Author: Susurro

So that’s it for another year. You spend weeks, if not months, looking forward to the build up to the festive season and then BANG! It’s gone! Suddenly, in spite of January seeming to often last for years, it’s February at last, and we’re rushing headlong towards spring. It’s beginning to warm up in the sunshine during the day, though the nights are still cold and down as low as -2C. I’m very glad we have two big log burners, hot air con and an electric blanket. No doubt it won’t seem long until we’re complaining about the heat – if we get another summer with shade temperatures of 44C we will be justified in complaining!

One thing I hate in the post-Christmas slump is losing the tree. There’s something just so flat about the light in a room when the tree is gone, the candles are out, the baubles aren’t there to reflect anything. It’s a bit like when you get home from holiday and you wonder why the light in the house looks so different. I’m seriously considering calling our tree a “winter tree” next year, which would involve putting it up, fully decorated, around the beginning of November, and not taking it down until the first whispers of spring, around the end of March. Or maybe not! At least this time we had the wit to wrap the tree tightly in a big tarpaulin, avoiding the need to remove each branch separately. Trying to fit all the branches in the right place is akin to solving a Rubik cube while blindfolded.

Look at that poor, miserable looking thing!

Especially when you compare it to when it’s all dressed up and ready to party!

Now that spring is on the way, the almond trees are starting to burst into bloom. Ours are always a wee bit behind the ones lower down in the valley where it’s a degree or two warmer, but the blossom is just so fabulous to see. You can book tours to see vast orchards of almonds in bloom, all along the Hondon valley and beyond. Makes for a lovely day out, though we’re very happy to have our own small show at home!

We’re still not altogether sure how many almond trees we have, we keep finding other little trees here and there iN bits of the garden that are currently less accessible. There’s around a dozen, but when we came here six years ago (six years ago!!!) Peter planted some almonds and they’ve now grown into little trees so we’re gradually increasing the stock.

It was the boss’s birthday recently, and I treated him to a night away in a palace. Yes, really, a palace! We stayed in the Sercotel Palacio de Tudemir, in Orihuela, which is only about 40 minutes from home. We just wanted a nice relaxing night away, something a bit different, and my word this hotel was different! It is just fabulous! It was an old palace, and is right in the heart of town, so very easy to walk everywhere. The room was the biggest we have ever had in a hotel as was the en-suite bathroom and even the bed – so, so comfortable! I have to tell those of you who are not in Spain that part of the reason we’re able to head off regularly for hotel stays is that it is so much less expensive here than in the UK. Our night, in a superior room, cost €82, which is about £68 at the time of writing this…seriously great value, in a palace, for goodness sake!

We had dinner that night at a great Indian restaurant recommended by our friend Tesne, as the boss loves curries, and altogether we had a wonderful relaxing little break. Highly recommended!

While we were in Orihuela we’d taken a wee dander round the town. It’s not somewhere we really know at all, as we tend to go to Orihuela costa, which is obviously the coast area, very touristy and busy. Orihuela town is quiet during the day as it’s a working town, but we had found a little bar we had looked up and were keen to have lunch there. However, we had turned up very late and the kitchen was closed – very different form the touristy coastal towns where everything’s open all day. The owner took pity on us and made us a big plate of freshly oven-warmed crusty bread, with allioli, and tomato and olive oil dips on the side. I have to say it was absolutley delicious, and they’d gone out of their way to give us something so we were very grateful…and I promised I’d include them in the blog so they could read about themselves!

So here they are, and a big thank you from us, the pan y alioli con tomate estaban deliciosos!

And now for something completely different…I ordered a face powder compact (I sound like my Mum now!) and this is what arrived…

Yes, that is actually the colour of it, and it looks kind of waxy, not powdery as you might expect. However, when you swipe the wee powder puff thingy across it, you get a layer of translucent powder which does exactly what it says on the tin, ie, it stops the shine and gives your skin a lovely glowing, even finish. Amazing!

On the way home from Orihuela we stopped at a little town for a quick bite of lunch at a restaurant we’ve been to before, called the Rincon de La Murada. Great food, great prices, in an honest-to-goodness unpretentious little working town. I noticed that a waitress was putting out plates of hot cooked food onto empty, but laid, tables. The plates sat there for about 10 or 15 minutes, not getting any warmer, and then suddenly a group of women arrived, checked what was on each plate, and sat down to eat. The same thing was repeated at another table, so it seems that people often call the bar, order their food for a certain time and then turn up for lunch. We’re more used to booking a table and then ordering when we get there, but it seems there are places where you order the food for a certain time and it’s up to you to get there on time! We have noticed that the Spanish often eat their food cold, or at least not very warm, and they find we’re a bit peculiar as we like to have everything piping hot, so that might explain why those folk in the restaurant weren’t at all put out at the fact their meals had been sitting out for 10 to15 minutes waiting for them!

I’m not sure that cold egg and chips is very appealing, but they got stuck in with gusto and were having a great blether at the same time.

Speaking of food, people all over the rest of the world eat some things which are very peculiar to us….I’ve eaten pigs’ ears by mistake, and will NEVER make that mistake again! It is said that in Mediterranean countries like France and Spain they eat every bit of the pig except the squeal, and I have certainly seen trotters, tails, snouts and ears on supermarket counters. The other day, while getting the groceries in Mercadona, I saw packs of beautifully white and clean chicken feet for sale. I nearly fell over at the thought of it…but I know they’re eaten regularly all over the world. Isn’t is funny how there are things we have a real aversion to eating that others find completely normal, and vice versa?!

Oh, and speaking of hateful things to eat, I have always wondered why Peter likes the taste of coriander so much, and describes it as “fresh and cirtusy”, when to me it tastes like soap. So, here’s the explanation and a bit of fun as well…..

and the reason WHY it tastes so vile….so now you know!

Since it’s heading rapidlytowards spring now, it’s time to do a bit of a spring clean and clear out again. Today, starting with the kitchen, I spent far too long once again cleaning the boss’s fiddly wee spice jars on their glass shelves. I’m aways scared of dropping one or two but sure they’re all replaceable! Peter uses most of the spices, and they’re frequently topped up, though some are past their time and just sit there looking decorative – a bit like me! In total, over 2 opposite walls, there are 14 glass shelves, each containing 7 jars, which all need to be wiped, dried and replaced without the whole flipping lot crashing to the ground! So, just 2 short of a hundred, hateful job but I try to do it weekly so it never gets too bad.

The next rotten job in the kitchen is to replace the extractor fan filter – yuck! Actually we really need a new extractor fan, as the one we inherited with the house is really not up to much at all, it’s far too small and there’s no light with it. Maybe if I wait a wee bit longer we can buy a new one and I won’t have to clean this hateful thing…..

Well that’s about it for this time, though before I go here’s a poem….

                        I hope you die first, before I do.

                        I hope you go gently, easily, too.

                        Hearing rushing of wings, the whispering heart

                        Not seen for so long, yet you know you’re a part

                        Of this new home, no not new, always there

                        Waiting for us, with soul stripped bare.

                        And oh, what a welcome you’ll find when you wake

                        In the home that you’ll reach, and for us you will make

                        A place of such love that whenever I come

                       There’ll be no more heartache, no grief to strike numb

                       The soul. I’ll not weep, not mourn, no longer be lost

                       For home is the goal, and worth the high cost.

                       I hope you die first.

                       I cannot conceive of how you would grieve

                       If I was to go before you, to leave

                      While you would be left in unbearable grief.

                      I would save you from that, but make my time be brief!

                      I hope you die first, so that I’ll do the grieving,

                      And you will be spared of it all, by your leaving.

