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...?