Beautiful light mist rising at the back on the garden today... ethereal.... I half expected a spirit to take form, always just like in the old movie, The Amazing Mr Blunden!

Gorgeous day today, blue skies and sunshine, yesterday a bit grim... but it turned around this morning, a slight frosting on the grass... I see the fox most days now, running past the back door from the roadside to come out back and into the fields and his den I guess... Huge fox, but no wonder the amount of food he puts away each night!! Hmmmm!! Also a resident squirrel, he sits and nibbles at the red berries by the back door...

Roads were okay, thankfully, short drive to somewhere today for a couple of hours... then back!!  As you can tell, nothing more to say really...

I'm sleeping okay, but very lightly... so I am getting real tired now... Ta dah!!

We are torn between nostalgia for the familiar and an urge for the foreign and strange. As often as not, we are homesick most for the places we have never known.

Carson McCullers

Sunrise on the road...

A beautiful sunset... Always the sunsets... Never the sunrises... I can't see them from the terrace in Spain, and here not so much either... I have always wanted to see the sunrise in Petra, not a safe place now I guess, but something I have always wanted to do... on the bucket list!

I haven't fiddled with the photograph above, the way the picture is in the roof of the hay barn? That just happened, and I don't know how, so don't ask me... fluke!

Our Planet

A program on TV last night, a woman exclaiming over a 4000 years old punt!

How often do we think about the fact we are walking around on a plant billions of years old! Stop, walk barefoot, touch the earth with your hands... Centre yourself... Every thing we have comes from what already is, and one day, however changed it will return!

I reworked a bowl of stuff here in the kitchen, just rearranged and processed a bit!

And below a tiny berry from outside, also processed!

Four weeks through now (nearly!), half way!

I'm a bit tired, had neck ache since... Four or five days I think! Not sure if I've scrunched it somehow; someone said something about their flu shot effecting joints!?! But it's a week tomorrow I had it, the pharmacist said it takes three weeks to work, so maybe it takes three weeks to get through the body?

I guess I can go check tomorrow or later, on my break...

I'm glad I have a night in the hotel before my flight to LA, a night to completely rest, although it doesn't always work like that, and after eight weeks of not sleeping properly... it will probably take a few nights to relax... Lol... But I'll be in a different time zone! My born natural time zone!! I so can't wait! Who am I kidding!! I haven't slept properly since I can't remember when!! I always wake up anyway!

This Bonelli eagle is coming home!

Difficult Roads

I can't really just put a quote on here can I? I better fill some space between it and here then!

Today, Ophelia has passed on, trees here intact, apples aplenty fallen to the ground, we've had blue skies and full sun, yellow! The Saharan dust cloud has passed on by... I wonder in thirty years, when this storm is remembered, if it is, if the orange sun shall also be?

The nights are drawing in, six thirty this evening it was almost dark, the clocks change here in the UK in a couple of weeks, a week before they do so in the US.

Purloined quote from Twitter:
Difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations...

Ophelia

There is a weird calm before the storm outside.. the sky is red... the wind is starting to build up... At the shopping centre today when I came out of a popular clothes store whose TV advertisement had drawn me in, and I thought what Next!?! So got some food shopping completed too!

But the car park there was eerie... a strange quietness, trees blowing and people rushing about quietly! It was, is, very warm out, and as I speak the color outside is changing again, almost an orange glow! I've just added this bit... I've realised too, in the car park, and here.... no birds!

I know the hurricane Ophelia is headed towards Ireland, but that is some way from here... wondering if the great storm of '87 which happened exactly 30 years now... could be on a re-run!

Sorry, had to get coffee... hah! Like you knew... and also!! ah ha! I just ran back down again to answer the door! Package for next door!

So... here is a photograph of the sky when I got back at 11am...

This is not stylised, this is as is! I also know, Do Not Look At The Sun! Mwwwhh!

The sky is more orangy now...

Last night, lasted a while, so when I got back here after shopping, I laid down for an hour, couldn't really sleep, but rested a while knowing I didn't have to keep an ear open!

So when I got up I felt more refreshed! And now only concerned I will have fallen trees ahead of me to collect my customer later!

Traveling Road

Wow! This week flew by! Blogging from my phone so apologies ahead of time for errors to be quite honest, I am not going back to look for!

As in life as in Blogging!