                      I hope you die first.

I feel as if I’ve slid off the planet for a bit but am now back again! Life has been very, very busy lately to the extent that I haven’t really had time to sit down and report back – until now. So this might look like the bumper Christmas and New Year edition but if you’re not asleep by the time you get through it then I hope you find it a bit entertaining!

Firstly, we were in Norn Iron for a few days but really didn’t get much of a chance to catch up with anyone, so I apologise for that, I’d have loved to have seen everyone but just couldn’t do it. Laurie was able to be off work while we were there so it was wonderful to spend the mornings with her – we never get time on our own for proper chats uninterrupted so that tookcare of the mornings. Then of course the children were home from school in the afternoons and I wanted to spend as much time with them as possible, as when we’re back in Spain I miss them so much.

All in all we had a great time and managed to buy out Marks and Spencer’s food hall bringing back lots of wee Christmas treats! After we’d gone back to Spain we learned we’d missed something special – Lucy wrote and directed a Christmas play for the children at Fiona’s house – Fiona is their childminder and is absolutely the best ever! Anyway, it seems Lucy made all the children dress up in costumes and she put the play on for the Mummies and Daddies at Fiona’s, and it was a big success!

The saddest and most shocking news lately has been the horrendous storms and flooding in the Valencia and Malaga areas, leading to loss of lives and millions of euros worth of damage. You will all have seen on the news reports the devastation left by the storm, it will take a long time for people and property to even begin to recover from that. There’s no need for me to post photos here as you will all have seen lots by now. However, there is one photo I found that sums up the spirit of caring, how neighbours look after each other and volunteer to help clear up in whatever way they can.

This photo is not at all exceptional, this is just a very small example of the numbers of people who came from far and wide to help shovel mud and debris out of houses and roads, to clear the routes for services, and to generally help people who were overcome with the results of the flooding.

There are no strangers, we are all neighbours. Wonderful. Simply wonderful.

So, it’s nearly Christmas again, and it seems like no time since last year – time really does pass so much more quickly the older you get. We’ve been into the city with friends to have a wander round the little artisan market stalls, and to see the lights – Murcia always puts on a great show. Here’s some of them…

One of the things I love about the Spanish is their sense of humour, and that has certainly come out this Christmas! They love to have little models of nativity scenes in towns and villages, in shop windows, in churches and in homes, with everything in miniature, like little dolls’ houses. A custom that is prevalent in the north of Spain, but rapidly gaining popularity further south, is to add a little figure of a “caganer” to the scene, usually half hidden behind the stable containing Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus. I have no idea how this custom started but…the little figure is always shown doing a poo! You can buy the figures with famous faces, singers, politicians and so on. Look it up!

There you go, he’s not difficult to find!

Another example of humour is the most basic nativity scene you could imagine – courtesy of Coca Cola cans. It’s easy to do here due to the Spanish names!

We’ve been busy in these couple of days up to Christmas as we’ve been invited to a few afternoon parties – afternoon ones are best at our age!

So, Peter has made his famous bite-sized vodka layered jellies, they always go down well! We’ve also made some little chicken skewers, some chocolate pine cones, some shortbread, and “Auntie Stella’s fudge”. Oh, and a bottle of home-made limoncello to wash it all down with!

Now here’s a thing. All this stuff these days about “anti-ageing”, especially for women, really bothers me. Why is it so important to try to look youunger than we are? Is it not enough to just look the best we can at whatever age we are, without striving to look twenty again? If you watch programmes like the Kardashian clan, or see photos of many Hollywood actresses, they are all starting to look frighteningly similar. In fact, they look so alike they could be sisters! I really hate this cult of worshipping youth – we should go back to the days when older people were more respected and valued for their wisdom, and not slated because they have a wrinkle or two! An example is the word “crone”. It always meant a woman who is venerated for her experience, judgment, and wisdom. Now it tends to mean an old woman considered to be ugly, a hag. Where did it all go wrong?!

These days women in general tend to look far younger than their age counterparts years ago, and often it’s nothing to do with surgery or other tweaks. I found a photo the other day, of Claude Monet and his wife Alice. In this photo, she is aged 67 – a year younger than I am now. I don’t exactly look like a teenager – heaven forbid! – but Alice looks far, far older than today’s modern women of similar age!

Actually one of the admirable things about women in Spain is that they don’t seem to give a hoot what anyone thinks of them – they dress how they please and have the most enviable confidence. I recently saw a group of younger women, maybe in their twenties, out on the town, and one of them was really big, maybe around 20 stone or so. She was wearing short shorts and a crop top and ALL of them were having a great time, laughing ang chatting with each other, and nobody passing judgement or trying to force women to comply with society’s fake expectations. And again I say – long may it continue!

While we were over in Norn Iron I made sure to bring a good supply of dulse back with me – I really miss it! I’ve discovered I can buy it online but if you think it’s got very expensive inn the shops you need to see the online prices – gulp! The other, rather odd thing I miss here is decent toilet paper. Our sewage system is not connected to the mains because we’re out int he country, so we have a soakaway system underground.This means that you can’t flush paper or ANYTHING but natural waste down the toilets as there’s a serious risk of blockage; it all has to go into a wee bin in the bathroom which we call the Winnie bin, as in Winnie the Pooh! In case a bit of paper goes down by accident the paper itself can’t be too “luxurious”, so it’s not brilliant.

So, it’s now Christmas Eve and we’re about ready to go to friends for a bit of a gathering – I’m really looking forard to it. Then it will be home to the big fires, and video calling the grandchildren. I cna’t wait to talk to them and share all the excitement of Santa coming tonight. Tomorrow morning we’ll repeat, so I can see what presents they’ve had! Laurie is working so the children will be with their dad and his family during Christmas Day then home to their own house later.

I need to get my skates/boots on now to get out the door, so there’s nothing left but to wish you all everything you wish yourselves.

I’m very aware that every year some of us are having to live with the loss of the light of those they loved so much. I hope that those of you who have lost your light will remember that those of us who care so much about you will lend you some of our light until your own can rise and shine again.

We wish you all love, joy, light and laughter, peace in your hearts anad wonderful memories.

We had decided that we’d quite like a few days away to celebrate our wedding anniversary, and we wanted to go somewhere not too far from home, but where we’d never been before. We decided on Albacete, the capital of Castilla La Mancha, which is about an hour and a half from us.

We’d seen it on the map, it’s on the way to Madrid, but we’d never been there and didn’t actually know anything about it. We booked accommodation, a little apartment right in the city, which looked grand and had great reviews, and set off for our trip which was to be from the Wednesday – our actual anniversary, to the Friday.

In case some of you don’t know, Castilla La Mancha is Don Quixote country. The famous 17th century book, by Miguel de Cervantes, tells of a lowly chap who reads too many chivalric romances and loses his mind, imagining himself to be a knight of the realm, fighting windmills which he believes are the enemies of the state. He is accompanied by his faithful squire, Sancho Panza, and the pair ride together through the whole area.

As we drove through the area en route to the capital, we saw quite a few original windmills, though many have fallen into various stages of disrepair. However, we DID see many, many huge wind turbines which set me thinking about a modern day Don Quixote maybe riding up to fight them on his trusty Harley Davidson, accompanied by Sancho Panza on a scooter!

Albacete turned out to be a delight. A beautiful city filled with the most relaxed and polite people ever! We even noticed that when in a queue at red traffic lights, those on motorbikes and scooters waited their turn back in the queue, instead of following the usual Spanish practice of shooting up either side of your car to get to the front and scare the bejaysus out of you by cutting across you.

