Happy New Year

We've enjoyed a happy and quiet festive season. And of course, we're only half way through and it's only now that the festivities really get under way. We went food shopping the day before Christmas Eve and it was a normal shopping day, however yesterday Ian wanted to pop into a supermarket and couldn't even get parked because there were so many people. It starts tonight and carries on until the three kings do their stuff next week.

The quietness of our Christmas was emphasized by the noisiness of it the week and a bit before. A band of drummers went round the village every day at 5.00 in the morning. This is a regular thing - however this year they had new drums and, goodness me, it was loud. It starts 10 days before Christmas Eve and represents Mary and Joseph trying to find a room in wherever. The odd thing is - this is not a church thing - it is just a tradition. Even the priest who organizes the band of trumpets and drums the morning after the village fiesta wouldn't be that cruel! I must admit that after 10 days of being woken up by incredibly loud drums I was of the opinion that there are certain traditions which should be banned. Either that or fit the drums with silencers.

Although it is still very mild, we had some logs delivered and we lit the fire over Christmas - and then promptly nearly expired through heat. Ian spent much of Christmas day mending the flue on the fire so it seemed only proper to light it.

It rained on Sunday and it's raining today, but obviously not like the rain in the north of England. Annoyingly, we've had a very interrupted power supply which, although incredibly annoying, when we think of the flooding, our interrupted power was soon put into perspective. Our power problems were very annoying as it would go off for no more than one second. However that was enough for everything to stop which then had to be restarted, clocks reset etc. It was so intermittent we gave up after a while and left things off rather than keep restarting them. And then yesterday the power went off most of the morning, so hopefully that was someone working on fixing the problem, not of signs to come.

I had my contract with About.com renewed for another year. So I'm in my 9th year there now. I've therefore taken the brave decision to stop doing classes in the afternoon so I can spend the time on other projects. This is going to knock a huge chunk out of our income, however now's a good time to do it because the dollar to euro exchange rate means that my About.com money is worth a lot more to us currently, and while we don't get much from the flat, the pound to euro makes it a little more at the moment. So my challenge is, in the next six months, to try to generate enough income from other things to compensate for lack of teaching. I've said I'll give classes at the weekend so we'll still have a bit coming in.

We are ready for Christmas!

Here is our cheese feast ready for the holidays. Also got the lentils for our lentil Wellington!

Happy as Larry

We put a  ladder in Larry's cage to he can get to his upstairs perch. He is 100% back to normal in every way, except that he still can't climb. He's taken to his ladder and spends lot of time on his upstairs perch, so I think he appreciates having the option. I also put some of his 'toys' back into his cage. I took them out when he couldn't get upstairs as it seemed a bit mean for them to be dangling above him. I'm never sure whether he is playing with them or attacking them, but at least they are keeping him engaged!

I'd read that living with a parrot was living with a perpetual 2 year old. And I think it probably is. Larry throws tantrums - very loud tantrums, then things aren't going his way or if he wants attention. If we have lunch outside and he feels abandoned, he'll start squawking. He'll also squawk loudly if he thinks something like the coffee grinder is getting more attention than him. And sometimes he'll throw his food around. Parrots have sturdy metal food containers which are firmly attached to their cages, this is because given half a chance they'd be thowing them around.

This week has been the funny week with two holidays. I never quite get used to their being two national holidays one day apart just before Christmas - however, of course, it's still just under four weeks before the big celebration. Most holidays here are fixed by date and not day. This means that they can fall at weekends. If a holiday falls on a Saturday or Sunday it's not carried over to the Monday - it's just bad luck it isn't a normal working day. Instead, if a holiday is on a Tuesday or Thursday, the Monday or Friday are granted as 'bridge' days. It's supposed to work out exactly, however I've always found it too confusing to work out. So when Christmas & New Year's Day fall on a Sunday, people get no additional time off, but if May 1st was a Thursday, they'd get the extra day on the Friday. (thinking as I type - this would mean that there must be an equal spread of days on which holidays fall for this to be true...)

Unlike poor Carlisle, we've been weeks without rain. I think rain if forecast for next week, which will probably be good. I think I can count the number of days we've had rain since June on two hands - with fingers to spare. This must be one of the driest years since we've been here.

Winters are really very short here. The trouble is when they arrive we forget the fact that we still have the windows open during the day throughout December and sit outside comfortably in t-shirts.

The storks are heading back. There's one that's been around for a couple of weeks. There's always one that comes back before the others. I wonder if it's the same one every year...

Carlisle Floods

I thought this was interesting - our blog from over 10 years ago about the Carlisle floods:

http://mineralhouse.blogspot.com.es/2005_01_09_archive.html

Supersized Prickly Pairs

Given that we're not the greenest of fingered people (we even managed to nearly kill a jasmine which is quite a feat), we do seem to be extraordinarily good at growing prickly pairs. We're going to have to take some action on one of them - unless it gets so tall that bits drop off it - as it is probably about 8 feet tall. They are nasty things, some farmers grow them as fences - I guess they serve the same purpose as natural barbed wiring, as they would be pretty painful to climb over.

It's a shame they are such lethal things - I've seen a range of recipes, typically from Mexico and California, which use bits of prickly pairs in different dishes, however none of them mention the fact we need to wear gauntlets to prepare them. I wonder if Spanish prickly pairs are more nasty than Mexican ones...?

Nesting

We've taken the lovely crochet nest that I made the lovebirds out of their cage because they were nesting in it. While that might seem obvious, if they had both been boys or both been girls, it wouldn't have been a problem and they could just have snuggled down at night in there. However, as we now know Barry is a girl (she started laying eggs), we have taken the nest out to discourage nesting behaviour. We don't want the pitter patter of tiny lovebird feet until we've moved and have a proper avery. The don't seem to mind their lack of nest, but we do need to find a new cardboard tube for them to sleep in as they nibbled the last one away.

We're still enjoying lovely sunny weather, however it has got a lot colder. The temperature dropped from 22 to 12, and Ian has been doing some repairs on the stove ready for when we'll need some heating in the living room. The house is still quite warm and normally light the fire for the first time at Christmas, but we'll get some logs ordered so we're ready for when we do have a cold spell...

Happy Thanksgiving

Today is Thanksgiving in America. I think out of all the festivals we don't celebrate, Thanksgiving is the one I'd most like to join in with.

It's a massive holiday in America and one which I really didn't know much about until I started working for About.com, writing Thanksgiving projects and 'chatting' with fellow writers based in the US. I'd always assumed it was alike a super-sized Harvest Festival, however it is so much more than that. Thanksgiving is regarded as a secular holiday and therefore it is celebrated by my Jewish, Muslim and Sikh colleagues, as well as the various shades of Christian plus the Pagans, Humanists and agnostics (what a colourful bunch). Although many of them have special celebrations in December and January, they don't all fall on the same day so the holidays are dotted around, but Thanksgiving is the one that everyone can join in with, regardless of who, if anyone, they give thanks to.

Of course, now after 8 years of writing rubber stamping projects for Thanksgiving, I'm pretty used to it and the customs. I like the idea of thinking about the things to be thankful for, rather than thinking about things to be sorrowful for.

