I love surprises.

After 2 days of being snow bound, this morning we HAD to get out of the house, get the car out and get to town. HAD to because all 6 gas bottles were empty, the last one ran out sometime between 2am and 5am this morning. Although we have our tank, as yet it is still empty and we have no chance of getting it filled until all the snow has gone.

The sky was clear this morning, the sun was showing above the hills and the thaw was definitely happening, but it was going to take some time to thaw 8 inches of frozen snow.

The car was still covered in a thick layer of frozen snow which took us 15 minutes to chip off, then having loaded the car with 6 empty gas bottles, a shovel and a large tub of sand & grit we set off to see whether we could get up 400m of snow covered frozen dirt track - just about all up hill.

We had arranged to pick up our neighbours who couldn't get their car out this morning and I could see them standing on the hill, watching to see whether we would make. Neil was driving, there is no way I was going to try it, after all on one side of the track is a hill and the other a long drop - any deviance from a straight line was going to be trouble.

As we drove away from the house we have the steepest part of the drive to negotiate and to my surprise, the car got up there with very little difficulty and no slipping. Then we rounded a corner, the path was in shadow and the wheels started to spin and go nowhere. A few minutes of digging and a couple of shovels of grit and the car managed to make more progress. I walked along behond ready to leap into action with shovel & grit. I noticed that Kanet & Graham were no longer watching and assumed they had realised we would make it and had started to walk to meet us. I would find out later I couldn't be more wrong!

I could feel the snow melting but underneath was a layer of ice 2 inches thick so it was slow progress. There were a couple more stops but then we were over the worst, and the car seemed to settle. I jumped in and we managed to get to the end of our track and meet the tarmac road where the snow plough had been. A few minutes later were at our neighbours who, I discovered,having watched us get stuck a couple of times were convinced we would never make it and had gone to see whether they could dig there car out instead. All morning Janet just kept saying 'I can't believe you made it!' but we're made of tougher stuff, after all we're mountain people now.

The roads to Velez were clear and the town didn't have a sign of a single snowflake but all around the mountain tops were covered.

We feel a lot better now we have 6 full gas bottles, the majority of the snow has melted although there is enough to cause us problems in the morning if it freezes tonight, but we have a week of sunshine and double figure temperatures forecast so by the weekend we should be back to rolling, green hills and our first experience of being snowed in will be well and truly behind is.

While we were in town we called at the Post Office and that's where we got our surprise. A large box from our friends in California. Inside we had some very thick, warm socks - for the bad weather!, a lovely ornament and a jar of Andy's rub. Andy has perfected his rub over many years, and it is fabulous on BBQ meat. Recently he has started marketing it and he had sent us a jar over. When we opened it, the smell reminded us of our time in California with them. Of our wedding, which they held in their garden for us and did a hge BBQ party with huge pieces of beef coated in Andy's rub. Such a fabulous box of gifts and so unexpected - they'd even sent us the few Euro's they'd had left after their trip here last Autumn, so we were all able to have a coffee on them.

Thanks guys, loved it!

Check out Andy's Rub at http://www.andysrub.com/

Now we know what it's been like in the UK!

At 6am each morning Brinkley wakes me to go out. Now, it's normally still pitch black at 6am, so I open the front door just wide enough for him to get through and while he's out I make a coffee to take back to bed. Brinkley will paw at the door to get back in, and I again open it just wide enough to let him in and to keep out the cold weather and we all go back to bed for another couple of hours.

Yesterday morning when I let him back in - he was covered in snow. Now, this wasn't forecast. Heavy rain was forecast with snow above 1500m (we're at 1000m). After towelling him dry I peeked out of the door to see a light covering of snow on the car, pretty much like previous occasions, so I closed the door and went back to bed.

A couple of hours later, I knew we had a fair amount of snow as the tv signal started to break up on ITV, indicating the satellite dish was probably filling up with snow. Neil very chivalrously offered to don big boots and dressing gown and went up onto the roof terrace to clear the dish.