Something else I didn’t know is that Albacete is famous for its knife production, from pre-historic times right up to today. They’re so proud of this that there’s a whole museum in a lovely old building, devoted to the production of knives in all shapes and forms, from tiny wee penknives to huge big machetes. We learned about the history of knife-making in the area and it was very interesting. Generally knives are also sold openly in Spain, they are various sizes and shapes, and you don’t need a licence. There doesn’t seem to be any knife crime as there is in the UK, or, particularly, in London. Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?

One of the places I was keen to see was the Pasaje de Lodares which, from the photos we’d seen, looked a bit like the beautiful colonnades of streets in Genoa, Italy, which we had loved. Well, I wouldn’t be rushing back to see the similar area in Albacete because although it was indeed, very pretty, you could walk from one end to the other in about 30 seconds, and most of the shop units were closed down! Rather lovely architecture though, and worth a wee peep.

We only had a few days in the city, but when there we learned that their feria, or big fiesta,was going to start on the Saturday, the day after we would be home. Spanish towns usually hold their fiestas over a three day weekend, but the bigger cities go on for longer. Albacete was expecting around four million people in and out of the city over the ten days of the feria. Yes, you read that right, FOUR MILLION PEOPLE! Long gone are the days when I’d have been right in the middle of that , enjoying the music, dancing and eating. Nowadays I can hardly think of much worse than being trapped surrounded by millions of people all having a great time! I think our escape was well-timed, a little bit of synchronicity for us!

Now here’s a thing to get you thinking! You all know that Peter and I both believe strongly in synchronicity rather than coincidence, and we look for, and find examples almost every day, a bit like having had a lovely time in Albacete but managing to escape before the hordes descended.

Well, prepare to be amazed, dumbfounded, astonished, delighted and blown away by the next thing I’m going to tell you!

I started at the University of Stirling, in Scotland, 50 years ago. Actually that in itself is shocking enough but there are two more BIG issues here. Ready?

I got an email from my friend Deirdre, who I still keep in touch with after all these years, talking about a reunion for six of us who’d shared a flat on campus. Because we’re all living all over the place it was felt that a zoom sort of thing might be the best way to go, to catch up and re-establish old friendships. It’s going to be happening next weekend.

In the meantime, I found an old photo of the six of us, all dressed up for a party in the flat. From the front, left to right is Hilary, Louise and Lin. Back row, left to right is me, Deirdre and Irene.

Now, never mind that Deirdre had been contacting the very ones in this photo, I need to amaze you even more…..I told them all by email that I remembered that Lin and I had swopped dresses for the night, she wore mine and I wore hers. I had loved my dress, I’d bought it in the White House in Portrush, having gone into my second geography A-level paper; I’d looked at the questions, I wrote my name and number, and left straightaway to go shopping without writing one more word. The dress that Lin is wearing is the one I bought that day, 50 years ago. When I laughingly added this wee bit of info to the group email Lin said she still had it!!!! WHAT?!!?!?!? She said she wasn’t usually in the habit of keeping clothes but since she’d moved south from Scotland the dress, along with some other things, were in a bag in a cupboard and HAD STAYED THERE ALL THAT TIME! She even sent me a photo of it!

Can you tell how excited I was to read that? So, the upshot of all this is that she’s going to post the dress to me, I can’t believe it! I don’t care what it looks like now, we’ve all aged a bit since those days – and then some!

I’ve only just found this out this morning and am leaping around with joy at thinking I have something lovely to look forward to in the post.

Even better, I’m now back in touch with some old friends after such a long time, which is is doing my soul good!

And on that note I’ll say ‘ta luego till the next time!

“When southern summers come the air falls fast like a blanket, smothers the breath and wraps itself round us. We long for the cool air of autumn or even the chill of winter’s fingers on our throats. We overheat like cars with faulty radiators.

To get to sleep we try lying still, but the air feels like a heavy quilt pressing down, turning breathing into gasping, and making skin shine like dawn dew.

We learn in school that most things expand and lengthen in the heat. There is always an exception, of course.

Tempers get shorter and tolerance diminishes as the hot days grow longer, generally it seems best to just stay out of everyone’s way where possible.

The more caring days of autumn are still some time away so for now we rise early, rest when we can, and wait for the heat to lose its sting, and for the relief that cooler air brings.”

Like the vast majority of people here I just can’t wait until this latest little “ola de calor”, or heatwave, does its thing and clears off until next year. It is really, really difficult to get anything done in such searing temperatures, and here in inland Murcia we have seen the mercury rise to around 40C or more. It will be such a relief when the sting of the heat leaves us and we get back to lovely warm days and cooler nights.

Meanwhile, until then, there’s always this…

and this…

When you’re in the pool there’s a lovely cool breeze that is bliss on wet skin, then it’s a race up the steps out of the courtyard onto the terrace and into the shade of the verandah where the same cool breeze is always there all day, no matter what the air temperature reads.

Peter has nearly finished the plastering part of the pool courtyard. We’ve agreed that really only the one very higgeldy-piggeldy wall needed plastering, it was far too rough to even be described as rustic! The other walls are grand, so within the next few days the whole area will be painted white, and the solar lights will be up all over the place. It is really difficult to do manual workoutside in these temperatures, but we should have had the courtyard done before the end of June – just another reminder that you should never put off till tomorrow something you really should have done last year!

There is one wall, where we built the seating area, which is made of very jagged layers of rocks. It looks rather interesting and we wanted to keep it,but if you were sitting there and leaned back you would have a rather painful set of lacerations. So we thought we’d try to get an enormous piece of clear perspex and bolt it onto the rough part of the wall. Then we can dangle down a load of solar lights behind the perspex which will look rather pretty when the sun goes down. I’m currently looking at where to buy a big sheet of perspex so we can get it on the wall as soon as possible.

The floor of the courtyard will be sprayed with white paint, then I have a lovely big thick cotton rug to put down, much easier on the feet!

We’ve recently had just the best time ever, when Laurie and the grandchildren were here for just over a week. I had been counting down the days with growing excitement and it was so, so good to have them here.

We took them to the waterpark in Torrevieja and they absolutely loved it. For me it was just proof that purgatory really does exist – too many people, too hot, too noisy, too everything, in fact! However, it didn’t matter a jot as the children had a ball. Laurie and Peter went in the different water areas with them – I sat in the shade with my book and a big bottle of half frozen water, guarding our belongings – I’m not entirely daft!

I think most of all they enjoyed just being with us at home – as they could be in the pool as much as they wanted! The best time was their “midnight” swim. Well it was about half past nine but it was dark and that was what we needed to bring on the LED and solar lights. They really loved the floating lotus flowers and thought it was great fun to dive down for the little colour-changing lights we scattered along the floor of the pool.

The boys saw a little dragonfly had got bogged down in the pool – we have a couple of them who visit every day, one red and one blue – and Scott lifted it out of the water. Marshall let it rest on his arm until it was able to fly away again, something else to tell their friends! Incidentally, the Spanish word for dragonfly is “libelula”, isn’t that lovely? Those wee beauties can each eat around 100 mosquitos a day, so they’re well worth having in the garden.

All too soon the holiday was over and I had to take our wee family back to the airport. We had had such a great time and of course we are now looking up flights to get over to see them again in November/December. Always a good excuse to do a bit of Christmas shopping and catch up with friends.

Meanwhile, the day they went home I went into their bedrooms to strip the beds and in the boys’ room they had left me their wee sliders, until next time. Tissues required to stop my eyes leaking!