We've got a bit of problem with fleas at the moment and we'd run out of flea spray so I ordered some more yesterday and took delivery of it just a few minutes ago. I had a flea yesterday jumping around inside of my t-shirt which I couldn't get to and it was driving me to distraction. Therefore today I am thankful for the quick delivery of flea spray and getting rid of the little blighters!

Larry, Gary and, er, Barrietta

Barry the lovebird is showing distinct signs of nesting, so we think that he may be a she. As the original name I gave him was Sugarplum, I am hoping we can go back to that again as it is more appropriate for a little lovebirdess.

The nesting signs are quite funny. They have half filled the crochet nest I made for them with bits of shredded paper and card. They shred paper tubes like demons, starting at the top and then using their beaks to nibble around the tube so it is shredded in lots of equal size strips. It looks as though they use an office shredder. But now, instead of letting the paper fall to the floor, they take it up to their nest. They fly around with these bits of paper or climb up the sides of their cage carrying them. I have also noticed that they appear to dunk the paper strips in water before they go into their nest. I don't know if this us general clumsiness or something they would do in the wild. However it seems to happen too frequently for it to be a coincidence.

I don't think they will lay eggs yet, but it will be something we have to watch for next spring...

Tinkerbelle gets the all clear

Tinks went for a final check up today at the vet's after her operation two weeks ago. The vet was very pleased and she doesn't have to go back again. The scar is quite big, however it seems to have healed really well and quickly. She's been wearing a lampshade for the last two weeks and this means that her face has got dirty because the lampshade seemed to act as a funnel for dirt. I gave her face a wash before we went, but this unfortunately just smeared the dirt around and made her look a lot worse, rather like an unconvincing Balthaza from the village three kings parades . However, happily we weren't getting marked for her appearance and Tinks was allowed to take her lampshade off, something she's no doubt going to be very happy about.

That's Better

Glad to say the weather taken a turn for the better this week and managed to find some time for a short walk.

Primrose says...

She can do a better job than me!!!

Make the rain STOP...

After literally months of dry weather, it started raining last week. And within about 15 minutes, we were bemoaning the rain and wondering if the rain would ever stop. Needless to say, it was just before Ed and Emma arrived and I had piles of bedding to get dried.  The rain only lasted a couple of days, but then the weather became cool - cooler than it should be for the time of year, and I had to hunt out my winter clothes. But then the last couple of days it's changed again and the weather is back to how it should be - early 20s with deep turquoise skies which are typical of this time of year.

Having had weeks of feeding up Anubis and Primrose, they are both now well on the way to being back to normal. They have both become rather demanding, having got used to the special attention. They eat by themselves now, and we no longer have to force feed Primrose, which was messy and gory, as bits of cat meat got spread around the place. I'm still picking bits of the carrot and rice mix that she had off Tinkerbelle, who worked out that if she stood near Primrose at force feeding time there was a strong likelyhood that food would be flying.

I think that Anubis is now the heaviest she has been since she arrived two years ago. We think she probably bought the virus into the house which has not affected the others, but it did affect Primrose when she arrived.  She and Primrose have bonded which is rather nice.

Tinkerbelle had the tumours in her mamory glands removed last week. The vets felt that she is pretty much back to full health and therefore could cope with the op. The tumours might not have grown large or been life threatening. However they might have been. So rather than wait and see, by which time she may be too old for an op, we went ahead and had it done now.

I've had a new student this week who wanted a crash course because she has the opportunity to do an exchange to study a masters degree abroad and to exchange places with another student. She is applying to study a fine arts masters degree in Australia and needs the b1 level English exam in order to qualify. She hopes to go to Brisbane and the exchange student will go to Barcelona.

We spent much of last Saturday night locked in the house hiding from late night trick or treaters. What's the Halloween equivalent of Scrooge I wonder...

Birds and Pomegranates

Being relatively new to the world of bird ownership, we still have to research their care, specifically food which are good or bad for them. We've read a lot about pomegranates and how other people's parrots 'go mad for them'. So, enthusiastically we put half a pomegranate into both cages and waited for the excited response - which didn't come. Obviously Larry and the Lovebirds (sounds like a band), haven't been reading the same articles. I did see Larry suspiciously licking his pomegranate (it's funny, I didn't think that birds licked things, but Larry really licks away at something to test it), but I think he is ignoring it now.

We could scrump pomegranates as there is a tree up near the castle. However, it's also near some houses and in someone's garden - so we decided to buy one instead.

The lovebirds have managed to chew away most of their sleeping tube now. It doesn't have much of a base left and it hangs at 45 degree angle. One of them persists in sleeping in it though, and every night we see him or her perilously hanging on trying not to slide out the bottom. They still have their lovely crochet nest that I made them, perhaps they'll use it when the weather gets colder.

We took Primrose back to the vet yesterday. She's much better, now pink again instead of yellow, however she won't eat. Antonio the vet checked her mouth and it was OK, but said she has a sore throat. He didn't want to give her any medicine for her because he didn't want to put any additional work on her liver, so we are to continue to feed her with a syringe. I am pleased she is getting better, she really is back on top form. Syringe feeding is quite messy. We do it outside, surrounded by cats and dogs waiting to see which way bits of sloppy food get thrown and they eagerly circle around like fielders in a cricket game.

Twice this month we've been woken up at 6.30 by early morning church parades going through the village on a Saturday. Goodness knows what's got into them. First we hear the bells which start slowly to wake people up and then rise to a frenzy to tell people to hurry to the church. Which is when we wake up in a panic, convinced that the village is on fire (one time, Ian did go to the sun terrace to check), only to drift back to sleep to be woken up by a parade of people wandering round the village singing hymns. Our dogs are surprisingly well behaved and just do an occasional 'be quiet I am trying to sleep' bark, however other dogs are less polite.  The hymns appear to be sung to a backdrop of howling dogs from around the village - and a curse or two from someone trying to sleep no doubt...

For Whom the Bell Tolls - A Tragic Accident

It is the custom, when someone dies, to ring the church bell. This alerts people to the fact that someone has died - and also alerts them to the fact that the funeral is likely to be later on that day.

Last week the bell rang and we wondered who it was for, and later than day we bumped into the funeral procession, walking from the church to the cemetery. But it was only yesterday that I found out that the person who had died had done so in a terrible freak accident. They got killed on the train track. Their car had stalled going over the steep bump in the crossing and it got hit by a train. But the really tragic thing about the accident was that there are only two trains a day in both directions, so the chances of an accident like this would be very slim. 

Lovebirds vs Parrots

Parrots and lovebirds appear to be very different. Well, at least Larry is very different to Barry and Gary (Sugarplum and Nutcracker). Larry always has to have the last word and doesn't like to be talked over - particularly be the coffee grinder or anything else that makes a loud noise. He also has an internal clock that tells him and therefore he tells us, when it is sunflower seed time or if Ian has forgotten to give him his morning salad.

Larry likes to know what is going on and seems to very much like being in the midst of things. He appears not to go to bed until we do - even though it is dark by then. The lovebirds, however, just chat amongst themselves and don't seem to interact with other noises. They also seem to go to bed as soon as the sun goes out of the patio. I hope this doesn't mean that they spend much of the winter in bed!

We've noticed that the lovebirds seem to want to play with Larry, but I'm not sure whether the way Larry head butts his cage while thrusting his beak through towards the lovebirds suggests he wants to play or something more sinister.

We're having to give Primrose homemade food which is a little like baby food. It is carrot, rice and chicken mushed up. She doesn't like it and we have to feed her outside because it is surprising how far she can make droplets of this orange mush spread. Most of the other animals have orange spots at the moment!

Vets

After earlier in the year when we went months without a visit to the vet, we've been going almost weekly for the last month or so with one animal or another. Happily, most are on the mend. Tinks is  120% better, Alfie has shown no further signs of having any seizures or there being anything wrong with him and Anubis is putting on weight. However now Pirata has an urine infection which means he needs special food and poor Primrose has jaundice which is a sign of something but we don't know what. I really hope she gets better as she is one of the nicest cats I've known - and by now we've known a few! Pirata had to take some antibiotics, however they were antibiotics for children and were banana flavoured and he did not like it - at all! So much so he would spit it out, and if he accidentally swallowed any, he'd retch it back up again. Ian had to go back to the vet and ask if we could have something to inject him with as Pirata was getting no benefit from the banana medicine at all. The vet gave us a single injection which lasts for 15 days, so that is a lot better.

The forecast rain came - but still not a lot. We were sat outside on Monday night - at about half past nine, commenting on the clear sky. We'd just finished tea - took the things inside an not a minute later there was the sound of heavy rain. Goodness knows where that had come from as the sky was so clear just minutes before! It rained a little yesterday afternoon too - Ian had to dodge the drops at doggy tea time.

Stormy Weather

We've had some electrical storms over the last few days - no rain, but lots of thunder and lightening rumbling around. This unsettles all the animals - but particularly the blind ones (and Sam). I think a storm is forecast for this afternoon, so perhaps this will bring rain.

When we have electrical storms I often think that I can easily imagine how ancient civilizations would have believed that this was the Gods showing their feelings.  In fact, there are often several things here which I think look mystical. For example sometimes if it is overcast here we can see the sun shining on the village of Hornachos on the hill on the horizon and it looks like it is in a spotlight. And sometimes we see the opposite where a cloud has descended and the village has disappeared. When the sun rises this time of year there's a big moulten gold globe in the sky and red skies in the morning or at night look unreal. In a way it's a shame that we understand these things, takes some of the magic away...

Bobbins The Model

I often think that Reuben's would have been the ideal artist for painting Bobbins - she seems to have the figure for it when reclining.

Rosie, with her distinctive face, would probably have been better suited for Picasso.

Lying Down on the Job

Rosie knows how to keep cool while out walking.

My confident prediction of rain for the fiesta...

was happily unfounded!

We had rain on Wednesday - and proper rain. But that appears to have been it for the time being.

Our little Pixie bell has been a great success. Millie does seem to be aware of the bell when she is out with Pixie and whether it's just that she's now familiar with our route, or the sound of the bell (or most likely a combination), she trots along on her walks following more or less along with us. She does sometimes get something in her paws, and she just sits down at that point so we have to keep a close eye on her. She also sometimes gets stuck in a forest - which, when you are Milly sized, is actually only a particularly large piece of grass.

Tinkerbelle has been dropped from the walking team for a day or so. We noticed she wasn't eating her meals as well as she had been. We also noticed that she hoovers up figs and olives when she is out walking and guessed the two things might be connected.

The schools started back this week - what a shock that will be for all concerned!

Fig jam

We celebrated Ian's birthday by going out and scrumping figs. I turned the figs into jam, which we had with a cheese feast.

Tinkerbelle and Pixie's Bell

Tinkerbelle is enjoying going for a walk and doesn't tire at all. If you look carefully at the photo Ian took of Tinkerbelle out for a walk, you'll see me followed by Pixie. Pixie is so small and the exact same color of the earth in the olive groves, it's quite difficult to keep track of her.  Also, she walks very close to my feet so I have to stop to look down to make sure she's following. Therefore I have bought her a tiny little sheep bell to wear on her collar, I guess it's one for lambs. It's a little brass bell and has quite a loud tinkle, so we know that she's following along or stopped to investigate something disgusting.

Pixie's little bell also might help Millie who has now joined us in the walks. Millie might be able to follow the tinkle of the sound of Pixie - but I'm not sure yet if it will work. I also bought a tiny bell for Millie. She has two modes for walking - a complete standstill and running full pelt so a bell would be useful for her too. I haven't put it on her yet as Pixie was a little surprised by the ringing sound every time she took a step and I don't want to put Millie off her walks as she's still getting her confidence of being out in the big wide open world.

Tinkerbelle Allowed on Walks Again

Tinkerbelle has enjoyed a few walks again now that she's been cleared for exercise.

Hopefully she's enjoying it so much she forgot to lift her tail.

Finger Nibbles and Bites

I'm a tad ashamed to admit that I can't tell the lovebirds apart. Despite having  hand reared the little fellas and could tell them apart easily, they now look identical.

So it's a good job that they have very different personalities. While they are both equally inquisitive and confident, if you pop a finger in their cage, one will come up and give your finger loving lovebird nibbles, a bit like lovebird kisses. While the other one tries to take hulking great bit lumps out of your finger. OK, so that's a tad of an exaggeration as their beaks aren't that big, but I'm sure that's his intent!

Obviously this means that one's a boy and one's a girl. However Ian and I differ over which is which (although it's patently obvious that the sweet natured one is a girl).

On the subject of birds, a week or so ago I scrumped a sunflower head for Larry. Admittedly, it wasn't as successful as I thought it would be. Firstly, the process of scrumping the sunflower turned out to be more nerve wracking than we thought (we went for a little detour round some sunflower fields on the way home from the vet) and there were a surprising number of farmers lurking in fields.

After scuttling home armed with our haul of two sunflower heads, I put one in Larry's cage waiting for his squawks of delight. Unfortunately, Larry's opinion of sunflower seeds in situ on a sunflower head was less enthusiastic. It was as if we had given him a cow and told him to make his own cheese.

Eventually he worked out that there were sunflower seeds in this 'thing', but even then didn't seem overly impressed.

Tinkerbelle went to the vet for a checkup and she's been given the thumbs up. She will continue to take heart medicine for ever now, however she is back to being fully fit. The vet said she could go for walks of half an hour or so (initially they said short walks - however we didn't know how 'short' short was, and asked the vet to clarify) so we took her out yesterday when it was cooler, and she was full of energy. It was very nice to see. We will have to watch the mammary tumors, though.

The temperature dropped over the last few day and for the first time in months it has been cool enough to have lunch outside, Still no rain, but I am sure that that's on the way....

Last Week of Classes...

... for a while.

I've decided to have a break from classes for a couple of months at least. I want to spend the time working on Modme, which I mothballed a few months ago when it was apparent I wouldn't have the time to spend on it properly. It will also allow me to work on other things and hopefully replace the income from classes - well at least go someway towards it.

