Our new home in the Orba Valley, Alicante

Summer is well and truly here now (30 degrees today) and our pool water is now 28 degrees which isn't too shabby!  We've taken to spending about an hour in the pool every day and my goodness, it's a thing of joy and beauty on a really hot day 😝

An important moment for us this week was finally putting up our house name using little Spanish tiles:

This means "Dream House" which for us it truly is 💕

We've done lots more work on the garden and are beginning to get control of the weeds and out of control invasive plant species which is very satisfying, and not a moment too soon now that the hot summer weather is upon us.   And we're reaping the rewards of our labours as many plants are flowering all over the place and providing us with plenty of gorgeous rich colours in the wonderful Mediterranean sunshine:

The garden jungle around a lovely tree that had been choked by lots of undergrowth now is a lovely clear area in which we have planted some of the plants that had struggled on in pots that had been put out there and then also been enveloped in the undergrowth.  They now look lovely and one of them is about to give us some beautiful flowers.  In any event, the change is pretty significant:

We also found a lovely metal tub which I've turned into a little herb garden so am looking forward to using them in cooking and salads.

Some of our lovely smaller cacti which we brought with us from Mallorca are now displayed alongside the herbs 😍 

This weekend we had our first house guest, a friend of Ian's from many years ago when they worked together, and who is now living in Benidorm.  On Saturday evening, in a 'coals to Newcastle' moment 😂, we went to see a comedian from Benidorm who was doing his first gig since Covid brought the world to a grinding halt last year.  He is the son of Stephen Lewis who played Inspector 'Blakey' in "On the Buses" (which ran from 1969-1973 on UK TV) and he really was very funny.  It was lovely to be entertained and have a great laugh, and we also ate some delicious tapas so all in all, it was almost like old times!  On Sunday we went to see a Cuban singer where we enjoyed lots of Spanish, South American and international music with a Latin twist, and had a BBQ including yummy chicken fajitas and nachos.  The weekend certainly reminded us that things are gradually returning to a (kind of) normal and I think we appreciate them all the more following the last 16 months or so......

We've also discovered the joys of the local pizzeria, based at the sports centre and outdoor swimming pool (the latter is currently still shut).  Great pizza and pasta and a bottle of wine will set you back all of 5-7€!  If you arrive about 8pm, the tables are for 2-4 British/Dutch/German people; if you are there around 10pm the tables have all become much bigger for 10+ people with Spanish families and groups of young adults and the noise level goes up at the same time 😝  Again, the fact that there is no limit here now on the number of people at a table gives us a taste of what we took for granted not so very long ago.

We have started to notice a few European (and one or two British) owners returning to their properties locally but any tourists have largely passed us by living just a little inland as we do.  We haven't ventured out to the coastal areas much as yet but intend to explore them more in due course.  Certainly it is stunningly beautiful here both inland and on the coast and we very much appreciate our gorgeous surroundings.

We have watched with interest as Boris has postponed lifting all restrictions in the UK for another month 🤔  The vaccination rollout here continues to be pretty slow and....nope....I've still heard nothing despite those in their 40's now being vaccinated 😡 computer apparently still say no....  Anyhow, life has returned to reasonably close to normal here apart from having to wear a face mask everywhere.  This is not so bad in the winter but when it is 30 degrees plus it's really quite unpleasant.  I never envisaged having a sweaty mouth/chin before all this happened, it not generally being that sort of an area 😳 but I certainly know all about it now!  I must say I will be pleased when we don't have to wear them any more but would prefer that it happens once I've actually managed to get my Covid vaccination.....so...... 2023 then 🙄

In the meantime, stay safe and hasta la próxima semana!