January 16th - 31st 2006
Written by Geoff Forster
A dry start after last nights rain. Everywhere looks and smells fresh.
There's snow on the Sierra de las Nieves (Snowy Mountains!) in the far distance up the Valle del Genal.
We're cleaning the apartment, ready for our guests arriving tonight.
It's a beautiful day.
The Sierra de las Nieves from the sun terrace of the apartment (10x Zoom).
A little further away.
North up the Valle del Genal and the distant Sierra de las Nieves.
This is sunny Benarrabá from the sun terrace of the apartment.
It's another mild day with temperatures around 12-15C / 56-60F a lot higher in the sun.
Alan, Sue and Paul arrived safely at around 10pm.
They are from Gillingham and flew into Gibraltar.
They have bought a house in Cortes de la Frontera and are here to sort out paperwork and give it a lick of paint.
We had a good chat with them. They really liked the apartment and are going to recommend it to family and friends who are interested in the area.
We cooked eggs and curry style chips, you put some Cumin seeds and a little Chilli in with the oil. Then we watched Jane's favourite film (strangely not starring Julia Roberts) 'Kevin and Perry Go Large' starring Harry Enfield and Kathy Burke.
Another mild day. An e-mail from weather girl Marilyn in the UK and we're going to get some great weather. Lots of sunshine coming our way. A bit nippy in the UK though ... fancy a winter break?
Jane has done really well today cleaning the house around me and the three Border Collies not an easy task.
I've just been out for a quick walk through the village. The night sky is beautiful. Full of stars which you can't see in towns and cities because of the light pollution.
We're going to cook a vegetarian tomato and peppers concoction with lots of garlic and spices.
We watched a film about the Germany and the the SS.
A beautiful sunny day as predicted by our weather girl Marilyn.
We're off down to the coast. We'll probably go to Torreguadiaro to the lagoon there to do some bird watching, before doing a shop in Carrefours at Los Barrios.
This is the Sierra de las Nieves from Benarrabá. 10x zoom.
It was a fantastic day. Temperatures were in the high 60'sF 18/19C.
In the sun it was even hotter. The snow on the distant peaks won't last too much longer.
We drove through Gaucín. On the way down to the coast we stopped to look at some wild flowers.
This is Fedia Cornucopiae, Fedia is a member of the Valerian family.
This yellow flower is Oxalis Pes-Caprae, Bermuda Buttercup it is appearing everywhere. It is an invasive weed originally from South Africa.
This is the Sierra del Hacho.
We got to Torreguadiaro around noon. We walked around the lagoon and tried to go into the hide which was locked.
There lagoon and reeds were quiet. We saw some Purple Gallinules, a few Little Egrets, Black Headed Gulls, Coots, Monk Parakeets, Chiffchaffs and Goldfinches. This Grey Heron was standing near the edge of the reed bed.
There were a few Little Egrets near the lagoon (below) but we saw a lot more near the Rio Guadiaro. We also saw Cattle Egrets, Cormorants, White Storks and Bonelli's Eagles. The Bonelli's flew over the car near Castellar. It was huge.
We went to Carrefours and got groceries.
We got back home and cooked a steak dinner with mushrooms etc.
I started to watch the Man Utd match against Burton Albion but got bored. A mistake as Jane now has control of the TV ...
I'm looking through some bird watching and wild flower books.
A beautiful day. The sun is shining, the birds are singing. I've been out up one of the tracks with the dogs. I heard a Jay calling and could see it flying from tree to tree in the Olive grove near the apartment. I watched it for a few minutes but couldn't get a clear line of sight for a photograph, too many branches.
This is Benarrabá in the early morning sunshine.
It's very warm again, too good to stay inside so we're off out into the campo for a walk with the dogs.
These bees and butterflies were enjoying the nectar from these early flowering plants.
A hillside just North of Benarrabá.
What a fantastic day. We walked along the track with our three Border Collie dogs.
Here are the two ladies in my life. Here's my beautiful wife Jane and our pretty Border Collie, Sally.
We walked out of Benarrabá for about 3km. The sun was beating down. We were in T-shirts but it was getting hot.