We have a fabulous little pasteleria now in Fortuna, called Dulce Sueño by Sara. She and her husband are Polish, so Peter is always happy to call in! Sara makes the most delicious little cakes, very different from your average “buns”, each one is truly a work of art. They are indescribably delicious and such a treat! Sara has a Facebook page, it’s here so you can look it up and see what she creates. https://www.facebook.com/dulce.sueno.by.sara

Well? Are you jealous yet? Gorgeous cakes! She is a real artist and the flavours are simply sublime. Any of you who come to stay with us will be marched down the town and into the pasteleria with great anticipation!

And here’s another wee sneaky one of Laurie and the children enjoying a treat there too!

We got up the other morning and as I looked down the driveway I could see something unusual – a big cactus had flowered overnight.

Now I’m not a fan of those spiky things and wouldn’t ever want to plant them, but we inherited this one with the house and this is the first time I’ve ever seen a flower on it in the five plus years we’ve lived in this house! It looked rather lovely but….by the next day all the flowers had vanished!

This garden and the local wildlife continue to astonish and amaze me. I took this photo of a bee collecting nectar from our big bougainvillea – it looks for all the world like a butterfly or hummingbird but is actually a bee. Nice wee thing!

I was lucky to get a photo of this cicada on a tree in the garden – they are masters of disguise and you can just about make it out in the middle of the photo, with its wings folded down along its back. They are about a couple of inches long, and they make a sound like electrical charge flowing, designed to attract a mate.

Apparently their eggs are laid underground, where they stay or up to 7 years before hatching and making their way to the surface to find a mate. They don’t live very long, the females then lay their eggs underground and the whole cycle begins again.

I had a couple of great finds recently, while shopping. Our brilliant supermarket chain, Mercadona, has come up with a fabulous perfume that smells like Mediterranean lemons, my all-time favourite scent, along with neroli, or orange blossom. It’s only €6.50 a bottle and is just divine.

And for my neroli scent, Zara has nailed it with this one – wonderful!

I’m currently smelling gorgeous!

One final word about the heat, before it starts to cool down in the run through autumn and into winter….

That just about sums it up!

Right, I’m away now to finish off the last of the dulse that Laurie brought over for us, if Peter hasn’t beaten me to it!

I’m sure by now most of you will be aware from the media that much of Europe is experiencing a major heatwave? Well don’t believe all the hype about how much hotter is is now than has ever been. I checked our temperatures for the last few years, in fact since we moved to Murcia, and actually nothing much has changed! Last year we had temperatures of 44C in the shade, on our terrace. This year, so far, we have seen temps of 40C but that could reach up to 43C in the next few days, then tailing off to a much more manageable low 30s. The current temps are absolutely normal for this time of year, it’s summer here and business as usual. That can mean restrictions on working hours for those who usually work outside, for obvious reasons, and older people and small children are advised not to be out in the hottest part of the day. Incidentally, the hottest part of the day is not noon, it’s from around 3pm to 6pm. Sometimes tourists don’t realise the effect heat can have on your body, especially if combined with copious amounts of beer instead of water, and tragedies can occur, as we have all read about recently. Last year, across Europe, 61,000 people died due to the high temperatures. Shocking.

When the heat is on there’s only one place to be – in the pool. Oh, and stretched out indoors with the aircon blasting. Okay, so that’s two places but you get the picture! Our pool is above ground – we live in a regional park so are unable to get permission for an in-ground one. Still the pool measures 7.5m x 3.5m so it’s a great size anyway. Last week we noticed a wee drip from one end, and it seemed we had a tiny hole where a bolt from the frame had nipped the liner. Alfredo, our fireman friend from down the road, came over and said he would fix it!? So, he got into the pool, went down to the bottom – it’s deep enough, up to about my chest – but had to get Peter to hold him down under the water so he could apply the sealant. Looks like a murder scene with a very happy murderer holding down his victim!

Happily the sealant did the trick, no more leaks! The pool is up one end of the courtyard and Peter has now started plastering all the walls, ready to paint. The whole area will look so much nicer when it’s finished, hopefully within the next few days – heatwave permitting! We need to paint the concrete floor of the whole courtyard white, then we have cushioned mats and a brightly coloured very big rug to put down which should look good as well as being kinder on the feet. Work starts between 7am and 8am then finishes around 12 when it’s just too hot. Early evening we can get another couple of hours in. (Well I say “we” but of course I really mean the husband!) Then we’ll add some tall plants in pots around the courtyard, and cover everything in wee solar lights. I have a very big dead branch ready to spray white, silver, gold and bronze, and will add solar lights so it’s like a summer “Christmas” tree!

I’ve been hand sewing long cushion covers for the swing seat – Peter has painted the seat frame a lovely sapphire blue. My sewing machine had a nervous breakdown in the heat so it needs a proper service. What would have taken me half an hour at the most to sew by machine has now taken forever with hours spent hand stitching, but when the sewing machine is up and running again I can go over my hand sewn seams properly. It’ll do for now. It’s looking much fresher and brighter now. We need to fix on the canopy frame which I will cover with the same material and then that’s it, job done! I looked for ages for the right material to cover the cushions and make the canopy, but most that I really liked were really expensive. Then I had a brainwave – I bought two single duvet covers from Ikea. One of them, cut lengthways, covered both the seat and back cushions, and with minimal hand-stitching! The other will provide the cover for the canopy. Total cost, €24. So, it’s nearly finished now, thank goodness, another job ticked off the list. It is a really lovely place to sit on the terrace, always a cool breeze and fantastic views over the mountains. There are frequently eagles circling, sure where else would you be?

I’ve just had to renew my Irish passport again, but this time instead of using the postal service I did it online. Well it turned out to be the easiest thing ever! We asked one local photographer place what the fee was to provide a digital photo – €10. I wasn’t going to go there anyway, we always use a really lovely lad called Alberto, he and his father run a photography studio in town. So, got the digital photo done, and Alberto printed me off 4 copies, just in case the digital one didn’t pass muster and I would have had to go down the postal route. It certainly did pass muster, the whole application took about 10 minutes and I should have my new passport around 30th July. Incidentally, the digital and printed photos came to a total of €5, hooray for Alberto!

In this heat it’s actually difficult to drag up an appetite so we tend to eat little and often during the day, only tapa sized little meals, instead of full lunch or dinner. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, one of my favourite thing is langoustines. No need to do anything with them except eat the delicious little things! And the good news is that our main supermarket, Mercadona, has reduced the prices on over 100 foods, including fish and seafood, and olive oil, all considered staples here. This means my favourite langoustines have come down in price from €11.95 to €9.95 a kilo. Oh joy! Guess what I had for lunch today?!

Speaking of eating, we were down at the coast recently to meet our lovely friend Karen for lunch. SHe lives in England but has a house here in Spain. We talk all the time via whatsapp and Facebook, and get as many wee video calls in as we can as well. Karen and her husband Dave were going to be the witnesses at our wedding in Gibraltar five years ago, but Dave became very ill with pancreatic cancer.

I’ve known Karen longer than I’ve known Peter but we haven’t been able to get together since just before Dave became ill, so it was so it was really, really wonderful to see her. We spent most of the time just catching up and hugging! I’ve stolen this photo of them from Karen’s Facebook page as I love it so much. I’ll ask forgiveness after as I didn’t ask for permission in advance!

It’s just Karen on her own now, though I’m very happy to see she is so busy with her daughters and grandchildren, as well as filling her life with love and friendship. When we message each other we always sign off with “Love you, Mrs Roberts!”, from me, and, “Love you, Mrs Kopczynska!” from her. So, until the next time you’re over again Karen, let me tell you you’re more than worth the 400 kms plus round trip drive to see you, and…love you, Mrs Roberts.

