Our new home in the Orba Valley, Alicante

The days are flying by and now that Phase 1 indoors has ended, work has commenced on the garden.  The weather here has been a mixed bag recently and although you would normally expect most days in May to be very warm and sunny, we've had a lot of days that have been far from it!  On Sunday it absolutely chucked it down all day, in direct contrast to the Sunday before which was absolutely scorchio.  Ah well, the last 15 months or so have been a pretty mixed bag too so.......

This week we got around to staining and treating the new entrance doors and I must say they've come up a real treat:

So that's one job off the endless 'things to do' list ✅  But one of the  things still on the list is starting to clear the overgrown garden.  Quite apart from weeds - of which there are surprisingly few - there are quite a few invasive plants (the biggest of which is a rhododendron that's more like a triffid) that have taken over other ones and which need to be removed.  The rhododendron had completely wound itself around a nice tree and the area looked like the first photo (taken when the Water Board were here assessing the drains), the second photo is now and although still work in progress, the difference is marked as shown by the table which hasn't been moved at all:

Mind you, I had 50 fits when Ian climbed up into the tree to tackle the high stuff 😱 and was more than relieved when he finally came down!  The garden will be lovely once we've got it under control but it's ****** hard work getting there.  But to encourage us, we had a lovely browse in the local garden centre today.  I love a good wander round garden centres, it's really therapeutic and informative.  They're really helpful at ours and we've gone away to think about their suggestions and advice.  Watch this space!

The subject of outdoors brings me to the pool.  As mentioned last week, I am obsessed with skimming it on a regular basis with the net to lift out debris and I fished out a dead baby gecko and baby bird.  But since then I've fished out two more baby birds 😥 nobody told me that having a pool would involve undertaker duties for wildlife 😳

Yesterday we walked into town to have a cheeky menu del dia and on the edge of town we heard what sounded like a choir singing very LOUDLY.  As we got closer to the sound, a vehicle with loudspeakers appeared as the source with the back of the vehicle entirely made up of an enormous glass box and inside was this:

I think it's the statue of Our Blessed Lady of the Forsaken, whose feast day was during the recent fiesta here as I recognised her from all the banners of her that were on display on a very great many of the local town house balconies.  Quite what she was doing out and about on a random Monday many days later I have no idea, but she certainly travels in style!

In Covid news, restrictions have eased still further as of yesterday and curfew is now from 01h00 until 06h00, with bars/restaurants able to remain open until 00h30 with 100% capacity on terraces and 50% indoors.  Groups of up to 10 people are now allowed.  And of course Spain has now said it will allow non-residents from the UK into Spain which is lovely in many ways, but given that they won't have to have a negative test or show a vaccination passport, also rather worrying as the vaccination rollout here is much slower that the UK.  Two of my four children in the UK (early 30s) have now been vaccinated and yet here in Valencia they are only just tackling those in their late 50s.  This is my age group and yet I have still heard absolutely nothing, and Ian who is 5.5 years older has also had absolutely nothing.  It is very frustrating and also very unsettling as everyone around us of the same ages here have had at least one jab but now apparently they have run out of supplies 😟 and so...... we continue to wait.......

On Saturday evening we watched Eurovision for the first time in many a year because, let's face it, the music is not exactly great and boy does it go on....and on.....and on..... But hey, after such a tumultuous last year or so, watching a world of over-the-top glitz, glamour and ridiculousness felt like the right thing to do somehow.  So we did!  And what a surprise - Eurovision has most definitely upped its game and a significant number of the songs were, shock horror 😝, very enjoyable.  But the never-ending tedium of the voting still holds no appeal and so we switched off after the songs had finished.  So not a dyed-in-the-wool Eurovision fan just yet but on the basis of us all needing more silliness and fun in our lives moving forward, I think I could be persuaded to watch it again next year 🥳

Finally, we are so lucky to live in the countryside.  We walk around the corner and boom! we're in amongst the orange groves, with quite a few almond and olive trees to add to the beauty.  When you walk dogs in scenery like this literally within five minutes of your house, well....life ain't so bad:

Stay safe and hasta la próxima semana!

Our new home in the Orba Valley, Alicante

Another week has flown by and things are certainly hotting up here in Spain.  Yesterday (Sunday) was an absolute scorcher at around 30 degrees or so which was a bit of a leap up the heat scale! 😳

The headline news is that we have finally moved into our bedroom.  The finer touches for the built in wardrobes and the completion of the ensuite bathroom will be finished off soon (wardrobes) and not quite so soon (bathroom) but the bedroom is looking pretty good although not yet photo ready (next week).  It's cooler than the bedroom we were in and given the sudden rise in temperature lately, we timed it rather well.  The poor dogs got quite anxious though when we took the bed apart to move it especially Alfie whose little face clearly said "but I thought it was quite nice here, could we stay?" - bless them 💕  Anyhow, all of this means that we're getting the final boxes out of the house and moving on to sorting out the garage and the garden.  But these are less time pressured so we feel we can relax and enjoy the house, the area and the summer a bit now.

Today was Ian's birthday and to celebrate went out to eat yesterday and today - well why not 😎 Yesterday we went to Cal Morell which is a wonderful Spanish restaurant here and where we have been twice before - once last August when we came over to explore the area, and once in early December when we came over to view the house we now live in - to eat a glorious Spanish menu del dia in beautiful surroundings.  It's definitely our special occasion place.  Mind you it was so hot I drank a litre of water with the meal as we sat under a pergola with views like this:

And today we had a great meal with friends at another Spanish restaurant to celebrate.  We ate a lot and drank a lot and had coffee and it came to 22€ each including a tip 👌  You can't say fairer than that!!

On Wednesday I started my oil painting course.  Absolutely brilliant and the time just flew.  We have finished the underpainting (the basic picture on which to properly oil paint- who knew?!) and so this Wednesday will see the end product.  I truly have the drawing/painting bug and am planning on attending more sessions as well as getting myself the necessary things to continue at home.  In the meantime I'm learning in this fabulous and creative place:

And it's a small world......the art teacher is originally from the same town as us in the UK.

The hot weather here has seen us venture into the pool on several occasions this week and how lovely it is to cool off in it 😎 and I have an addiction to netting bits of leaves and insects out of the pool.  It's like a giant game of hook a duck 😂  It really is therapeutic walking round getting it clean but sadly this week I fished out a little gecko and a very tiny baby bird.  I get how a baby gecko might get into trouble in a pool but have no idea how a newly hatched bird might do so.  Anyhow, I fervently hope that's the end of dead livestock in our pool for the time being!

Now that the worst of our house reform is over for a while we're looking forward to exploring the area over the summer as there is so much to see.  I'm especially looking forward to going up into the mountains and also to the caves in Benidoleig.  If - and it's a big if - some family members can visit us from the UK at some point this summer we really do need to have some ideas of places for them to visit and right now we can only point them in the direction of builders merchants and secondhand emporiums which isn't really what the average person wants to do on a holiday in the sun 😂

Finally, we're still waiting for our Covid jabs 🙄 I saw somewhere that they're starting my age group here starting from today but I think Ian has missed the big window of opportunity for his age bracket getting the Astra Zeneca at a mass vaccination centre in Denia and will have to wait to get his at the local health centre.  And there they're only finishing off those in the decade above at the moment so I think his could be some while yet.  It seems we moved from the Balearics (where the vaccination programme is many weeks ahead of the Valencian region) at just the wrong time but hey ho.  The number of cases in this area is pretty much nil as far as I can gather so there's no real concern as such, but it would be nice to get that needle in the arm and feel officially 'safe' so to speak.  

Stay safe and hasta la próxima semana!

Our new home in the Orba Valley, Alicante

Summer is definitely - and finally! - on the way, with the temperatures on the up and plenty of blue skies and sunshine.  Ironically, today is warm but very wet....ah well, the garden is benefitting.  And best of all, as of midnight on Saturday the state of alarm here in Spain ended 🥳🍾🎈💃  Of course regional restrictions remain in place but it feels a little like the beginning of the end so to speak.  Here in the Valencia region they have opened the border and restaurant/bar can operate at 100% occupancy on terraces and 50% inside and stay open until 11.30pm.  The curfew has moved from 10pm to midnight (until 6am) and groups of people in public spaces can now number 10.  The vaccination effort is going well although sadly, despite now being registered at the local health centre, we (or rather Ian who is a little older) haven't heard anything yet which is very frustrating as everyone we know of who is in their early sixties seems to have been vaccinated here.  

