February 'Fotofest'

I promised photos so without further ado - please let me share some of the lovely sights of February's Carnaval in Alcala la Real (plus a couple of snaps of Pippin.)

Romy as tomato... looking utterly edible.

In the main square waiting to start the parade around the streets.

As well as fruit and veg, there were spiders...

And elves...this is one of my little pupils....looks like butter wouldn't melt....

There were pizza chefs - Romy's old classmates from Alonso de Alcala primary

One of my students from last year - I saw lots of them and got a
good many hugs, which was lovely!

There was a sparkly band...

Little mice and kittens - cutest things you've ever seen.

How gorgeous!

Houses big and small...

An amazing turn out from the disabled group - countries of the world -

So much work has gone in to these costumes...

And from the Residential Home, there were gnomes....

Some of them clearly had no idea what was going on, whilst other were having a great time....

And even had toadstool umbrellas!

And here come the fruit and veg again....

No rain, plenty sunshine and a lovely - if slightly smaller than usual - parade. Not all the children came out, which was a shame for some of them. But they made a lovely cheerful sight after the rather miserable month. The main Carnaval procession is tomorrow evening. We might just pop along and have a look!

And now for a few Pippin photos.

He's difficult to capture sometimes....

The camera straps are a chewing opportunity...

Or he whizzes past so quickly, I miss him (great tail, though!)

He can get one ear up .... cute, eh?

And he's a great flowerpot stealer...

He'll fit his cage perfectly....SOON!!

He was chewing the wheelbarrow planter...he was!

And he practises being very handsome.

And tomorrow, it's the 1st of March and Spring is on its way! I never like February much, makes me crave hibernation, but now, I feel ready for the long walks that Pippin will surely need! Just one more injection and a microchip needed. 

Hope those of you who have had it up to you know where with snow and wind and rain find a little sunshine coming your way from now on.

Here's to Spring.

Don't rain on my parade...

Here in Alcala la Real, it's Carnaval time. Or should be. It should have been on Friday. It didn't happen

In previous years, when Romy was at Alonso de Alcala, a Primary school just 200 metres from where she is now, we parents were given a theme, a costume design and sort of had to get on with it. Usually, things turned out pretty well - most years, the sun shines on Carnaval.

This year, in her new school, an intrepid teacher has made the costumes. Romy is a tomato. We should have seen all the primary schools parading through the streets on Friday but guess what - it rained on Friday! Thursday was glorious sunshine - and indeed, Saturday and Sunday were glorious too. How unfair we cried.

Anyway, now, the parade will be on Tuesday and the weather forecast looks OK. I am looking forward to seeing the costumes and hope I recognise my little tomato as she passes in a parade of fruit and veg.

On Friday evenings, I give an English class to two lovely little girls - Rocio and Lucia, I've been teaching them since last summer and they are wonderful - we sing and read stories most weeks but now that I teach them in their house, over the year the lesson has turned into more of a craft session in English as both they (and their mother) and keen and clever makers of things. We have a great time - making things like Christmas cards, advent calendars, Valentine cards, treasure maps, and sometimes we do a bit of Zentangling. The hour and a half flies by and we all enjoy ourselves. Sometimes, Romy comes too and she came with me this week as I thought we could make Carnival masks using some plain ones we've had at home for ages.

It was quite an inspired idea and we had a wonderful time.

Rocio has a Chinese costume so made a very simple mask to top off her outfit.













Lucia is a Princess in a blue dress and decided to be an 'Ice Princess' with some lovely snowflakes drawn for her by Rocio.













Romy decided she wanted more of a Venician mask but you can't quite see the lovely colours and highlights in this picture - it was a super one.

Rocio and Lucia

They did beautiful jobs and had great fun posing in them afterwards - as yet without their full costumes....we didn't have time to put those on.

Lucia and Romy

The only problem with them is that they make your face very hot after a little while!

Rocio and Romy

All three little posers.
Interesting that they do all look different even though the masks are all exactly the same....

On a completely different subject - with friends, we did some tangling at A Little Bit of Britain this morning. This is the fifth time we've met now and there is real progress being made and a couple of people have said that they are really feeling a benefit from doing it. I'm delighted to share my passion for this lovely craft. Here is a rather blurry picture of some of the tangles we were doing today.

 I think they look wonderful, even though we didn't all have quite enough time to finish off today. There are some lovely examples of how we all interpret the tangles differently. I am now thinking longingly of a proper Zentangle course for myself....how wonderful would that be? (Pretty unlikely to be honest too!)

And more of Pippin in another post. He's doing fine - dreadful nipper, wonderfully clean, sitting on command, starving hungry all the time - and growing!! Next set of photos I think I shall be able to demonstrate this last fact! We're just off now to the vets for his second injections - looking forward to taking him out for proper walks soon!

At the risk of...

being a puppy bore, here are some more photos of Pippin. He's only been with us a week today but it does feel as though he's been here for much longer. He's settled in beautifully - sleeps all night without making either a mess or a fuss; he's happy and responsive and now starting to be a bit naughty - enjoys nipping us on the back of our legs if we don't pay him attention and not coming when we call him...I'm working on it!
It's quite a full-on occupation to establish the right routines and make sure he gets a good mixture of stimulation, affection, attention and real play and it's no wonder I feel quite tired as I'm doing most of it. The children and FR are doing a bit here and there but it would seem I'm the only one who's never too busy to put Pippin first. (Do I sound like I'm complaining? I'm not, I love it and I love him!)

Here he is - I can see already how he's growing in length. He is going to be quite big, I think. I can't wait for him to have all his injections so we can go out for walks - though I do hope the weather is due to improve when we get to that stage! It's yeuky and rainy right now - it was sunny on Saturday and felt like Spring all of a sudden. I am so looking forward to our long sunny days again....

Here he is...I'm sure I'll have more and different things to talk about again one day soon.

It's a hard life!

New paws

A couple of weeks ago, I got a phone call to say that a couple in the next village had found a stray dog with her four puppies - were we interested? At the time, I was still in that place where I felt I ought to be thinking about another dog but it was still too painful to action. Not the time.

But then, last week, a photograph of the puppies was posted on the window of the local British shop - and I was smitten...not spurred to action but definitely smitten. On Thursday evening, one of my students came into class all excited because her parents had just brought home a puppy and that it had come from an English woman. Later that night, I wondered whether it could possibly be from the same litter that I was interested in...and if one had gone, what if they'd ALL gone... I called them the next day. And certainly, the evening before, a Spanish couple had taken one of the dogs...I won't know until Thursday whether my student and I are now related via our puppies - because yes, we went along on Friday and picked out our new puppy!

The couple who have been looking after the puppies have done a sterling job and our little chap arrived smelling sweet, beautifully groomed, well fed and
He's currently called Pippin - we did the usual extended discussion between Friday and last night - when we picked him up - trying to decide on the right name. We had everything from Hubble, to Pancho, to Tike, to Leo, to Floyd - none of which got the majority vote. Pippin pleased most and the children have begged me not to change it again! So Pippin he is.

An absolute poppet - he seems to have settled in beautifully and is just now asleep in his temporary home - a cardboard box. I'm off to collect a crate - though where it will go, I am not sure!!










It's as if a great weight has been lifted. It was absolutely the right thing to do and the right time to do it.


Welcome Pippin - born around the time Darwin went  - we are glad there is this link.

And the header photo on my blog stays for a little longer I think.