Now, here’s a thing. I know this blog is supposed to be all about my life in Spain but I do think this is also part of that, in that it illustrates the potential difficulties of getting things done over here, and, more importantly, the ease with which things can be achieved, especially when dealing with Norn Iron people! So, for all you folk who don’t live in Norn Iron, and especially for the very, very few who don’t realise what a fabulous place the country and its people really are….here’s a wee example. Peter recently caught his finger on a door handle, and it snapped open his wedding ring. Now, this is a man who loves that wedding ring and everything it means to him, so he was a bit upset when the ring broke.

We had bought the ring in Rohdich’s famous shop in Portrush – the only place to go if you’re looking for genuine Celtic jewellery, amongst a whole plethora of other items! “No problem”, said I, I’ll contact the shop in Portrush and see if they have another the same. So I messaged Alice Rohdich, with the sad story and a couple of photos of the damaged ring, to see if they might have the same one, same size, still in stock, just in case we couldn’t get his fixed.

Alice came back straightaway with the great news that they had the same ring, right size, and she would be able to give me a total price once she knew the postage costs. Shortly after that she messaged me to say she had posted it….but I hadn’t even paid her yet! Got the payment off while being so grateful to be part of a community like Northern Ireland where people actually trust you to do the right thing. So, big, BIG thank you to Alice for helping out so quickly and graciously!

And to anyone who thinks Northern Ireland isn’t a great place….you don’t know what you’re missing!

We are quite well into the latest wee football tournament now. The real football season just finished, then about 20 minutes later the current one started. So far the little teams are proving to have far more heart than the bigger boys. The only one of the 4 home countries left in the thing is England, though if they carry on the way they’re going they’ll be on their way home very soon. So many memes now doing the rounds about the England team, so I won’t say any more except to state that I know the rules, including the offside rule, but despair at how much cheating goes on from almost every player. Poor old England, if the team turned out to be half as good as they think they are perhaps they might win more than one match. Only one more thing to say – their FIFA world ranking is 5th, Slovenia’s FIFA world ranking is 57th. I don’t think there’s much more to say. We have months of fabulous sport to look forward to now, with the football, tennis and I’m sure I heard a whisper about the Olympics being held this year? Suffice to say I’m happy to have both a house and a kindle full of books to while away the hours!

To get away from the dead and back to the living (sorry, England football team!) our pomegranate tree at the back of the house seems to have suddenly taken on a new lease of life and has sprung into action! All over the winter it looked as dead as the England team (okay, I’ll stop now!) and we had thought it was too late to save it. Well, one massive plop of sustained rain and it’s now covered in leaves! We don’t pay too much attention to the back of the house as it’s a kind of split level area and we haven’t planted anything there – however we think we might dig up the pomegranate and replant it in the lower walled garden to see if it fruits again.

I’ll admit it’s not the best photo, as I took it through the bedroom window, with the reja bars and the mosquito blind in the way, but you can clearly see the pomegranate in full leaf! The tube running to it is from the aircon unit – water from it will help to keep the tree from dying of thirst over the summer.

We went to the interactive Van Gogh exhibition in Alicante last week, and it was really, really good. His art style is not my favourite genre at all, but I learned a lot about the man himself, his family and his mental health struggles. We went there on a coach trip – yes, we’re officially old now! The joy of that is you get brought door to door, no hassle with city traffic and parking, so no stress.

We had the afternoon in Elche – famous for its shoe production and for its 200,000 palm trees. They must take a lot of looking after! As I said last time, we were given a guided tour of the city and gardens on the tourist train which was, indeed, like the Portrush Puffer, great fun!

I like doors, and cathedral doors are enormous, as well as being too heavy to move. I imagine the cathedrals and their doors are built that way to impress the population and remind us of how insignificant we all are, and of how important “the church” was to people living hundreds of years ago.

As well as seeking out doors, I make a point of looking up wherever we go – hence the photo of the cathedral dome. Across the square from the cathedral I happened to spot another little blue and white striped dome just peeping out from behind some tall buildings. Got no idea what it belonged to but I liked the look of it!

On the way back from Elche we could see the salt mounds near Torrevieja. The salt is extracted from the low lagoon waters and is left to dry as the water evaporates. The mounds are more like hills, massive! You can have a tour round to see how the salt is extracted and what they do with it, it’s fascinating. The lakes,or lagoons, also host something else…flamingos! The water is tinged pink, as are the birds.

It’s amazing what’s on our doorstep, the variety of nature is fantastic and there’s always something to see.

Now here’s a thing – I rarely drink alcohol, about one glass of wine every couple of months, but I do like a little of my own home-made limocello now and again. I have found another rather lovely liqueur, made from watermelon, it tastes gorgeous! Have it on its own or in a tall glass with lemonade and lots of ice. Comes from Mercadona supermarkets and is around €6 a bottle. Bargain!

Often when I’m in Mercadona now I buy a bag of fresh langoustines. They are great value and are absolutely HUGE! By the time I have them shelled and “de-veined” – a polite way of saying “gutted”! – I’m left with a big bowl of juicy fresh monsters. Happy to report that Peter isn’t a big fan, so since I do all the work prepping them it’s only fair I get to scoff most of them.

Now that the hotter weather is really starting to kick in here we’re always looking for ways to keep cool. The three best ways are, of course the pool, the fans and the aircon. It helps that the house has very thick walls to keep the heat out during the summer and in during the winter. As well as the usual tried and tested methods, it’s rather nice to have something to sip which is really cooling as well as tasty, and isn’t the usual fizzy drink stuff. We chop up melon, any kind you like, and liquidise it. Put it in a tall glass with ice, and top up with cava or ginger ale. Delicious and very refreshing.

My other favourite with melons is to cut them into big chunks, add a lolly stick and freeze. Hey presto you have the most delicious ice lollies and far better than the manufactured kind. It works with any kind of melon or other fruit. For me, the most flavoursome is the Sapo de Piel melons….translates as “toad skin” and tastes considerably better than it sounds! Very naturally sweet and juicy, yum!

Here’s who I’m listening to at the minute….Sierra Hull. Nope, I’d never heard of her either but she is well known in bluegrass circles and is just fantastic! Here’s her rendition of Mad World (Tear for Fears). Wonderful stuff! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFIQgPAms88&list=RDsFIQgPAms88&start_radio=1

I have so many unread books stored on my kindle and I keep finding more, it’d just as well I’m a very, very fast reader and usually finish a book in about two days. The one I’m reading at the minute is going to take a little longer, and is one of those ones where every now and again you have to put it down and have a little think, and maybe read a bit of something else less challenging before going back to it. It’s called “The God Effect: Quantum Entanglement, Science’s Strangest Phenomenon” and is by Brian Clegg. It’s basically about understanding the universe and how it works. It’s a very interesting read and a bit different from my usual choice, but every now and again you need to push yourself to different choices if you ever want to learn anything new.

I’m looking forward to getting into the time travel stuff!

It’s tax time here again in Spain, the tax year runs from 1st January to 31st December. We use a good firm of tax specialist accountants and got all the paperwork in on time thank goodness. If you’re late with your returns some hefty fines can be imposed by the Hacienda, the tax office. So, we have paid our tax for another year while complaining about the miserable personal allowances here. Our joint allowance pre-tax, in Spain, is €12,000. In the UK it would be £25,500. We’re now actively looking at way of becoming tax-resident again in Northern Ireland in the future – the money is better in our bank than in the government’s coffers!

