November 1st - 15th 2005
Written by Geoff Forster
A fiesta day in Spain. All Saints day. Yesterday flowers were taken by families to the cemeteries. Candles lit and prayers said. During the night we believe there is an all night prayer vigil, held in the cemeteries.
The day started with sunshine but now at midday there is a little high cloud and we are having very pleasant sunny intervals.
The olive grove at the side of the apartment is full of hundreds of birds singing their hearts out. I've just seen four or five Griffon vultures circling high above Benarrabá.
I've spent all morning trying to sort out the Kodak camera software. It automatically updates itself. The new version that Kodak decided I needed to install didn't work. I've had to delete it and reinstall all the original software from a disk. I've switched off the automatic updater!
I've spent a couple of hours this afternoon adding photographs to yesterdays blog.
Jane's watching Reality TV car chases.
We went for a walk around the village. It was a beautiful afternoon.
This is part of the beautiful orange tree lined plaza in Benarrabá.
The church at the end is the Ermita Cristo de la Vera Cruz.
The Ermita is a lovely small church.
It has a restored beamed ceiling and is famous for its carving of Jesus on the cross.
We left the church and walked passed the cemetery which is just behind the Ermita. It was packed with people. It looked lovely covered with lots of fresh flowers and thousands of candles.
We walked on. Behind the cemetery was this cute white pony.
This is the Sierra Bermeja. Estepona and the Costa del Sol is on the other side. The highest point Los Reales is well worth visiting on a clear day as you have an amazing panoramic view.
We walked back and around to look North up the Genal valley.
This is a limestone crag to the North of Benarrabá. The Sierra de Algatocín.
We passed Salvador and his beautiful grey dappled mare.
We had a lovely evening. We saw our neighbours Juan and Seba with little Francisco Jesus. We had a good chat with Andrés Sánchez who gave us some of his home grown and prepared olives. They really are succulent when they are recently picked and have just been soaked and washed enough to get rid of the bitterness.
Andrés told us lightheartedly that All Saints day today is the day for the living and All Souls day tomorrow is the day for the dead.
We got home and had chicken legs with some extra vegetables we had cooked yesterday.
We watched McCallum on TV.
A lovely day. Cornflower blue skies a few clouds floating overhead.
I've been working on the computer. Jane's cleaning and tidying.
The new look pages for the Apartment section are just about completed.
Fancy a winter Break in Andalucía? Click below!
Booking your spring/summer holidays? Click Below!
We've both been busy today. I've been on the computer all day making a few changes to the website. Jane has been changing the living room around.
An interesting e-mail from Chris and Steve Parry who have had similar problems with their car not locking when parked near the Ronda police station.
Not a lot on TV tonight.
A beautiful sunny day. Early morning temperature of 67F/18C in the shade. T-shirt and shorts weather if you are in the sun.
Jane is busy with the living room. She keeps reassuring me it will look nice when it's finished.
I'm working on a new Home Page for the website. I keep reassuring myself it will look alright when I've finished.
We went for a walk at around 5pm. We called into Bar Andrés Sánchez on the way home. We had a cold beer and some tapas. We asked young Andrés about a Mosto fiesta in Atajate. He gave us a sample of some Mosto from Jubrique. It is very good stuff probably not for connoisseurs but it has a kick!
He had just taken delivery of a case of a wine grown near Ronda - El Burgo. Conrad Soleón 2004 he said it was very good and sells for 15€+ a bottle. He very kindly gave us a bottle to take home and try!
We're going to have it on my birthday.
I cooked a curry for us in the kitchen whilst I listened to the Magic Flute by Mozart. Jane was in the living room watching Stevie Nicks and Fleetwood Mac DVD's.
It is overcast at the moment. We had some rain in the night but nothing significant.
Jane's upstairs cleaning. We have guests arriving on Monday.
Marilyn (our weather girl) and her husband Michael arrive from the UK later today. They are here for a short weekend. Flying back on Sunday.
They have had some work done to their holiday home.
We are hopefully meeting up with them tomorrow.
It's a year since I started this blog.
Visitors to the site have risen from sixteen a day to over three hundred a day last month. A hundred plus people read the blog. Some every day. Thank you.
We have had some lovely e-mails from people who visit the website.
The most recent from Ross and Andrea from the Shetland Isles and Tom Wright from North Carolina in the USA.
The blog has inspired one other person to start blogging.
Robert Kirby who runs a beautiful guesthouse in the Lake District.
