Loom

I have been discussing with Ian the fact that what we really need is a loom. Mishearing me, he said we already one loon in the house and didn't see why we needed another.

Sadly, I think the sun has got to him. We've patently not got a north American aquatic bird living here.

Anyway, three cheers for ebay. We are now the proud owner of a 4 heddle loom. Hoorah.

It is coming from Holland and I guess will arrive when I am away. The picture is what it should look like. We'll see...

Hail

Admittedly, Ian would have preferred that instead of wandering around with the camera I helped bail the house out - particularly as we were doing it for the second time in 3 hours, however I felt that this jumbo hail deserved a pic.

Moral of the story: Ensure drains are kept clear and that guttering does not provide home to half the bird population in the area.

New Project

We're working on a new project - the aim is to collect together all the free needlework patterns and projects on the internet. The site is not ready to be launched yet - but we'd welcome feedback.

Foot and Mouth

I cannot imagine how we would be feeling now, if we were still living in the UK on our smallholding. Well that's probably not true. I think I know exactly how we'd feel.

The imagination comes in when thinking about how farmers must feel. Whose livelihoods are once again in the hands of something completely out of their control. Whilst financially farms are protected perhaps by insurance and by compensation payouts - there is the horror of facing mass culls, seeing years worth of breeding and bloodstock lines wiped out at shot. Literally.

We were living in the centre of the outbreak in 2001/2, and even without animals it was a pretty bleak existence. Our cars were hosed down when leaving and entering the area, there were many students at the school who were either not able to leave their farms, or if they were at a critical school stage, were staying with friends off the farms. The country side was absolutely CLOSED.

We heard horror stories of culls, saw the funeral pyres the other side of Penrith, saw acres of fields which were empty of livestock.

The thought of someone coming onto our land and culling our animals is desperate, I hope that consideration is given to vaccination, and that culls are a last resort.

House for Sale

A house in Villagarcia is up for sale. Details can be seen here. This is in a pretty position, it is quite close to where we went asparagus picking during the spring.

Peanut Butter Recipe

I didn't realise how easy it is to make peanut butter. Quite simply whiz up a handful of peanuts in a blender with some oil and voila - instant peanut butter. Not quite as nice as Sunpat (in the same way as I can never make tomato soup quite as nice as Heinz) but it was certainly on the better side of OK.

So ticked this off the list of things to learn to make. The theory being, if we try to make what we miss from the UK, it will save using up all 20kgs of baggage allowance with food....

Kittens

The kittens are getting bigger now, and are playing. We have quite a houseful.

We've put a sign up saying we have kittens looking for homes, and so far, not particularly encouragingly we've been told that it is normal to kill unwanted kittens.

Obviously, that wouldn't happen here, so we've been thinking of names....

Siesta

It is important not to underestimate the importance of siesta here. Everything slows to a standstill in the afternoon. If you visited a village in the afternoon you would think it was empty, just a few dogs flopped in the shade. However a few hours later and it is a very different situation - and of course in the early hours of the morning things are just warming up. This program from a fiesta at Jerez de los Caballeros and shows how quiet things get in the afternoon!

Arabic Dancing at Luna Al Fuego

Luna Al Fuego - Some clips of the day

We've had kittens

Well, more accurately our cat has. So we've 5 kittens looking for homes.

Unlike their owners they are bi-lingual.

Cat Ops

Our two lady cats went to the vet on Tuesday to be neutered. Needless to say this wasn't entirely smooth running as due to a mix up we took them the week before. The cats weren't desperately happy as they had been starved for 12 hours before their non-existent op, and Ian was equally grumpy as he got up at 5 in the morning to take their food up (the ops take place at 5 in the evening so the animals recover during the cool of the night).

Oh yes - how did we get the date muddled up for op? Quite simple. SI is the word for IF and YES, with the subtle difference of a ' which can't be seen if typed in CAPS. So we thought they were saying 'yes it is possible' and in fact he was saying 'if it is possible'. Sigh.......

Guiness Marmite

marmite.jpg
Originally uploaded by Marchena.

This little beauty found its way through the post to me.

Interesting moral dilemma - Eat or Ebay....?

We ate!

Busy few weeks

We've had a busy few weeks with visitors and trips back to the UK.

I've been using the ClickAir flight from Seville to Gatwick and then coach to Bournemouth. The door to door trip takes 10.5 hours which includes the ferry from Poole to Swanage so I guess that's not too bad. The ClickAir flight is well timed for a short trip with day time flights - none of this having to bunk down at the airport nonsense that the early flights entail.

The internet has been very haphazard - down for several hours a few times a week. This - of course, always happens when deadlines loom. Most annoying.

I've at last finished the capelet project that I have got going in the Autumn edition of Interweave Crochet. After waiting weeks for the wool I went ahead and bought it direct - only for the wool to arrive from the manufacturers. So I went from no wool to an abundance of the stuff!

Basil gets a haircut

We trimmed Basil over the weekend. Well, it is probably more accurate to say scalped.

We have hidden mirrors from him.

Incredible Hulk

This green monster was working his way across the yard today. The dogs barked, I screamed, Ian screamed, but we still managed to get a quick pic.

Curry, festering Private Eyes and squatters

I am certain that we were the only group of British people sharing a curry this side of Zafra on Saturday night. Luckily there was enough left for Ian and I to have another curry feast last night.

Sadly my plans to become rich from my Private Eye collection crashed and burned at the weekend. Well rotted and decomposed is probably nearer the truth. Having religiously never knowingly thrown a Private Eye away for what - 20 years, I found that most of my collection has rotted. OK - whilst these might not have been my pension - but I certainly would rather then hadn't disappeared in a heap of rotting dust.

We kept it on the floor in one of the spare rooms and the condensation got to it. We experienced this last year too with bedding - so need to remember to get everything off the ground. So this morning we were at the builders merchant at the crack of dawn - well sort of, and bought a couple of units so we can move all remaining boxes off the floor.

We also have a family of house martins (or are they swallows?) squatting up under our roof. Hence the reason why people who know better keep their shutters etc closed so they don't give home to selected wildlife. We have enough wildlife downstairs with the animals and Ian without encouraging new additions upstairs. Of course we won't knock the nest down - just have to make sure we move it out when the little ones have fledged.

Sock Tops - The Movie

New Layout

I've rather cleverly changed the layout of this blog. I'd like to say it took hours of programming - however I just fiddled with a couple of doodahs and it all happened automatically. Magic!

Return

I arrived back from the UK relatively in one piece and on time. Yet again I arrived at the airport with my baggage being overweight - and as this time I was without powdered milk, lime pickle or brown sauce I was a little surprised. Probably a trip to a car boot sale was not a good idea - and Ian seemed less then enamoured with the glass lampshade that I lugged back for him.

I think the butchers rub their hands in glee as I head off back to the UK. Ian drops me off at the airport and then stocks up on as much meat as he can eat. Ian then turns this into a carnivorous curry feast, and from what I can see eats this for breakfast lunch and dinner.

I left Spain in glorious sunshine and returned to grey and cold. The weather forecast shows much of the same over the next few days. Boo.