Winter Fruit.....

We received an email from our neighbours in Sweden yesterday confirming that it was snowy but relatively mild and our house was in fine fettle. Monica has salvaged a Pomello tree we've had in a huge pot for over 30 years from the house and is keeping it safe in her farmhouse. This is a relief to J who had been worried that it would have inevitably died in the extreme cold of an empty house a few hundred miles from the Polar Circle, where the view will probably be like this from the front porch at this time of year:

But here in Spain it's still blue skies and sunshine although the temperatures must have dropped to below zero overnight because there was a ground-frost in the field behind the house this morning when I surfaced at just before 09:00, having been dragged from bed by Jack who wanted out for a Pee, followed by breakfast.

Yesterday we stoped at road-seller's fruit stall where he had Oranges, Avocados and these strange fruits: Chirimoyas, or Custard Apples, in English. He gave us one to try and we bought a couple. Luscious and interesting taste, bananaish in parts. Apparently they grow prolifically on the coast and are widely available from October through winter. They originate in Latin America, it seems.




Having bought these, and driving home from a shopping expedition in the lovely town of Salobrena, we atopped to collect some Almonds from a few bushes and then came home to watch a DVD of 'The Killing'. It was strange to listen to the Danish language; we understood a surprising amount!

J Almond picking in the hills above the Med:

And we found this lovely White Rabbit gambolling in a village garden, well fenced, not far from the house yesterday morning:

Although it was warm on the Costa Tropical, the high peak of Mulhacin is coated in snow, with more forecast over the next few days. This suits and pleases J who hopes to get some skiing in over at the resort of Pradollano, near Granada:

Salobrena is a delightful, hilltop town with an old Arabic castle at its top. It was the first time we'd done the tourist thing and it was truly lovely and worth the effort:

Today has been a day of progress, of sorts: Panda arrived at the door looking for food this morning and after I'd gone out and fed her and her mother, plus one other, followed me back to the house and into the Entrada/Hallway. She stayed in for about 15 minutes or so, prowling around, sniffing, rubbing her scent glands against bits and bobs and generally being quite friendly and curious. She even rubbed against me, head-banging my hand a couple of times. All unexpected but welcome. I only hope that Charlie is not upset by the scent when he returns later!:

Have a Great New Year.

Have Yourself A Very Merry Whatever.....

What a difference a year can make..........another beautiful, warmish, blue-sky and sunshiney day here. Last year, and for some years before, this time of year meant snow, snow and minus thirty or colder. And, though it is pretty hereabouts and the weather is most welcome in December - especially today on the Solstice itself - 'tis hard not to miss the sheer beauty of a winter in northern Sweden where a white Xmas is pretty much guaranteed!

From all of us here in the Sierra Nevada , (J back yesterday having retired on 20th) whatever your poison, or thoughts, have a good 'un and don't forget to over-indulge like mad! A pictorial greeting to you all:

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:

Let Us Get Together.....

Here's John Wayne, as I call him. In theory, the stray/feral cats are his. At least they live in woodpiles etc., around his finca home. I've even seen him throw them the odd scrap of fish on occasion. But he takes no responsibility in reality for the poor bleeders and watches my feeding them with barely concealed amusement. If he accepted responsibility for them, he'd be obliged by Spanish law to both microchip and anti-Rabies them all, at considerable expense. It must surely be sensible to have the adults neutered!:

I was up on the Ragua pass, at about 2000 metres, leading over the hills towards Granada, and came across this thing. It had solar panels on top and also out alongside it and a diesel generator running full-tilt, breaking the peace. Needless to say, it was a Brit, huddled inside with a cup of tea or some'at. Very noisy whatever!:

Impossible to get Blogger to put pix where wanted without huge effort, dragging etc! Absolutely pain in arse, so will try loading some in andtexting around them, as GZ suggested a while back. There we are, for example. The above photo should have been following this text but inserts at top of page....always! In fact the new Blogger is crap, so I must change to Wordpress I think!