That was when we realised this was not snow like before. This was snow of mega-proportions. This was 'snowed in for the day' snow. It was 6 inches deep and still falling. We decided we would go back to bed for another hour as we wouldn't be going anywhere today.

By 10am the snow was over 8 inches deep, the dogs were struggling to walk through it and were jumping like tiny deer. Brandy was desperately looking for somewhere to pee, but the snow was upto his willie and he couldn't work out what to do!

We both decided to shower and then have breakfast and literally, as the last egg was finishing cooking - the power went off, then came back on, then went off again. After a few more on-off moments, it went off for good.

We kicked the calor gas fire into action to keep the house warm, and as we have a gas hob which doesn't require electric we were alright for cooking.

We decided to clear a little of the snow away to make an area that the dogs could walk and do what they needed to do, with out the snow freezing their little what'sits off, and then, as we still had no power, out came the cards and dominoes.

One thing about living close to your neighbour is that you can always check if their power is on/off too, or if it's just you. Here, well, we have a real hike to our neighbours through deep snow but with no electric, no phone, there was little alternative. So, at mid-day we got all our waterproof golfing gear out and started the trek up the hill.

By now it had started to warm up a little and the snow had turned to rain. I was so tempted to turn back, it was really difficult to walk uphill through snow which at times was upto our knees as it had drifted. The rain was heavy and blowing into our faces, but we decided to continue. We had plenty off layers on, we were in waterproofs and it had taken about half an hour to get dressed to leave the house - we were going to continue!

I have to say, if I thought the walk to the ruin on Sunday was hard work, it was a stroll in the park compared to walking through deep, fresh snow! We took several short rests on the way up but we finally made it. To say Janet & Graham were amazed is an understatement of enormous proportions. We happened to arrive just as Janet was making some Cola Cao (hot chocolate) and it was so welcome, especially after she offered to add some Brandy.

We stayed for a couple of hours and began to put all our waterproofs on again for the trek home. The whole valley looked wonderful and the walk home was easier as, in the main, it was down hill.

It was still raining and the snow was thawing rapidly. Whether it will all go before the temperature drops again tonight is anyone's guess. We are due some more rain overnight, but the snow level has been changed to 800m so if it does rain, we will get it as snow.

After 7 hours the power finally came back on, but we kept a candle lit for the rest of the evening..........just incase!

Now, be honest, how many of you though Southern Spain and Snow went together? Well, there are ski resorts around Granada - it's not all about sea & sun!

Ring, ring! Ring, ring!

For most people in the modern world, a ringing phone in the house is not only completely normal, but very often excessively intrusive.

For us, it is a forgotten sound.

Since we moved here in November we have had no mobile signal here. Until we had the Astra satellite dish installed, we didn't have the internet or the chance of a ringing phone.

Then in December, the dish was fitted. We could access the internet again, we could use e-mail again and we could use Skype.

But the luxury of sitting with a normal phone and hearing it ring still eluded us. We needed a number. Now we could have a choice. If we expect most incoming calls to be from the UK, we could have a UK number, if most calls will be from Spain, we could have a Spanish number. For an extra payment we could have 2 numbers, one Spanish and the other English. We opted for a local Spanish number and were told it would take about 10 days.

That was more than a month ago. Now, I assume it is a bit like BT releasing numbers in the UK to non-BT providers only here it is Telefonica. We have been able to make outgoing calls, but because it showed as number withheld, we did have the problem that people thought it was a sales call and didn't answer. We also had a problem when calling my brother, as for some reason he couldn't hear us yet I could hear him perfectly. He would wait a few seconds and then assume it was me and embark on a monologue for my benefit.

Finally, on Friday we got home to an e-mail with our new 950 number. We were so excited. E-mails and Skype messages flew off to all our friends and we sat back to wait for our first call.

And waited.....

And waited.

Eventually I got a Skype message from my brother, the calls were not connecting,he was just getting a continual tone!

