Alone again, naturally......

This was Mecina, our village, this morning, taken from the road to Cadiar:

I'm worried about Ginger, the Marmalade kitten. Normally it hangs out with the Masked One but today it was on its own. It's clearly lost weight and is extremely hungry. No doubt, it needs worming, he's a bit bony at present, but how do you do that to a feisty feral? It spotted me at the computer and came roaring across to wail for food. When I went to the door, I found it outside and it simply threw itself up at the small window, clawed a few times and fell back down. Luckily the glass is reinforced. I fed it, whereupon its buddies arrived as usual. At one point in its desperation to reach the food in my hand, it jumped up and bit my finger - by mistake, aiming for the old fork I use to scoop it from the tin. I hope it doesn't have Rabies! Can't see why it should! I do admire its plucky nature. It is a real character and I'll keep an eye out for it and try to ensure it has full rations for a bit, if nothing else.

Here he is, this morning:

A few hours ago there was a God-almighty racket outside when two local hunting dogs appeared, trailing behind their assumed disinterested owner, and threw themselves into the pack of cats. From the initial sounds, I'd say the cats were winning and giving the dogs more than they'd bargained for. I saw Panda appear and race for cover into Maria's part-open door. The dogs eventually resurfaced and wandered off. Licking their wounds, I'm sure!

Here's Panda, re-emerging from the safety of Maria's doorway:

Yesterday afternoon, to my astonishment, a BP oil tanker thingy trundled down the Calle. I expected it to get stuck or have terrible trouble trying to return and turn at the Fuente but instead it ventured further down to deliver fuel to a nearby house. Now to get there meant negotiating decidedly narrow streets - little more than paths really - and ones that I'm wary of driving in my little Renault 4 type thingy. To cap it all, the driver then departed by continuing downhill which has two very sharp turns in very narrow, single-track roads. He must be a brave - or foolhardy - man:

I took Jack off with me this morning to get some Frontline for him. Bloody expensive stuff at 20 Euros for three thingies. I'm sure it used to come in packs of six when first launched many years ago. Now it's always packs of three. Inflation in action, I suppose.

En route down to Cadiar I stopped at a Mirador/viewpoint above the nearby village of El Golco. This is a village whihc was virtually destroyed by unregulated bulding years ago, when we were first here. At that time, builders were busily putting up apartment blocks as holiday homes for mostly Germans and Dutch, all without proper planning consents. Indeed for some time there was talk of demolishing the lot but that seems to have gone and they have been left intact, though I've no idea how many of the flats are actually occupied, or when:

I alo took the opportunity to visit the Barberia in Cadiar as it was empty and have a pre-Xmas mopchop for eight Euros. Not bad value, although it used to be only six not that long ago! Here are a couple of pix of Cadiar that I remembered/thought to take today.

A pleasant, lush and generally verdant valley on the outskirts:

The general surrounding countryside:

The town itself with snow on the high Sierra beyond: