Monkey Bus Pass

Friday fill-ins

2012-01-27T20:30:00.002+01:00

1. It's time to put my feet up.

2. Dish up the Coq au Vin ... and don't forget the vin!

3. I'm trying to ignore the ironing.

4. "Are you going to the disco tonight?", was the last funny comment I received.

5. Please send sherbet dabs.

6. Get me some shoulder padding 'cause I'm in it for the long haul.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to not watching the snooker, tomorrow my plans include not watching the football and Sunday I want to go for a walk!

A quiet, hazy Saturday morning...

2012-01-14T13:46:00.001+01:00

...with no need to slog around the shops, but not wanting to sit at home all day, we decided that a quiet stroll along the Paseo filled the bill. Quiet being the key word; we hardly saw a soul apart from a young woman in running gear loping along accompanied by a panting, tubby Shitsu and an older couple sitting in the sun. She was on a mobility scooter and we noticed it was sporting a numberplate on the back, a similar size to those on motorbikes. We surmised that she had brought it from some other European country where stricter regulations are enforced.

Here there seems to be no National norm, each town's police force has its own ideas. An acquaintance, struck down by polio as a child and left with one child size leg as the rest of him grew normally, drove out from the UK with a specially adapted car that allowed him to be as mobile as he needed to be in his new home. Some years later, through no fault of his own, he was involved in an accident and his specially adapted car was a write off. His Spanish insurance company was only prepared to cough up the value of a normal car of its age, and this did not cover the cost of adaptation let alone replacing the car. His solution was to buy a sturdy mobility scooter with a large battery that promised a good mileage. He lived in a residential complex a couple kilometres outside town, and he would trundle down the hill to do his shopping, go to church and even go out at night for meals. As he grew more confident he even went as far as Moraira, holding up the traffic as he followed the winding coast road. All went well until he decided to change his living arrangements. He was finding it increasingly difficult to manage at home on his own, but he could not afford to pay the cost of residential care where he was. Someone at his church told him that she had a friend in Altea who took in elderly PGs and was a much cheaper alternative to a large residential home. The upshot was that he made the move and was very happy in his new home, but the new local bobbies were not very happy with him. As he began to explore his new environment, he found his scooter was too wide for many of the very narrow footpaths in his new town, and often he had to take to the road. He was informed, very politely, that if he was using his scooter on the road in their town, that he needed insurance, lights front and rear and he would have to apply for a numberplate at the Town Hall, then pay road tax and get his vehicle MOTed...

It seems that the UK is considering new rules for "invalid carriages" as well.

Friday Fill-ins

2012-01-13T22:20:00.000+01:00

I found this Friday Fill-in link on Hazel's Blog and she found it on Suzie's....you can play along by going here.

1. When I looked out the window this morning it was still dark.
2. Jealousy doesn't make sense to me.
3. Remind me to get gas tomorrow.
4. Reading is something I love to do!
5. TP is a North American tent?
6. I cleaned the refrigerator recently and I found saffron.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to Sicily Unpacked, tomorrow my plans include lighting the log burner for the first time this Winter and Sunday, I want to finish the scarf I am knitting!

The Tidings...

2012-01-10T19:03:00.000+01:00

"You tell her", "No you tell her, you're a better Arbinjo than me..." Malcolm cleared his throat. "It's the Monkey Bus lot, they've taken a vote on where to go next, and they would like to come and stay with you for a while."

"So where are they now?" I asked, wondering how much time I had to prepare myself. "Benidorm" said Malcolm, "Ruby-Lou has got work as an extra on the filming of Benidorm; she's playing the mascot on Madge's scooter, but that finishes this week, and Pointy Kitty and Bracket were giving rides on the beach, but Bracket got accused of looking up a Dollybird's skirt and got banned. Clooney is busking outside The Talk of the Town, Munkima and Bossman are looking after the youngsters and the others are wheeling and dealing on the markets."

"And what have you been up to Earl?" I turned to EG, and he looked nervously down at his hands and swung his legs. "Mmm....this and that....please Mrs T....can we come home?"

2012-01-09T08:51:00.000+01:00

Who should turn up today but EG and Malcolm. "We are the Arbinjoes" he said, as he climbed through the cat flap after Malcolm. I raised an eyebrow and turned to Malcolm for elucidation. He rolled his eyes. "He means Harbingers" he said, in his best Stephen Fry voice. "We are the harbingers of tidings, but whether glad or bad is a matter of opinion."

"You'd better come in then boys and give me your news...it's been a while since you paid me a visit." I settled them at the table on the balcony and waited....

Sunny Saturday

2012-01-07T20:57:00.003+01:00

On my way into town this morning I pulled over to look at the birds on the Salinas. I think someone must be feeding them, because as soon as they saw my car stop, a small flock of Sooty Terns started to circle and then swam around looking hopeful...

That tree...

2012-01-06T09:45:00.006+01:00

...is as big as ever...

and it is not the only thing growing. All of my orchids are making new flower spikes. Some of them are rebudding on last years stems as well as producing new stems and I am fiddling with them every morning trying to get the new stems to grow towards the supports.

My favourite method if the new stem is fairly close to a stick is a rolled up post-it note slipped over stick and stem; as the stem grows I move it upwards, the stem grows straight up towards the light coming in at the top of the tube,

and as it gets longer and stronger I use squeezy hair clips to hold it in place.

This one was some distance away, so I have been coaxing it into the right direction with a strip of folded kitchen roll. You an see where this plant is sprouting from last year's old bare flower spike as well as making a new one.

Specialised orchid pots cost an arm and a leg; my solution to growing on babies is to use plastic water bottles...the bottom half of the bottle holds water and the neck of the top half rests in the water. The new roots grow down towards the moisture and it is easy to see their progress.

I Lost a Year....

2012-01-04T14:22:00.003+01:00

...and I shall be very happy if I don't find it again. Things are now improving, Bossman is walking again, no longer needing morphine for his back pain, PSA levels are rock bottom, and we just need to wait for the hospital to send for him to sort out his eyes. The left is a straightforward cataract operation, the right eye is slightly more complicated. The TIA in May left him unable to move the eye to the right, only to the left, and he doesn't seem to be able to move it in co-ordination with the left eye either, so he has constant double vision and balance and co-ordination problems. I have cobbled him up a cardboard eye patch from a bit of Christmas card, packing tape and soft paper tape and at home he covers his cloudy left eye so he only sees one TV screen, plate, wife etc., and when he goes out he has a black paper patch on his glasses, or else wears his wraparound sunglasses. The major problem with only using one eye is the inability to judge distances! Cups miss tables, plates miss shelves and boiling water is just as likely to end up in the sugar basin as in the teapot...but who am I to complain? At least he is now able to walk into the kitchen and make himself a drink, and by moving my office chair in there for him to use, he can even cook a meal if I get the ingredients out of high and low cupboards, as he can whizz himself around without any danger of him falling over. He has fallen out of the chair once; he tried to get the potatoes out of the bottom cupboard while I was out shopping and he leant so far forward the chair rolled away from him and he landed on the floor. At first he thought he would stay there until I returned, but he said he was getting so cold that he crawled into the living room onto the carpet, and once there, he was able to pull himself up using the coffee table and the back of the couch. Maybe he needs a safety belt!