This morning I contacted our Astra providers to ask what happens now, and less than half an hour later, I got the shock of my life. Sitting here, at the computer suddenly...............

IT RANG!

Finally, we have full contact with the outside world!

Hills can be deceptive.

As I look out of our front door across the rolling hills, it is easy to forget that we live 3,000ft up a mountain and that these hills are seperated by very steep ravines, and that the hills themselves are very steep.

Yesterday Janet & I decided we would take our dogs for a long walk across the hills to a ruin that we can see from the roadside. The ruin is about the same height as our house and Maria, who has the goats, oftens walks that way so how hard could it be?

The first hill we climbed should have given us some indication of the task at hand. Halfway up, gasping for breath I did managed to remind Janet that I am asthmatic, and that I didn't have an inhaler with me. After all, at 3,000ft, the air is a lot thinner than at sea level!

We eventualy got to the top only to find we had to walk down a hill equally steep on the other side. In the bottom of the rambla were heavy trees and bushes and so we would have to walk around them, and the same on the next hill and the next. Walking this way would actually take us further away from the ruin, not closer to it.

So, we decided we would be better to walk along the road until we got the the track that led upto the ruin rather than trying to go across country. We had two possible routes to get down to the road, retrace our steps or head down hill and hope we could find a way through the trees at the bottom that would come out by tarmac.

Having the dogs on a lead helps when you are going up hill, as they give a little bit of added effort - but the same cannot be said when going down a steep hill. In the end we decided to take a zig-zag route down the hill to take out some of the steepness and eventually we met up with tarmac.

10 minutes later we were once more climbing up a steep track, but this time we knew the ruin would be at the top. Distance is incredibly deceptive up here, what looks like a 5 minute walk can easily take 15 minutes and we needed a rest-break halfway up the hill. But, a little more effort and we finally made it to the top and the view was well worth it. The ruin was built on a plateau at the top of the hill and almost had a 360 view across to Velez, Puerto Lumbreras and down towards Santa Maria - stunning.

The ruin itself was a little scary, but we ventured in. Just inside the door was a broomstick so should we come across any wildlife we would both be grabbing for it. As with a lot of the old cortijos that have been allowed to fall beyond a state of dis-repair, this had a maze of little room and a very rickety looking staircase. We decided not to venture upstairs. The ceilings were really low and I couldn't imagine anyone above 5ft 6ins living there without having to permanently wear a crash helmet. The main part of the house still had a roof, although it was definitely in need of repair, and there were other 'rooms' where the roof had long since gone.

As we wandered around outside we saw the path that was the proper access route to the ruin, the track we had climed up looked only suitable for goats and cross-country bikes and we both had concerns about trying to walk back that way. We decided we would walk back along the path even though it seemed to be leading us further away from the route home, but we thought it should eventually meet up with the little tarmac road that runs past Janet's house. There were a couple of pine trees with caterpillar nests in them along theway so the dogs were put on their leads so that I could make sure they gave the trees a wide birth, and before long we were at the gates, well, 2 metal posts with a chain across them to prevent any vehicles from going down to the ruin.

From there it was a relatively easy walk back home, mostly level and a lot better underfoot than walking across the hills. We'd been out for about an hour but felt like more than 3. The dogs got home and hardly moved for the rest of the day.

Next time we'll head out down our Rambla and see what we can find. We cannt venture over our hill at the moment as the far side of the hill becomes a pine forest, beautiful to look at but out of bounds for us for at least 4 months while the caterpillars leave their nests and bury underground. No view is worth risking our dogs health(or ours, for that matter) for.

Never again will I under- estimate the effort needed to take a walk acrossthe rolling hills that we live amongst!

Early warning - Processional Caterpillars are on the move.

Each year there is the continual worry that the Processional Caterpillars that make their nests on the Pine Trees will cause problems for well loved animals. They are usually on the move between January and March and this year are on the move early. Already we have seen nests of a fairly large size with caterpillars leaving the nest. Fortunately, these are not close enough to be a problem to our pups and we only have 3 pine trees close to the house, all of which are small and none of which have any nests them - but they do get a daily inspection.







Many people get rid of the nests themselves by cutting them down and burning them, but this also has it's dangers as the hairs from the caterpillars, which carry the poison can be carried into the air and still affect people and animals. A nest can contain upto 300 caterpillars and that's a lot of hairs flying around! There is a section of the Guardia Civil, called Seprona, which will come and deal with any problem nests.

A Google search on Processional Caterpillars will bring up reams of information on them.

It's official, Brian is Dead!

But, we can have a second hand engine, only 6 years old and low mileage for less than we were prepared to pay to get Brian back on the road. And the ,mechanic has the engine in the garage AND if we aren't happy he'll take it out again.

Yeah!!!

Long live Brian!

He should be back on the road by the end of next week.

What a Saga!

It should have been a good day, a day of celebration! Finally, the gas tank had arrived!

But that was only the start of the problems!

We had been told we needed to construct a cage for the tank to be housed in, for safety reasons. This was built at the back of the house by us back in November to the size we had in a diagram drawn by the installer. Guess what - HE GAVE US THE WRONG SIZE!!!!!

On one side, he's written down the size of the tank - not the size the cage needed to be. OK, it's only 30cms to short (about 12 inches for those of you that still work in 'old money') but it means more concreting, we have to take down the side of the cage with the door in, extend both sides, which means more posts with more fencing. So frustrating. It turns out that he had given us 2 diagrams. When he first spoke to Neil he drew one on the back of the promotional leaflet with the right dimensions. Then when we went into the shop to say we would go ahead, he drew us another diagram for us to take to the fencing place to order the posts, door, fencing etc - and that one had the wrong measuerment on - but that's the one we worked to.

So, OK - we can sort that. The next problem was actually getting the tank into the cage (it will fit, there's just supposed to be more room around it (30cms more!). We had been told to construct the cage, and the tank would be lifted in from the top. Only,the wagon with the crane is too big to bring down our dirt track and so it couldn't go in over the top. Step 2 - remove one side of the cage - well, it saves us some work when we have to rebuild it next week. We nearly put double doors in and were told it wasn't necessary - in future we'll go with our own instincts.

Finally, the tank was in place and they began piping it up. In the meantime Manolo wanted to check the cooker as he is doing all the paperwork for our gas installation. Again he had been at the house before we fitted anything and told Neil what was needed. Now, it needed doing differently. The gas pipe came through the utility wall to the back of the cooker, but here we need a regulator that can be turned off accessible in the kitchen so, they had to re-pipe along the back of the house, bring the pipe in through the wall and run it through the back of a cupboard. Actually, they have done a really good job, because they fitted it inside the cupboard that has drawers, and the drawers still work perfectly but the not so pretty regulator is out of sight, yet still very accessible.

At this point they left for lunch leaving us with no heating and no hot water and hoping they would be returning later. We felt it was a strong probability as they had left quite a bit of their gear here.

Sure enough, a couple of hours later they were back on site and carried on with installing the tank. Once installed, we have to wait for the paperwork to be completed (i.e. after the cage is corrected) and then it will take about 7 days to get the tank filled - presumably this is to allow Cespa time to request the money for filling from our bank before giving us €400 worth of gas, but at least we can see an end to the twice weekly trips to town to get our bottles changed.

Finally, they had finished the installation and just needed to reconnect the system to run off the bottles until the tank is filled. By now it was starting to cool down as the sun was rapidly disappearing over the hill. It would be dark in about half an hour.

All done, they checked we had gas to the cooker - and yes, the rings burst into flame instantly. But the cooker's gas supply doesn't come through the boiler, so when they ran the hot water tap - oh dear, absolutley cold, cold, cold!

That was the start of an hour of head scratching and re-checking. We knew it couldn't be the boiler as they hadn't actually done anything to the boiler and it worked wonderfully before they arrived. Eventually they tracked it down to a faulty regulator they had installed on one of the pipes in the utility. Did they have another? No, but they could get one from town. By now it was dark, cold and getting late. I told the engineer we would need to go home with him for the night as it would be too cold here. Now, I'm not sure whether he though 'this crazy english woman means it' but he told me he would go and fetch a replacement and return straight away, that he would not leave us without heating and hot water. And just to prove he was coming back - he left his mate here!

Half an hour later he was back and within 10 minutes the replacement regulator was in place - and still, no hot water, no heating. Now it was seriously testing everyone's patience. We got the manual out for the boiler and Neil started to look through what he could check on the boiler - the manual is all in english so the engineers couldn't really get any help from it. The gas pressure was tested, the flow was tested - all was fine.

Eventually one of the engineers phoned his boss and had a chat. I couldn't make out much of the conversation but I could tell he was really puzzled why it didn't work. After a few minutes he came off the phone and marched outside saying 'un momento, un momento'.

And sure enough, un momento later we had hot water and we had heating. It turns out the regulator on the tank has to be a single, but because we have 2 pipes coming into the house they had put 2 on and it was restricting the flow of gas through the boiler to an extent that there wasn't enough to light it. It had been a long day for them but they had made sure they didn't leave us without heating and hot water.

So, finally we have a tank. This weekend we will re-do the cage and hopefully before too long we will have a full tank of gas which should last us several months, and that will be another job to tick off the long list of things'To-Do!'

Peace of mind.

You may remember not long after we moved into the new house I managed to lock us out. Well, I may not have admitted it was my fault, but it was me that closed the front door, the only door, without checking whether there were any keys on the inside. It resulted in Neil missing a days golf while we waited for the door man to break in for us.

Since then we have been asking if he could get us a lock that we could open even if there was a key in the other side. Because we have an offset lock, it has been difficult to find one and we have really, really tried, as I didn't want to do it again. Some of our friends had tried to make me feel better by saying 'oh, we all do it at some time' but trust me, I didn't feel any better. However, it did get us a guy to fit the fly screens and the door and window for the utility, so it wasn't altogether a bad thing.

We are still waiting for the big screens to go round the terrace and so we popped in yesterday, to see if they knew when they would be ready. We get a number of flies here when the sun is out, but also there are quite a few bees about as there are several beehives over the hill, and the bees are out after the almond blossom. It makes it a little annoying when we use the hot tub and if we wanted to eat out so we have decided to screen around the terrace.

Well, the screens won't be ready for another few weeks but they had finally got a lock for us to fit and it works brilliantly.

So, no more obsessive checking the inside of the door for keys before I close it, now all I have to compulsively check for is that I have my keys with me before I leave so I can get back in again!

Bye, bye Brian.

You may remember me saying that one of the conditions linked to moving to the country was that we had a second car, a little runaround, so that if Neil was at golf or I was out at a class or shopping, there was a means of transport if necessary. So, we bought Brian, a little white Citroen Saxo.


He ran beautifully, but didn't like starting if the weather was cold. So, I learnt how to start him when it was cold, he took a lot of warming up but eventually he realised I wasn't taking 'No' for an answer, and started. Once started - he would run all day.




We took him to the garage for them to check him out, make sure his heater plugs were ok, and they told us they had replaced a filter and done some cleaning up but the heater plugs were fine and charged us €70! We asked about some new tyres and the mechanic told us we shouldn't spend money on tyres just yet, until we were sure there wasn't anything more serious with Brian.

He must have had his suspicions........

There is something more serious with Brian!

He didn't get out much so, on Christmas Eve, we too Brian when we went up to our neighbours a short 400m away, he got us there without any hint of what was to come later.



At a few minutes past midnight we decided we should leave so that we didn't bump into Santa on his rounds. Brian started, reluctantly, but then, it was cold. As soon as I tried to move - he stalled. He did this 3 times and then he wouldn't start!



We decided we would walk back to the house, in the dark, on the dirt track, without a torch (yes, we know to take one with us now!) to fetch big car and rope. In Spain it is not allowed to tow a vehicle but we were only taking him down the Campo, so we thought we would be ok.