Processionary Caterpillars are a problem in Spain
They weave a silk nest often abandoning it, so not all silk nests actually contain caterpillars. Finally they make one a permanent home. There are usually around 300 caterpillars per nest. The caterpillars are active mainly at night during January to March. They spend the days in their nests warming up and digesting the previous nights food. Eventually they look for suitable ground to bury themselves to pupate.
They are called Processionary caterpillars because they follow each other head to tail when moving from the nest.
They are hairy and it is these hairs which cause serious skin irritations in humans if you come into contact with them.
However the most serious problems are when pet dogs, horses or pigs come into contact with them. They can cause such serious swelling if inhaled or ingested that a fatality may occur. There is no cure other than topical treatment.
We keep our dogs on leads a lot of the time especially when trees along the tracks have silk nests. We've yet to see a 'Procession' as we're usually out during daylight hours.
However we care about our dogs too much to take a chance.
This is a distant Benarrabá from about 3km North of the pueblo.
Another of Jane's faces in the wood series! 3 in 1?
One is obvious, then another 'eye' above ... but a profile on the end ??
Can you see this? Or should I seek guidance for her?
Here are our three Border Collies, they love playing with a stick.
If Sally And Jake get it, they bring it back as a team. Ferdy is a solo act.
Mud bath.
We got home around 16:00h after a lovely afternoons walk.
We'd seen a Kestrel. Then the highlight of the day, a Sparrowhawk flew effortlessly across the track in front of me. Brilliant! It was about two feet of the ground all the time and skimmed over a fence. Sparrowhawk's are a favourite of mine, we used to get a lot in the woods in the North East of England. This is the first Sparrowhawk that I've seen near Benarrabá. I did think that there would be more in this heavily wooded area. I'd almost given up hope of seeing one!
We also saw more Jays and a solitary Griffon Vulture circling above the valley.
The dogs don't help with bird watching. We see very few passerines when the dogs are walking in front of us. However near Benarrabá a male Blackcap made us stop to watch him hopping through a tangle of old blackberry wood.
I think that we're having a quiet night in.
Tomorrow is a local fiesta day. San Sebastián is the patron saint of Benarrabá. There's a church service (Misa) , a procession around the village, followed by food outside the Ayuntamiento (Town Hall). Later there's dancing with local artist Juan Jesus.
Another beautiful day. Sunshine and blue skies.
It's a fiesta day in Benarrabá. The day of the patron Saint of the pueblo. San Sebastián.
Sebastián died a martyr in Rome, probably in AD 288. He was said to have been educated in Milan the son of a wealthy family.
Two hundred years after his death a legend sprang up about his life. According to this legend, Sebastián, a Christian, decided to go into the military during a time of persecution. This decision was not to save his own life, but in order to put himself in a position to comfort the martyrs, As a member of the military, who captured and guarded the persecuted Christians, he was in an ideal place to stay with them, encourage them, and even alleviate their sufferings without anyone being suspicious.
He showed such aptitude, in his military life, that he became a favourite of the emperor Diocletian. Who made him a captain without ever guessing that Sebastián was a Christian. As more and more Christians were captured and died, it was inevitable that Sebastián would be found out. Diocletian was furious at what he saw as a betrayal after all he had done for Sebastián. He ordered Sebastián to be shot by archers. Sebastián was tied to a tree and shot with arrows.
Irene, a Christian, found Sebastián still alive and nursed him back to health. As soon as he could stand, Sebastián went looking for Diocletian. Sebastián didn't want revenge or a reprieve. He wanted to accuse Diocletian of all the cruelties he had committed. Diocletian had Sebastián beaten to death.
San Sebastián is considered patron saint of archers and soldiers based on this legend.
San Sebastián has also been connected with the plague. A symptom of the 'Black Death' is a pain supposedly similar to being shot by arrows.
Unusually the procession started earlier than the advertised time.
San Sebastián was followed by San Miguel Arcángel.
The church bells were ringing. There were very loud air bombs going off every few seconds for twenty minutes as the procession wound around the pueblo.