We were over at a neighbour’s house this week and had them back to us two days later – we needed a day in between to recover! Alfredo and Laura live in Murcia, but have a holiday home here in our village which they’ve been renovating. It’s a great house, part cave, with lots of rooms leading off one another, absolutely lovely! They built a pool just off the terrace which is necessary for the hot weather here. Alfredo’s long-time friends from Galicia were staying with them this week on holiday; it was such a pleasure to meet them. We ate and drank freely, spent most of the time practising our Spanish, and then, at our house, woke up the whole neighbourhood from their afternoon siesta with a few hours of karaoke – brilliant afternoon! Laura had made a big paella at their house,then we cooked a pork and Pedro Ximinez casserole at ours a couple of days later. It is so lovely to make new friends – Alfredo and Laura’s house is just down the road from us 100m or so – we can wave at each other from our terraces!

This one was the party at Alfredo’s house, (the paella didn’t last long!) the photo below was at our house, just before they all arrived, including bringing the big karaoke machine!

I would say there might be a few more afternoons like that before the summer’s over! Just the best way to spend your days, in the company of good friends, with good food, celebrating being alive and counting our blessings. We are so lucky in the friends and neighbours we have here, and we always appreciate it!

Oh, one more thing before I go….I know I said no more football chat but I gather the husband wants to go to a bar tomorrow to watch the England vs Slovakia game. Well, according to my DNA results I have no English DNA but am about 5% Eastern European, which includes Slovakia. I might take their advice so I’m now threatening to come to the bar with Peter to cheer on Slovakia…or I might just stay at home and relax in the pool instead! I think discretion might really be the better part of valour this time!

Well, allegedly, that is! We’ve so far had some lovely hot and sunny days but it then descended into a wet and wild experience. We’ve had tormentas, storms so loud we couldn’t hear ourselves speak, with phenomenal thunder and lightning, and torrential rain. The garden is sighing with relief, all those plants and trees have had the watering of their lives, including a bit of a battering from which they will soon recover. I’m happy to say that even with very, very strong winds our newest little additions, the blood orange tree and lemon tree are still upright, if a bit shell-shocked. And the best news is that we know the roof doesn’t leak! I bless the rains down in Murcia…I bet you sang that, didn’t you?!

Last week we were toying with the idea of taking off the pool winter cover and doing a bit of hoovering and topping up. I’m very glad we decided to leave it for another week as goodness knows what might have ended up in the water. It looks like normal service should be resumed by Friday with temperatures around the low 30s so I think that really will be summer rolling in.They do say here in Spain that summer doesn’t start until the 40th of May (think about it!) and we’re about there now so hopefully the rains we have had will make a difference to the reservoirs and we can start to enjoy a bit more of the blue skies, sunshine and pool we like so much. In the meantime, I took a photo of how dense this evening’s fog is – we can’t see as far as the bottom of our driveway, nor can we even see down into the walled garden. It’s like being in “The Langoliers”!

I have no doubt that in another month we’ll be complaining about the heat! I just hope that the temperatures this year are lower than last year so they don’t get near the 44C we had last July and August. Our Spanish friends were all complaining that it was far too hot, and if it was too hot for them imagine what it was like for us.

We were out last weekend at one of our favourite places to eat, La Taberna de Encebras, near Pinoso. I’ve mentioned this restaurant before in the blog, it’s where the lovely Ann serves her whale and chips – cunningly disguised as fish and chips! Honestly, the biggest portions you’ve ever seen! Ann has started a “Tapas Saturday” and we rolled up last weekend to give it a go. Well, good grief, I have not had such delicious, authentic tapas since coming to Spain more than 16 years ago! Everything is beautifully and freshly cooked, with very generous-sized portions, and served with a smile by Jo! Now listen to this – you get to choose 5 tapas for €10 from this list:

magra (pork pieces in a spicy tomato sauce), albondigas (meatballs in sauce), tortilla, serrano jamon (ham from Seron, far tastier than parma ham!), croquettes, spicy chicken breast, chicken wings, salt and pepper squid, spring rolls, onion bhaji, spicy samosas, Russian salad, prawn and crab salad, fresh crusty bread and allioli, chorizo, fries, fried morcilla (black pudding), fresh homemade cod goujons, and last, but far from least, mozarella sticks. Phew!

Gorgeous food, beautifully cooked and no need to eat again until the next day. You can see the portion sizes and the quality…and we’ve booked again for next Saturday. Seriously, five of those big boys for only €10?! Best value in town!

Meanwhile, back in the real world, the work on the house is still dragging on. Dragging, that is, mainly because we’d rather be out lunching at great places like La Taberna de Encebras than foutering around rubbing down and painting woodwork, sewing fabric panels for behind glass doors for cupboards…well you get the picture.

We reckon the only way to get on with it is to decide what day we’ll be doing what job, and simply do it. Every now and then we get a great burst of energy and miracles occur – then we can’t get out of bed as we’re stiff and exhausted…the perils of getting older!

Okay, a very BIG subject that can be a very BIG problem in Spain….barking dogs. On-line forums are continually littered with posts complaining about dogs barking at all hours of the day and night, and, while it may not seem a major issue, it can be very disruptive to sleep and to normal life in general. Spain has introduced some very tough new laws concerning the keeping of dogs as pets, in that they should receive a high standard of care. Unfortunately this doesn’t seem to apply to working or hunting dogs who often just get treated like, well, dogs. Those who keep hunting dogs are not emotional about their animals and they certainly don’t see them as pets. The are there to do a job, and when they can no longer do it they are simply disposed of. Or not so simply disposed of. One way or another the dogs are eliminated when they reach the end of their useful working life.

Now I can easily understand why people might want dogs to hunt with – many, many years ago my father and his friends went hunting with their gun dogs. What most people find difficult to tolerate is how the dogs are treated at home. Sometimes they are kept in order to warn off other predators who might seek to snack on someone’s chickens or geese – a good bark usually scares off most predators. However, a dog kept permanently in a cage outside, or permanently chained up isn’t really going to frighten anybody. As for the barking, well again I simply don’t understand why, if your dog is barking endlessly, you don’t go outside to see what’s going on. One of our neighbours, about 150m across the “sheugh” on the other side of our wee hamlet currently has 11 dogs and my god the sound of them all kicking off after dark is horrendous. It can go on literally for hours. Sometimes it might stop around 2 or 3am, for a while, then it all starts up again. I’m so glad we have very good double glazing, but it means we rarely have the windows open in summer, so we can’t enjoy much of a breeze. As for being woken up 4 or 5 times a night with the noise – why doesn’t the owner go out and shut them up?! We were chatting with four of our closest neighbours the other evening – everyone in this hamlet is Spanish – and they all said the racket was dreadful. One of our neighbours starts work at 6.30am every day and can’t get any decent sleep due to the noise. Here’s the issue – why don’t our Spanish neighbours go and tell the chap to shut his dogs up? Are they afraid of insulting him? Are they all related to each other? Is it easier to complain to us that to deal with it head on? It’s a real dilemma. One branch of the Guardia Civil here, Seprona, deals with environmental issues and animal welfare, so when a complaint is made to them they take swift and effective action. That would include the dogs who are permanently chained up, as well as the dog in the big cage who has never been out of it in the more than 5 years we have lived here. We’re hoping that our neighbour who has to start work very early will maybe have a quiet word with the offender and get a bit of peace here! It won’t solve the problem of the chained and caged dogs but the minute I know we’re leaving here for good, whenever that might be, I will be making a complaint to Seprona!

It’s really not good to have barking all through the night, all year round. Sleep deprivation is a known form of torture but at least we can stay in bed all day if we want, we don’t have to go out to work! We do expect a certain level of disruption out here in the campo but this is ridiculous! In the meantime, we have a megaphone, and now and again Peter practises his loudest roar…it seems to work!

