February 25th 2008
Written by Geoff Forster
Monday February 25th 2008
A sunny day. A few clouds around but temperatures are in the high 60's°F . Hotter in the sun.
We're going to San Pablo de Buceite. There's a nursery/garden centre there 'Viveros Salinas'
A slight detour before the garden centre as it's San Pablo market day on Mondays.
We called into Bar Sonia for a coffee. A really strong brew to put hairs on your chest. Buzzing with caffeine we hit the market.
The market was typical of a village market, stripy tops, bedding and hemispherical 'football bras'. We left and headed out of San Pablo toward Jimena.
The nursery is located on a sharp bend, on the San Pablo side of the railway bridge.
There's no sign. A few poly tunnels the only indication of it's existence from the road.
We're looking for a bush/shrub and a large pot for putting outside the apartment. There's not a lot we like at the nursery. The bedding plants are cheap here but the selection and quality of larger plants is poor.
We met Chris Band's Spanish neighbours from Estación Cortes and chatted for a couple of minutes.
Jane did well to spot this well camouflaged frog.
We decided to drive on to San Enrique near Guadiaro on the coast. There's a larger Garden Centre there, 'Viveros Martín'. The plants are more expensive here and it is more like a UK garden centre. Selling furniture and ornaments too.
On the way we passed Jimena de la Frontera. The sky was now full of grey clouds.
We found some lovely Bougainvillea, but we already have three. So I persuaded Jane to go for a Hibiscus and a fragrant climbing Jasmine. The plants here are well looked after and in excellent condition.
We bought the plants, pot and two 80 litre bags of compost. We decided to drive to San Luis de Sabinillas. As we drove along the coast the sun reappeared, by the time we'd got parked it was quite bright and very warm. We had a burger, shopped in Lidl's, then headed back up to Benarrabá to check on our cat Laura.
Laura had survived the night but was breathing heavily. When we'd left this morning she seemed unaware of her surroundings. Jane had been with her until the early hours, stroking and comforting her. I feared the worst as I checked her basket. Poor Laura had just died.
Laura.
We buried Laura. Just as we were going into the house, Sebastián, our neighbour Carmen's father told us that he'd seen our donkey Domingo on the track below the village. He'd put him in a field with a thin old horse. A bit puzzled how Domingo had escaped, we went to check it out. It was Domingo, the fence must have come down somewhere. We drove to see if Rosie was still on the finca. Thankfully she was. We got Domingo's halter and set off back to walk him the two miles to the finca. A couple of hours later we had him reunited with Rosie and we repaired the fence. Recent rains had loosened a post and he'd pushed it over. We got back to Benarrabá just before 21:00h. It had been one of those days. We ate muesli, too tired to cook anything. We watched 'Elizabeth the Golden Age' starring Cate Blanchett. An excellent film. Buy it in the set, they are very well made films and Cate Blanchett is one of the best actresses around.