The weather here remains sunny and warm, with temps hovering around the low 20s for most of the day. It does, however, get chilly when the sun sinks and, having managed to get a load of wood, -(Olive, not my favourite) I need the wood-burner in the evenings now. 'Tis pleasant to sit with me feet up and a glass of plonk in front of the fire, Jack snuffling at my feet and Charlie sprawled on my lap. Snug and cosy, for the most part. I pop down to the bar for the odd beer and Tapas and make forays into the nearby town of Cadiar from time to time for supplies and Cat & Dog food. There's a Brit shop-cum-cafe that sells tinned Haggis (I kid you not) and a variety of over-priced UK foodstuffs on the outskirts of the place. I stop for coffee there from time to time and the owners are very nice, friendly people. It certainly attracts the Brits in considerable numbers on a daily basis.

Having got talking to the owners I was amazed to learn that they moved here from Glasgow and, in fact, lived very, almost scarily, close to where I was brought up, a few hundred yards away. A surprising discovery for us all, including my old mate from London, who also lived there before moving South about 30 years ago, and Kenny Dalglish who was in my class at school with us. Here he is, (not Kenny) being an idiot (as usual for a recently retired university lecturer) in Malaga and on the road down to the coast:

One of the neighbours has a sign up, presumably in preparation for the Xmas market here. Live Rabbits for sale: and here they are hopping innocently around in near-Stygian gloom. I assume the big lad in the cage at the back is the prize stud:

The sight of this lot reminded me of our time in Sweden when, for a while in deepest winter, we looked after our Kraut neighbours' huge, expanding bunch of bunnies. They took them up there from Germany with a view to breeding them for meat. In the end they ate none of them, but spent a lot on feedstuff and, with about twenty of the boogers running riot in a large specially constructed area, finally gave up and, I believe, simply killed the lot and fed them to the local Fox population in the surrounding forest:

This is my old buddy, one I used to feed in the garden every day during our last spell there in winter. It's already pretty cold up there with a forecast minus 20 today. Oddly enough, you do get used to it and it is often pretty spectacular:

Me, I'm still looking out for a Turkey. Must be possible........

You Know That's Something I Crave.....

It's not every day that you find this kind of thing hanging on a washing line, in my limited experience!:

But there it was this morning on a neighbours rooftop line: a few rows of Morcilla/Black Pudding and a trio of Chorizo links. What a tasty treat to set before the neighbours!

I assume it means a family killing has recently occurred, with a pig being slaugtered and the bounty doled out between family members. To judge by the amount received here, our neighbours must be rather low in the pecking order! Still, never look a gift horse etc, etc.

There used to be a strong tradition of this annual killing and distribution throughout this region and most books on the area mention it. The Matanza is, however, now largely a thing of the past, with shop-bought produce filling the gap, albeit leaving a cultural void in its wake. On one of our earliest visits to the village, the neighbour of our Brit friends had a whole pig in its constituent parts hanging in their rooftop tower/hutch affair, but they have now given up on this and today is the first sign we've seen of it for many years.

My visit to the UK was uneventful save for being dragged off to Tin Pan Alley/Denmark Street by our French friend, Patrick, who longed to see some decent acoustic guitars, Martins, Gibsons and Lowdens. He was satisfied with the excursion and also enjoyed the music events we managed to cram into the trip. I left to return here with an old Scottish friend before Patrick returned to France but J stepped in and took him off on a grand sight-seeing trip on his last day there.

We returned here to a dismal day of soggy cloud and rain, replaced on the next day by the usual sun and blue skies. As it's continued since. J returned yesterday for a few days and today we had Toastada at the local bar and a few beers to slake our thirst in the warm sunshine. Temps about 24 degrees or so today. Pretty acceptable with Xmas approaching, I'd say.

J returns for her final shifts before retiring and returning here on December 20th. I'm trying/hoping to get my hands on a Turkey out here and assume, given the number of Brits down on the coast, it should be possible! We do have some Duck and Chicken available, if not!

Charlie is still behaving like a near normal cat: his offering today, brought in yesterday sometime, I'm sure, was this poor Mole:

The stray/feral cat population now views me as an essential part of its daily routine. Today the Kittens came calling, yelling hungrily outside the door until I went out and fed them all. The little masked one now tolerates my stroking her (I think!) while feeding and the others are also becoming used to my presence. Anyway most of the hissing has stopped, which must mean something!:

And finally, a few evenings ago, I heard a clamouring/clattering/ ringing of bells and looking out found a herd of Goats being walked along the street by the house. Now this used to be commonplace when we first came here but it's the first time I've witnessed it since our return. They don't have leave pile of shit in their noisy wake, though!: