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

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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.

Ankle update

I’ve not mentioned my ankle recently – which is probably good news. There is only so much you can say about an ankle, and I was getting close to the limit.

I am now walking unaided and I don’t think I am limping much. The only problem that I have at the moment is that because the swelling has now gone completely my ankle really hurts at night as the pins hurt when I sleep on my side. However I am sure I will find a way around this (perhaps crochet an ankle pillow perhaps) and this will be sorted when they take some of the metal out in a few months.

I don’t think I’ll be doing the 22 km walk this year – although saying that, it is really Ian’s turn. Talking of that particular horror – for the first time since that dreadful day last April my big toe nails needed cutting. If you remember they fell off in shock and are only just now back to normal. You won’t believe how similar “short stroll then breakfast” and “22 kilometre extremely hard hike” are in Spanish….

ASAPARGUS HUNTING

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Originally uploaded by Marchena.

The campo in spring, is full of people acting strangely. People walk along the roads and paths, suddenly to leap over a wall and pounce on what appears to be a blade of grass.

Closer inspection however will show that they are hunting asparagus, and from the end of February to the end of April or early May it is open season on asparagus throughout southern Spain.

We went out asparagus hunting and as the picture shows, it is more difficult to find these pesky spears than one would think.

We sadly came back to the village carrying our three pieces, whilst other villagers had so much that they had filled three bags!

Homemade Cottage Cheese

MmmMmmmm, I hear you murmur.

One thing that I miss is cottage cheese. Strange as I never really knew that I liked it so much! We've not seen it in any shops - and admittedly I've not been on a complete mission to find it, I can pretty confidently report that it is not available within a 50km radius.

So I thought I'd make some, however milk is really difficult to buy. UHT milk with vitamins, soya, rice milk, added calcium etc falls off the shelves, however pure un-UHT'd milk is neigh on impossible (within local s/markets anyway) to find. This isn't really a surprise. This is not a dairy area, and whilst there are one or two cows wondering around the fields, it is certainly more normal to see sheep.

Ignoring instructions which clearly stated that making cottage cheese with UHT milk won't work, I pressed on. I found myself presented, instead of a saucepan of lovely fluffy cottage cheese, with saucepan of slime.

I referred again to my how-to-make-cottage-cheese instructions, and saw that powdered milk would work - as long as it wasn't UHT.

Therefore my last visit to the UK saw me returning, struggling with a case full of powdered milk, and this weekend I experienced milk alchemy as I turned the powdered milk into something which, with eyes shut and not smelling it, might in some small way resemble cottage cheese.

Ian, bless him, has kindly offered not to eat any so there is all the more for me. I am sure that this is what he meant when he said 'no ^%$$% way' when offered some.

50% of our lemon harvest.

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Originally uploaded by Marchena.

We only had three lemons, however one appeared to have disappeared so this picture represents half of our entire harvest.

We've picked our oranges and are making 'lime' pickle with them. It is sure to be delightful (?). The theory is that Seville oranges are so bitter that they might replicate the taste of limes when salted and seasoned. We've got them salting away now - so keep a look out for updates!

Went for a walk yesterday to celebrate that I am crutch free and no more physio. We saw lots of processionary Caterpillars which are poisonous to dogs so we had to keep an eye on what they were eating. Need to watch that none appear in the yard.

Discharged from Physio at last!

After 4 months and 70 sessions, I have been discharged from the tender clutches of the Physio team. I have almost normal movement - although apparently I still walk like Quasimodo - I do hope they were exaggerating in their mime.

I now have to spend the next 6 months jumping up and down to build bone mass before another op next autumn. At this stage they will take out what ever plates or pins aren't necessary so I need to jump up and down to strengthen the bones prior to this. I will keep my bouncing within the privacy of our own home - as this is not something I would inflict on neighbours.

Ian is pleased too as this means he no longer has to do the return trip twice a day to drop me off and pick me up. So hurrah all round!

The weather seems to be warming quite rapidly now, it is 4 o'clock and 25 in the shade. Even my workshop is in double figures. It is noticeably lighter in the mornings and evenings too - at 8 when I started at physio it was like the middle of the night - however this morning the sun was just up.

storks fighting

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Originally uploaded by Marchena.

Two storks fighting in Trujillo.

Foot rot

For a couple of weeks now I have been aware of a hideous smell following me around. I naturally thought it was something to do with one of the animals – or more likely, Ian. However it was with great distress that I found out that the evil smell was in fact coming from me - or, I hasten to add, my walking boots.

So bad was it that I had to investigate further and check that nothing nasty was contained within them. One of my all-time most horrendous life experiences todate (and lets face it there’s a few to choose from) was putting on my Wellington boots one day and finding that my big toe had speared a rotting mouse.

Amazing – 6 months of my boots being forcibly rested and you’d have thought that the fresh air might have done some good – but instead my boots seem to have suffered from fester fast-track.

Well, good old internet – quick search for ‘smelly walking boots’ (which reminds me I do hope we never have to take out computer in somewhere to be mended as I am sure that they will have no end of fun looking at our search history!) showed that what I required was a spoonful of Bicarb.

Of course!

This is a magical, wondrous material. Do you have any idea what it can be used for – well besides removing nasty niffs from walking boots? Whitening marble, cleaning shower curtains, taking stains from socks, removing nasty taste from vacuum flask, to strengthen nails, to soften the skin of new potatoes, to ‘freshen’ the fridge……

Unfortunately I did not have any bicarb but I did have a bathbomb which is 80% bicarb so I dissolved that and popped the lovely lavender liquid into my boots. The lavender would only enhance the new found freshness I thought. I forgot about the lavender flowers however and think I will be spending the next few weeks removing bits of lavender from between my toes. hey ho.