn't know this lady, however she knows the people that we got Pirata from who us three kings greetings with a 'mountain of kisses' for Pirata, and as an offside to mention Olar.

Having specifically agreed that we'd be waiting a couple of years before getting any more pets, it took us about 10 seconds to agree that we'd like to meet Olar, who we're calling Wilbur. It seemed like a great opportunity to get a friend for Rosie, that wasn't a young puppy but wouldn't be a 'top dog' threat to any of the others (I do feel we are exceptionally fortunate with our little family of cats and dogs, so not altering the dynamics is always our first consideration). While we've both been highly delighted we didn't have to foster the other two pups at Christmas, I think we both occasionally (and I am sure the other dogs more frequently) do think it would have been nice if Rosie had someone of her own size to play with. She tries to play with Basil, but where he is so weak we have to watch them together as she can pull him over. She also tries to play with the other dogs and cats - but they have very firm feelings about being chewed by needle-sharp puppy teeth. She can also be too rough with them. Being like a little barrel with legs, she really can get some momentum behind her.

So, Wilbur came yesterday to meet us and to see if he'd be happy. We didn't have any worries, however I think that the lady who had him wanted to be completely sure that he'd be safe.

He's spending a lot of time outside - which I guess is what he is used to - and spent last night outside. However he's had a few good playing sessions with Rosie, who is currently collapsed with exhaustion - how wonderful! Admittedly their play seems a bit odd, as the popular puppy game of 'chew' is played by Wilbur running round with his mouth open trying to catch Rosie, however it seemed to work and while it certainly bemused Henry, who is the king of the game chew, Rosie didn't seem to mind the unusual rules.

I don't think that Wilbur will get a lot bigger. He is a bit bigger than a labrador - with the longest tail I've ever seen. He seems comfortable with his blindness. He seems really nice natured - however I'm not really surprised. Because the animal rescue network here is mostly a volunteer run network with people fostering animals in their homes, they can only really take in and put their limited efforts behind nice natured animals.

I think this has worked out quite well. I'm glad that we didn't wait until Basil was no longer with us and I am delighted that Rosie has a friend. And I am doubly delighted that her friend is an older puppy and not one of her siblings. We had both agreed that we wanted a young pup so it could grow up with the cats and dogs, so Rosie is perfect in that respect, but the thought of two of them.... And there's no way we would have taken on Wilbur without Rosie as he really needs a companion. So all in all this seems to be working well all round.

....oh yes, and the name Wilbur came from the simple fact that he just IS a Wilbur!


PS The photo above is likely to be the last with the wall in it, as Manuel is about to start work taking it down.

Reyes de Magos

The three kings came to town Wednesday night. It's actually my favorite fiesta. Probably because it starts - and finishes - before we go to bed!

We were watching the kings come up the road, sat quietly on a bench when I was a little surprised to see a huge bag of sweets coming at me at speed out of the dark. On closer inspection the bag had arms and legs and it transpires that it was Carlos who was propelling himself towards us with alarming speed to show us the sweets that he had picked up. He then startled me even more by giving me a big hug. Ian's long cultivated Mr Grumpy face reduced his hug potential. The children scramble around the wheels of the tractors picking up the sweets that the three kings throw. They follow the procession to the 'nave' where presents are given out and we met several other of my class.

We didn't follow the procession, instead nipping from bar to bar to watch it go past. As we were heading down one road, someone stopped us for a chat (always a brave move) and said that they used to come to our house for piano lessons 30 years ago. Lots of people know our house, just the other week someone came round who used to come here with his father who did work for the owners. It nice to think that we are continuing the tradition and that perhaps there will be a new generation of villagers who will have memories of coming to this house. Although making paper monsters may not be as worthy as learning the piano. The chap who had learned the piano also took us into his house to see his electric organ - so obviously his lessons started a life long interest in playing music.

I also said no to someone who wanted lessons this week. A thirteen year old boy who was described as his parents as being very bad. When Ian said that he guessed that he was only very bad at English, they said he was very bad at everything, setting enough warning bells ringing to qualify for Bells on Sunday.

The kennel cough seems to be getting much less, but they are still coughing a bit. Basil did a couple of coughs earlier this week but it didn't come to anything. Rosie is continuing to do well, she's getting much better at walking, but still falls over her feet when she runs.

Cough Cacophony

All our poor pups have kennel cough at the moment. Rosie had kennel cough when she arrived and gave it to the others, however they all shook it off after a day or so. However it has come back and they are coughing and hacking away. They all have it except for Rosie - which is a little rough as she is was the carrier. They are all fine apart from this nasty cough.

They seem to set each other off, so they'll be sat there quietly then one starts coughing and the rest join in. When they all get going it is quite loud. Henry was the first to get it and he is coughing much less now, so hopefully it is working its way through.

Rosie continues to do well. She is a bit of a lummox. She is like a sausage on legs and very ungainly. She went out for a walk with me today and was very good - which is a significant improvement. Today she walked the whole way and I took her off the lead for a lot of the walk. She also met the chickens today, and was quite scared. I'm not sure how many big dogs are scared of fluffy chickens...

Rosie in the Field