We managed to get him back, parked him up infront of the house ............



......and he's been there ever since. We have tried jump leads from Big Car, we have tried squirting Easy Start into the engine, and nothing.



So, today we went back to the garage to let them know that we had a very poorly Brian.



I asked the mechanic if they could come and collect him and he reminded me that most motor insurance policies in Spain include breakdown recovery, and it would be free, whereas he would have to charge us. So, when we got home I rang the insurers, and he was correct. After 10 minutes on the phone we had a breakdown truck on it's way to collect Brian in half an hour.



And so, it was with some sadness that this was the scene outside our house, earlier today.




I will call at the garage tomorrow and see when they will be able to check what the problem is and give us an idea of how much it will cost so that we can decide what to do with Brian.

Poor Bri!

Why, oh why, oh why?

I remember having to go through all our cupboards back in Sheffield, deciding what we would bring to Spain and what we would get rid of. Hindsight has shown, as with many people, that we should have brought a lot of stuff we didn't and some of the stuff we did bring really wasn't that important.

But I did have a cabinet in the dining room full of various glasses - and I remember thinking at the time that over the years I had never managed to have a full set of matching glasses for more than about a month - but I had lots of very nice glasses in sets of 5!

It started with my first ever set of glasses that weren't from coupons we got everytime we filled the car up with petrol. This was a set of 4 very pretty wine glasses, all hand etched and bought as a wedding present (the first time around) by my work colleagues. They were kept in the cabinet for special occassions and on their second outing they were reduced to 3 after I accidentally knocked one against the tap as I rinsed the soap from it to avoid having marks when it dried! I remember debating long and hard whether to bring the remaining 3 with me to Spain, after all they had been in my cupboard over 25 years and had survived much longer than my first marriage - but in the end, I didn't bring them.

I have always enjoyed a glass of wine from time to time, but over the last few years have found that I enjoyed it better from a small wine glass, when all the time wine glasses seemed to be getting bigger. So shortly before leaving for Spain I bought 6 small wine glasses, not expensive as I have learnt over the years that the more expensive the glasses, the quicker they are reuced to 5.

These survived the packing and the move to Spain. These survived the move from one villa to the other and then up to the new house. These didn't survive being used for dessert.

We had friends over last Thursday and then more on Saturday and Neil, in his culinary flair mood, decided that he wanted to do a dessert of different layers of jelly (homemade, of course) and that they would look better in glasses than dishes so the artistry could be appreciated. We had the 6 matching wine glasses and on Thursday there would be 4 of us - and of course we needed to try it before we served it to guests, so 2 extra for us.

He took so much care over his layers of Strawberry, Mango and then Kiwi fruit jellies, topped with custard over sliced banana and finished with a flourish of fresh cream & a strawberry. As he leant over for the 6th glass to put the final flourish he caught it on the work top and the stem broke clean away from the base.

And so, the tradition continues - once again we have a matching set of 5 wine glasses.

Last Saturday there were 6 of us (fortunately, one of the guys preferred beer with his dinner, so the set of 5 glasses worked just fine). Neil had this time used his 6 cocktail glasses to layer the jelly into and it looked very striking. These were from IKEA about a year ago, and I think were about €1 each - I have found that the length of time I can keep a set of 6 glasses together is directly proportional to the cost. The cocktail glasses survived until the meal, they survived until the washing up BUT they didn't survive long enough to go back in the cupboard. One decided to make a 'break' for freedom and jumped off the draining board and shattered on the floor tiles.

I can now, hand on heart, formerly declare and confirm that there is no longer a single set of 6 matching glasses of an kind in my cabinet.

How do I do it?

Don't you just love those 'Well I never....' moments?

On Boxing day night, (I always think there should be a proper phrase for it but I've no idea what!) we were invited up to our neighbours on the hill for tapas and drinks. Janet had been given a lovely recipe book for various tapas dishes and she wanted to try a few out.