I've been looking for a way to reduce the number of classes I do, but can't think of a way to do this without offending some people. So I decided to stop classes until the end of the year. However, I'm being a little vague about it, in case we need the money and I have to start doing them again. Luckily the exchange rate at the moment means that my About.com income goes a little further each month, so that, plus the other smaller revenue streams means we should be OK for a couple of months. It's a bit of a gamble, however until we move if I continue to do so many classes I can't do anything else, and if I can't do anything else I have to continue to do classes...

We'll keep things quite flexible as my About.com contract is renewed in December, so if that isn't renewed for any reason I'll have to start doing classes again - so we'll see how things pan out.

Anubis, the little cat with the bendy tail, has been poorly this last week or so. She has a virus which is what I think we call cat flu. She was very poorly, but seems now to be well on the road to recovery. She had an ulcerated mouth which stops her eating and drinking. She didn't get back too full health after she was poorly last time, so she went down hill quite quickly. However now we know what it hopefully is, she can be treated.

Tinkerbelle is full of vitality and has put on 200gs - which is good. She seems to be thriving now she is taking medicine for her heart and it is good to see her back to naughty normalness again!

A tiny amount of rain fell on Sunday - but not enough to call proper rain. The village fiesta is in two weeks - so I am guessing that is when the rains will start!

The Sound of Lovebirds

I don't know if they really communicate with each other, or if they just instinctively cheep, however we're often aware of the lovebirds apparently talking to each other. When they are sat next to each other it's quite cute as they appear to natter away. They seem to chirp more when they are dozy, and they sit there chirruping away with their eyes closed. We have both agreed that the sound of lovebirds is very different to the sounds of Larry. I think being in a forest of lovebirds would be quite nice and relaxing, which is something that definitely could not be said about a forest of Larrys.

Larry is pretty much back to his old self now, although he still can't climb. I wonder if perhaps he fell which is how he hurt his foot, and is therefore not inclined to climb. He doesn't need to climb, as he has a couple of low level perches. I think I'll look for tree branch we can put in with him which will give him more perching options.

Tinkerbelle is completely back to normal. She goes for a check up next week but I'm not worried about her at the moment. Alfie had another seizure last weekend so we took him to the vet. They are pretty much of the opinion that there's no point in investigating the cause as there's probably nothing we'd do if we did know what caused it. I think they are thinking that if it is a growth in his head, we wouldn't get it operated on, therefore there's no point in putting him through the rigors of testing. Which makes sense. Of course, the other thing we don't know is whether he's having epileptic seizures and he's been prone to them all the time, but just come on again now he's older.

The weather has got cooler. It's now 'only' 32/33. We can still shower without the water heater - which is just as well as it's still not working. Also still no real rain. We decided that we won't call it rain if we can count the individual drops on the ground. I wonder if we'll get proper Extremaduran rain later in the year. Something to look forward to...

Tinkerbelle has a checkup

Ian took Tinks back to the vet today for her checkup and I think things are pretty much back to normal. She is back to her old (naughty) self, hasn't coughed since she was treated last week and seems to have as much energy as she did before. They don't want to see her for another two weeks, which I think is probably good news. She has some medicine for her heart, and I think she will probably have to take that forever now. The fluid was probably caused because her heart wasn't beating strongly enough to move the fluid around her body.

Puzzles

I made some puzzles for my younger students. I plan to sell these, so I used the little ones as guinea pigs to servir the idea works. I had four different monsters therefore four different puzzles.  Each with different pieces.

What I learned was not to do it in front of the window as one gust of wind resulted in chaos, with monster bits getting mixed up...!

our anniversary cheese

A world class cheese, indeed...

Tinkerbelle spends the night at the vets

I noticed last week that Tinkerbelle was coughing at night, and on Thursday she seemed to loose some energy so Ian took her to the vet for a check up. He left her there and they said they'd ring when it was time to pick her up, however when they rang they said they wanted to keep her in there overnight as they were giving her some treatment.

We went to get her on Saturday and they appeared to have removed fluid that was in her body. They don't know what caused it, however we do know that she has a weak heart so that could be the reason. So she's being treated for the fluid first and then they'll find out what the cause is. She also has tumours in her mammary glands which I'm hoping are benign.

She's back to her normal naughty self, however, and doesn't seem to phased by her night away. So hopefully it will all get sorted out soon.

And the heat continues

The hot weather is continuing. Out hot water heater still isn't working and we're yet to miss it. In fact, the water was coming out so hot from the cold tap I thought for a moment that I was getting confused and had been using the wrong tap for hot water.

Some of my younger students are getting picked up in cars after class at midday. Normally their parents bring their bikes or scooters and they head off biking or scootering, but the parents don't like the young ones being out at midday in this heat.

We saw that the temperature was dropping to 34, which we welcomed! It's been a long time since we've had proper rain so I won't be surprised if there's a low water warning soon. When we were first here, water was switched off for part of the day. We haven't been in that situation since so I hope that this isn't a sign that we're due for a water crisis!

Alfie seems OK and has had no other seizures so we're just keeping an eye on him.

Primrose is completely settled in and is quite a cuddle cat. I woke up and found myself cuddling her last night and I think she must have wormed her way under my arm!

Take That Flies and Alfie Worries

Not writing about the band Take That, but about our quest to reduce the fly population which has been bothering us for a couple of years. We've not had a really cold winter for a couple of years now and as such the fly population has increased to an extent where it was getting rather bothersome. So we bought one of those blue light fly killers like you see in food shops and it's been amazingly successful. Either that or it was a complete coincidence that the flies disappeared when we plugged it in. It does zap the flies and mosquitoes, with an satisfying explosion each time (hence "take that, fly), but the blue light also seems to keep them at bay. There is a tray under the fly zapper which catches bits of fly debris, and it's quite gruesome. However, Petal died because of an illness transmitted by mosquitoes, so I don't feel too bad about ridding the world of a few.

The Alfie worries are because he had a seizure on Sunday. This was a complete surprise as he is otherwise totally healthy (for a one eyed, three and a half legged, previously shot elderly dog). We took him to the vet who did a blood test and x-ray, but nothing was found. Obviously it was caused by something and the vet said that it wouldn't be epilepsy as this is something that starts when a dog is young. We're hoping it was just 'one of those things', however we're keeping an eye on him.

Primrose is settling in, or more accurately has settled in. She has been remarkably easy to settle into the family. She's not playing with Pirata and the gang yet, but I am certain it is only a matter of time.

Love bird cage

Introducing primrose

This is primrose, a little cat that's just come to live with us. She came from Seville. She has two cataracts in her eyes And she Has impaired vision. We don't know how old she is, but she seems very nice natures, and is finding her way around the house. She was living with a gypsy family in Seville, and because she has bad vision, an animal welfare lady was concerned about her and was worried that she would get killed in the road. So they arranged to take the cats away from the family. This was the same lady that we were going to have a blind kitchen from last year, but she couldn't rescue the kittens. She feeds the street cats in Seville with some of her friends. She must have a work cut out for her.

We chose the name Primose, because it seemed like a nice name for a nice cat. Her other name was Nuria. Apparently she is a Moorish cats. However I think she looks pretty much the same as any other cats here, Quite dainty, with a pointy face.

I am currently looking at our lovebirds, and I think anybody who looks at the cage would say where the girl guides? Because looks just like a girl guides camp, with things knotted and tied together in their cage.

Hot!

We've had about 4 heat waves over the last couple of weeks. And it is HOT. The weather report has been showing temperatures of 39, however this is ambient temperature, not in the sun, so the heat on our patio will be much higher. Even at 8 o'clock last night the floor tiles on the patio floor were uncomfortably hot to stand on without shoes.

The dogs and cats don't like the heat and our house is full of fluffy little bodies, hugging the cool floor tiles. The water comes out so warm from the taps we don't need hot water to have a shower!

I find it difficult to get work done when it is this hot, as I have classes in the morning and then I try to get everything else done in the afternoon, which is when it is hottest. However it is so hot I find I can't concentrate. I think in other years I have done more writing and other work before classes in the morning, so maybe I need to go back to that again.

It hasn't rained for a long time too, so everything is very dusty.

I think when it rains again we'll be both outside doing a happy dance in the rain!

Tinkerbelle and Anubis

Anubis, our little siamese-type cat was poorly this week and had to go to the vet. She'd lost a lot of weight and when the weather was very hot on Monday she dehydrated. The vet put her on a drip to get some fluids into her and then it was up to us to inject her with fluids every few hours for five days. Because she wasn't eating we also had to use a syringe to feed her. She had some special high energy food, which she has now finished and she's eating normal cat food - but tinned not dry. She's eating every hour or so, and I think she may be getting used to being given special treatment. She's still very skinny, but is more lively and hopefully she's turned the corner. We have to keep an eye on them when the weather is very hot because they can overheat and die so quickly. A few times we've been at the vets in the summer when people have bought in dogs which have overheated.

And Tinkerbelle gave us a shock too. We heard some barking and Tinkerbelle came running in and I noticed she was bleeding from her mouth. She was very shaken and her tale was between her legs. It was worrying as bleeding from the mouth could be an internal injury - and that's how Billy died. However, when I looked, I could see that she's lost one of her front bottom teeth. But we have no idea how she did it. Although she is an old lady now, she is still as naughty as ever and was quite likely doing something she shouldn't have been doing and fell off something.

She remained shaken for half a day or so, however by tea time yesterday she was back to her normal self, however we're feeding her wet dog food at the moment as dry dog food might be a bit painful to crunch on with a tooth missing.

Video

I made a short video of some of the photos of our house which we have on the website.

Selfie

I feel i should be singing Disney songs! (Click on the image so see the full size pic)

The smell of freshly baked...

parrot cake.

Yesterday morning saw me in the unusual task of baking cake at breakfast. Well, a sort of nutty scone. However it wasn't a special treat for Ian, it was part of our quest to get Larry to eat more healthy food and it was a special parrot cake I made for him, using sunflower seeds, rice, baby bird feeding formula and some other goodies. I even spread peanut butter one one side for him.

What a lucky parrot!

Which he demonstrated by steadfastly ignoring his parrot cake and dissecting a bit of cucumber instead. So I suppose that if the goal was to get him to eat something else other than sunflower seeds it did the job. Happily, the lovebirds are much less fussy and were happy to tuck into Larry's special parrot cake.

The lovebirds are still ignoring their nest, but they've got too big now for their tube, so at night there is a big tussle as they each push each other out the end of the tube. They like picking away at things and yesterday showed that perhaps they are not the brightest buttons by sitting on a coconut shell I hung for them and picking away at the rope until it broke with both it and them falling to the floor.

The lovebirds chatter away to each other. It's quite a sweet noise (unlike Larry's squawks), They do it most when they are going to sleep and it does appear that they are talking too each other.  Perhaps they are arguing about who gets the tube!

I started doing another oil pastel drawing, and I was doing it outside, but I had to stop because it was so hot the pastels were going a bit squishy. Hence he has no eyes!

Project De-Dumpling Dumpling

After Dumpling had her summer haircut yesterday, I was a little alarmed to see that her head had shrunk. However, on closer inspection it transpired that rather than her head shrinking, the rest of her body has grown somewhat. Not to put too fine a point on it, dumpling is now very dumpling like. She is fat.

We've never had a fat dog before. Although Bob would dearly love to have been fat, his downfall was that when he wasn't eating or dreaming about eating, he was undertaking his next food finding session, which entailed rather more exercise than he would have voluntarily undertaken. It was Bob, remember, that Ian found on top of our very tall fridge, trying to get to the cat food. His constant trips to the cat tree to see if the cats had dropped a crumb or two of cat food, or wandering around the kitchen looking for tasty dropped morsels, kept him, while not trim, not on the podgy side of plump.

Dumpling is probably the most slothful dog we've ever had, because she lacks Bob's optimism that if she wanders round long enough she may find some food. Instead, she gets up, wanders in to the living room, has a nap, followed by a siesta, followed by an afternoon nap before going out for tea. She does jump around at tea-time, but not enough to count as exercise. Millie gets a wealth of exercise from her running around the table at meal times, goodness knows how far she goes, but she gets speed up and I don't think we'll ever need to worry about her not getting enough exercise. Bobbins does well too, although not as speedy as Milly, she does spend a lot of time trotting around and is in good shape. But Dumpling prefers to sleep.

So today we took her for a walk. We knew it would be difficult as Dumpling, being blind and only knowing the house and patio, would find the big outdoors scary. We decided to both take her out so one could hold the lead and the other could call her. It wasn't a great success, but she did walk a little bit and have a sniff. She was carried for quite a bit though, which I think may have given her the wrong impression of 'walk', but we'll just have to keep on with her for a while until she gets used to it. We'll try her wearing a harness tomorrow rather than a collar which kept slipping over her head.

Potato and onion soup

Inaugural soup maker soup...

Pastel s

My first attempts with oil pastels. One on the left is on the proper oil pastel board. The one on the right was a practice as I didn't want to waste the proper board until I had at least had a go first.

Tube

Having made our lovebirds a lovely crochet nest, they slept in it once, and have subsequently shunned it for a cardboard tube. They are getting quite big now, and their tales poke out at the end, so I only hope they don't get stuck in their tube. The lovely crochet nest hasn't gone to waste, however, as they appear to have decided it's a toilet.

They are quite tame. In the morning I wheel their cage into the bedroom to feed them and I open the door of their cage and they fly onto my lap where I balance the food bowl. They then feed and have a little wander around. I have to put them back in their cage, one generally follows the food back in, but the other is more problematic. He is inclined to sit on the top of my head, so I end up putting my head in their cage and 'scraping' him off against the top of their door!

They are still very messy eaters, however they now know how to clean their beaks, which they do on my legs, so I end up just as covered in food as I did when they were babies! They still shake their heads while eating, sending food flying, which adds to the mess.

We've decided on Nutcracker and Sugarplum for names, although Ian still favours Gary and Barry. So Nutcracker is also Barry (and Big Head as he is definitely fatter with a bigger head than the other), which doesn't help the confusion.

The Spanish name for lovebirds is inseperables, which is quite cute.

I've reduced the number of summer classes I am doing this year so I have some time to spend on modme. I'm not giving classes to older students, and I'm hoping to keep Fridays clear. 

Nest

Here are the lovebirds falling asleep on top of the nest that I crocheted them this weekend!

Big Bird Cage 2

We put the lovebirds into their new cage yesterday and they took to it straight away. I think we got the timing about right. They had started to try to fly earlier in the week, but were quite hopeless at it and would probably have hurt themselves if they had the space, but there weren't so used to their small cage that they found the move stressful.

I spent a happy hour last night 'decorating' their cage with toys. We found out, when we first got Larry, that you can spend an absolute fortune on bird toys. However as they enjoy nothing more than ripping the toys to shreds, cardboard tubes, bits of gift wrapping, pine cones etc all make great things for them to play with. Therefore their lovely new home now looks like a recycling bin.

They are very funny to watch as they are getting to know their new home. Their flying skills aren't finely tuned yet, so they are inclined to miss their perches or land on each other. We've put them next to Larry, so they can see each other. Larry fluffed himself up when he first saw them, to intimidate them and let them know who's boss. He's now glowering at them from the bottom of his cage. He still has a bad foot and can't climb, so hopefully being able to watch the lovebirds will keep him entertained.

I have a horrible feeling the lovebirds are going to remain 'the lovebirds'. I've tried out a few names which haven't stuck. One of the problems is that they are pretty much identical. I can tell them apart when they are together - otherwise they are the same. Ian reminded me that Barry and Gary remains a possibility for names...

Big birdcage

Here the lovebirds in their cage. they are the the small yellow things in the top left-hand side!

Election Fever

On Monday the village woke up with a new mayor. Obviously I'm not suggesting that the last Mayor's final initiative was one large municipal bed, but the local election count took place over night and there was a change in council. The new council is the PSOE, which is the People's Socialist Workers of Spain, and is a national party. The last council was also left wing, but was an Extremaduran off shoot of the IU green party, which itself was an offshoot of the IU party. Which is why I can never get far in the elections without thinking of this from the Life of Brian (apologies for bad language):

The vote was quite conclusive, with a 20% swing to the PSOE. While I think the old mayor did a great job, after winning three elections I think there is something to be said for having a change in council. The PP, which is the party in national Government at the moment, doesn't have much of a showing here, and this time lost 10% of their vote: but given that their vote went from 34 to 30, that's not really significant.

The elections are always close. The one before we moved here when the old council was voted in had only 4 votes in it - hence the very high turn out of well over 90%.

I noticed when I looked at the new council that I don't think I give any classes to any of their families, so I wonder if this will have any implications for me. For example the old council paid for me to go into the school, so this may change next year (if we are still here, which, although I hope we're not, currently looks likely...).

Messy Chicks

This is what happens when you mix paste like chick feed, small seeds and small parrots.

Roll Up, Roll Up...

...the circus is in town. Gary and Barry (apparently not their real names) are starting to fly, hence their presence on Kate's head.

class

This is my class at the school. Yesterday was my last class , I didn't think they were too sad!

Another lovebird pic

Hard to believe that these are the baby lovebirds from from a couple of weeks ago

New lovebirds Pic

Here is a lovebird showing its new feathers I think they going to be a mix of orange yellow and green.  The flaky stuff on it is food. They are the messiest of eaters. They fill up their beaks with food and then shake their heads. No wonder they are known for preening each other.

They are now in the house, and are garnering a little too much interest from Rosie, but she'll get bored of them soon. I put them in the bathroom to sleep - and goodness me they're noisey. I had to get up twice to find out what the noise was. But each time I opened the door they were stock-still and just looking at me, in an 'it wasn't me' way.

They've started flapping their wings, but it's a reflexive action and they can't control it. The look of shock on their face is quite pitiful. I'm also trying to get them to eat out of a bowl, but at the moment they just stand in it.

Larry has been back to the vet as his foot infection hadn't cleared. We're getting more used to handling him now - and he' getting more used to being handled - which is good.

Lovebirds

Here are the lovebirds showing off the new trick they have learned to perch

Hot weather starting early....

Today's weather is forecast to go to 39. Hot for may...

Feeding baby lovebirds

Communion, Funeral and Baby Lovebirds

We went to two communion parties last Sunday. Both are my students and we were invited to the afternoon do - after the after church family meal. It was fun, the girls had changed out of their dresses, so I didn't see them in their finery, however I'm sure I'll see photos soon.

Yesterday we sadly went to the funeral of Montse and Manuel's dad, Manolo, and grandfather to a lot of my students. He died Wednesday morning and was buried Thursday morning - but we're pretty used to the quickness of it all now and the way things work. We went to the funeral in the church, and similar to Mike's funeral, there was a lot of milling around and people coming and going. While it seemed odd at Mike's funeral, as people were coming in from the swimming pool, again it's something we're now used to and rather than it feeling disrespectful, I've learned it's actually a big mark of respect that people stop doing what they were doing and come into the church, even if it is only for a few minutes. I noticed the ladies from the day center came in for just a couple of minutes - no doubt in between preparing food for lunch. Unfortunately, both of the doors of the church creak, so noone comes and goes quietly.

The men wait outside and come in after the coffin, but we went inside and sat near the back, but a lot of people stood. At the end, the family stand behind the coffin and people parade around past the coffin and the family. I feel uncomfortable with this, however it is people's way of showing respect to family and their last goodbye. The doors of the church were opened wide when this took place and lots more people came in just for this and to pay their final respect. We didn't go to the cemetery. We did with Mike, because he had no family there other than his children, however Manolo has such a big family and friends we headed off home.

It was the first time we'd been inside the church, other than once briefly before with Jim and Viv, when Adelardo showed us around. It is very grand - lots of gold. One thing we both commented on was that there was no organ or choir, although the singing was obviously led by some ladies in the front. This seemed oddly moving, as the voices bounced around the inside of the church.

Our little lovebirds are doing well. They have got used us and are eating well. They've both put on weight, The bigger one was 25 grams and is now 31, which isn't a bad weight gain for one week. I put some apple in the cage, as we are determined that we are going to introduce them to a wide range of food so we don't end up with finicky birds like Larry. I left them this morning stood on their apple, so that didn't go quite as well as I hoped. It won't be for another few weeks before they start eating properly, so we don't need to worry just yet. They are living in my workshop at the moment,however next week we'll probably bring them into the house. We still have to keep them away from Larry until we are sure they have no bird diseases.

I'm counting down now till the end of classes before the summer. I'm planning what I'll do during the summer. I definitely want some time to spend on modme, so what I'd like to do is to just do three days of classes. We'll see...

Introducing...