Check out Robert's blog.
The best thing is the number of friends we've made. A real unexpected bonus. People whom we've met through the blog and website as well as others that we've bumped into on our travels who now read it and keep in touch.
We have made more good friends here in eighteen months than we did during all the years in England.
A few people have knocked on the door. Are you Geoff & Jane? Usually we know who they are because they have sent an e-mail or phoned first.
One couple turned up one Sunday morning. No idea who they were.
"Hello, are you Geoff"? "We've been reading the blog".
We showed them around the apartment.
It turns out that they looked at the house when it was for sale, just before we bought it. It was too big a project to take on whilst living in the UK. So they bought two smaller houses in Genalguacil.
They were very nice and we said goodbye. I think he was a Sunderland supporter! Never seen or heard from them again!
We have had lots of e-mails from people whom we are yet to meet ... lots of them buying houses here ... more friends in the future?
We're hoping to get out this afternoon for a walk or drive. We'll see what the weathers going to do.
The weather improved so we decided to go to the coast. Jane wanted a book from the English Bookshop in San Luis de Sabinillas.
We drove through Gaucín and then down and across the Rio Genal, there was about the same volume of water flowing as the last time we crossed it.
We saw over thirty Griffon Vultures circling high above the lower Genal valley.
We got to Sabinillas, Jane didn't find the book she wanted so we went to the sea front for a coffee and tostada.
We were surprised to see a new sculpture being erected.
This is the back view.
It's a very muscular guy dragging a big fish. His right arm is strange. It is not attached to his shoulder blade as it should be. It's got to hurt. I'm not sure who the sculptor is perhaps Picasso?
A lot of bronze copies in Marbella are Picasso's.
We had a quick walk around.
This is the modern church in San Luis de Sabinillas.
We drove down the coast to Carrefours at Los Barrios.
We bought a USB Card Reader/Writer for transferring data to memory sticks. A jamon for my birthday which came with a large curado cheese free. I also got Star Wars III Revenge of the Sith DVD.
So I'm going to have a great birthday evening at home. Eating Jamon, watching Star wars and washing it down with Andrés wine.
We bought some steak to have tonight. I'm going to cook it in garlic with a spicy hot pepper and tomato salsa. Should be good.
I phoned Marilyn and Michael. They arrived safely. We're meeting up tomorrow in Grazalema.
We're both up early. The sun has just come up and it looks as if it is going to be another fantastic day.
We set off at 09:30h to go to meet Marilyn and Michael in Grazalema. We'd arranged to meet at 12:00h. We decided to go the long way round to Grazalema through the Cork Oak forest of the Alcornocales National Parque.
This is the fourth time we've been there in as many weeks.
It was starting to cloud over.
We drove down to Estación de Gaucín and took the pista forestal.
We'd only been in the forest a few seconds when we saw a group of four deer moving up a bank before they silently disappeared into the undergrowth. We didn't see anymore today. It was a day for cows!
A couple of kilometres into the forest and this cow was blocking the road.
She wasn't moving. A car came up behind us and started to beep their horn. We reluctantly did the same. After thirty seconds the cow equally reluctantly but having saved some face by not moving straight away, moved aside. We let the car behind pass so that we could go slow down if we saw something we wanted to watch.
Next we slowed to pass this lovely red/brown cow at the side of the road.
A little further and these two sauntered up the road ahead of us.
Here's the magnificent brown cow as we passed.
Her friend the two tone black and tan cow.
We left the forest at around 11:15 thinking we would have plenty of time to get to Grazalema.
We drove through Ubrique but got stuck behind a slow moving 4x4 with a boat on the top, which made us twenty minutes late.
It was good to see Marilyn and Michael again.
We had a coffee and then explored Grazalema.
The plaza was full of children on school hiking trips.
Lots more coaches were pulling up all the time unloading backpackers and more elderly sightseers.
Old men gathered near the fountain just watching today's influx of visitors.
Jane went into a tourist tat shop and I amazed Marilyn and Jane by buying a sweatshirt with a lovely golden Golden Eagle on it.
We walked up through the town. We called into an art fair in a fish market. A strange but original smelly combination.
Some of the houses are beautiful with large stone porticos.
We walked back down towards the plaza.
Michael tested out his new digital video camera.
We decided to get something to eat.
We walked through the plaza and up Calle Juan de la Rosa.
We saw a suit of armour on the step of a restaurante.
Asador Medieval is a themed restaurante.