She had also invited Maria and Bernardo, who are our nearest Spanish neighbours. I had met Maria once before, while sitting in the car at the roadside trying to do some internet stuff in those distant days of not having an internet connection at the house - wow, that seems such a long time ago! Anyway, Maria has a herd of goats, about 100, which she walks everyday for about 3 hours, and she was walking them past the top of our land when she passed me in the car. I had a chat with her, using all my best practiced Spanish phrases and she walked away.
We had heard about Bernardo, but had never met him.

So it was good to meet them both and, as they don't speak any English, the majority of the evening was spent with Janet, Graham and myself trying to have a conversation in both English & Spanish, and with the help of the dictionary we managed quite well.

Maria & Bernardo have lived a rural, farming life among the almond trees and have raised a family here, some of which are still local and others have moved away. One of whom, also called Bernardo, works at a restaurant in.....

Yes, you've guessed it.....this is the 'well, I never' moment.....

San Juan de los Terreros!

Now, I did remember, through a slightly intoxicated state, when were at Pepa's for Halloween, one of the waiters I was talking to told me that he was from Velez Rubio. Hey Ho, it turns out that our nearest Spanish neighbours are his parents. I know Velez isn't a massive town, but it does have about 7,000 inhabitants so I still think that is a genuine 'well I never' moment.

Such things just never fail to amaze me!

Our weather is bizarre!

The last few days have been really cold (OK, not as cold as the UK has been for the last fortnight), it's been around -2c at night. The days have been incredibly windy and coming from the north so they've had a real cold edge, so much so I went to the market on Saturday and bought cold weather stuff - thick tights for under my trousers, woolly hat and big scarf.

As it started to get dark yesterday it started to snow....

and snow.......

and snow!

The forecast had said snow was likely above 800m and we live at 1085m. I can be so precise because we live at the summit of our hill which has a road sign declaring the summit point - 1085m!

We have been leaving the heating on all night and 24/7 heating goes through our little gas bottles at an alarming rate. The people where we change our bottles are becoming our new best friends. While we wait for our big tank we have no choice but to use the small bottles but where they have been lasting about a week, at the moment they are barely lasting into day 5. We have a system of 4 bottles, 2 on/2 off. This means when 2 run out we switch them over to the other 2 and can then disconnect the empties and take them to exchange for full ones.

By the time we went to bed it had stopped snowing but was incredibly cold. I didn't think we would have anymore snow as the sky was clear and I could see stars - not a snow cloud around.

What I didn't expect was to get up this morning and find...............

....... it had more or less all gone!

Overnight the temperature had risen from -2c to +4c!

I can only assume it was the wind direction that had changed. As we drove into town to change yet more bottles there was a few traces of snow still hanging on to the north facing slopes of the mountain but they would soon be gone.

By mid-afternoon we were seeing sunshine and +10c.

In the sun the thermometer was showing +20c.

The forecast shows the next 2 weeks are mild, daytime temperatures around 14-16c! The snow is only expected at heights above 2,000m, well above us.

Bizarre!

Fresh stuff.

I always love shopping for fresh stuff. This morning we wanted a variety of fruit for some desserts we are doing (well, Neil is doing) for later this week when we have friends coming over for dinner. We use a small shop, again - it's someone's front lounge which they have converted into a shop on a normal residential street - and the stuff she sells there is fabulous and so cheap. We decided we would splash out on some strawberries which are not cheap at this time of year but smell and taste delicious - but they are €5 a kilo (that's a lot of strawberries and we only needed 1/4 kilo).

When I tipped it all out ready to put away, it looked so colourful I couldn't help but take a photo. The stuff that looks like spring onions is actually wild garlic, a very strong flavour and really pungent smell, we have to double bag it before storing in the fridge or every time we open the fridge door we're nearly knocked off our feet, but it's fabulous for cooking in stews and stuff.