This is one of two baby lovebirds who have joined our household. The other is similar but a tiny bit smaller. He is on the palm of my hand, so you can see how small he is. Eventually they will be friends for Larry, however they are living in my workshop at the moment and need to be kept in quarantine away from him for a couple of weeks to make sure they don't have any baby parrot diseases.

I'm feeding them by hand - which so far has resulted in baby lovebirds and my covered in baby lovebird food. Hopefully it will get easier. Luckily they came from a very nice person in Llerena, so if we have any problems he's just a few minutes away.

They don't have names yet. I am sure when their personality develops we'll get some good ideas for names. 

Dumpling is in Love

For some strange reason, since we moved Larry into the red room which Ian is using as his office, Dumpling has become absolutely fascinated by him and spends most of her waking hours (which admittedly, isn't many) staring lovingly into his cage. Obviously being Dumpling she 's a little low on the ground, so all that Larry sees is the top of Dumpling's head, but occasionally her nose, which he takes as being fair game and tries to peck. Which given Dumping's, er, slightly stumpy nose is quite a feat.

Not sure what has caused this infatuation. Most of the dogs hang around Larry's cage, as he is quite messy and often stews bits of seed around or even better (if you are a dog), manages to poop outside his cage - but none of them have quite this level of loyalty. Not even Rosie who spent the first 48 hours of Larry coming to live with us, permanently pointing at him. The infatuation may be the smell of his new parrot food, but if it is, she's the only one that's quite so impressed by it.

We've been talking about Larry's living quarters in the next house and thought we'd quite like to build him a voladero. I don't know how this translates, but it's sort of like a flight room. He's so used to his cage though, he may not take to a larger play area. But we'll see....

Fruitful

While Larry, alas, still remains steadfastly opposed to anything fruit based, our diet has definitely become more fruitful since we've been working on Project Get Larry to Eat Fruit. In fact, we had such a plethora of fruity delights clogging up the fridge last week we even had to investigate smoothies. However, when we realized that a smoothie is basically baby food, we went off the idea.

We went asparagus picking yesterday and came back with enough for a good couple of meals. Which is the first time this year. There were lots of small lizards around, I wonder when lizard breeding time is?

Fruitless Endevours

Well, our campaign to encourage Larry to eat his fruit and veg is proving difficult. While our fridge is packed full of fresh delights, our attempts to get Larry to eat them are fruitless. So far he has showed a bit of interest in a stick of celery, but apart from that ignores everything else pretty much only to get over excited by the sound of a sunflower seed coming out of a packet. He has been to the vet every day this week for an injection. We (Ian) could have done it ourselves, however Larry is relatively small and he had to be injected in his chest and we were worried about getting it wrong. Larry turned out to be a good patient and he was seen by a new vet, who may have been a trainee vet, however who knew about parrot care.

We have Larry's new food - and needless to say he is not particularly impressed. But goodness me it smells nice! It smells like fruit of the forest yogurt. The vet told us to only give Larry sunflower seeds in the evening, which is when he is sleepy, on the assumption that he will only eat then if he is hungry. During the day he should be eating his fruit and veg (ha) and special food (double ha).

Today is day 100 of my creative year challenge. Every day (well most) I've done a sketch or something creative that isn't work related. This is my favourite so far:

Eat Your Greens (and Orange, Red, Yellow...)

Larry has been rather subdued over the last few days and we took him to the vet and he is suffering from a vitamin deficiency. This is because he won't eat anything other than sunflower seeds. He used to have mixed food but he only ever ate the sunflower seeds, and we give him carrots, apple etc but he takes a lick (yes, parrots do lick!) and turns his nose up. I read that parrots are supposed to love pomegranates, (so much so that they tell you to put paper behind them as they make such a mess when they ravage the pomegranate because they love it so much), but Larry was completely uninterested.

So he is now having vitamin injections and is supposed to only eat fresh fruit and veg during the day. I can see this turning into a battle of the wills, however he is having vitamin injections now and the vet has ordered some special well balanced food - similar to dry dog food - to stop him from picking what he likes (sunflower seeds) and leaving everything else, so hopefully he'll start to build his strength up again. We just hope he likes the special food. Other than that I think we could consider putting vitamins in his water.

Ian has to take Larry back to the vet today - along with a photo of the huge plates of fresh carrot, apple, banana, kiwi, pear and celery, with Larry steadfastly ignoring his treat, so they can see what we give him

When we went to the vet yesterday, we found that they have moved and are now an 'animal hospital'. They have a lot more facilities and much more space. I just hope their prices don't change accordingly!

It's been a long time

Ooops, just noticed it has been 20 days since I last updated the blog. I'd like to say that it's because we've been busy doing exciting things, but while we've been busy, it's not been with anything particularly exciting.

Not much to report on modme. More tiny steps forward. I am not doing classes now for two weeks, so hopefully we'll be able to spend some time getting things like videos done, and some tutorials. We've now got a load of patterns on the site and I've made some knitting patterns too. Next thing to do is to try macrame and beads.

We went to Pepes yesterday lunch time which is the first time in absolutely ages. I'm thinking of stopping my Saturday afternoon classes as it means we only have Sunday to do something spontaneous (like go to Pepes) without having to worry about being back and prepared for a class at a certain time.  Although the temperature is well into the high 20s now, Pepe still had the winter blankets on the table with the fires underneath.

It's now Semana Santa and unusually, it's not raining. I think we'll go to a parade this year. We briefly discussed going to Seville, but the parades there are huge. I think we'll be better off locally. Quite honestly, when you've seen one anonymously sinister caped and hooded Nazarino, you've seen them all.

I was quite pleased this week - and a little surprised - to receive an email from my editor at About.com who said that they've reversed the terms of the contract that I signed at the end of last year which reduced the amount they paid, in effect meaning that I'll get the same or a tad more than I got last year. I have no idea why they did this - but it was welcome news!

It has been a very poor year for asparagus. Although we did have some rain, it has been very dry and Ian has been out hunting asparagus, returning only with a small handful enough for a small meal, whereas a good haul in previous years would be enough for a couple of really big meals.

I've been researching pronunciation, because I notice that a lot of my students have problems differentiating T and D - and G and W (traditionally G has been used for the W sound and W didn't exist - hence Gillium for William). So I've been reading about mouth shapes, and reading about lip reading as people who lip read need to associate mouth shapes with certain sounds. One funny thing I read was that to a lip reader, I love you looks the same as elephant.

Asparagus

We went out gathering asparagus on Sunday, and admittedly, it was a tad disappointing. It's been very warm and dry, so I don't know if that has had something to do with it, however we did manage to get enough for tea, but certainly it won't be remembered as the asparagus haul of the year. If things follow true to other years, it will remain hot and sunny until Semana Santa, when we will have unprecedented storms on the lead up to Easter.

Nothing really new on the modme front - I was suffering from the dreaded lurgy again last week, so that has put things back again, however Ian has written a press release which he's going to send out today, and I need to pull my finger out again and get some more modmes listed on our site. Ian's been thinking about how to wind the bobbins with crochet cotton. He's been trying his pendant motor and my small drill. He has designed a 'thing' that holds the bobbin as it spins and winds the cotton. The main challenge now is controlling the speed.

