March 23rd - 31st 2007
Written by Geoff Forster
A glorious day. About as perfect as you could wish for.
We worked in the morning.
Later we went for a walk with the Border Collies to see the donkeys.
This is Common Fumitory. It doesn't look like a poppy but is part of the Poppy family. (Yes I've been reading a wild flower book!)
I was looking to identify a few plants we've seen recently. The Cuckoo Pint that is appearing along the verges is also called Lords and Ladies. An unusual plant with two equally unusual and very different names.
The sky was a stunning blue.
Looking across the Genal Valley towards Genalguacil.
The donkeys were waiting for us in the trees near the gate.
It was around 17:00h. The sun was shining through the trees.
We're very lucky having this wonderful countryside on our doorstep.
The evening sunshine lights up some Cork Oak trees.
We went to see little baby Tania and to give her a present.
We went to Guayacán for a coffee.
Back home we're having a quiet night.
We watched 'War of the Worlds' starring Tom Cruise. The remake of the H. G. Wells classic.
An uptodate version which I didn't expect to enjoy. It's not the most exciting sci-fi story ever written or brought onto the big screen but this was quite a good film.
Jane really liked it and thinks I should have said it is an excellent film.
(Possibly the 'Tom Cruise' factor ...?)
We went to see the donkeys. They are fit and healthy.
It was a beautiful day.
We took some photographs of some flowers.
From the book I think this is 'Grass-of-Parnassus'
A convolvulus.
A strange insect. That hovers and drinks nectar using a long proboscis.
I've had the pleasure of watching Humming Birds on St Lucia.
Also Humming Bird Hawk moths in both the UK (Mt Ephraim Gardens in Kent) and here in Benarrabá.
This bee like bug has a similar feeding method.
Finally just one of the pretty lavender.
In the evening, Peter, Margaret and Alice invited us upstairs for a meal.
We enjoyed some Benarrabá pork and some cake from the panadería in Algatocín.
Also some bread that tasted of anis. Which only I seemed to like.
A good evening. Thank you to our friends for another wonderful evening.
We all walked down to Café Guayacán for a coffee.
Jane and I watched 'Mona Lisa Smile' starring Julia Roberts.
A very quiet day around the house.
Jane has been washing and cleaning.
I've been working all day on the computer.
We've had some lovely e-mails recently.
Our Border Collies have a big fan club in Townsville, Queensland Australia. Hola to Chelsea and Shannon.
Grace wrote to us and included a poem she's written about a donkey. I'll write to get her permission to publish it here.
Margaret, Peter and Alice arrived home safely.
We watched 'Pride and Prejudice' The latest remake starring Keira Knightley as Elizabeth.
I thought it was really good. In places far better than the BBC series.
Jane prefers Colin Firth as Mr Darcy ...
Another day spent in the house working.
We've had some overnight rain which is very welcome.
I was up until around 04:00h working on websites and it was raining quite heavily at times.
This is great news for the campo. The wild flowers should be as good as last year if not better followng this deluge.
I'm up early and working again.
Jane has been ironing and doing more washing. Poor girl, not her favourite jobs.
We cooked a chicken curry and had a sci-fi night.
We watched 'Æonflux' starring Charlize Theron. Aeon Flux is an assasin in a futuristic society ...
Very predictable but watchable.
Next we watched 'Donnie Darko'. This film makes into the IMDb Sci-fi films Top 10. It rates ahead of four of the Star Wars films and two of the Aliens films.
It's about an American teenage boy ... (this is usually enough to have me reaching for the off button.)
It was strangely compelling. Well filmed and acted. No special effects to speak of. No aliens. No lasers or tasers. In fact the monster is the Easter Bunny with metal teeth.
Apart from a 'Back to the Future' time travel loop it wasn't really anything to do with sci-fi.
Having said that ... the 'loop' has got us so confused as to what the film was really about, that we're going to have to watch it again.
After a couple of days of working. Jane's been cleaning non stop and I've been designing websites. We need to get out.
We went to Gaucín to buy some donkey seed. We had a quick walk around. The plaza is still being repaved. A marvelous mosaic of the town escudo (crest) has been completed in the centre. We couldn't get to it to take photograph because the surrounding area is a bit of a building site.
We'd been asked by some of the women working on a year long course on countryside management to photograph a greenhouse and nursery which they've been constructing.
We set off into the countryside between Gaucín and Benarrabá to try to find it.
There was a mist hanging on the far side of the valley but the sun was shining through creating very dramatic and incredibly beautiful views down the Genal Valley.
We found the greenhouse but the gates were locked.
It's the last week of this course and the ladies must have been working elsewhere.
We did find an unlocked side gate so got some photographs of the inside.
We drove home had a quick sandwich and set off to see the donkeys accompanied by Ferdy, Sally and Jake our Border Collies.
On the way we passed Sebastián's piglets.
The cork oaks look great when they get wet. It brings out the colours.
The campo looks really good at the moment. It was a perfect day for walking.