.....but going...

2010-02-09T09:58:00.000+01:00

...going...

....gone... as far as it is going.....this time.

Give it a month and the monster will be covered in leaves again and sprouting to the skies, but at least for the rest of the winter we shall have some sun hitting that end of the house and balcony.

Here today....

2010-02-08T09:56:00.000+01:00

More Coffee Art

2010-01-09T13:09:00.000+01:00

Wednesday Water

2010-01-06T09:15:00.000+01:00

New Year's Day

2010-01-01T15:36:00.004+01:00

It was a beautiful this New Year's morning, paracetamol and codeine had worked their miracle on Bossman's back pain, so we walked along the Fossa. As we rounded the corner from Santa Marta, the Rock was silhouetted in the sunlight, and out from my pocket came my camera. "You can't take a picture here, into the sun, it won't turn out..." he said...

The only sign of last night's revels was a sad silver balloon floating in and out on the surf.

Wednesday Water

2009-12-30T09:00:00.000+01:00

The Mystery of the Orchid Continues...

2009-12-20T10:34:00.004+01:00

The Mothers' Day orchid is in flower again, with yet another subtle variation.

These are the flowers produced in May; dark pink with a slightly speckled effect on the lower half.

These were produced in September; red and cream with pronounced speckles. I thought there was a slight possibility that there were two different plants in one pot, but...

... here we are in December, and these flowers have opened; they are on the very same stem as the May flowers, but rather than being dark pink, are the red of the September flowers, without any speckles.

I need to do more research...

Wednesday Water

2009-12-16T09:40:00.000+01:00

Wednesday Water

2009-12-09T09:34:00.000+01:00

Wednesday Water

2009-12-02T09:26:00.000+01:00

Wednesday Water

2009-11-25T09:24:00.000+01:00

Wednesday Water

2009-11-18T09:26:00.000+01:00

Wednesday Water

2009-11-11T15:11:00.000+01:00

Wednesday Water

2009-11-04T07:30:00.000+01:00

Wednesday Water

2009-10-28T09:42:00.000+01:00

Wednesday Water Went Walkabout

2009-10-21T09:26:00.000+02:00

I had all of October's WWs on scheduled posting. Blogger seems to have chewed some of them up and spat them out in a dark corner somewhere, so I am trying to do them again, with more success this time, I hope.

Wednesday Water

2009-10-07T09:33:00.001+02:00

Wednesday Water

2009-09-30T09:51:00.000+02:00

Bird Bath...

Mystery

2009-09-29T09:31:00.000+02:00

These two flower spikes are growing from the same plant. The dark pinky red flowers are the ones it had in May when I bought it, and the spotty ones are the ones it has grown since I have had it in my care. I wonder how it did that? Maybe I'm not doing something I should be doing...

Vandalism?

2009-09-28T16:16:00.004+02:00

This was taken on site at the Roman Villa down in the sand dunes and shows the conservation work that has been done by archaeology students in the few weeks that the Town Hall could fund this year. Do you see those regularly spaced blank bits on the left? They were made by the spikes on a bulldozer shovel wielded by someone who thought he could destroy the evidence before the authorities stopped his plans to build on the site...

Local archeology

2009-08-27T16:34:00.004+02:00

The Summer Season is coming to a close on the Medieval Ifach dig, but they have made great progress. If you are interested, visit the blog kept by one of the diggers, and if you don't understand Spanish, may I suggest that you Google the search term http://proyectoifac.obolog.com/, and then click on translate this page that appears at the side of the first entry? You can then read a translated version, that although not perfect, will give anyone with an interest enough information to explain what they are seeing in the photographs. Don't forget to look at the older posts as well, as there have been plenty of interesting finds; enough that the Provincial Archeological Museum, the MARQ, is preparing a special exhibition for later in the year. This is a super museum, in a building that was until a few years ago the Alicante National Hospital. The exhibition set that they designed for the present British Museum Exhibition La Belleza del Cuerpo, so impressed the BM that they have requested that they be allowed to purchase it and ship it along with the exhibits as it continues its tour of Europe.

There is a video on YouTube about the BM exhibit, that starts with a plan of the hospital as it was, with pavilions off a central corridor, each pavilion being devoted to a different speciality. (My younger daughter no doubt has pleasant memories of visits to the Orthodontic department while recovering from a broken jaw) Each of these pavilions is devoted to a different epoch, in chronological order as you work your way around in clockwise direction, and the last ones are devoted to whatever is the special exhibition at the time.

Wednesday Water

2009-08-26T09:27:00.000+02:00

Wednesday Water

2009-08-19T09:55:00.000+02:00

Wednesday Water

2009-08-12T09:51:00.001+02:00

A Vulture Saved from the Sea...

2009-08-08T15:13:00.003+02:00

...was the heading on the first of my daily emails from the Town Hall this morning. Viktor Ferrando, a local artist, was out with some friends in a boat off the coast of Calpe on Friday evening, when they came across a very large, exhausted bird floating in the sea. Because it seemed so weak, they decided to get it on board, and took it back to the local Club Nautico, who called the Calpe Animal Protection Unit. They recognised this metre high bird as a young Griffin Vulture and arranged its transfer to the Santa Faz Recuperation Unit in Alicante, where it was put on a drip to re-hydrate it. It is hoped that it will have recovered enough to be released again in a few days.

The Town Hall informs me that it is thought this vulture is one of this year's youngsters from the colony being reintroduced into Barranc del Sinc in the Sierra de Mariola who took advantage of a thermal when learning to fly and was dumped in the sea when the thermal petered out.

Precis from the Griffon link above.

There used to be a large population of vultures in Europe, because farmers were in the habit of leaving their dead sheep, goats and cows lying around for them to dispose of, but EU legislation put an end to that, and there was no longer the wild carrion to keep up the numbers. In some areas, local conservationists have erected muleros; platforms where the carcases of horses and donkeys are left for them to feed on, as these do not carry the same BSJ risk, and at the same time, they are trying to get the EU law amended to allow controlled use of other domestic carcases where they are trying to establish colonies.

Wednesday Water

2009-08-05T09:40:00.000+02:00

Wednesday Water

2009-07-29T09:37:00.000+02:00

Wednesday Water

2009-07-22T09:35:00.000+02:00

Wednesday Water

2009-07-15T09:32:00.000+02:00

The Local Archeological Digs...

2009-07-11T16:46:00.007+02:00

...have started their Summer season work again. I usually gaze at the Roman fish sauce factory through the chain link fence that protects it, but have never climbed the slopes of the Peñon since they started the excavation of the Medieval walled town on the slopes. I have read about it on the MARQ website, and the dig blog, and on Friday I became a tourist for the morning having signed up for the 9am guided tour. I can't tell you how glad I was that I had to postpone my booking for last week as it clashed with an 8am blood test, because last week it was very hot. Yesterday I woke to rain and a cool breeze. The rain had become a slight drizzle by the time I presented myself at the Tourist Office at 9am, and I was happy to leave my waterproof in my rucksack. There was a German family of six, a young Spanish man and two middle-aged Spanish ladies waiting outside the locked door. The family had rucksacks, hats, trainers and cameras. The young man was wearing an anorak and trainers. The two Spanish ladies had handbags and pashminas. One was wearing canvas espadrills, the other a pair of white wedge heeled mules...

Shortly after 9, the door opened and Victoria emerged with her clip board. She ticked off all our names, except for the two señoras, who said that they had been told in the Office that they could just turn up at 9am any Friday and tag along. Victoria disputed this, as they were very restricted in the number of people allowed on the site, but as she had had a lot of cancellations caused by the wet weather, she would allow them to join the group.

Before we set off, she explained that because of the rain, the archeologists were not yet on site, and that instead of visiting the dig first, before going on to the nature centre and then climbing up to the tunnel, we would first visit the nature centre, then climb to the tunnel and hope that by the time we descended again, the diggers would be on site. If they were not, she would explain as much as she could. Having done the climb to the top of the Peñon a couple of times before, I had been planning on taking my leave after seeing the dig, but as it was such a cool day, when we came out of the nature centre, I hiked up to the tunnel with the rest of them. For an idea of where the tunnel is, if you look at this picture, the tunnel is at the very top left of the green part of the Rock. In fact, the climb isn't too bad. The path zigzags up at quite a gentle angle, and the surface has been paved with rough stone since I last climbed it, and there is now a wooden hand rail, as much to keep people on the path as to help them climb. We stopped a couple of times on the way up as our guide pointed out the remains of the defensive walls, and took us to stand in the remains of one of the watch towers. When we arrived at the tunnel, Victoria explained that she was not allowed to take groups any higher than the tunnel, but that any who wished could continue on to the top. The Germans elected to do this, as did the two ladies. Victoria asked the the two ladies if they were sure, and explained that it was not a good idea to go scrambling over wet rocks without suitable footwear. In the end, she accompanied them through the tunnel, but shortly afterwards returned with the two señoras in tow. I thought it was very restrained of her to do nothing more than raise her eyebrows and grin at me as she emerged. She pointed down the rock and we could see that there people at work in the dig. In my photo above, it is at the back of the bare area in the centre of the picture. The buildings you can see are the Visitors Centre. Here is a better aerial view. The Peñon was always private property until the Valencian Government took it over as a National Park back in 1987, and the previous owners had built a luxury hotel on this site. Large quantities of earth were bulldozed to make a level platform, the bell tower of the church was flattened because it spoilt the view, and the concrete slab you can see on the right was the base of the swimming pool built over the Medieval church. I can remember watching this hotel being blown up a few years later.

We made our way back down to the dig site and Victoria called to Roberto who was to take us round. She explained that the rest of the party had decided to continue to the top and there were now only four of us, but he said even if only one person came who was interested in archaeology, he was very happy to show what they were doing. I became so engrossed in what he was telling us that I forgot to take any photographs, but can I suggest that if you are interested, that you visit the links to the blogs I gave at the beginning? They are both in Spanish, but if you put proyecto ifach into a Google search box then click on translate this page at the side of the link to the proyectoifach.obolog you will get a translated page, and every time you click on a link from there, Google will also translate those as well. The history of the site is very interesting, as the architecture is found nowhere else in the Valencian region, it was of a design found in Italy and more Northern parts of Europe, and even the facing stones used were not local. A large quantity of these have just been hauled off to the MARQ Museum in Alicante for cleaning and cataloguing. The soil that was moved when the hotel was built has protected a lot of the site, but means that excavating is a slow process, and they are having to remove large chunks of reinforced concrete.

Next Tuesday I have booked for the tour of the Roman garam (fish sauce) factory and the Roman villa site down by the beach; no more gazing through the wire link fence, I get to see the amazing circular mosaic floor close to!

Wednesday Water

2009-07-08T09:28:00.000+02:00

Wednesday Water

2009-07-01T09:25:00.000+02:00

The Bounty of the Orchard

2009-06-21T16:59:00.005+02:00

is only bite-sized; A few years ago we cut down some pine trees that were infested with processional caterpillars and were too close to the boundary and damaging the walls. The Council's Tree Man came around to inspect, and gave us a licence to fell on the usual terms; that we plant two trees for every one we felled. We felled 7, so had to plant 14, but he was quite happy for us to plant fruit trees, palm trees, bay trees or ornamental trees. We planted 4 Golden Cyprus, 4 palm trees and 6 fruit trees. The Nispero has flowered and fruited each year. The Pomegranate has flowered but never fruited. The Apricot flowered and fruited the first year, then inexplicably died very suddenly over a matter of days the following year. The 3 plum trees all flowered the first spring, but the Prune plum gave up the ghost after next door's cat took to using its slender trunk as a scratching post, the red Plum died off above the graft during the second year, but below the graft it continues to flourish. (The leaves look like an almond, but as I have no idea what the local stock tree is, I shall have to wait and see.) Only the third, yellow plum has flourished. I say flourished in that it has flowered each year and this year has set one solitary fruit, pictured above in all its majesty...

Wednesday Water

2009-06-17T09:27:00.001+02:00

Wednesday Water

2009-06-10T09:25:00.001+02:00

The Bottom...

2009-06-05T19:10:00.007+02:00

...is looking rather dry these days, rather like a hay meadow in need of cutting, but with one very good reason not to cut; the large numbers of Centaury plants in bloom. The odd low growing plants of early spring were just forerunners of this abundance. If you click on the photo, you will also be able to see the Honeysuckle that is now in bloom.

From a distance, these two tall plants look similar, but close up it is obvious that one is a Helianthemum, and the other I have identified as a member of the Aster family; ANDRYALA integrifolia.

