Proper Rain

We had proper Extremaduran rain yesterday. The sort of bucket-being-poured-over-the-head rain that we have a couple of times a year.

And yet again, this saw us at the back door gazing out at the torrents descending from the blackening sky. Instead, however, of gazing forelornly at the rising water and waiting for the house to flood, this time we were looking out with smug satisfaction. Our new raised back step has ensured that even torrential rain and hail, the combination of which has been a surefire flood generator, did little more than splash against the back step.

We were so confident that we headed to Pepe's with a spring in our step - something we couldn't have done before as we'd have been a/ bailing out the house or b/ waiting for it to flood.  It turned out to be one of those days where we would have just finished clearing out the water only for it to start again. Which is what happened the very first time the house flooded.

While we only had water in the house once or so a year - and generally the night before we had guests - it is still nice not to look at grey skies with trepidation and wellington boots at the ready.

On the plus side, this is much needed rain and hopefully it will ensure that water supplies are not depleted too much before the summer.

We bought a lemon tree, cherry tree and two olive treelings yesterday. They look good, healthy trees, so they will be part of our 'orchard'.

AAAAAAAAAAARRRRGGGGHH!!!!!

apr_25, a photo by ian_pullen on Flickr.

If this was the spider that came up beside Little Miss Muffet, then I don't blame her for running!

We were undertaking our weekly gardening session this morning and having cleared some weeds, decided to plant the peach tree that Jim and Viv bought us some years ago. Experience has previously taught me that the easiest way to make a hole in our back yard is dig out about a foot and then use a wrecking bar to break up the soil and stone and scoop it out by hand.

Previously, however, I'd never come across any of these borrowing spiders. I very nearly scooped this one up in my hand before I realised what it was. It was huge. Not as big as Bentley, but still very big. No really it was and I was dreadfully brave.

I continued the digging with a pair of leather gauntlets. Having got the tree planted, Kate then noticed that a snake had shed its skin next to Basil's peach tree. Considering that the discarded skin was perhaps nearer to 3 feet than 2 and the snake shed it because it had grown too large for it, I'm not sure I'll be spending much time in the back in future.

We're Still Here

Well, what a long time since my last blog post. I'd like to say that it was because we were doing lots of exciting things, however we've instead been working really hard on our own projects. We also spent some time in the back yard, trying to reclaim it from the triffid-like weeds. We also declared war on the rats, blocking up as many holes as we could.  While I was looking for rat holes, I saw something worrying large looking out at me from under a box in the store. I called Ian and he got a torch. Nervously we had a better look and found two young pigeons who were living in there. I know we've had a lot of pigeon activity, and I think these two must have fallen out from their nest. They are being looked after, and hopefully they'll be taught how to fly.

Ian has given Marchena35 a redesign, which isn't bad going since it's only been live for a few months, however as I have been making games and videos to go on the site, we needed a better way to present the content. My highlight of the last few days was getting a young rapper to rap the alphabet for me. I am making a short animation to go with it - here's a sneak peak:

I have also commissioned some voice over work for the site. Here's a video that I made using the numbers that I had a voice over person do Click on the triangle in the middle to play the video:

This was really just a practice, using 'Norman the Number Mouse'. He's not very mouse like, but 'Norman the Number Thing' didn't sound quite right. It took an absurd amount of time to do this as I did the spinning numbers first and had to guess the amount of time required for the audio and it was surprisingly difficult, the better way to have done it would be to have made the animation to fit the audio. However I'll know better for next time. I eventually got it finished and then realised that I'd left the cursor on view in the video - however this is something that I decided I can live with!

We went asparagus picking yesterday and a snake slid over my foot. It was a little scary and reminded me that perhaps crocs aren't the best shoes for asparagus picking.

The solar fairy lights now stay on all night until the morning, so that is a sign that summer is on its way. I also went for a cycle ride before breakfast, which is something I haven't done since last October. It is light enough and warm enough now.

Roland continues to settle in well. He has met Sam which was fine, and Bob who climbed onto the table where I'd put the cat food, and Henry, Petal and Tinkerbelle, who were excited by the content of the litter tray!

Chums

Pirata and Roland seem to enjoy each other's company. They spend half the time snuggled up together and the other half fighting. However Pirata only spends half a day or so with Roland, as he has many other supervisory duties to do in the house. We hope that soon Roland will get enough confidence to want to explore more. He is certainly more confident than he was when he arrived, however he doesn't like unfamiliar sounds.

The weather has been hit and miss this last week, however we did manage to get some asparagus. It rained yesterday, but I think the weather will become better again next week so we've high hopes for a good end to an otherwise lousy season. The rain has bought everything alive and our back yard is a mass of 3 foot high weeds!

Roland Purrs

Roland purred today when he was sat next to me, which is a good sign that he is feeling at home. He has met Pirata, and while it took them a bit of time to get to know each other (ie to realise there was another cat in the room), they seem to be over the hissing stage. Today, Roland was licking Pirata, to which Pirata responded by getting his head in a head-lock and kicking him. I think that it was in a cat-being-friendly sort of way. I think Roland is used to living with other 'special need' cats, whereas Pirata is used to sighted cats, therefore Pirata gets a little confused - like the others do with him, when Roland acts in a slightly different way to he is expecting.

Rain!

After months of fine, sunny weather, it finally rained - and at the start of Semana Santa, when villages and towns would be parading their statues of Jesus and Mary, wearing pointy hats and looking sinister (the people, not J&M). As many of the statues are hundreds of years old, they don't take them out in the rain. It must be very disappointing, after months of planning (people carrying the statues have training regimes to get them ready for four or so hours of carrying the statues on their shoulders). Today, however, is a fine sunny day, so perhaps they'll be able to whizz round with them later. Most of the big parades are during the night, so I guess they didn't take place. Today and Sunday people head for the country, to country houses and to the romeria ground, so I guess they are pleased it is not raining today. However, not a Easter bunny in sight...