The donkeys looked well. They love standing in the rain. We fed them their seed and some fruit and vegetable peelings. Then walked back to Benarrabá.
The dogs found their puddles and mud holes had been topped up.
We let them play for a few minutes.
Jake and Sally ... pushmepullyou
Jake.
Ferdy fetching me sticks while I'm trying to take photographs.
Sally. A wonderful kind dog.
There are lots of yellow flowers that look a little like Dandelions.
Strangely a lot have animals names as a part of their common names. (Dandelion too?)
Their are Hawkbits, Hawkweeds, Bristly Oxtongues, Goat's Beard, Sowthistle and this below is Common Cat's-ear.
In the evening we worked on the computers until around 22:00h.
We haven't watched TV for weeks now. In fact its all disconnected and unplugged.
We're not missing it at all. We're getting so much more done.
We still enjoy our movies which we watch on the notebook.
Tonight we watched 'Dying Young' starring Julia Roberts.
We spent the day in the house ... more work.
Jane continued her cleaning.
I went to feed the donkeys late in the evening.
It's not getting dark now until around 21:00h.
I took the dogs and walked quickly to see Rosie and Domingo.
I fed them and set off back.
It had been a beautiful evening when I set off, but the sky was now darkening, and the valley was getting very misty.
I got a good soaking, it was still an enjoyable walk, and as I neared Benarrabá the skies lightened and it stopped raining.
I sat and read a Wild Flower book. It has a small section on herbal uses of some of the plants if applicable. It was very interesting reading. I'm determined to improve my knowledge on this subject. There is such a diverse number of plants here. It is very frustrating not being able to put a name to them.
I didn't take any photographs today, so here are more from Bryon Blackwell who stayed with us for four weeks in January/February.
Here are some that Bryon took in and around the magnificent cathedral in Granada.
Bryon and Ann Blackwell.
Thanks to Bryon. If you have any interesting photographs of recent trips to Andalucia we're always happy to feature them on our blog pages.
We're both working hard.
The websites are progressing, one is almost completed. The rest should follow shortly.
Jane has been cleaning the apartment for the arrival of of new guests.
We've had some welcome overnight rain.
A walk to the donkeys and the campo is fresh and the plants are thriving in the moist warm conditions.
Yellow flowers are everywhere. I'm concentrating on these in my attempt to learn a few names.
This is Bristly Oxtongue.
The campo is a wonderful mix of greens with the odd slash of colour from the broom or lavender.
One yet to be identified.
A solitary specimen I found about ten metres from the track. I've never seen this flower before.
It has small white flowers with yellow stamens. Very beautiful. I guess it was seeded by a bird a it is the only one I've ever seen.
We watched 'The Sweetest Thing' starring Cameron Diaz, Christina Applegate and Thelma Blair. A funny slightly gross comedy.
.
Another day around the house.
Jane's cleaning.
I've been working testing the websites and fix minor errors before they 'go live'.
It's a beautiful day but unfortunately we we're both too busy to get out much.
A few short walks with the dogs ...
In the evening we worked until late.
Our guests arrived safely and like the apartment. They are from Colorado.
We went for a walk into the village.
We had tapas in Pub Bar Dami. Dami does a good range of tapas and is a popular bar with most of our guests.
We we're both tired but we watched 'Mr Jones' starring Richard Gere. Great acting in this film about a manic depressant.
A grey misty day. The clouds are hanging on the sides of the valley. A mist along the highest peaks threatens to envelop the village.
It is beautiful as the daily strengthening sun back lights the clouds and occasionally breaks through with a spotlight onto a lucky patch of the campo.
One of the websites is up and running. Jane has been testing it out. registering, leaving forum posts and uploading photographs. A last minute glitch with the search routine sees me spending hours searching through scripts and databases for the error.
Every cloud has a silver lining. As usual because of troubleshooting errors you learn something you might not otherwise have come across.
Mid-afternoon and we walked to see the donkeys.
The mists were still hanging on the tops. It was drizzling but we enjoyed the walk.
Algatocín.
This is the first of one of the campo's most striking plants.
As usual to make things more difficult there are two different plants which look very similar.
This is Thapsia Garganica. Common Thapsia. It grows to around 1.5 metres tall.
The other is Giant Fennel which gets even taller, up to 4 metres.
The flower is hermaphrodite, pollinated by insects. A diuretic, emetic purgative can be extracted from the root bark by alcohol, how did people in the past find out these things. A lot of painful trial and error? Best left alone as it can cause skin rashes.
Here's a beautiful Cystus, Rock Rose.
There are three types currently flowering. This pink variety, and two white varieties. The Gum cystus is a lot larger than the other two.
We were both pretty wet when we go back.
It's great walking in the rain.
It was worth it to see the donkeys and as you can see from the photographs of the Cystus, some flowers look good, if not better with a little water added.
Newcastle United lost again. A poor season.
We went to Cafe Bar Guayacán for a break.
In the evening Jane read and I gave myself a headache trying to fix the search routine.