There are a couple of stumps in The Bottom, the remains of pine trees that were cut down a few years ago. They yielded a fine crop of beetles, both bronze Pine Beetles, and Rhinoceros Beetles over the years, but are now almost reduced to powder. The blackbirds treat them as a larder, and I watched them excavating quite a hole in the ground as they looked for ever more succulent morsels.

Finally, proof that it is not only the UK that is seeing a great increase in the number of Painted Ladies this year. There were twelve just on one side of this lavender bush. I only managed to get three into the frame, and they wouldn't sit still long enough for me to get a close up...

Wednesday Water

2009-06-03T09:23:00.001+02:00

Wednesday Water

2009-05-27T09:13:00.001+02:00

Wednesday Water

2009-05-20T09:02:00.001+02:00

Running water at the fish Market.

Wednesday Water

2009-05-12T09:49:00.001+02:00

Before you ask, it is the view from the top of the 7,000ft Pilatus down to the Vierwaldstaettersee on a misty morning. If you want to know how it looks today, here is a link to the 360º webcam...

And the winner is....

2009-05-10T18:51:00.004+02:00

...Mountainear...who recognised it as an Orchid. This particular one is the Pyramid Orchid - Anacamptis pyramidalis. It is quite widespread in The Bottom, but this particular clump has taken its time opening for some reason; nearly a week after most of them. Maybe it's camera shy?

Wednesday Water

2009-05-06T09:46:00.002+02:00

Wednesday Water

2009-04-29T10:38:00.001+02:00

Are you getting warm?

2009-04-26T17:46:00.003+02:00

What will it be?

2009-04-24T17:56:00.002+02:00

It is already about 9" high...answers on a postcard...

Wednesday Water

2009-04-22T10:34:00.001+02:00

Red in Tooth and Claw

2009-04-20T10:31:00.000+02:00

Coming back to the house, after a session in The Bottom, I noticed that Chancey was creeping up on something near the wall. Suspecting it might be a lizard, and wishing to give it a chance to escape, I called to him just as he pounced. I didn't put him off his stride, and he ran towards me to offer me his prize; a foot or so of very young, very pretty, Horseshoe Whip snake. He dropped it at my feet, and it started to make its way back towards the wall, but then Charlie Badmash, jealous of any attention given to Chancey, cuffed him around the ear and made a grab for the snake. Knowing that I would deprive him of his fun, he ran off with it down to The Bottom, and by the time I got there, he had despatched it and you can see how sulky he is that I stopped him from starting his meal until I had my photo. It is not a very good photo, but you will see the pattern on the snake if you click on it. Here is a much better one of an adult snake that I found on the web.

It's a Doddle...

2009-04-19T10:16:00.000+02:00

....Sorry, that should be Dodder... click on the photo to see it close up. Those thin red strands are only a millimetre in diameter, and the tiny pink flowers grow out of the strands. There are no leaves because it doesn't need them. For those of you who don't know this plant, it is a parasite that lives on a number of different plants and doesn't have any chlorophyll of its own. Believe it or not, it is a member of the Convolvulus family...a bindweed with a difference..

New this week...

2009-04-18T14:00:00.003+02:00

ASTERISCUS maritimus stands out in the crowd; although The Bottom is full of hawkbit and coltsfoot, this plant has a much stronger egg yolk yellow flower that stands out, even though it is low growing. The pale yellow, shading to white, of CHRYSANTHEMUM coronarium is also easy to pick out, as the flowers are quite large, and the slender stems and feathery leaves of this relative of the chamomile let it dance around in the breeze. The final plant for today is PHAGNALON rupestre, that looks as if it has gone to seed before it has flowered, but its grey foliage is attractive even if the flowers are rather dull.

Wednesday Water

2009-04-15T10:29:00.001+02:00

Pale Blue

2009-04-12T10:16:00.000+02:00

The small wild Nigella has started to flower. It always surprises me how large the seed head is, just as large as in the cultivated variety. The other blue is an Echium I think, but I haven't decided which one. I need to look more closely at the plant.

A Touch of Pink...Again

2009-04-11T10:31:00.000+02:00

I have now found more clumps of the Centaurium, and the Convulvulus is much more in evidence than it was when I made this post. I have also found another Silene, much taller and with darker pink flowers than this one, that is quite widespread in the lower left hand corner. It has a much plumper bladder than the earlier one, and the petals seem to curl up on themselves almost as soon as they open; at least I haven't been able to catch them in any other position! Googling around, I came across Silene nocturna, which doesn't open its flowers until just before sunset, so maybe I shall tootle down to have a look then.

I suppose this Knapweed is closer to purple than pink, but it can hold its own.

A Little Sport

2009-04-10T14:46:00.004+02:00

The wild gladiolas (Gladiolus Italica)were not as badly hit as I first thought. There are quite a few drifts coming into flower, and not only that, but up on The Top, I have found a couple of sports, both pale pink instead of the usual fuchsia. It will be interesting to see if they multiply. They are in one of the bits that I get to weed, so they do have a chance...

...now that April's here...

2009-04-10T14:12:00.005+02:00

...there are more flowers popping up in The Bottom. This group all have what I call pea flowers, and range in colour from pale pink of the anthyllis, or is it a trifolium? through yellow, to orangey red. Most are low growing, but the orangey red vetch (not as pink as it appears here) is about 30cm high. I have just realised I haven't included the yellow broom that has seeded itself around the boundary (and invaded next door's gravel drive last year), but my camera battery is on re-charge, so that will have to wait. I did have a wonderfully honey-scented gorse as well, but Ivan the Barbarian dug it out..

Wednesday Water

2009-04-08T10:26:00.001+02:00

Wednesday Water

2009-04-01T10:24:00.001+02:00

A Touch of Colour...

2009-03-31T15:00:00.003+02:00

...on a grey day. It is too wet to be crawling around in the undergrowth, but this poppy, left in peace to grow under a dog rose on The Top, shines like a beacon.

Wednesday Water

2009-03-25T09:30:00.001+01:00

Into the unknown...

2009-03-24T17:12:00.004+01:00

...well unknown until I get my act together and identify them.

I think this is Teucrium pseudochamaepitys but I am not sure.

This big clump of white is a bit of a mystery. It has tiny leaves like a thyme, very widely spaced on thin stems. The flowers are similar in structure to thyme but the plant doesn't have any smell when crushed.

This little plant with tiny mauve flowers is quite widespread, but the flowers are only about 3mm across. I suppose I should have something in the picture to give a sense of scale. I'll try to remember next time I go out with the camera.

A touch of pink

2009-03-23T19:42:00.005+01:00

CENTAURIUM erythraea Rafin: The Common Centaury. Only one plant so far, but there may be more as they usually flower a bit later than this, and this is low to the ground and other times they have stood up on a longish stalk and in a bigger cluster.