I have a new student who is studying a masters degree in psychology. She speaks French as her second language and has the opportunity to go and study for a PhD in Canada, but needs also to have a working knowledge of English - by June, so the pressure's on!

It's interesting, I've noticed a few students have gone or aspire to go to Canada, I guess it's because French is wide spoken here and French speaking Canada is probably a more exciting option than France. One of my original students is applying for an educational program which takes French speaking Spanish students to Quebec to study for their baccalaureate (A Levels).

Tinkerbell and Rosie

Is Tinkerbell snuggled up with Rosie on the beanbag.

Crochet Hook Woes

The parcel man struggled to the door with a big parcel and it was from the crochet hook people. I was a tad surprised when I saw the size of the box for 300 very small crochet hooks. I was even more surprised when we opened the box and only found 24 hooks. Apparently they had run out and we had bought their entire stock!

We went to a couple of Chinese bazaars last weekend, thinking we could look at their products for names of wholesalers who we could contact and there weren't any 2mm hooks in store, but we did get the names of some wholesale distributors of crafty stuff anyway. Ian checked them out when we got back and got a quote from one, but their price was more expensive than the first people, 0.45 euro compared to .31 euro. Not huge in the overall scheme of things, but relatively a big increase. As we want to chop the end off them and put a small cap on the end, we want them to be as cheap as possible, so it was back to the drawing board.

We'd already looked at some of the big Chinese wholesalers, but they seem to offer just sets of crochet hooks - or deliver them by the tonne. Ian, however, managed to find a retail company which also sell wholesale who offered a good deal, so we are now awaiting delivery of 300 Chinese crochet hooks. The main drawback is time, it will take three weeks or longer for them to arrive - and we have to hope they fall under the customs radar too!

Earring display

Here is an earring display that we made using the modme logo. I am delighted with how it turned out and it really is going to be good showing photos of finished Modme s.

Beautiful Bobbins

Doesn't bobbins look adorable in this Photo. She's asleep but because of her big eye she can't close it fully. her poking tongue is a typical pose as well!

Toe Tapping

Well, not sure why, however my walking boots don't fit so well as they used to and at Christmas when we were going for regular walks, I got blisters under my big toe nails and the nails went black. Queenie dropped one of her chewing logs on my toe and the nail felt quite swollen this week and I asked Ian to take a photo of it, so I could see. However it obviously felt more swollen than it appeared. Ian said that if it got worse I should go to the doctor who'd drill a hole in it and remove the pressure - the thought of which sent me into a near faint.

And talking of toes, one of my older students is learning music vocabulary at the moment and he told me that his favorite music was Cumbia music, which, as I corrected him on his pronunciation - CumbRia, I thought was a little odd. Anyway, after further confusion about whether he also liked clog dancing - it transpires that Cumbia music is an old type of Latin American music which came about as a fusion between Spanish music from the Spanish colonists, African music from the African slaves and native Indian tribal music, and is hugely popular in many south American countries and is a popular genre of music in Spain too. My guess is that it's to Spain what reggae music is to Britain? Here's an example, and yes, it will have you tapping your toes in no time!

Crochet hook

Here is a crochet hook with the end chopped off and a small plug made for the end to keep it neat.it fits in the box now, and looks professional, not as though we had just snipped the end off!

A life by fairy lights

While there may be more established ways of telling when Spring is on its way, for me, the sign of impending spring is when the fairly lights on the bedroom window come on again. There are a couple of months in the deepest darkest winter, when we don't get enough sun in this corner of the patio to charge the fairy lights. However, with the slight extension in daylight, the lights are now twinkling on, even if it's just for a few hours.

This must also mean that asparagus is on its way. We could go out this weekend and look, but it's probably a little early. But hopefully within the next two weeks we'll be enjoying our first asparagus meal. I've got more new classes booked, so I have classes Saturday morning and evening now, which severely cuts into our asparagussing time, but I am sure that Ian will become all hunter-gather and, armed with a knife, head out into the olive groves...

How Did This Happen?

I was able to get this photo from my position perched on the end of grand dad's toolbox. There's a cushion at the other end of the toolbox, but Tinks and Pixie are sharing that. In our next home we're going to buy more seats.

Into the den of dragons

Last week modme had their first public appearance . I took them into the 'Dragon's Den' of the family!! , and I think they were quite successful.

In true dragons den style it was suggested that we got a patents on the things , and since returning we have spent every spare minute researching writing and preparing a patent application. the system is relatively straightforward, however there's quite a lot of language which is unfamiliar, Patent applications appear to have their own special language.

Hopefully we will have the application submitted today or tomorrow and after that we can say patent pending. How exciting!

Sleeping bobbins

Here's little bobbins looking very sweet. She can climb onto the sofa but she can't get off so we have to remember to help her down.

Who is This Masked Man?

Ok, so he's not actually masked, but you could think he was in disguise. While it has been sunny and warm, there has been a cold wind a couple of days so the Peruvian hat has been perfect.

And it wouldn't be Christmas without a cheese feast. Here's this year's with the cheese we got from the cheeseman and a torta. The red wine is Extremaduran - and the baguettes are Ian's new specialty bread. He has to throw ice cubes into the oven before he puts the baguettes in, and the end result is very light and fluffy - perfect with cheese!

3D Printer

We bought ourselves a 3d printer for Christmas. Well rather, we bought a 3d printer kit which Ian then had to put together and make work. There are different types of 3d printers, the ones that are used by the company that I'm using for Modme's costs many hundreds of thousands of euros and works by fusing nylon powder. The one we've got is at the other end of the scale and is like an automated glue gun. It extrudes melted plastic into very thin filament which it then builds up in lots of tiny layers into shapes. Yes, that is hairspray in the background, we need to spray the printing plate with hairspray to make the plastic stick.

We bought it from a Spanish company and I must admit Ian paled slightly when he saw the box of bits, but luckily the instructions were very detailed. It really is like Mecano for grown ups. The printer we got was part of a community project where a group of people designed the printer and it is open source so people can amend and adapt the basic printer. It's quite good because there is a lot of support for this printer, although I think the average age of owners is probably 14, and geeky ones at that.  Ian got the printer together, calibrated it and it's working!

We got it because we wanted to be able to prototype modmes here and there is no need to get the nylon ones made if it is just for prototyping, so we thought that having our own would save time, and pay for itself. We also thought it might be fun to print some things ourselves.

We didn't get much of a chance to play with it over Christmas, although I was able to test a new modme design and was delighted that it worked. I'm now getting a little more adventurous and it is currently printing a phone case for my phone. I have a modme idea here too - but one step at a time! Ian is going to learn 3d modeling too, so he can join in the fun!

A Sofa Full of Little Girls

Here's our sofa full of small animals!  It's funny how our perception has changed. I remember when we used to think how tiny Tinks was, and now she seems quite big! Here's she's being used as a pillow by Anubis, who is a very small cat. Davy would have looked huge in comparison!

Tinkerbelle hasn't buddied up with any of the other dogs, she's happy to snuggle up with whoever's around, but she doesn't seem to have a special friend. She appears happy though.