Just eaten my breakfast, coffee going down well, thought I would write to you...

Weather is still great, had a two minute downpour yesterday as I was walking, change to running! into a supermarket yesterday after morning in a centre.

My Parker remains unworn!!! Three weeks, no coat in England, sometimes just the t-shirt! I am sure by mid-November I will be all hugged up in my favourite winter coat!

And so yes, three weeks gone, four weeks to go then a week of days! Lol

Last night I couldn't sleep properly, thinking I'm already moving into US time zone! Was talking about this last night... Which means every morning I wake up tired from bed, it's because that's where I should be going!

I have often wondered over the years the path my life would have taken had my mom not flown me as a toddler, across the world... Where would I have settled, what work, what life... lol what accent!

I am truly blessed that this is the path I'm on, because of a life filled with richness of family, friends, my life so far... my amazing sons both with beautiful and amazing wives, my granddaughter, the most remarkable baby girl in the world, of course. Nothing, not one single thing would I change... I have such amazing bonds of friendship, which will never break, I have such gratitude for everyone I've met along my path, for good or bad, people make us who we are...

But, and it's a big but! But what of the wheel I imagine our lives run along, like an old wagon wheel, or maybe spiders web, with the links across? I am guessing the middle would be birth... then coming out, jumping from line to line... Towards Ithaka...

But what of the lines we lived on in our lives? Do they continue somewhere? I know I've said before but when I'm back in the states, I see glimpses of a life I feel I'm in...

And how many times have I bumped into people I know, somewhere I wouldn't normally see them!??? Okay, well maybe that's nothing to do with anything!

Couple of photographs from the other week... Above an excellent capture of two flying saucers! Must be one of those areas for UFO's just here...

And apples!

Its very strange I don't normally get lost for words...
Maybe I can think of an old story from my 'way back when'...

I remember picking a decade once before to pick random happenings? It was a while ago! Wonder where I got to with it?

The only day I skipped school! It was the games lesson, and my best friend and I decided we didn't want to run around the playing field all afternoon, so we walked to her house, which was... I can actually check now with maps... 46 minutes, 2.5 miles! and then I had to walk home!!! 1hr 3 minutes, and 3.1 miles!!! I think I drew the short straw there!! And of course the moral of this story is do not avoid games to walk other people home first!!!!

I had my flu shot yesterday! Unlike the one I witnessed last week, mine took ages and was covering me for four strains of flu, which is handy as I had to call the paramedics last time I got the flu and the shot I'd had didn't cover that strain!! She said my arm would ache, and to stay in store for five minutes in case I went into anaphylactic shock! I did, stay in store, but no problems... apart from the arm ache!

Spiders web...

Hello, been a while, difficult posting from a placement... can't talk much about places or day to day activities... I guess I can say at one activity on Monday we had an opera singer entertain us, she was amazing!  Music no mic the room did the job wonderfully, she walked about us as we sat at our tables, it almost felt like we were on the stage with her as she sung her part... felt very part of the whole experience... She sung a selection from many of the old and new shows... sadly nothing from the Phantom or Les Mis... Lol the only two I have actually seen of course, and only the Phantom was live at Her Majesties in London with mom many moon ago now...

We've been out and about shopping in the car to nearby towns! And a farm shop!

We've gathered apples from the garden and adjoining paddocks...

I feed a fox every night!!

And there we have it really! I'm in the Cotswold's! Guess I say that! So you know this is a very pretty area, very chocolate box!

And I am about three weeks into the placement, kind of five to go, but the last week is only days isn't it... when you break it down, so I am going to say four weeks when I get to Saturday! I know it will be four weeks and seven days... but its days!! Me and my positive thinking... well, who'd have thought it eh...

I feel a poem should be going here again... Shall I write my own again!! Or look for something... let me think a moment...

Well, I wrote a poem then decided not to post it here, yet....

So just posting this amigos...

A fallen apple... heart shaped... I should fill the centre with cinnamon sugar, wrap it up in sweet pastry, brush with melted butter and bake!

If I were at home!

It is difficult sometimes to write whilst on placements, I cannot say how my day really is, or nights... I can't give location details of pretty villages, quintessential English locations...

Snippets and random thoughts only... And very random I am too with some of my thoughts of course... So much I could say and can't! Now I feel I'm being cryptic and I really having nothing to say!