Better news now, not Spanish but essential to my wellbeing out here….our wee grandson Marshall and his football team won the tournament they were playing in recently, the Moyola cup.

We’re just so proud of him! Thank goodness he is the goalie – when the others are all charging around wearing the same blue and white striped outfits I find it hard to tell who’s who….at least I know where to find Marshall, and his strip is bright orange!

Well done the team, well done indeed!

  Back to the weather again and I’m sure you’ll all have seen on the news recently the reports of the horrendous weather we’ve been having in some parts of Spain and the Balearic islands. This photo is from “Murcia Today”.

We’ve had another couple of tormentas – big storms with torrential rain and hailstones. A few parts of our region of Murcia have been badly affected but we were very lucky to remain warm and dry, with no flooding near us. Also our electricity only went off once, for less than 3 minutes, so that was a real bonus. A phenomenal amount of rain can fall in a very short space of time, and gullies and drains in Spain, can’t really cope with it – if they exist at all. Also, because the gound is usually baked hard, the water doesn’t just naturally sink into the soil, as there isn’t time, so it just runs off and out to wherever it can. It usually only happens a couple of times a year, and everything dries up very quickly due to the heat. It’s just something to put up with, and to remember if you want to buy a house in Spain don’t buy one at the bottom of a hill!

This photo of the mountain behind us on fire is what we all desperately try to avoid, so you can see why the rain is so important. It’s to help prevent the devastation that fire brings, as well as to assist the agriculture industry here by ensuring good crops like olives for oil, almonds and so on.

As I said, above, for hours after the rain our house was shrouded in fog, really, really wet air, with very limited visibility. We couldn’t see as far as the bottom of our driveway, and looking over the wall along the side of the house we couldn’t see the lower walled garden at all. Very weird indeed. We’re not so used to being in the middle of fog or cloud, we’re more used to being above the heavy clouds.

Oh, I don’t know why that photo turned out so small…I’m not very technically minded, forgive me! Anyhow, for now the rain has gone, and we don’t expect to see any more until winter.

I’ve been doing bits and pieces on the computer for the last couple of days and I just looked up what our current speeds are. Today, while writing this, the ping is 16, (whatever that means?!) the download speed is 908mbps, and the upload speed is 939mbps. I’m very happy with that result! Our television service runs via internet so with these excellent speeds we never get any buffering or other issues.

In truth we don’t watch a huge amount of television here because we’re either too busy with jobs around the house, or we’re out enjoying ourselves with friends. This wee box is magic! We have access to all the terrestrial channels as well as all the Sky ones amongst hundreds of others. It actually doesn’t mean we watch more, but it does mean we’re a lot more selective in what we choose to watch. All those channels of entertainment, sport, films as well as stored films, box sets and so on gives us a huge amount of choice for when we do actually want to watch something. I can’t believe how good our internet service is – when we moved here to Murcia in 2019 there was only one internet provider and our speeds were between 6 and 12 mbps, if we were lucky. Another little something to be grateful for.

There’s a new, interactive exhibition of Van Gogh and his work showing in Alicante,and we have decided it will be worth going to see. I’m not the biggest fan of his but I want to see how they involve the “interactive” bit so it should be very interesting. Last time we were at an exhibition in Alicante it was to see the terracotta wwarriors, and it was fabulous. With this Van Gogh exhibition, we’re actually going on a coach trip, like bona fide old people…oh wait, that’s what we are now! We’ll get collected from a pick up point we know well (easy parking there too!), taken to the door for the exhibition, then off to Elche for a dander round and some lunch. We keep driving past Elche but have never yet actually had a look around the city. Apparently we are also having a trip round the city on the wee tourist train, I suspect it’s like the Portrush Puffer so we may need to wear wigs and dark glasses! Actually I’m really looking forward to it, I think we’ll have a great day out with no parking or city traffic to worry about. It really is one of the great things about living here,there’s always something on at museums and art galleries, and we’re within very handy range of everywhere.

I need to look up now and see what’s on in Murcia city over the summer – apart from the general inferno that is the weather here! Also, because Laurie and the children are coming over, I want to find out if there’s anything suitable for the little ones to see in the sity. We can go in and out again on the tram which I think they’ll enjoy too. There’s a very good museum of science and water which is mainly geared for families and children so I think they’d enjoy that. We’re taking them to the waterpark in Torrevieja for a day out as well, got the tickets now, I think it will be great fun.

We’re planning the next stage of the garden, getting another area cleared properly. It’s the vaguely terraced bit beyond the walled garden, and there’s quite a lot of it! There are a number of almond trees, and there’s even a little clementine tree there but the latter is being slowly strangled by an enormous fig tree. We need to work out a way of cutting the fig back to a manageable size – we do get lovely fresh figs from it but it definitely needs a bit of a hard pruning. Then we can lift the clementine and transplant it into the walled garden, and tidy up the terracing so we aren’t in danger of breaking our necks clambering down to clear the ground. Those stones in the photo are where a bit of the wall collapsed, so we will get them back and get everything looking shipshape again.

The little blood orange tree which Peter bought me is now safely planted and has lots of blossom buds on it as well as some teeny wee oranges, so it seems to be thriving.

My main lemon tree took a bit of a hammering with the storm and is looking as skinny as a supermodel but still has a couple of lemons attached so it’s hanging on! It won’t take long for it to come back and fill out. Plenty of sunshine and the right amount of water will put things right very quickly. The vines are looking strong and healthy, and the walled garden will be slowly filled up with more fruit trees. Oh, I’ve just realised, in the photo of the lemon tree you can see “buildings” across the “sheugh” from us. Sort of buildings, really a clatter of sheds held together by corrugated iron roofing. Must be like an inferno in there in the summer. Anyhow, that’s where the chap lives who has all the dogs….sound carries on still summer nights, and sound from 11 dogs carries even further.

We’ll be looking in the garden centres now for a couple more fruit trees. Meanwhile, our tomato plants are coming on a treat, thanks to Peter’s careful management! I think when I was in charge of them they nearly died, so I’m sort of glad he’s taken over now. Don’t judge me, I’m not great at gardening but I did manage to successfully raise two children! I was really annoyed that I didn’t manage to get very far with my apple pips, so I’m having another go. They’re in the fridge waiting to germinate, so we’ll see how they get on this time.

We were just talking the other night about how much we have to look forward to at the minute. The Van Gogh exhibition in Alicante, Laurie and the children coming over, the water park with them, the science and water museum with them, getting the pool cover off this weekend and the pool prepped for daily dips, our friends Edgar and Ariane coming to stay, Bryan Adams concert in Murcia and….a scoot over to the best wee country in the world, Norn Iron, for some pre-Christmas shopping. Also so many lunches out with friends for relaxing times. Add to that the last of the jobs done in the house, the art studio will be properly set up at last, everywhere painted and fresh, and all our pictures hung in the right places. Some work but plenty of lovely things happening, I’ll keep you informed!

I’m back home in Spain after my few days back home in Norn Iron…if you see what I mean! I loved every minute I spent with Laurie and the children, it wasn’t nearly long enough so I think I need to plan a few long weekends if the flight prices are right. The only downside was that of course I didn’t manage to see so many of my lovely friends, but I know they’ll understand that when time is so short Laurie and the children have to take priority. Strangely enough, I did bump into a couple of people I haven’t seen for ages. First of all, in Dunnes, of all places, I bumped into an old school friend from such a long time ago, Helena. I always loved her name and when I told her that she laughed and said she’d never known!

The other friend I met was at the airport waiting to board the flight back to Spain. Vera and I worked together for quite a few years – she is the very definition of”The Wise Woman” and an absolute joy to know. We spent the flight chatting and catching up on news about our families and friends, and I hope we’ll now stay in touch.

I managed to miss my best friend Wendy altogether this trip – while I was in Norn Iron she and her husband Ivan were at their apartment in Fuengirola. We’ve been best friends for 68 years so are hardly likely to fall out, and we’ll be able to catch up very soon – thank goodness for video calling!

One of the things I noticed when I was home was how green everything is – it’s not for nothing Ireland is called the Emerald Isle. I seem to forget every time how much the rain matters to plants and trees. Over here, Murcia is one of the driest areas in Spain so we don’t have the luxury of deciduous trees. And they are indeed a luxury – being able to watch how they change throughout the seasons is a real privilege. Over here we live in an area filled with pine trees, they are great at helping to prevent soil erosion (says the one who got a miserable “F” in her geography A-level!) and they have their own beauty, but they never change during the year. We usually go over to Norn Iron in the late spring and late autumn every year and my goodness the colours of those trees would take your breath away. I took a couple of photos of the grounds of my Dad’s old school, looking lovely!

I got back from Norn Iron a week too early to see the famed Northern lights, and we are too far south here to see anything so I had to rely on photos from my daughter to see what it was like. One thing I did do, which I really wanted, was to go to the viewing point at Magheracross, where some of the best views along the Causeway Coast can be found. There are some fabulous photos available online to look at if those of you outside Norn Iron have never been. However, here’s my fabulous actual photo taken the morning I was having to leave for the airport, please try not to laugh!

Cracking photo, don’t you agree?! That fog was so thick we almost lost ourselves! We had an ice cream while looking out at nothing at all, but….three small ice creams and a brownie came to almost £18 – I am quite glad to get back to “normal” prices here in Spain!

We haven’t been out and about too much since I got back from Norn Iron – the husband had a pulled tendon/ligament in his foot which meant he wasn’t too mobile. Unfortunately it also meant he hadn’t been able to do as much round the house as he’d have liked when I was away either! What we’re busy doing at the minute is framing loads of pictures and actually getting them up on walls. We have lots of interesting pictures to hang – some bought on our travels, some of family from years ago, and some new ones we just really liked the look of. I used the Google ordering service to buy some copies of photos I’ve taken so we’ve been busy hunting for a variety of frames to suit them. Some have been framed by a friend of ours, Alberto, who owns a photo framing shop in Fortuna. He has produced some really lovely finishes for our more important pictures and paintings. Other frames we have sourced from a great wee shop called Action. For those in Norn Iron, it’s a bit like a slightly more up-market B&M, with a wide range of household necessities. They also have a brilliant selection of art and craft materials. We were there last week looking for specific frames and and also came away with yet another haul of acrylic and watercolour paints. It looks like our art studio upstairs is going to be overflowing with enough paints and brushes to open our own shop soon!

Where we have been to recently is a lovely bar/restaurant called La Taberna, in a little hamlet called Encebras. Fridays are special days for those who like fish and chips or, as the offerings are fondly called, whale and chips! The portions are huge, and the restaurant is always busy with lots of events, including regular live music.

The restaurant is run by the lovely Ann and her husband Ray, and are ably assisted by Jo who is the speediest waitress around! The food is absolutely delicious, and the outdoor seating in the little square is so picturesque. Inside there is also a snug with an enormous fire for the colder days. We really enjoy the food there and will frequently be back for more.

Another word now about the water situation here. We are all aware of the lack of water generally across Spain due to the minimal rainfall – some areas are suffering much worse than others. For example, in the area in Almeria where we used to live, the topping up or filling of swimming pools is now prohibited, and households are limited to using a maximum of 200 litres of water per person, per day. The situaltion is only going to get worse as the real heat of the summer kicks in. Here in Murcia, as yet there are no water restrictions. The Fortuna area is famous for its spa and underground resources, so we are very lucky so far. We are careful about preserving water here – no over-flushing of toilets, no running the tap while brushing teeth, washing machine and dishwasher set to the shortest and most economic cyles. However, I am still SO frustrated by the fact that whenever any of our neighbours is running their taps or hose, we only get a trickle of water to our house on up the hill. The Romans were in this area along, long time ago and were able to make water flow uphill so why on earth can’t the local water service put i some kind of decent pump?! The water flows to a wee tiny amount if anything, not what you need in the shower or when the washing machine or dishwasher is on. I wrote to the service provider about it and, as expected, got no reply, but the water has been flowing freely since then, long may it continue! Let’s now hope Murcia doesn’t have to implement restrictions as severe as those in Almeria province. Next week we shall be taking the winter pool cover off to see what the water quality and volume is like in the pool, and hopefully we’ll be able to clean the pool and top it up, especially as the forecast next week is showing temperatures of over 30C, just the weather needed for a wee dip in the pool!

I really miss the shopping experience at home compared to here. When I was over I bought new bedding in Dunelm, a king-size duvet cover set which is gorgeous and so soft. I did manage to bring it back with me on the flight as I had brought precious little over there so had a big case, an cabin bag and a very handy long under-seat bag which held everything without being overweight. I’d flown over with Ryanair, luggage very, very well below the allowed weight. I flew back with Easyjet – their standard hold baggage allowance is 23 kgs but for another few pounds I had upped it to 32 kgs which made all the difference! Half of Marks and Spencer food hall treats ended up coming back with me! I’ve since ordered another duvet set from Dunelm, who sent it to Laurie’s house, and she has posted it on to us. Total cost for the king-size duvet set plus postage was £26 (£12 for the bedding and £14 for postage!) so it was well worth it. I just can’t source items of that soft quality here at those prices.

We have a new addition to our upstairs en-suite bathroom – Steven. We bought him is a lovely wee shop full of different surprises, in a town called Gata de Gorgos. It is just something a bit different, and definitely something you don’t see every day in a bathroom! When you pull the string his wings flap up and down – I love him! If you don’t know why he’s called Steven, just think of it with his last name, Seagull. Oh alright, forget it!

My lovely hibiscus bush was starting to come under attack by teenie wee creepy black flies, so I have treated it with Fairy Liquid – other dishwashing liquids are available! Just put some in a bowl of cold water, flaff it up well with your hand, and put the foamy bubbled directly onto the flowers and leaves. Works a treat – all the creepy things are gone and my plant is looking much happier again.

Incidentally, washing up liquid is great for clearing away wasps from the house. We make up a solution of one part liquid to four parts water, then spray it all along the roofs and under the tiles. I makesure there are no wasp’s nests anywhere – they’re easy to spot and easy to knock down and burn, then we are more or less wasp-free all summer. We were previously quoted well over €300 to spray our roofs to keep the wasps away – I’m glad we found the washing-up liquid trick to get rid of them as there are far fewer chemicals in it and it has saved us a lot of money.

I had another go at making soda farls today. I’ve had help in the way of recipes and encouragement from Charmaine, Gloria and Tony, but the flipping things always ended up raw in the middle and black on the outside. I decided I wasn’t going to be beaten so followed a recipe to the dot and…the resulting mixture was so liquid I could have made soda pancakes from it. I cut down quite a lot on the buttermilk for the second try, kept the gas as low as I could get it without it blowing out and cooked the things for 8 minutes each side. And….success! Just had a big slice with home-made lemon curd and it is delicious! I think I need to try it with some raspberry jam now and see if it’s as good….*

Currently listening to Don Mescall, “Innocent Run”. Absolutely love this album.

Currently reading Noah Gordon, “The Physician”, for the nth time, the best book I have ever read.

Websites to look at:

http://www.gagdonkey.net just for the fun of it!

https://tranquilstays8.godaddysites.com/

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