May 1st -7th 2007
Written by Geoff Forster
We're having a good spell of weather.
The Feria Gastronómica continues today with more events and stalls in the plaza.
It's a fiesta day throughout Spain, so the shops and banks are all closed.
We spent the day in and around the house.
I worked from very early in the morning until nearly midnight.
We've got some great photographs taken by our friend Marilyn O'Loughlin.
Marilyn's recently moved from Jersey to Gibraltar (Now Sotogrande).
Gibraltar. The port area.
Giant Thapsia and a Yellow Legged Gull.
The African coastline.
Thanks to Marilyn. More soon.
Do you have any photographs of Andalucia you can send us to use on this website?
Statistics in for April 2007 show another rise in visitors. With an average of 1666 visitors a day.
49997 visitors during the month. Which isn't bad as figures always fall over the Easter holiday.
A new site record - 2126 visited yesterday. Amazing as it was around Christmas that we first got 1000 visitors.
Thank you all for your continued support. If you haven't written yet ... please do.
If you haven't written for a while ... or if you were expecting one from us. Please write we don't want to loose touch with you. We seem to be very busy at the moment.
It poured down overnight and continued to do so for most of the day. At times it was torrential.
This deluge gave the campo a really good soaking. Which should encourage some really vigorous growth over the next few weeks. Good news for donkeys and donkey owners!
We took the opportunity to continue working on the websites. Jane has been spring cleaning and is determined to try to reduce clutter. A difficult task as she is a bit of a sentimentalist, and hence is a collector and horder of memorabilia (tat).
In the evening we watched 'Spiderman 2' starring Tobey McGuire as Spiderman/Peter Parker.
Kirsten Dunst as MJ and Alfred Molina (Chocolat) as the badguy Dr Otto Octavius.
Great special effects. A tedious storyline at times. Too much 'character' building not enough action.
Here are some more of our friend Marilyn O'Loughlin's photographs of Gibraltar.
The first few are from the Southern tip of Gibraltar.
The man made waterfall.
The mosque.
The lighthouse at Europa Point.
This is the cable car from the Alameda up to near the 'Apes Den' on the rock.
A canon from near the entrance to the Alameda Botanical Gardens.
Cystus.
Hibiscus.
More overnight rain.
We continue to work hard.
We managed to get out in the afternoon to walk with the dogs to see the donkeys.
The donkeys are well and plodded up the mountainside to see us and to get their seed.
We walked slowly back enjoying the campo.
We saw a pair of Booted Eagles high in the sky. We haven't seen too many Eagles this year so far. A rare glimpse of a Short Toed Eagle and an occasional Bonelli's.
We walked back to Benarrabá.
The dogs enjoyed the newly topped up puddles along the way.
More work in the evenings.
I'm now at the testing stage. Checking links and adding some new pages to the websites.
Hopefully if the tests go well we'll launch the main site very soon.
In the evening we started to watch 'Monsters Inc.' another fantastic animation by Pixar studios.
Apologies to regular blog readers for getting a few days behind.
These are more photographs taken by our friend Marilyn O'Loughlin.
Taken in the Alameda Botanical Gardens Gibraltar.
Wisteria.
Lantana.
Not sure about this one ... looks a little like a Gazania?
A monument to the Duke of Wellington.
A beautiful covered walkway/bridge.
Good photograph Marilyn!
Shade and light.
Thanks to Marilyn for allowing us to publish her photographs.
Do you have any that you'd care to share with us?
Better weather today.
A lovely morning. We walked to the Ayuntamiento to sign some papers.
We also stocked up on headache tablets. An unfortunate side effect of staring at computer screens for hours on end.
In the afternoon we took another walk with the dogs to see the donkeys.
We put our shorts and T-shirts on, temperatures are climbing.
Rosie.
This hillside was just covered in flowers. This years display is a lot later and greener than last years but over the next four weeks I think that we're in for something very special.
We worked again during the evening.
Then we watched the end of 'Monsters Inc' a great animation from Pixar studios.
We're up early. We're going to Gibraltar for a quick shop and to fill up with petrol.
Then we're meeting friends Marilyn and Michael O'Loughlin in Sotogrande.
It was a beautiful day. A small queue at the border but we crossed in around ten minutes.
A very quick shop in Morrisons', petrol then back across the border and on to Sotogrande.
We met Marilyn and Michael at Ke barnear the marina. A popular bar near the waterfront.
It was good to see both of them again.
We first met when Marilyn and Michael stayed in our apartment whilst they were house hunting.
We sat in the sun and had a good chat, catching up on all the news.