It isn't large but the decoration is different. Stained glass windows, swords and shields. Waiters in tunics. We passed an enjoyable two hours. Chatting and eating. The Marquesa del Puerto Rioja Crianza 2002 was very good for a house red.
It was quite dark which helped the ambience.
lots of people were having steak which arrived at the table semi cooked and you finished the cooking yourself on a small iron barbecue. this seemed quite tricky and smoky. It didn't seem to work, lots of tough steak was being eaten.
We all had chicken!
Outside back in the daylight we found this knight.
We said goodbye to Marilyn and Michael. We hope to meet up again with them in the New Year.
We drove home. The skies had cleared and it was a beautiful evening. On the way I took this photograph of a tractor in the fields. Just after we turned off the Seville-Ronda road and headed towards Montejaque.
Tractor zoomed.
We arrived safely home.
I checked the TV as soon as we got in ... Newcastle United had won 1-0 so I'm happy. Stoke City also won 3-0 so Stuart will be more than happy.
We had a light pasta meal.
I watched a two hour documentary on the History of the Moors in Europe particularly in Andalucía. Jane ebayed.
Up early. It's beautiful outside. Perfect weather. Temperatures are around 18C/68F in the shade.
I've just watched MOTD a poor game but we scraped the win.
Jane is cleaning.
I'm going to do a little bit of painting. Then I'm going to chop up some wood for our wood burning stove.
Some of the bigger logs I've asked Cristóbal to chain saw.
We sat on the sun terrace for an hour it was a beautiful day.
This is the view looking East across Benarrabá.
There were hundreds of birds singing.
A recent winter migrant is the Black Redstart they are starting to appear in great numbers. They are a pretty grey blue until they fly when you see their rump is a fiery red with yellow edges.
It took me ages to take a photograph of one flying. Typical that I got the wrong wing beat and you can't really see much of the red.
Our oldest Border Collie, Ferdy (10), decided to go AWOL late in the evening. I spent until 2am trying to find him. Walking round and round the village. Neither of us got much sleep.
I'm up at 6am the eastern horizon is just beginning to lighten slightly.
The dog still hasn't come back. I take Jake and walk around for an hour without luck.
Jane hasn't slept much either. We got in the car and drove up to the main road. No sign of him anywhere. Back down the hill and we drove out into the campo along his favourite walk, no sign. Next we drove to get some bread and went to the far end of the pueblo to the Restaurante Kábilas. No sign, so we turned around. Fearing the worst and that we'd never see him again Jane suddenly spots him up a side street just standing there. The road is close to an area he is familiar with, so he could and should have got home okay. What he'd been doing all night and why I hadn't seen him on the many laps of the village I did, I don't know.
I'm cleaning the 'Entrada' before our guests arrive.
Jane's having a siesta. So is Ferdy.
Our new guests have arrived. Jenny and Dave, they love the apartment and the views.
Jane and I cooked a chicken curry. Jane went on ebay and I watched 'Dark Skies' on the new ITV4.
Blue skies and sunshine. A beautiful November day.
I'm going to work on the website. Jane is cleaning and continuing to put her mark on our living room.
By lunchtime we both needed to get out so we drove to Gaucín.
We had tapas in Bar PacoPepe in the small plaza with the fountain.
We got back to Benarrabá around 3pm.
We put the finishing touches to the new Home Page for the website. Lots of what we hope are interesting new holidays for 2006.
(Thurs 10th Nov ... I've just swapped back to the old page, but added a new advert/link for what was going to be our new home page.
The old page gets very high rankings on the search engines that we daren't risk changing it too much!)
We had a chat outside the apartment with our guests Jenny and Dave.
Jenny has been reading the blog quite regularly.
Here they are on the steps to the 'Entrada' of the apartment.
Jenny and Dave went to do some shopping at the Super Genal in Algatocín.
We arranged to meet later so that we could show them how to find Juani's shop and the pandería. Neither of which have signs outside.
We called into Bar Andrés Sánchez for a coffee.
They are having a good time and love the village. It is Jenny's birthday tomorrow. They are going to go to Ronda for an afternoon sightseeing and then a birthday evening meal.
Good news from the UK friends Lyngard and Jean have a new grand daughter Charlie. Congratulations to everyone.
We are staying in tonight. Hopefully we'll be spoilt for choice with entertainment on the box.
Up early. The butane gas man now comes around just before 9am. He used to be a lot later. He beeps his horn seven times every seven seconds. Butane gas is now 10.20€ / £7.14 a bottle a lot less than the UK, but it has gone up 2€ / £1.40 in the last few weeks. We use it for the kitchen hob and for heating our water. We have a couple of heaters downstairs but try to use firewood.
Happy Birthday to Jenny. Jane's got her a card and present. We'll take it up to them before they go to Ronda.
We're off to Gaucín. We're going to the vets to buy the pets worming tablets and then to see the Aerial/Satellite man about the cost of a microwave satellite internet connection.
We're hoping to meet up with Chris and Carol Scotford for tapas.
We went to the vets and got the tablets.
We called in to the satellite shop about the internet, but they need our bank details and our last telephone bill. We can get the phone through the same company with no line rental charge. We'll call back tomorrow.
It was quite a clear day.
This is a view over Gaucín towards the castle. Someone was burning autumn leaves just below it.
The view to the coast was good. Here's Gibraltar and Africa beyond.
We met Chris and Carol for tapas in Bar PacoPepe.
We had a good chat for a few hours and then ended up back at their house for coffee. It was good to see them again and catch up on how they are doing. They are enjoying their life in Andalucía to the full!
This is a bougainvillea that is growing in Chris and Carol's garden.
We went to the ferretería (ironmongers) and bought a wood burning stove. Just an all metal one for the kitchen. Hopefully it will be more efficient than just burning wood in the fireplace.
We got back home at around 17:00h. I've been fixing the legs to the stove and checking out the tubing. If it's cold tonight we'll have a test fire.
The fire wasn't a huge success we had lots of smoke in the kitchen. The pipes weren't sealed together, so hopefully when it is properly fitted it will smoke a little less.
We had a quiet night in watching TV. We watched the 'Bourne Identity' starring Matt Damon. We've seen it before but it is very good.
We're up later than usual. It is a lovely day, quite windy but the skies are blue and the sun is shining.
We're off to the Alcornocales to gather pine cones. Hopefully we'll get a couple of large sackfuls. In Spain they use them as firelighters. They work very well.
We got e-mails yesterday from Lyngard in Stoke, Paul and Jolette in Gandia and weather girl Marilyn who is now safely back in Sussex after a weekend break in Andalucía. They all sent photographs which is great.
Lyngard sent a picture of his new granddaughter Charlie. She looks beautiful.
Paul and Jolette sent a couple of competition winning photos that they'd taken. We hope to see them again soon.
Marilyn sent some, including one of Jane and I that she'd taken in the medieval restaurante. Also an embarrassing one of her and Jane posing with a suit of armour.
We went to Gaucín to the satellite TV shop to sign the contract for our internet connection. I'm afraid it is only 256K but it is better than 56K plus it won't tie up the telephone.
Gibraltar and the African mountains were clearly visible again.
We drove down towards El Colmenar - Estación Gaucín.
On the way we stopped to watch some quite recently born lambs in the fields.
Suddenly a Griffon Vulture soared over the top of the hill.
Another followed, the two of them hung in the air against the strong blustery wind that was whipping around the Sierra del Hacho.
We watched them until they flew out of sight. They are a magnificent sight. Some have a 9ft /2.7m wingspan.
We carried on down towards El Colmenar.
In the road verge we passed two very young donkeys. They were beautifully marked.
We crossed the Rio Guadiaro looking for Heron's. There was one high upstream. This young horse was a little easier to photograph, as it got a drink from the rivers edge.
We entered the Alcornocales National Parque.
We hadn't been driving long when we saw the first of many young calves and their mothers.
I was hoping today that we would see more deer than the usual cows, goats and sheep.
I'd got a couple of photographs of their backs as they ran into the forest.
They are very timid and sneaking up on them is nearly impossible either on foot or in a bright red Renault Clio!
We saw two not to far from the road. They turned and ran. I had the camera ready and just as I took the photograph one of them turned and looked straight back at us!
We drove on. We passed Jenny and Dave's car parked at the side of the road. They were having a stroll into the forest.
We stopped and had a picnic.
We then collected some pine cones. Jane found some mushrooms.
The same type as Juan had given us a few weeks ago.
Peter and Clarissa Novak who are moving to Benarrabá soon, are fungi experts. They have e-mailed to tell us that the mushrooms are parasol mushrooms, Latin name lepiota procera.
This is a view from the Alcornocales across the Valle de Guadiaro towards the Sierra de Algatocín.
We passed this man on a small mule halfway into the forest. His friend had a small dumper truck. We have no idea what they were doing.
We drove through the forest to the Cortes de la Frontera - Ubrique road.
We drove to a spot in the Ubrique direction where we often see lots of Griffon vultures. We sat and waited. There were none to be seen.
The time and journey weren't wasted because we did see a pretty Robin.
We decided to go back through the forest.
As we drove passed the calves at the Estación Gaucín end of the forest. We noticed this little one enjoying the evening sunshine. It had obviously had a hard day roaming freely in the woods with his mother and the other calves. This is how livestock should be farmed.
We drove through Estación de Gaucín and crossed the Guadiaro. There was a Heron standing on one leg fishing downstream.
This is Estación de Gaucín / Estación del Colmenar.
At the top of the hill we stopped as we had done on our way down to watch the lambs.
There were around thirty or forty very young lambs running as a group from the shade of a tree to another area about twenty metres away where most of their mothers were grouped. They ran and bounced. One or two jumped vertically, leaping over the others. We watched for ten minutes in amazement, laughing at them running backwards and forwards.
Neither of us had seen lambs do this before. It was a great way to end another fantastic day out in the Andalucian countryside.
We got home and looked at the photo's.
I think that this one will be a favourite for a very long time.
Another beautiful day. November is a fantastic time here. It is like spring in the UK. Everything is fresh and green. Lambs and calves in the fields. Vultures flying overhead ... okay not the last bit but it is a lovely time of year here.
I've just been watching a pair of Griffon Vultures circling Mount Porón behind the house. We seem to see more Vultures during the autumn and winter. They fly lower and have to work a lot harder circling the crags to gain altitude.
Jenny and Dave have kindly asked us out to dinner in a restaurante tonight. So we're both looking forward to that.
We went to Benadalid. We like Benadalid it is a quiet little pueblo just off the A369 road. The road has now been widened and resurfaced between Benadalid and Atajate. It is a lot better than it was.
Some quite thick and dark clouds had blown over. The mountains looked spectacular. Shafts of sunlight were breaking through and spotlighting the Sierra de las Nieves.
The hillsides are becoming a patchwork of autumn colours. Most of the trees are coniferous but the Sweet Chestnuts planted in large numbers throughout the valley change through a range of yellows and oranges.
We drove back stopping off at the Restaurante la Fuentecilla in Algatocín to get a menu. We've never eaten there but the restaurante looks very nice inside and the staff were very helpful. They do a lunchtime (2pm) menu of the day for 7€.
I took this photograph of Algatocín through the pine trees planted around the restaurante.
We got back to Benarrabá. Jenny and dave told us that Peter and Clarissa had called while we were out and that they were eating at the
Mirador de la Sierra restaurante in the village.
We walked down to introduce ourselves.
They were dining with Ron and Dianne Shotton. We all made our introductions. We'd met Ron and Dianne before. We had a brief chat and left them to enjoy their meal.
We felt two or three spots of rain as we walked home.
We took the dogs out up the track at the side of the house.
The weather brightened up and it was a very pleasant afternoon.
Jenny and Dave said they would like to try the Mirador de la Sierra restaurante. They had checked with the Mayor and it would be open this evening.
We met at 20:00h and walked down.
We had a laugh trying to translate the menu. (I'm going back on Sunday to help the Mayor's daughter to make an English version).
The starters were no problem. In fact the main course was no problem either except for poor Jane. Jane as you may know is a little fussy about eating fat. She played it safe and went for tuna steak with butter. She got her tuna steak, but it came with pork lard smeared on the top! Pork lard in Spain is a delicacy and is very tasty. I like it a lot although I resist eating it too often for health reasons. She scraped off the lard and ate her pieces of stuffed tuna, whilst we ate a lovely steak, partridge, and a mushroom with walnut revuelta.
It really was a good night. The food here is excellent. The Mirador de la Sierras is definitely one of the better restaurantes in the area. With a wider variety of gourmet Spanish dishes than any other that we have found. We're lucky that it is in Benarrabá!
The sweet was fantastic. A homemade Tiramisu.
We had a wonderful evening. Big thanks to Jenny and Dave they are excellent company.
It is my birthday. Thank you to everyone for the cards and presents.
Jane made me a very special 3D card with autumn leaves and dried flowers from the campo.
Apparently, I get to do whatever I want to do today ...
.... so, as it is a fantastic sunny November day.
We're off to the the beach for a paddle in the Med.