Maybe a poem? I stopped writing them here didn't I... Let me go steal... erm.. no purloin I mean!

Well that was weird the first poem that came up was in the LA Times! And now I haven't bothered looking for another I have written my own.

Take me away... Bring me home
To leave a life of knowing to choose a life of unexplored unknown
Time to reconnect my feet on home home ground
To live a life anew and another way around...
©MarianBonelli

Country Road

Yes I'm here.... about ten minutes from Stratford upon Avon... Very pretty village, two pubs and small shop and a massive maypole!!

Above a photo taken in Alcester, also very close by and where my initial training was for the company I work for!

The flight left over three hours late, we spent over two hours actually sitting on the plane, after boarding on time, we just never left! We were taken off for fueling and re-boarded! Crazy! So getting into Birmingham airport and then here to placement and only being an hour late, I did okay, reason being of course I would have had a couple of relaxing hours... I thought I'd go around the Birmingham Bull Ring, but it didn't happen... oh well!

We have a rental car so I am able to take the customer to centres and shopping which is great, long days and normal challenges of course, with a few extra surprises thrown in for good measure, its a long placement, and the countdown on my phone will take a while to look like I am making any progress at all!! Maybe I should move it away from the home-screen and only look at it if I think of it! Good plan!

I have got soaked through a couple of times, and although I know not responsible for it... but probably not helped... I picked up a cold from my travels, I guess plane or trains.... I had the usual sore throat, that left as soon as the cold begun to come out and today we have just walked up the shop for some hot lemon powders!! Oh the joys!  I haven't had a cold for at least two years... at least like this I am guessing because my glasses are in the way! And I got them two years ago in December!

These photographs!  Anyone know where they were taken?

Should we tell the world??

I am guessing the top of the blue church in Alhaurín is a bit of a give-away!

Yes a stunning, beautiful roof-top terrace in Alhaurín El Grande.... We went up to the terrace on Friday night, before my 'early' night and early flight... ha ha! They have done the best ever job of a roof terrace! All the decking the beds, sun-loungers, pallet seats... cushions... swing chair! The bar... just amazing!

Where? Oh Bar Sardina por su puesto!

Shared Road...

I was going to say, hey its me Blogging late... but just realised its only 8:35pm, well at the moment, as I begin my post... its very nearly dark... I paused to WhatsApp... and now its 8:40pm and dark!!

Photographs today courtesy of my phone in Miramar on Monday!  The one above, there used to be two flights of steep stairs, with the big screen in the middle... and a lift over near where I was standing to take this, a small elevator, very small, now closed... and it was only when I came down the above escalator I realised it was new!! LOL Even though I went up the other one!

Up on the terrace above all the shops, where we used to go for Franco to have a smoke... and me to take a photograph or two!

Even some sand!! Whoop Whoop!

The sea... from the Med to the Atlantic, soon to the Pacific! Back home home home... she says clicking her heels neatly together!

I went there shopping to get a few things for my trip to work on Saturday and then my holibobs afterwards!  I got everything I needed, the shop I wanted opened at 10am and by 10:30am I was at Calahonda where I was meeting our friend, our neighbour from there, for a coffee!

Worlds smallest merry-go-round near the top of the escalator!

I've had a difficult week, more tears this week than last... Crying for all things lost... Life shouldn't be about loss, it should be about the many wonderful and beautiful that we find throughout life, people, places, inanimate objects even... even if we don't have them anymore, or go there, or they get broken... Why is loss so hard, its all we do is lose one thing after another; how wonderful to be hard-hearted to just feel nothing... That just isn't me, I wonder if I'll harden up to life one day, not be so sensitive to pain and hurt, I don't think I can cope with this forever.

A quote to end on today.... purloined from Twitter, of course!

One day, you'll be just a memory for some people.  Do your best to be a good one.

"It may be that the gulfs will wash us down;

It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,

And though we are not now that strength which in old days

Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are—

[Scene shifts to Frasier’s KACL booth.]

Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will;

To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."

I’ve been thinking about that poem a lot lately. And I think what it says is that, while it’s tempting to play it safe, the more we’re willing to risk, the more alive we are. In the end, what we regret most are the chances we never took. And I hope that explains, at least a little, this journey on which I am about to embark. I have loved every minute with my KACL family, and all of you. For eleven years you've heard me say, "I’m listening." Well, you were listening, too. And for that I am eternally grateful. Goodnight, Seattle.