Something we are still experimenting with are the chillis we buy here, Neil hasn't been able to find any hot enough for him and this morning, a lady in the shop suggested we would probably need to grow our own, so that's something else to plan into the vegetable garden next year!

'Cabalgada', the 3 Kings Parade.

Spain celebrates the Day of the 3 Kings in a big way, and today - the 6th January, is a nationwide public holiday. There is a parade on the night of the 5th January symbolising the arrival of the Kings and so, well wrapped up against the cold, we drove down into town to see the parade.

The square is very pretty at night, with all the lights on,

and there was a big crowd and lots of children waiting for the Kings to go past, as they throw out boiled sweets for the kids as they drive around town.

The floats are pulled by huge tractors, and I especially liked this big orange one.

The King's looked quite splendid in their costumes and I hope they had good thermal underwear on, because it was freezing cold last night.

The parade circled around town and ended up outside one of our larger stores that has a whole basement floor dedicated to toys & games at this timeof year, and who had donated lots of gifts for the Kings to give out to the local children. A lovely gesture, but we missed it because we were back in the bar having a warm.

For more on this tradition is Spain, take a look here:

http://www.esflamenco.com/scripts/news/ennews.asp?frmIdPagina=305

Finally, I remembered my camera!

For a number of weeks I have been trying to remember to take my camera when I go into town, and finally - this morning, I remembered!

Velez-Rubio is surounded by mountains and can be seen well before we get there on the motorway, it takes about 15 minutes from our house, 10 minutes on the mountain road and 5 minutes on the motorway.


There is a lovely new roundabout and archway as you enter the town, and you can't see it from this photo - but there are fountains in the roundabout as well.

Where ever you walk around town, the mountains are always present.

This is actually the main street through the town. It is just wide enough for one car and when we first drove onto it we really felt that we shouldn't be there - but it really is the main road through town.

There are little squares and pedestrian areas all over, I love this one because of the fountains that come out of the floor, run down and then re-cycle the water through a series of grates. It isn't always working so I was pleased to see that we timed it right this morning.

All over town, there are lovely, quaint, cobbled streets:

And not all of them are wide enough for traffic:

But some are wide enough for 2-way traffic:

The Town Hall is in a lovely, big square which also has bars around where you can chill out with a coffee and watch the world go by:

And next to the Town Hall is the big church, which dominates the sky-line as you drive towards Velez.

The domes of the church can be seen from all over the town:

Tonight is the parade of the 3 Kings, a big celebration in Spain, and we are going back into town to watch it. It's going to be cold this evening so I dare say we will be popping into one or two of the bars for a drink and a warm through. Hopefully, I'll remember my camera again.

We just love walking around town, hopefully, you've enjoyed seeing a taste of were we now live.

Not a good way to start the New Year.

A few days ago, Neil woke early complaining of a sore throat. When he woke a couple of hours later he had a heavy head cold. Good wifey that I am, I drove down into town to get some stuff from the chemist, having described in my best spanish what was wrong with him and answering a few simple questions from the pharmacist.

€12 later I had some sachets of stuff to be diluted in water and taken after eating and a nasal spray.

So, day 1 was a streaming head cold, day 2 was fatigue and congestion.

Day 3 - was my day 1, yes, in true share and share a like - he had passed it on to me. Fortunately Neil was starting to feel a little better so it was his turn to look after me. Today is my day 2 - and I'm no longer unable to move without taking my box of tissues with me. It was just as well that there were plenty of sachets in the box as we are now both taking them, they look a lovely orange colour but the flavour couldn't be less orangey if it tried. It is best to have something sweet available to have immediately after drinking them - what an excuse to eat chocolate!

We were invited out for New Year's Eve but didn't go because Neil felt so unwell, and we haven't been out of the house since. So, the first few days of the new decade have passed us by in a bit of a blur. Hopefully, we'll both be over it in the next couple of days, in the meantime the dogs are taking themselves for walks and the days pass by with us realising just how much rubbish is on TV, despite having all the Sky programs to choose from. Remind me again why I pay so much every month to Sky!