We definitely won't be going in any shops!
We'll also be watching the England v Argentina football match later today. (Owen is a Geordie)
Tonight we'll be watching the new Star Wars film. Revenge of the Sith.
I'm also going to cook a hot curry.
We headed down to the coast.
We passed a large flock of goats wandering down the road.
This is the view across the lower Genal and Guadiaro valleys. Jimera de la Frontera is in the middle of the photo in the far distance.
We stopped a few times to photograph birds, a kestrel on a post wouldn't turn its head for us.
We got to Sabinillas, parked and walked down for a coffee. It was hot in the afternoon sunshine.
It wasn't hot in the Med! Although after a fifteen minute paddle up and down the beach it seemed to warm up.
Here's Jane. As you can see we had the beautiful 2km beach to ourselves.
I managed to get a photograph of some Yellow Legged Gulls taking off. They look very like Herring Gulls but hardly ever make a sound.
We walked back to the car and drove to the Rio Genal.
There is water flowing still which is good news.
This is Gaucín.
We went down to Pub Bar Dami to wish him Happy Birthday.
Dami es mas joven, mas chico y mas feo!
We went home. I watched the football. YES! Michael Owen Double!
Cooked a curry, and watched the new Star Wars III Revenge of the Sith DVD.
It rained last night. Which is good news. This morning it is sunny although the air feels cooler than yesterday.
I'm going to go to the 'Mirador de la Sierra' restaurante to see about their menus and website.
We walked down at 12:00h, we met the Mayors daughter.
We messed around with the PC in the restaurante. Finally I got an internet connection.
They are preparing new menus. The Spanish version isn't complete so we can't translate it for him.
We walked back home, a little unsure why we went in the first place.
This mule was on the hillside near the restaurante. The white patch is caused by a plough rubbing on its side, the new hair comes through white.
We spent a quiet afternoon in the house.
I watched the Stars Wars DVD again!
We got an e-mail from Pam in Chiclana. She has kindly sent us a photograph of one of her Siamese cats. The cats are called Ying and Yang, which are great names for a pair of Siamese.
Paul and Elayne phoned, they've been reading the blog and are staying in Marbella. They want to visit Benarrabá and to meet us.
We've arranged to meet up tomorrow at 3-4pm.
We cooked cauliflower cheese and then watched a drama about a disturbed girl. Jane thought the ending was really scary.
I prefer films with aliens and at least one or two machine guns ... preferably both.
Just as we were going to bed we had an unexpected thunderstorm. (Sack the weather girl)!
It rained steadily all night. The thunder and lightening unsettled the dogs, who unsettled us, so we didn't get to sleep until the early hours.
It is raining, it isn't heavy, just a steady downpour. The skies are grey and there are wisps of cloud hanging in the valley. It always looks very beautiful and spectacular. Clouds drag along the mountainsides and in the valleys, they roll over the mountain tops opposite like ghostly waterfalls.
We hope it stops for when Paul and Elayne arrive.
Still it's good for the campo!
I've been remaking the Olive Oil webpage. It mysteriously deleted itself from the website last time. Hopefully there will be no more problemas. The page is hopefully interesting. It shows in photographs the process of picking and pressing on a very small scale rural level.
We met Paul and Elayne Fellows. It was still pouring down.
We had a drink and chat in Café Bar Guayacán.
They are staying in Marbella, but are avid blog readers and wanted to see sunny Benarrabá.
We walked around the village in the rain. We saw a wet plaza, a wet church and wet pretty streets. We called into Dami's for tapas and a drink.
We had a lovely afternoon with Paul and Elayne despite the rain. We hope that they will return to see Benarrabá when the normal sunshine is resumed.
Jane and I went into Café Bar Guayacán to play pool in the room upstairs.
It's been a long time but I won quite a few. The Spanish rules are very strange. If a shot is too awkward, you just roll the white from the cushion with your fingers to make it easier!
We came home, it had stopped raining. Jane cooked a meal.
We started watching a film but the rain started again and messed up the satellite signal.
We watched 'Shirley Valentine' starring Pauline Collins. This is one of Jane's favourite films ...
I'm up quite early. It rained again last night but has stopped now and looks as if it is clearing
Everywhere has had a really good soaking which is great news.
The weather did improve. It never stays wet for long.
Quite an uneventful day.
In the evening Carolyn who has just moved to Cortes de la Frontera phoned. She used to visit the website before she moved out here with her Border Collie. We hope to meet up soon.