Marilyn used to own a Nikon camera and still had a lens for it.
She said that I could have it if it fitted my camera. Looking at it, it didn't seem likely to fit. But amazingly it clicked into place and focused like a dream. So a big hug and muchas gracias to Marilyn.
:-)
Marilyn.
Jane.
Marilyn again.
Jane again.
Me with a big smile.
We all agreed that even if we were multi millionaires we wouldn't buy a yacht ...
It is good to come and look at them though.
Apparently these fish are Pollock. They are found in all the marinas up and down the Costa del Sol. They get to quite a good size.
The Ke Bar.
We went for a walk around a boarded walkway alongside the Rio Guadiaro. The river was swollen and discoloured with silt from recent downpours in the mountains.
Here's Michael.
Three of us had cameras. The bridge and a lot of driftwood were encouraging a lot of 'arty farty' camera work.
Jane took these.
Look a yacht.
Marilyn and Michael took theses.
I took these.
We walked under the bridge and back to the cars.
Then we drove to Marilyn and Michael's new villa in Alto Sotogrande.
Michael cooked some great food. Including some really spicy chicken kebabs.
Here's Marilyn preparing some more.
Marilyn took this of us. It was quite windy.
Lantana.
Finally Jane in front of the pool.
We had a great day out.
Thanks to Marilyn and Michael for a lovely meal and for their good company.
Big kisses to Marilyn for the lens!!!
In the evening I caught up with the blog.
Another bright start to the day.
The sun is shining and it's going to be a perfect temperature.
Sophie went exploring our Passion Flower. She got about four metre up into it.
She did manage to get down but it scared Jane.
In the afternoon we walked slowly with the dogs through the campo to see the donkeys.
The wild flowers are beginning their spectacular show.
Genalguacil.
Jake. He runs and runs. These long walks are making him super fit.
His mother Sally. She runs hard but using her Border Collie brain she uses as little energy as she possibly can by taking breaks in the shade.
Ferdy. He's thirteen this year. Still running and fetching sticks. He does stiffen up when he gets home, but he's ready for action again the next day.
Giant Thapsia.
Algatocín.
The Sweet Chestnuts are green with fresh new leaves.
This ia a weird one. It looks like someone has spilt some chick peas in tomato sauce in the campo. We saw a few patches of this emerging from the soil.
We've never seen it before. We'll keep our eye on it and photograph what it develops into.
Of course this might be fully grown.
Sponsored Links.
The Sierra de Benalauría.
Leaf litter?
Jane did well to spot this cricket.
Jubrique.
Domingo and Rosie were there to meet us.
We sat and waited for them to finish their seed before stroking and talking to them.
Carrots go down well.
We walked back up the mountainside to the fairly level track to Benarrabá.
Stopping to look back up the valley towards Alpandeire.
In the evening we both worked on the computers.
Jane's searching for properties for a few clients.
I worked on the internet and made a start sorting out the photographs I took today (above).
The new lens is great. Lightweight and focuses nicely, for day to day use it is a huge improvement.
The weather's perfect. Blue skies and warm sunshine.
More wildflowers out to photograph :-)
We went to see the glade of lupins near Gaucín.
We parked opposite Venta El Socorro. This is looking across the Valle de Guadiaro towards Cortes de la Frontera.
We enjoyed a stroll around in the sunshine. I love days like this in Spain.
Lots of pretty flower pots have appeared in the newly finished plaza.
It's amazing where plants can grow.
We had a Coca Cola outside Bar Paco Pepé. A few Brit's around. Some speak, some don't. It's harder avoiding saying 'Hello' than it is to say it. A strange race. The Spanish seem less reserved and nearly always speak, especially if you do first.
The streets were quiet.
Summer is nearly here. The lizards are sun lovers. We love seeing them and the Geckos.
Back home the Angel Pelagoniums are flowering.
The sun shines and the Gazanias open. A good display. These are good plants to buy in Spain.
They seem to last a few years, are quite hardy and self seed into all our other pots.
In the evening we watched. ' A Good Year' starring Russell Crowe. A romantic comedy.
Not my favourite genre of movies. This is however an excellent film. Ladies, if you are going to make your man endure soppy movies, pick this one. Great story, acting and direction.
We then watched 'Mission Impossible lll' starring Tom Cruise. Our friends Marilyn and Michael kindly lent us this one and said that they thought it was the best so far. The were right. Like the recent Bond movie 'Casino Royale' the producers and directors seem to have realised that expensive, ludicrous, unbelievable chase sequences detract from the film rather than add to it (The helicopter in the tube in MI2 for example). MI3 Really good, worth watching.