All good here....

I might not be writing much but all is well in our part of the world.

Last week was great as we had visitors and I do like having visitors! Sam and family were back in Alcala for half-term and we had a couple of catch-up coffees together and our conversation carried on as if there'd been no distance between us for the past few months...good!

And then on Friday, FR's youngest brother came to stay with his girlfriend - who just happens to be English too. They managed a great night out with FR as soon as they arrived, as it was Noche en Blanco in Granada, when the whole of the city was in fiesta and the streets were humming with street performers and dancing. Then the next couple of days we all enjoyed doing a variety of things together - talking/ walking/ cycling/ visiting town depending on who felt like doing what and when. Ruben helped to lay a temporary path to the door which has greatly improved access to the house - he also persuaded the children to clean the car, had an archery competition with Ruy (which he lost..) and gamely cycled into Alcala with Mateo on Sunday morning - a very tough ride - but one which they both enjoyed.

Ruy, Romy and I took them into Alcala to show them the main sights and to stop and have tapas and a drink in the park. It seemed strangely quiet at first as we'd forgotten there was a big football match on but it soon livened up to its usual 'buzz' of folk on the streets. It's not Palma de Mallorca but they were both impressed with our lovely town and its history and friendly folk. And Nadia, who had been suffering a horrid bronchitis for several weeks, suddenly began to feel much better in the wonderful healing air that we have here at 1000m above sea level. Good stuff!

Ruy, Romy, Me, Nadia and a friendly street vendor lining up to complement the local wall art....

And on Sunday evening, Sam, Dave, their girls and our neighbour, Sergio, joined us and we had a great evening in the garden, eating one of FR's famous barbecues.

We've had amazingly hot, sunny days this week but the nights are definitely chilly now, hence Jasmine's fur-lined face! I hope Ruben doesn't see this, but then, he shouldn't have pulled a silly face. Such a handsome chap, he is!

I drank too much - which doesn't mean I drank a lot, cos I don't, but being unused to alcohol....well, methinks I do protest too much....but it didn't spoil the party; just made me a bit giggly and made me want to dance with my husband, but that's OK, I think!


We also spent an afternoon playing cards with Ruy and Romy and they both had the same idea at the same time - to put on their 'poker faces'...it was really creepy, but rather brilliant!



So, you see, all is well here and now the clocks have gone back, it's light for the children to go to school in the mornings...but feels so very late right now and it's only half past seven in the evening.

And this weekend, I am expecting to see an old work friend. She is currently on a mammoth drive through Scotland, England, France and Spain - all the way from Orkney!!  I know she'd got to Bordeaux last night so don't expect her before Saturday - but you never know! Writing about Denise could fill a book on its own, so I won't start now but you can expect to hear something about our meeting very soon.....

El bueno, el malo y el feo

The good, the bad and the ugly - some images taken around our current abode.

When I first came to Spain to meet Cesar's parents in La Flecha, the place was a small but rather spreadout little development of individual houses, all with gardens in an area about 5kms outside Valladolid town centre. It used to be a bit ramshackle in that the people who lived there - like Cesar's parents - had bought plots of land and built their homes with very little intervention from the authorities.

My in-laws' home could be in the middle of the countryside when you look around the garden and I have captured a few images that I have grown to love over the years.

Looking up from the back door, you see the little balcony that leads from the kitchen area in the upstairs where we are currently living.

View from the balcony looking down











There are little 'things' in every corner - symbolic of the habitual horder!

The cat isn't ours but was sitting on next door's wall and looked just right! Is he good, bad or ugly??

In the intervening years, La Flecha has become an urbanisation, with a network of narrow, often one-way streets, a local authority building, a large new library, several 'plazas', shops, supermarkets, a big primary school, swimming pools, even a bullring.. and new homes in the form of apartment blocks - or 'pisos' - that have been gradually expanding the boundaries of La Flecha so that it is now a very substantial place.

View from the front of our house to the right - you can see a small plaza there where the children go to play most evenings.

And to the left, you look towards the main square - La Plaza Espana - which is just down the hill from the house.

And this is the front balcony of our house - and yes, I do put my washing out to dry here - works a treat!!

On Saturday, there was the grand opening of a new bridge that links La Flecha with another urbanisation that has sprung up with considerably less elegance. The road and the bridge are impressive; the area it goes through is less so.














Here you can see the effects of the current economic crisis as building works have been abandoned, brand new pisos unfinished, unlived in and deteriorating rapidly. Awful waste.

 Oh - and of course, on Wednesday, the first stone was laid on this site - of a new IKEA!!











And pertaining to none of the above directly, a picture I captured on the way back from Aguilar de Campoo - and which I rather like - Sunset Christ near Palencia.