We are getting nearer to the finish line for the first phase of work on the house and my goodness will I be pleased to see an end to all the dust and dirt that seems to re-cover everything about 2 hours after I've wiped things down.  Ian has finished my side of the walk-through wardrobe area and is close to finished on his side.  The toilet has finally been relocated from the wardrobe area(!) into the new, smaller bathroom and then we'll put up with the sky-blue suite until the autumn.  So it looks as though we'll be able to move into the master bedroom next week once we've filled the holes in the walls, put a light fitting in (we inherited the wires hanging out the ceiling) and painted it, so not much really 😳  The big news of the week is that the builders put in our lovely new front doors which Ian wisely decided might be a step too far for us to tackle.  Given the size and weight of them and the time it took the builders (estimated about 4-5 hours, actual time 8 hours!) due to issues with the wall and fixing points for the weight, I'd say that was a wise move!  Here is the before, during and after:

Naturally once they'd finished you could practically sculpt, never mind write, your name in the brick dust.  We need to stain the doors so they'll soon be a little darker but we've had lots of compliments and feel it was well worth doing.

We have managed to enjoy ourselves this week though 🥳 We had a wonderful afternoon tea in the sunshine on Thursday afternoon.  Now, we love tapas with a passion but to have a proper afternoon tea with cucumber sandwiches, cake and the rest, it was totally delicious. 

The last time I had a proper afternoon tea was in the UK about two years ago so it was a great treat.  We then attended a music quiz evening which was huge fun.  We were paired up with another couple and got on so well we'll be meeting up again soon and are definitely repeating our team for the next music quiz.  We didn't win - I for one haven't got much to offer by way of knowledge of 1950s artistes if I'm honest and that was the final round - but were 1 point from 3rd and some wine prizes so we'd best get swotting for the next time 😂 

In doggy news, Tally and Alfie had a professional haircut this week.  I've been doing them since last year's lockdown and have done quite well all things considered but I really wanted them to have a factory reset as it were.  And it's much cheaper here than in Mallorca so they may be going again in due course.......  And whilst we're on the subject of pets, there's a house just up the hill that I walk past quite often where there is a pet goat.  Yep, that's right, a pet goat, and here she is:

Her name, from the little shelter, appears to be Kira and she's a really cutie.  She's definitely well fed although she'd been rummaging through a bag of rubbish on the premises but for a goat that's par for the course!  The house is on a very steep part of the hill so she certainly uses her goaty climbing abilities and must be finding or being given plenty of food as there are lots of droppings everywhere.  I've never seen anyone living there but clearly someone comes to do things at the house.  In any event, Tally and Alfie have achieved their lifelong ambition to meet a goat so they're winning at life right now!  

Yesterday we decided to celebrate the end of the state of alarm with something happy, cheerful and cheesy - and you don't get much happier, more cheerful or cheesier than a Spanish Elvis tribute act 😂 His English was relatively rudimentary but my goodness he sounded like Elvis, clearly loves the music and gave it his all for over three hours and you can't say fairer than that!  

Yep, I was expecting the white catsuit too, but he went for the 'early Elvis' look and I can't say I blame him.  Mind you, one of the audience came in a catsuit so all was not lost.  On a very hot day I can't say that wearing tight lycra holds much appeal but....each to their own.

Finally, this weekend was a local fiesta culminating yesterday (Sunday) with the Day of Our Blessed Lady of the Forsaken and last night we had a great firework display.  The actual firework event was by ticket only due to Covid restrictions but we still saw them, luckily not too loudly as Tally is not a fan!  And on Saturday we watched from a bar as the local town band made their way to the Plaza to set up for a concert later that evening and it would seem that, where drums are concerned, size really does matter 😳😂

Stay safe and hasta la próxima semana!

Our new home in the Orba Valley

Wow, the week has gone quickly!  And it's been pretty full on this week for sure in mostly good ways........

Weather-wise, and to borrow a catch phrase from the wonderful character played by Mark Williams in The Fast Show who emerges sporadically from his shed to inform a waiting world about his diet or clothing, "this week I 'ave mostly been wearing a raincoat" - yes, it's still wet here although due to warm up later this week finally!  I certainly won't be getting in our pool until the water is a LOT warmer so the sun needs to hurry up and get his hat on 🌞 But yesterday on our dog walk the valley looked like this:

so despite the clouds it is still wondrously beautiful.