This looks quite sad. Just one flower straggling up the bancale. This bindweed can form lovely drifts across arid patches, and the smaller white form is usually in evidence, but not so far. I haven't given up hope though...

There are other pink things around; vetches and so on, but I haven't captured them yet. Walking around locally, I am reminded of things that are missing, mainly larger plants like the migonette, mallow, chicory, borage and the peculiar Thymelea, but I have a tiny plant of the latter in a plant pot of mixed foliage plants that the builder brought me as a Christmas present, so it may find itself transplanted to the wild...

Greeny - yeller

2009-03-21T13:39:00.003+01:00

This Euphorbia strikes a lovely bright note in the grasses. It grows prolifically all over the place, but I am very careful how I approach it; I discovered to my cost, twenty years ago, that the sap brings my skin up in large painful wheals that take a long time to heal, and leave brown marks on my skin for months. The bare areas of soil are being colonised by this grey/green lichen, seen here on one of the rock outcrops in The Bottom. I know lichen is supposed to be slow growing, but this one isn't wasting any time. The flat yellow lichen below is much more stately in its pace of growth. These patches on the rock outcrop are quite large, but the patches on stone surfaces that were cut twenty odd years ago are only now reaching a diameter of 2cm.

Tiny Gems

2009-03-21T08:35:00.002+01:00

It pays to get close to the ground. Some of the smallest plants are beauties. The pimpernels have such vivid colouring, but on this occasion, the close-up was more of a balls-up, and when I get a better shot, I shall replace this one. The shot of the red version was even worse...Edited to show a much better close-up of the blue.

The tiny Silene I found yesterday was all alone, and I couldn't find it again when I went out this morning to try to decide which species it was. For those of you who are not botanists, this is the same family as the Red Campion, common in the UK, but this is tiny, the flowers not much more than a centimetre in diameter and a pale, pale pink. I took this photo early in the morning, and the flowers, and the hairy grey leaves of the plant it is leaning over, are glistening with dew.

Edit I came across a Spanish website called Virtual Herbal, and I think I can now identify this as Silene Ramosissima. If you look it up on the Virtual Herbal and click on the link that says Imagen en el campo, it takes you to a photo that shows how hairy it really is.

Walking along the cliff top this morning, I took this photo of a large clump of helianthemum, a plant that at one time, grew all over The Bottom. When I got home, I went in search, and found this tiny specimen. I haven't bothered finding out which particular type it is, I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that I find more. Edited to say that there are more, in fact a couple of good sized clumps that I hadn't noticed until they flowered.The last one really is a weed; it grows rampantly all over the garden, turns up in pots, and even between the bricks in the walls; the ever present Herb Robert. Without anything to give it scale, it could be taken for a garden variety of Geranium.

First of the Orchids...

2009-03-20T16:37:00.007+01:00

...and one of my favourites. The Mirror Orchid, OPHRYS ciliata. I've only found one surviving patch of these, near the Mastic bushes. They used to be a lot on the top of the slope, but there is very little vegetation, and very little soil left there now. Strimming has left the soil without anything to help it withstand the heavy rain, and at the moment there is only a scattering of coarse grass clumps. I can't get over how good a close-up I can get with this little Pentax Optio that 0j0 found on Ebay for me after I had a play with hers when she was here in December. It is a bit hit and miss though, as the screen is tiny, my eyesight is atrocious, and getting my eye level down to 2" above soil level isn't as easy as it used to be. I take half a dozen shots and hope for the best...

The Mastic bushes are in flower at the moment, and later in the year will be full of berries. The collared doves will gorge themselves and leave streaks of purple crap down the wall as they sit in a line on the telephone wire. The Latin name is PISTACIA lentiscus. It seems it is the same family as the pistachio nut; now I wouldn't mind a couple of those...Another little gem that has survived in pretty good numbers is the Muscari. I think the fact that it flowers so early, and that its leaves are in a ground-hugging rosette, gave it a chance to get some nourishment down to the bulbs before Ghengis Kahn got to work.

And finally for this post, I couldn't resist showing you this; a rogue freesia that has appeared right in the middle of The Bottom. I think the seed must have been dropped by the big ants that nest down there and collect a Winter store of seeds from all over the garden...more of their antics when they are active.

More Weeds...

2009-03-20T16:04:00.004+01:00

...that I think deserve a place in a garden, cultivated or not.

The Field Gladiolus is one of these. I used to have drifts of them all over The Bottom, but this year, the majority are on the edges, tucked under bushes and sprouting from underneath edging stones where the strimmer blade has missed them. (If you are wondering why the second photo is so murky, it's because the first one was taken in the afternoon sun yesterday, and the other one before the sun was high this morning.) If the leaves are removed too soon, like most bulbs and corms, they don't produce much in the way of flower the following year, but luckily, these seed themselves and I hope will soon be back up to strength. There are a number of different species, according to Innes, with a variation in height and the amount of white on the petals.

The Cistus bushes have taken a battering. There are tiny ones sprouting again in odd places, but there are only two left of any size, and one of those is in a border on The Top. I think of them as Poached Eggs, but their official name is CISTUS salvifolius.

My third plant for this post is Cerinthe or Honeywort. I'm cheating here, because I haven't found any in The Bottom this year, but the seeds have spread themselves up the first bancale, and are flowering there, so will soon spread themselves around again, given a chance.

Broomrape

2009-03-19T16:28:00.003+01:00

OROBANCHE ...arenaria possibly? This is fairly widespread, and if I can find out which plant it is parasitising, I might be able to identify the species. I'll post more tomorrow.
Edit: Having looked at the Virtual Herbal, I think it is OROBANCHE nana, as the plants that it parasitises are common on The Bottom.

Bossman has just asked if I fancy going to have a look at the Fallas before they burn tonight. Hopefully I can get some pics for 0j0...

Barbary Nut

2009-03-19T16:12:00.003+01:00

GYANDRIRIS sisyrinchium (L.) Parl.
According to Innes, this is called Barbary Nut because the corm is supposed to taste of nuts. I just like to call it the Miniature Iris. We have never had these grow in great numbers, but they are hard to catch, as the flowers don't open until late morning, and they don't last overnight. I was delighted to find one this morning, and shall keep my fingers crossed that it is not alone...

Wild Garlic

2009-03-19T15:59:00.002+01:00

ALLIUM roseum L.

This specimen growing in The Bottom, isn't quite open yet, but this one, growing in amongst the freesias in The Top, is.

Weeds or Wildflowers?

2009-03-19T14:49:00.005+01:00

Bossman and I have had an ongoing battle for the past twenty odd years over what we call The Bottom. When we first arrived here in 1986, it looked like this:

Three months later, it looked like this; by the simple expedient of doing this:
After that first trial by fire, it was left pretty much to its own devices for months, but the following Spring, I was amazed by how many different varieties of wild flowers sprang up on this patch of hillside. I added to them over the years by collecting seeds from plants I found growing further up the hill as I walked with the dog. The Mastic bushes that had been razed to the ground all sprouted again, and the Black Caps found them ideal nesting places. When we had The Top more or less gardenified, Bossman started itching to turn The Bottom into some kind of regimented Council Park, and attacked it with a large heavy Flymo borrowed from a friend. The Battle commenced...and we came to a compromise eventually: The flymo could be employed once a year after the main flowering season was over, and the seeds had had time to set and scatter, and the leaves of the corms and bulbs had died back. From time to time we felled a pine tree for firewood, or because it was getting too close to overhead cables, but in general, this truce held firm until the arrival, two years ago, of Ivan the Bulgarian, the Ghengis Kahn of the gardening world, and self appointed chief hatchetman to Bossman. Anything that grew out of line was ruthlessly cut back, regardless of where it was in its growing cycle, no bush got a chance to flower, in the Bottom or the Top, and if I happened to be out when he came, out came his strimmer and The Bottom would get a short back and sides. Bossman would look sheepish and assure me that he tried to stop him but he doesn't understand my Spanish...

This all came to a head last Autumn, when I walked Bossman round the garden, pointing at bare bushes and bare soil, asking Do you remember when this had flowers....when there were roses here....when this was a field of wild gladdies..? We fixed Ivan up with two other gardens and a pool to look after, and bade him goodbye. Compromise was again reached; the path from the Top to the bottom gate could be mown, but the rest would be left to recover. I have been waiting to see what survived Ivan's onslaught, and although there are some species missing altogether, there is still a good variety. I have always had it in mind to keep a record, so I am starting to take some pictures, and will add them here as I get myself organised. Just to wet your appetite, a general view of The Bottom as it was this morning, and a closer view of the commonest flower at the moment; the coltsfoot. I'll post again in a little while when I have this morning's photos in some kind of order. I have three books by Clive Innes; Wild Flowers of Spain. I am using these as a starting point for identification, as I don't know if my old Flora will have Spanish species...

Wednesday Water

2009-03-18T10:00:00.001+01:00

Wednesday Water

2009-03-11T10:00:00.001+01:00

Long time... no post...

2009-01-29T15:20:00.003+01:00

....but not much happens around here that is not craft related, and that gets written about over there. I did think though, that I ought to mention the weather; 140-175 kph winds hit us over the weekend. Personally, we suffered no more than a few tiles off the roof, but others around us were not so lucky. Many trees were uprooted, and one unlucky house on the main road had three centenario pine trees fall, each one of which hit a different section of the roof. The picture above shows our friends' house after a neighbour's pine tree split down the centre and fell the wrong way over the fence. It has taken the left hand corner of the roof away completely and dislodged many tiles on the right. He is not best pleased because he spent rather a lot of money having the whole roof re-tiled this Summer. Luckily no one in Calpe was seriously hurt. Very large chunks of tall buildings were dislodged. The main sign on the top of the Diamante Hotel ended up a couple of hundred metres away on top of a car in the carpark of another block, and most advertising hoardings are now crumpled heaps of metal. We were without power for most of Saturday. It was only when power was finally restored around teatime that we found out from the TV that a high tension line had blown down and started a fire at La Nucia, this fire had spread rapidly because of the wind and the inability of the firefighters to fly their water planes and choppers. Between 14 and 15 thousand people had to be evacuated from the area, and the animals of Tierra Natura were in danger of being smoked out. By the time darkness fell, the fire had spread up the flanks of the Puig Campana. Thankfully the wind died down overnight, and as we drove past the next morning on our way to the airport, the waterplanes and helicopters were damping down the last remaining pockets of the fire. If you follow the last link, it will take you to the local paper's website and to some of the photos sent in by readers. All we could see was the thick black smoke billowing over the mountain and a lurid glow in the sky.

Not the only blog...

2008-10-01T17:22:00.002+02:00

I've noticed that if I comment on someone else's blog, usually of the crafting variety, and they come to my part of Blogland to see who I am, they often arrive here and leave a message, rather than going to my craft blog. Do I need to put a big flashing arrow somewhere? Even one of my daughters only thinks to check this one....

Good Book

2008-07-13T12:25:00.003+02:00

Every now and then, you come across a book that you want to shout about. A book you want to read again the minute you have finished it for the first time, then squirrel away for a time in the future when you need to be totally absorbed...

Such a book is The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards, published by Penguin.

Here comes Summer....

2008-06-28T18:54:00.003+02:00

...and I'm not ready. After months and months of unsettled, unseasonable weather, the thermometer has hit the mid 30s, and I still have a wardrobe stocked with trousers and fleeces, and my drawers are full of sweaters. Tomorrow I shall get down the boxes from the top shelf in the hall cupboard and replace trousers with shorts and skirts, and sweaters with thin tops. I'll spend a morning washing woollies before packing them away until October, and probably have to fill a couple of bags with clothes for the charity shop when I find I can't fasten last year's waistbands. As most of them came from there in the first place, I shan't be much out of pocket. When I shall actually get to the Charity shop is another matter. The nearest weekend to the first of July is when the main body of tourists start to arrive. Parking space will be non existent as few of the blocks in the town have their own car park or underground garage. Blue zone street parking will fill with cars from Madrid getting dustier and dustier as the month progresses, the pile of pink parking tickets getting thicker under their windscreen wipers, as the parking girls make their rounds. The police tow truck is too busy trying to keep pace with the double parked cars and avert the frustration of the drivers of delivery vehicles who can't get through the congestion, to worry about towing away cars that don't have a valid parking ticket, but are not actually causing an obstruction. The local constabulary will get an extra 18 or 20 new recruits for the Summer season, whose sole responsibility will be to guard the yellow loading and unloading zones and keep them free from private vehicles and clear for deliveries. A visit to the PO to collect the mail will become a weekly rather than a daily event, and shopping will be restricted to an afternoon visit to the nearest supermarket when the hoards are on the beach or taking a siesta. Roll on September...and in the meantime I'll leave the car at home and use the bus pass...

Back to normal...

2008-06-15T12:51:00.003+02:00

...well, more or less; a Repsol tanker arrived to fill their petrol station tanks on Saturday morning. I'm not sure how the other one is doing as they have only had bio-diesel since the Friday before last, but at no time thought to put up a notice to let customers know they were wasting their time there if they wanted petrol...

The supermarkets haven't had much in the way of fresh salad or soft fruit all week, but the Saturday market had everything in abundance. All in all, it has turned out to be a relatively painless week for most people, with the exception of the dead and the maimed among the striking transportistas.

Just to prove...

2008-06-14T19:35:00.002+02:00

...that not everything in my garden is blue or yellow...

Flickr Search...

2008-06-05T20:11:00.004+02:00

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.

The Questions:

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favourite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favourite colour?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favourite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favourite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name.

Credits:
1. A Tribute to the Lovely Josephine, 2. Hinamatsuri sushi, 3. 11980 - PRUSSIA COVE SUNRISE, CORNWALL, UK, 4. dandy drop, 5. Three little pigs, 6. vintage tea set with cupcake, 7. Main Garden, 8. cherry chocolate mousse, 9. 2 Ole Ladies, 10. Seeing...double?, 11. Glass Wall Wave (Sea Sculpture No.6), 12. Gaviota calpina en el Penon de Ifach (Calpe)

The first coat of paint...

2008-06-02T19:57:00.001+02:00

...is on the wall.

Soggy Saturday

2008-05-31T14:41:00.001+02:00

Was I the only one with my fingers crossed? I suppose the only consolation is that it is coming in from the sea, and the new wall is not bearing the brunt; Instead the newly painted rejas are...

...later the same day

2008-05-30T18:34:00.003+02:00

...6pm to be precise;the inside plastered, and the outside having had a second coat of waterproof plaster. Now you all need to keep your fingers crossed that it doesn't rain until Monday...

Mañana mañana...

2008-05-30T15:37:00.003+02:00

...is what they usually say in Spain; but not always. On Wednesday evening, Ignacio called round because he had promised to rehang the the gates the next time he was in the area. Bossman asked him what he could do about stopping the rain driving into and under the front door when it rained. The budget won't stretch to anything major, and we have been known to struggle to raise a sun umbrella mid-storm in an effort to stop rainwater swelling the old wooden door. Out came his tape measure, and after a little calculation on the back of his hand, he said he could build us a wall in place of the old steel railing that would be narrow enough to still allow us to open the reja door. A window would put up the expense, but was still an option. Bossman showed Ignacio his stash of windows and frames salvaged from next door's reformation, and they were deemed suitable. A rough price having been agreed, Ignacio went to his van, came back with an angle grinder, removed a section of railing, fixed up some props, wired the balcony section back in position as a safety measure, then went to move the gate hinge brackets as promised.By lunchtime on Thursday, the wall was halfway finished.
By Thursday evening, wall and window were in place.
By lunchtime today, inside and out had been rendered, and as I type, Ignacio and son are applying the second coat of rough cast to the outside and a coat of white plaster to the inside, all the while keeping an eye on the big black clouds that are creeping ever nearer. The plan was that if it stayed dry, we could give it a couple of coats of paint on Sunday, before they came to take down the scaffolding on Monday, but if it rains before Sunday, the render won't be dry enough. Plan B is a roller on a broom handle...

We are painting...

2008-05-28T15:55:00.002+02:00

...the rejas, as even the ones on the South side, protected from the rain by the overhang, are beginning to rust. This year it is Bossman's turn to do the fiddly curly bits with a brush, while I flash up and down the straight bits with a 3" x 1" roller.Four down, and a lot more to go...

Totty likes to....

2008-05-12T18:42:00.002+02:00

NWM has been tagged. She claims not to have enough bloggerbuddies to pass on the tag, but has coined the term "open tag" and thrown it open to everyone.

It goes like this: you Google “[your name] likes to” and then cut and paste the results.

So, in the order they came up, Totty Teabag (only I used my realworld name) .....

.... likes to wear masks.

.... likes to be needed, as well as to cherish and protect her loved ones, of whom she is somewhat possessive.

When she is not working Totty likes to sing.

.... likes to pal around with Drew's younger siblings

....likes to pair hers with a striped, darted, button-up blouse that shows off the best part of yoga pants - no love handles.

.... likes to shove needles through her nose.

On her spare time, Totty likes to travel and experience different foods.

.... likes to use as her medium thread and textile.

.... likes to paint.

.... likes to work at night, which is great for my schedule.

....likes to be tied up and teased.

.... likes to look nice and often combs her hair-cap moss.

This last one made me curious. I followed the link: It led to a story about Totty Moss, friend of Linda Lichen, and is a mnemonic to learning the names of common mosses and lichens. The pdf. in question is about teaching pre-schoolers about squirrels and their natural habitat. I quote;

Prepare a stuffed animal squirrel so that it weighs 4 hg. Let the children hold and pat the
squirrel. If you don’t have a stuffed animal squirrel, use a bottle with 4 dl of water instead....

.....very thorough, the Swedes...

Too big for its boots

2008-04-25T15:44:00.004+02:00

Since this orchid was moved out to the snug, it has gone from strength to strength. Its aerial roots have infiltrated the space between the inner and outer pots, they have grown down the outside of the outer pot and circled around the drip tray, and a few stray roots are making their way up under the window ledge. As you can see, this year there are three flower spikes. I haven't bothered to count the individual flowers, and a dozen or so have already dropped off, but last year there were 29 flowers on the single spike, and they lasted from June through to August.

Edit: Yesterday I uploaded a crop of this picture using Picasa. For some reason, it has flown off into cyberspace, so here is the original un-cropped picture uploaded the conventional way. Thanks for letting me know, Eve. I have now counted the flowers. There are 49, not counting uncoloured buds, or the dozen or so that have already fallen off.

More blue and a little lemon

2008-04-23T13:53:00.005+02:00

My tulips have failed this year. A few impoverished leaves, and no sign of a flower stem. I'm blaming Ivan the Bulgarian and his need to tidy away straggling leaves before they have finished their work of replenishing the bulbs. He won't be satisfied until the garden is a bare earth and gravel waste that he can control with herbicide and a pair of secateurs. The yellow Jasmine has no flowers, and the Bottle Brush has no brushes, thanks to his trimming at the wrong time. Enough of the griping; What do we have? We have this:

I can't remember what it's called, it lost its label years ago. The flowers open a saturated purple, then fade through blue to purest white. it sits in a pot on the other side of the blue door from the Clematis.

Some of the largest plants in the garden are the sage bushes. On average they are two metres in diameter, and at the moment are densely covered in the pinky-purple spikes that the bees love. I like to deadhead these bushes with the secateurs, cutting each stem back to a leaf joint, and taking out old wood. The lavender on the other hand, responds well to a haircut with electric hedge clippers, just after the flowers have gone over, and soon sends up a new flush of flower spikes from its neatly trimmed dome.

Here's the lemon from the title; the first of the lilies has opened. I have tried growing these in the open garden, but they don't like it. They are happy in their spot at the back of the house, where they catch the early morning sun, but spend most of the day in the shade. They grow in an odd assortment of pots. Most of them are ugly black plastic garden centre tubs rescued from skips, but there is the odd terracotta or ceramic container, and their drip trays are mostly round aluminium pie dishes from the Euro shop.
Just in case you were expecting to see lemons, I shan't disappoint you. Here on the right are a couple of this year's fruit, and on the bottom left, one of the larger maturing ones from last year's flowers. Did you know that a lemon takes two years to reach maturity, and is quite happy to be left on the tree for longer?

Border Incident

2008-04-18T18:59:00.003+02:00

The house next door has been having major renovations after being sold a while ago. The English agent who sold it has been acting as project manager for the absentee landlady, and has employed a gang of Moroccan builders to turn the ground floor into a self contained apartment. This has now been rented out to a Dutch couple and their family, and work has started upstairs with the replacement of the windows and doors. There is a large rubber tree obscuring our view of the entrance, but Bossman remarked that he was sure that the body he had glimpsed through the foliage, carrying windows down to the skip, was female. With the remark that he was just going to feed Chancy, he went off to investigate, and came back an hour later to report that she was indeed a female, and of the pretty Rumanian variety that are quite at home wielding hammerdrills...

This morning we heard loud male voices having an altercation in Spanish in next door's driveway. Mehdi the Moroccan was throwing ineffectual punches at the über-übergroß English agent and telling him just what his opinion was of said agent's perfidy in employing someone else to do a job that he, Mehdi, had quoted for. We are not too sure if he objected to having lost the job because his quote was considered too high, or if his pride was hurt because he wasn't considered pretty enough.

Introducing Malcolm

2008-04-10T18:41:00.003+02:00

He's a gentle soul. I found him in the Dog shop and bailed him out for 50¢.

More purple than blue

2008-04-06T16:16:00.003+02:00

The clematis has changed from dead twigs to glory in the last few days. As you can see, it grows in a pot, and is on the north side of the house in the shelter of an overhanging balcony, otherwise it would not survive a Spanish Summer. For years, the surface of the pot used to be covered in blue pansies, and the door paint was a perfect colour match, but for some reason, the blackbirds have decided that the pot is a good source of food, and dig around ferociously, flinging lumps of compost in all directions, so the pansies are no more. I hope they are eating the slugs that have been nibbling away at the clematis flowers...

Glorious blue...

2008-03-23T18:28:00.000+01:00

The wisteria is in full bloom. This time last week, only the top most branches that caught the sun were flowering, but now, the whole plant is covered.

This is the view from the balcony.

March...in like a lamb...

2008-03-04T17:40:00.001+01:00

I'm referring to the weather of course, not issuing orders to a class of method actors...

Just to clear up a few loose ends of February's de-cluttering exercise, I show you one last photo. I had a radical clear out of the small oak chest of drawers you see here. The top two drawers were full of cassette tapes dating back as far as the '70s. The third drawer is home to telephone directories, gloves and the two Valentine creations that have been brought out each year at the appropriate moment for a great part of our married life. The bottom drawer serves as one of the many glory holes in this house. In particular this one is devoted to crippled and redundant spectacles. I amassed a goodly pile of things to relocate on a nearby table, then continued to make vague flourishes with a duster on the rest of the room and other points East. Later in the day I returned, camera in hand, to record the results of my turf-out. This was all that remained. A few tapes, a broken cassette case, a small cardboard box that had once contained chocolates and a birth announcement, half a dozen assorted feathers, one curtain hook, and a music bleater removed from a birthday card. Bossman had claimed the greater part of the tapes and relocated them to his den downstairs. The collection of spectacles and broken bits and pieces had been deemed necessary to effect repairs and taken to the garage. Shortly after I took this photograph, the Berlitz Spanish Course went ta-tas....I give up...

Combined clear-out

2008-02-06T15:04:00.000+01:00

I need to clear 30 items today to get me up to date, and the plan was to take 10 per area. I was pretty sure that the trolley in the hallway would provide rich pickings, and I was correct. Add to that just one box from the storage 'closet' and I had more than enough.
Top row: A carrier bag full of Swiss holiday bumf, a couple of letters from 2002, an empty sweet tin, and 15 dressmaking pattern books.
Middle row: 2 cat blankets, a mouse mat and wrist rest, the packaging from a CD player kept in case it didn't survive its 3 year guarantee period, a 1995 road map book of Spain, and a Bodum caffetierre box containing odd candle holders and candle ends.
Bottom row: A stray piece of slightly crumbly foam, 2 sets of wooden splints, a package containing 8 webbing splint straps, 2 rubber turniquets and 4 glassless picture frames.
Quite a good haul, you must agree.

I had intended to clear out Bracket's collection of pointy acorns, conkers and wing nuts if I couldn't meet my target, but as you can see, he is still a happy hoarder.

Monkey Bus Pass

Friday fill-ins

A quiet, hazy Saturday morning...

Friday Fill-ins

The Tidings...

Sunny Saturday

That tree...

I Lost a Year....

.....but going...

Here today....

More Coffee Art

Wednesday Water

New Year's Day

Wednesday Water

The Mystery of the Orchid Continues...

Wednesday Water

Wednesday Water

Wednesday Water

Wednesday Water

Wednesday Water

Wednesday Water

Wednesday Water

Wednesday Water

Wednesday Water Went Walkabout

Wednesday Water

Wednesday Water

Mystery

Vandalism?

Local archeology

Wednesday Water

Wednesday Water

Wednesday Water

A Vulture Saved from the Sea...

Wednesday Water

Wednesday Water

Wednesday Water

Wednesday Water

The Local Archeological Digs...

Wednesday Water

Wednesday Water

The Bounty of the Orchard

Wednesday Water

Wednesday Water

The Bottom...

Wednesday Water

Wednesday Water

Wednesday Water

Wednesday Water

And the winner is....

Wednesday Water

Wednesday Water

Are you getting warm?

What will it be?

Wednesday Water

Red in Tooth and Claw

It's a Doddle...

New this week...

Wednesday Water

Pale Blue

A Touch of Pink...Again

A Little Sport

...now that April's here...

Wednesday Water

Wednesday Water

A Touch of Colour...

Wednesday Water

Into the unknown...

A touch of pink

Greeny - yeller

Tiny Gems

First of the Orchids...

More Weeds...

Broomrape

Barbary Nut

Wild Garlic

Weeds or Wildflowers?

Wednesday Water

Wednesday Water

Tags

Long time... no post...