Here San Sebastián receives the shouts of 'Viva San Sebastián' and a round of applause from the crowds.
San Sebastián and San Miguel Arcángel were taken back into the church until September 29th. (San Miguel's big day).
Here's Sebastián, Carmen's father. He was busy shaking hands and receiving kisses because it was his namesakes day.
We met John and Chris, friends who have a holiday finca nearby. They were here with friends Jane and Manny. They'd missed the procession because of the early kick off. We had a coffee with them in Pub Bar Dami.
John has kindly lent me a GPS which I can play with whilst we're out walking.
There was food being served outside the Ayuntamiento at 14:30h. Again this started early.
Antonio Ramos was there serving fino. Antonio is a Venenciador. This is the art of pouring, sherry from a height into a glass to add air and improve the taste.
His father Andrés Ramos looks on.
Antonio is world renowned for his skill as a Venenciador, and has been as far as China to promote Spanish products and show his talents.
Venenciar, es un arte antiquísimo.
Página de Antonio Ramos 'El Venenciador'
The local specialty of 'Salmorejo de carne' was served.
This is pork pieces cooked in olive oil with garlic and onions.
It was excellent, well prepared tender meat.
We met Cristóbal, Carmen and family, they invited us to join them in Pub Bar Dami for an orange juice.
We had a great afternoon.
We finally got home, then took the dogs out for a walk in the campo. We went about 2km then retraced our steps home.
On the return leg we saw a couple of Griffon Vultures flying in the valley.
We went back out to fill our water containers from the spring not far from the house.
We'd met our friend, artist Marion Henke during the procession and she'd invited us to her house for a drink before we went to the dance.
We got there at 19:30h and had a lovely evening chatting with Marion and Onno and eating some delicious food. We left their house at just before midnight. We'd all decided that it was too late to venture out to the dance.
A grey start to the day. It's very mild and great for walking. We set off just after 11:00h down the hill and onto the camino into the campo.
We saw this beautiful Robin near an arroyo (stream).
The sun was beginning to break through the clouds. Jane took this dramatic photograph of the Valle del Genal.
The dogs love it living here. The weathers great and the campo's on the doorstep.
We met Juan, who has a finca along the trail. Juan works for the Electricity distribution company and has a small shop in Benarrabá. He gave us an organically grown orange each, freshly picked from his orange grove.
The sun was getting out and the temperature was rising. Here's me wishing that I'd left the fleece at home, the orange was much appreciated.
We bumped into John, Chris, Jane and Manny who were leaving their holiday finca for their flight back to the UK.
We said our farewells, we'll see John and Chris again in June.
Jane and Manny are planning to move to Murcia. We wish them good luck, we're sure they'll enjoy living in Spain.
This is a vertical bank of shale rock. There are so many amazing plants in Andalucía that can survive with hardly any any water in very hostile conditions.
We walked home, the sun was now out in a blue sky with only a few fluffy cumulus drifting overhead.
We went to the Super Genal in Algatocín to buy fruit and vegetables.
On the way back we stopped to watch eleven Griffon Vultures circling high in the sky above us. Here are eight of them. A little out of range for photography but still a great spectacle.
This is looking across the Valle del Guadiaro towards the Sierra de Libar and the pueblo of Cortes de la Frontera.
We headed down to the beautiful sun soaked pueblo of Benarrabá.
I've just listened to Newcastle United lose at home to Blackburn Rovers 0-1. A disaster, how much longer can the incompetent Souness hang on to his job?
Oh well, the sun is still shining, so a walk with the dogs may improve my mood.
We cooked a favourite curry a 'Murghi aur Aloo' This is a old Persian dish with chicken and potatoes in a thick creamy mild/medium curry sauce .. Mmmm.
Jane watched a Sandra Bullock film 'Hope Floats'.
I sat at the computer, updated software and ran adware and virus scans. An exciting way to spend Saturday night!
What a lovely day. Warm, sunny, blue skies.
I walked up the track at the side of the house with the dogs. Thirty Griffon Vultures are circling the mountainside behind the apartment. I heard our guests Alan, Sue, Paul, Adam and Mark, drive off early this morning so there's nothing to worry about ...
Another absolutely fantastic day.
We walked with the dogs along the camino.
There are a mixture of trees in the valley. Cork Oaks, Holm Oaks, Gall Oaks, Acebucho's (Wild Olive trees) Poplars ...
This is quite a tall and thin Cork Oak tree. The cork was removed off the trunk and half way along the main branches a few years ago and it is slowly growing back. It takes around nine years before it can be harvested again.
More Cork Oaks. They are wonderful trees to look at. Inspiration for paintings and drawings by many artists who visit the area. A lot of guests who have stayed with us, have commented that they'd never thought about the source of cork, until they'd seen these wonderful trees. A marvelous renewable resource ... please don't buy wine with plastic corks or screw tops.
We passed the large rock, a usual turning point (in the shade on the right hand side of the camino below) The pueblo in the distance is Algatocín.
Today was so beautiful that we decided to walk a little further to a group of Cork Oak trees at the edge of the ridge. The camino drops down to the Rio Genal at this point.
This is Jubrique from directly across the valley.
We saw Cristóbal our neighbour, he was out collecting firewood. He had his new puppy 'Estrella' (Star) with him. Estrella looks like a Beagle and is four months old.
Our dogs went mad trying to play with the pup.
Here is a rare photograph. One with them all behaving and posing at the same time.
Jake saying 'Hola' in the middle. He is the son of Sally (left) and Ferdy (right).
Here's one of me and our wonderful Border Collie Jake.
We got back to Benarrabá after a lovely three hour walk. We'd seen lots of Griffon Vultures. We'd also seen a flock of sheep which turned out to be our friend Sebastián's. He said he couldn't see them so we pointed across the valley and told him roughly where they were. He shrugged his shoulders and seemed happy with this.
He told us to get a carrier bag as he'd just harvested some potatoes and we could have some.
We took the dogs home and went for a walk through the plaza. There are a few palm trees in Benarrabá which I think always give the pueblo a hot tropical feeling.
We walked around the village and bumped into Sebastián again, who turned us 180 degrees and took us out into the campo to a shed he has. He gave us four or five kilos of beautiful organically grown new potatoes fresh out of the ground this morning. The people in this village are so kind.
This is Pee Dee he's a lovely dog. Sebastián keeps him and a few cats to guard his shed. He loves seeing us and always makes a big fuss.
We got home and watched 'Jacob's Ladder' a strange film on DVD.
We also watched an old Hitchcock film 'Notorious' starring Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman. A giveaway in a Sunday Newspaper. These giveaway DVD's are excellent news for us, as people often bring them out for us. 'Notorious' is a real Sunday afternoon movie.
We're up early before dawn.
Our guests leave today for the UK.
We wished them a safe journey home. We may meet again in the future as they now have a holiday home in the area.
I've been finishing the Fiesta de San Sebastián web page.
Jane has started to clean the apartment.
We're going to cook an Andalucian stew with chorizo and chick peas.
We went for a walk up a narrow trail that begins behind the apartment, we only walked for ten minutes, but it is uphill and the dogs always enjoy getting out.
We watched 'A Perfect Murder' starring Michael Douglas, Gwyneth Paltrow and Viggo Mortensen.
Later another film 'Red Dawn' starring Patrick Swayze.
A clear night sky and millions of stars were visible.
I must unpack the telescope again.
A windy day. There are Griffon Vultures everywhere ... they are hanging in the wind all over the valley. When you watch them flying into a strong wind, you can see how they use the flight feathers on their wingtips to hold and alter their course. The largest have a wingspan of nine feet / 3 metres, magnificent birds.
We've been out to get bread, post letters and just stroll around the pueblo. We saw Sebastián walking his two mules through the village. The potatoes he gave us on Sunday taste wonderful.
A lot of great e-mails recently. Mainly from people looking to buy houses in Andalucía or people with holiday homes here.
Thanks, we always enjoy getting e-mails from people who visit the web site.
Occasionally we also get to meet up and become friends as with blog readers Lyngard and Jean from Stoke on Trent. They have just telephoned us. They are driving from Montejaque where they have a holiday home to see us in Benarrabá. We last saw them when they visited us during the September Feria in Benarrabá. It'll be good to see them both again.
At around 12 noon, I looked up at the vultures circling a beautiful limestone crag just behind the house. They seemed lower and looked like they were about to land.
We jumped in the car and quickly drove up there.
About sixty vultures were circling at different heights. Some were swooping down quite low.
Two landed on top of the outcrop.
The light wasn't good as there was 100% cloud cover.
We saw Ravens flying with the vultures.
These two were perched a little further along.
I walked further down, there was a male Kestrel nearby, but I wanted to get closer to the Griffon Vulture perched on the top.
This is as close as I could get as the rock face was very steep.
We watched the Griffon Vultures circling for around thirty minutes until they flew across to another ridge and circled higher up the Valle del Genal.
The light wasn't good for photography but if it had been bright and sunny they wouldn't have been so low, as there was no sign that they had been feeding.
We drove back down into Benarrabá.
We saw this man walking his horse out of the village.
I stroked the horse, it had a thick winter coat, it was strong and obviously very well cared for.
Back home we lit the wood burning stove.
Lyngard and Jean arrived.
Lyngard restores ceramic pottery and is an excellent artist.
He has kindly painted us a scene of Benarrabá from one of our photographs. It is excellent. Jane and I both had tears in our eyes.
What a wonderful present. Thank you.
We had a lovely afternoon, they had also brought some cakes from the wonderful Pandería in Montejaque.
We had tea and cakes and some 'Salmorejo de potata' which Carmen had made early and kindly given to us.
A quiet night in. We watched half of a Sunday newspaper freebie ... 'The African Queen' starring Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn. A real classic with great acting. Bogart got his only Oscar for this performance. He
certainly deserved it. Excellent film.
We're up early. It's a grey start to the day but no rain.
We get butane gas cylinders delivered to our door on a Wednesday morning. The butane gas man goes around the village beeping his horn. Six or seven beeps every few seconds. He must wear out lots of horns and hear it in his sleep. Quite a large cylinder for a calor gas heater is 11.25 euros / £8. This has gone up a lot recently but is still a lot cheaper than in the UK.
Jake our Border Collie was coming back from an early morning walk just as the Butane man played a fanfare for car horn outside our house.
Jake didn't like it and ran back up the track.
We spent half an hour looking for him before we found him in the lower part of the village. Someone had found him and locked him in a small patio/yard. I lifted him out. Perhaps they were going to return him ...?
Jane spotted more Griffon Vultures up on the limestone crag.
We drove up to watch them.
They seem to be resident up there at the moment.
Tracy Hall from Scotland e-mailed us to say she enjoyed the web site. She has been reading through our El Burgo page. Tracy has a holiday home there. She sent me some interesting information about the pavement graffiti there.
I've updated the El Burgo web page with this info.
We're giving my office area a clean out. We're hoping to set up a wireless network in the next week or two. I'm going to set up the PC. We've been using a Dell notebook since we got to Spain. It takes up a lot less space and is more convenient.
Now that we have Iberbanda and a faster internet connection we can set up a network and then both of us can be online at the same time.
It poured down during the night and is still quite grey.
I've been busy uploading files to our new website host.
We're swapping hosting services because we have so many photographs on our pages and now an average of over 1000 pages a day are downloaded (that's 30,000 pages a month) the bandwidth used has increased significantly.
We've bought more bandwidth to allow for continued expansion of the website and to allow for the increase in traffic we're getting.
The poor notebook has been whirring away all night uploading files and most of today. I'll set it going again tonight.
The Griffon Vultures are still sitting on the rocks above the village.
We drove up and watched them through our binoculars.
We decided to go to Los Barrios to buy the wireless network equipment.
On the way down from Gaucín we stopped to look at the view. It looked like England does in the spring, with cows and calves on the rolling green hillsides.
The clouds threatened a downpour but we missed it. The clouds were heading towards Grazalema. Grazalema has the highest amount of rainfall in the whole of Spain.
![Hillside near Gaucin]](http://www.property-in-the-sun.com/images/Blog/jan_2006/gaucin_hillside.jpg)
As we drove passed Jimena de la Frontera we saw three horses in a field with three young foals.
Just passed the junction for San Martin de Tesorillo. Jane spotted what we think was a Buzzard on a post very near the roadside.
A quick U turn but it flew off as soon as I opened the car door.
We did see a female Kestrel a little further on.
We saw lots of White Storks on their nests on top of electricity pylons along the railway lines near Estación de San Roque.
We got to Los Barrios. We bought our wireless network equipment after help from their staff, they assured us that it would work with an Iberbanda connection.
We called in Lidl's, Leroy Merlin's and Carrefours for some shopping.
On the way home we stopped at Estación de San Roque to order some furniture from a carpenters shop that we'd used for furnishing the apartment. We ordered a dining table with six chairs and a wall unit. All made of solid pine. In fact the table and chairs are identical to the ones we bought for the apartment. We were so impressed with the quality of their workmanship that we had to have the same for our own lounge/dining area.
We passed the Buzzard again, this time it was sitting on a telegraph pole on the opposite side of the road. It was nearly nightfall and too dark to try to get a photograph.
We got home safely. Unpacked the shopping. I took the wireless network kit out of the box and it has the wrong connection! We'll have to go all the way back to Los Barrios tomorrow.
On the bright side ... we may see the Buzzard again.
We set off to Los Barrios to change the wireless networking equipment, at around 11:00h. It had rained during the night and it was still very grey. As we climbed up out of the village we passed through a layer of cloud. Visibility returned as we drove down from Gaucín on the A369 road to Algeciras.
It was raining heavily as we passed Jimera de la Frontera.
We saw the Buzzard on a pylon about fifty metres from the road.
We got to Los Barrios and changed the equipment with no problemas.
We went to Leroy Merlin's for spotlight bulbs which don't seem to last very long, I bought Jane a beautiful deep red/maroon rose.
We went to Carrefours and bought some vegetables for the weekend.
We bought a large pork roast, so are planning a big dinner tomorrow.
It rained constantly all the time we were down on the coast. We're hoping it was raining even heavier inland as we need the water table to rise and the reservoirs to fill.
We saw another slightly smaller buzzard on the way home, it was in the same area as the one sighted this morning and yesterday, perhaps they are a pair.
We got home at around 15:00h. The computer was still uploading files to the new server.
We watched the end of 'The African Queen' which we'd started to watch on Tuesday evening.
The computer finally finished its mammoth task.
Over the weekend we'll have to visit every page on the web site and check to see that all the photographs are downloading correctly.
Apologies if anyone finds the odd missing photo.
I've got the wireless network set up. It was very easy. A very good 'wizard' took me through it step by step and it took around 20 minutes.
If you can read this the website is now running on the new server.
It seems to be working ... up until 3am checking that our email works and the main webpages on the site are loading properly.
We've had quite a storm. Thunder and lightning and some very welcome heavy rain.
The weather Gods are smiling on us. It's a beautiful sunny day with blue skies. We like it when it pours down at night then is sunny during the day.
However I'm taking in all the tender plants I can. Also covering the bottom part of the Bougainvillea as best I can, as temperatures are forecast to be close to, or below zero tonight and especially Sunday night. Snow is forecast for Ronda Sunday/Monday morning.
I'm going through webpages on the site looking for missing photographs.
Newcastle United play Cheltenham Town today in the FA Cup 4th Round. It is on BBC1 at 13:30 our time. I haven't seen us play live this season so this is going to be a treat ...?
A 0-2 win and we're through to the 5th round.
A great result by Brentford sees Sunderland knocked out, what a shame. Stuart Nicholls will be celebrating in Stoke after their success against Walsall.
We're cooking our rather large pork joint which should be ready late this evening.
A fine clear day and it is now a starlit night.
I'm writing the blog in the apartment, this is a first. The wireless network has good reception up here and also in the 'entrada'. I should be able to 'surf' on the sun terrace!
Lots of excitement in the street this morning. It had snowed overnight.
Everyone was out playing with the inch of snow that was already melting fast. We'd had a dusting last year which we were told happened once every fifteen years ... Cristóbal our neighbour shrugged at me and said it wasn't normal but perhaps weather patterns were changing.
North up the Valle del Genal. A mist was hanging in the valley.
It wasn't cold, temperatures we're in the 50's/12C
The almond blossom was dripping with melting snow flakes.
Cristóbal knocked on the door and said he was going to go for a drive up to the A369 to look at the mountains and take some photo's.
I went with him and his son Adrian.
This is the road above Benarrabá.
These pines covered in snow against the blue sky looked fantastic.
When we came back forty five minutes later. There was no snow at all left on these trees or on this hillside.
The roads were busy. They were lined with parked cars. Cristóbal said it was people from the coast who'd seen the snowfall on the TV and were coming up because it was so rare in the area.
This photograph is of a hillside covered in Sweet Chestnuts near Algatocín. In late November this hillside was a blaze of autumnal oranges and yellows.
This is Algatocín! The church is about in the middle of the photograph.
It is under snow and covered in the rising mist.
This is Benadalid.
This is Atajate.
I thought Cristóbal was going to drive to Ronda but we did a U-turn just beyond Atajate.
This is the Sierra de Libar across the Valle de Guadiaro.
Where the snow had melted on the tarmac, the sun was evaporating it so quickly that we were driving through steam for much of the way home.
Benarrabá.
Not a pot tile to be seen. A true pueblo blanco.
The snow was melting fast. This is Cortes de la Frontera.
The hillsides are clear of snow. The top of the Sierra de Libar still has a white dusting.
Lot's of photographs, but it doesn't happen very often ...
We cooked a great roast dinner.
We settled down to watch 'There's Something about Mary' Starring Cameron Diaz, when the heavens opened and we lost the satellite signal.
It bucketed down all night. At times it was really torrential which is great. There were flashes of lightning and huge rumbles of thunder.
A beautiful sunny day. This weather is perfect. Rain at night and sun in the day.
On the high ground there's been more snow.
This is Jubrique on the opposite side of the valley. The pines on the top have a dusting of snow.
This is Benarrabá.
I worked all morning on a Spanish translation of our apartment pages and calendar.
In the afternoon we took the dogs out for a walk.
There was a stream running alongside the camino (track). This arroyo (stream) dry for over a year is running fast. There was quite a noise of running water.
It was a lovely warm afternoon.
Here's Jane, Jake and Sally
Jane took this photograph of the Genal Valley. The white mark on the left isn't snow ... it's the pretty pueblo of Genalguacil.
Jake, he always wants attention. He's a big gentle Border Collie with a wonderful affectionate nature.
Back in the village we decided to walk to the other end of the pueblo, to photograph the mountains from a different angle.
This is North up the Genal Valley. The pueblo of Alpandeire nestles below the snow covered Sierras.
This is the view South down the Genal Valley to the Sierra de Crestellina.
This is Los Reales the highest peak of the Sierra Bermeja. The top was wrapped in clouds but the snow was reflecting the afternoon sun.
Back home and our neighbour's son Juan Diego has parked his horse outside their house.
Jane's watching Fleetwood Mac DVD's.
I'm still working, on what is probably a really bad Spanish version of our apartment pages.
A lovely sunny day, we had a quiet day around the house.
We cooked a meal, Jane cleaned. I worked on some web pages.
We went for a walk to the shops.
A starry night, were going to relax in front of the TV.
A very short blog ... however we're planning a trip to the Alcornocales tomorrow if the weather's good.
I’ve just much enjoyed looking through your photos of Benarraba and its surroundings taken in January 2006.
Nostalgic stuff! My wife and I have enjoyed several April holidays staying at Gaucin and walking and driving around the area, though we’ve not been back for some years.
Are griffon vultures still plentiful? I heard that a new EU edict banning people from leaving carcasses lying aabout has left them to starve.
And do you know if Los Barrios’s rubbish dump still attract hundreds of black kites? We found it by chance a few years ago while cycling there by back roads from San Roque.
Best wishes,
David Lambert