My Spanish classes are going well although the level keeps me well on my toes but that's a good thing.  I've also practised my drawing as my oil painting course is later this month and I need to keep the artistic juices flowing!  

Thursday was a busy day as after my Spanish lesson it was off to the language academy in Benidoleig to run a couple of classes there and meet some of the students.  If things go to plan I should be teaching there in the autumn 🤞 It was great to be back in the classroom so soon and the students were lovely.  And after the lessons the academy was hosting a wine tasting so Ian joined me there for that.  The whole wine tasting was in Spanish but it was a brilliant opportunity for me to do a more or less running translation for Ian so great practice.  Two of the wines were vegan but as the wine man said, all wines are actually vegan it's just that to get the official vegan approval (and of course to charge more for the wine!) the vines can't even be fertilised by manure from eg. donkeys/mules who also can't be used to plough the area either; in other words a totally eco-friendly vineyard cannot meet official standards to be labelled 'vegan' without absolutely no animal involvement whatsoever.  Anyway a great time was had by all 🍷 cheers!

Work on the villa continues unabated and Ian is currently building the walk through wardrobes.  In any event he has grafted all week tirelessly (well maybe a bit tired on occasion 😜) and so far this:

has become this:

It's labelled 'interim' because to the left and right of the door (which goes into the ensuite bathroom) is where Ian is currently installing the wardrobes with sliding doors.  So I'll finally be able to unpack my summer clothes soon so I guess the recent less than great weather has worked in my favour - every cloud (LOL) and all that!

Whilst Ian has been grafting indoors, I've been working on the outside, starting with the rockery area.  To say it had become overgrown would be understating it slightly.  As well as lots of weeds, some invasive plants had....well....invaded and were strangling other plants.  The lower part of the rockery has now gone from this:

to this:

I've put in a few Mediterranean flowering rockery species and supplemented with a few of the succulents and cacti we brought over from Mallorca.   And we have bought what I really REALLY wanted and which you can see in the picture - a wonderful Buddha who now sits serenely gazing towards the villa.  The upper part of the rockery still has to be tackled not to mention all the other areas of the garden where we have the same problem of invasive species which have taken over in most areas.  But....Rome wasn't built in a day!

On Friday we took a bit of time off form work on the villa to go to Javea, sadly not to explore the beautiful old town but to go to Specsavers which is near the beach area.  Ian definitely needed some new glasses as he'd lost two pairs in the sea in Mallorca and the pair he was using fell off every time he leaned forward 😂 and I thought I'd have my eyes tested too as I was overdue as well.  Luckily I didn't need any new ones and Ian has ordered the classic 2 for 1 Specsavers offer which should be ready some time this week.  Before our appointments we took a quick walk in the beach area and then had a nice bocadillo lunch in a backstreet bar.  Mind you, even on our 'day off' we went to Javea via a wood merchants and builders centre - as you do.

On Saturday it was a Bank Holiday here (1 May) as in Spain they have this BH on the day itself rather than the nearest Monday as in the UK.  The only things that can open are garden centres so we decided to visit the little local one which everyone has recommended.  Long story short, another car backed into the front right wing of ours 😱  Cue one very embarrassed - and thankfully very honest - local who kept apologising whilst we filled in the copious paperwork involved here in Spain, everything in duplicate.  As we hadn't even been in our car at the time it was very frustrating not the least because we'd had no real problems to the car kept on the street with all the hurly burly that entails in Mallorca, but we park in a small garden centre here and......boom!  Ah well. Insurance is handling it and obviously his will be paying but we'll still be without ours while it's fixed.  Such is life.  On a happier note, that evening we went out for dinner with some lovely nearby neighbours who are also involved with Valley FM radio which I will be presenting on soon.  We ate the most delicious paella and had a wonderful evening.  We brought wine from Buxtet vineyard in Mallorca which we visited a few months ago and which went down very well and quite quickly 😂 well it was important to drown our sorrows don't you think? 😳 

And finally today we changed our SIP cards (NHS cards) over from the Balearics to the Marina Alta area which means that at last we are on the list for our Covid jabs here (with impeccable timing we were called up for ours in Mallorca just after we left).  We really hope we get the call/text soon - it'll feel like the beginning of the end so to speak.

Lots of things lined up for this week including a music quiz, afternoon tea, doggy haircuts and an Elvis tribute act.  Ain't life grand 😎

Stay safe and hasta la próxima semana!