Well friends, I guess you know what I've been watching this morning, well as per the norm... but which episode... Yep, the last one of Frasier, again... As as always this poem by Tennyson gets me, or I get it!

And here I am today, at this time on this path where, once again this means more to me today than usual...

I am off to work for a long period of time, and so a change is a-foot, big change...

This week also I finished watching Friends! LOL for the first time ever I have watched each and every single episode! Thank you Netflix!

That was a bit of an emotional roller-coaster! I don't think I had seen the two last episodes of Friends?  Although I had seen the majority of it, thanks to one of my sons who was a Friends addict... and I have a book, the Friends book, still in its shopping bag... from 2004!

LOL I've just taken it down off the shelf, with it came another item... the card I gave to my mom in 2009... a mere eight years ago... but a couple of life times past...

Isn't it bad enough to keep too much stuff of my own that I kept this too!  Still, I have a photograph now to keep instead... if I should lose this card eh...

On the inside cover I had written a poem, my mom like Walt Whitman...

Took a photograph of this too! Surprise surprise! I was going to purloin it from the www. but none of the copies were background compatible for me... So the photograph it is then!

And a pretty rubbish photo it is too! Oh well! LOL There it is... I wasn't even looking for any of this was I! Just the Friends book... which.... oh well, never mind...

I've just gone from one random thing to another, time for me to take a bow and leave!

There was a fire in Alhaurín down by the houses we walk past... this little bit of green survived... always the same, through devastation comes life...

Today I went down to La Canada, near Marbella, met up with friends that I have known for a long, long time now! We used to work together in Mercedes-Benz...

I remember cooking a Thanksgiving meal and he came to dinner with another salesman from MB, I cooked for about fourteen of us... actually there were thirteen I remember now and I think I plated up another so it wasn't unlucky!!

That was either 1998 or 1999, and I actually think it was 1998... twenty years next year!! Holy cannoli!!

I got down to the shopping centre a long time before I needed too, had a coffee then wandered around the centre... I went into fnac, a techy shop, to see if the Oculus Rift was still available to use... for a price! But it had gone... I bet if it was free it would still be there!?!

I didn't really even want to go into any of the shops, I don't need any clothes, wasn't even interested in looking at any clothes or shoes... I wandered into the supermarket, picked up some things, then took them back to the shelves I had picked them up from... because I can't just put them down anywhere! I went into Stradivarius.... eventually, and did see a couple of sweaters which I nearly bought!

Photograph above taken on Monday, the reservoir at the top of the mountain! I think if you zoom in you might see the eagles I could see... or not!! There were dozens of them... beautiful sight to see...

The Changing Road

This morning I walked the Pipster, we came home... then we went to the lakes! Los embalses! The road trip there great as usual, regular amount of traffic... turned off just past Ardales... up to the lakes... traffic starting to build...

My secret location...

I drove to the El Kiosko first, thought we park up, wander around the bridge, then back to the bar, have a cup of coffee for me, water for the Pipster... sit at a roadside table and relax in the September warmth... instead... it was a slow haul drive as far as the '60's church and turned around and came away again, sad and angry in equal measures...

I know many many more people come here now, to appreciate that which we have all appreciated for years unobstructed by coaches, buses, millions of tourists!! LOL....

Yes, yes I know! Once a tourist! I get it, but, us normal folks can't even go to love place the place we loved... its not the same now, nowhere to park for us anymore! No coffee for us!! LOL... can you see me? stamping my feet like a petulant child!

When I drove back through the crowds by the bar, waiting to start the walk... I saw their happy and expectant faces and felt bad for my anger... They were already loving what we love, already looking forward to the Kings Walk... Will take the happy memories back to their many countries with them... and only when somewhere they love is unavailable to them might they think about our beloved El Chorro and the lakes...

So I also thought about the commercialised places I have been to, how they have changed for those who, like me, loved them for what they were, not how they became..

This was the final disaster zone...

At the junction El Chorro/Embalses, a big giant car park.... miles of it... I am seriously hoping they will say if you want the coach to the Kings Walk you have to park and get it from there... so the possibility of parking to walk, or have a coffee, or eat... will return to the lakes themselves...

This above is an eyesore! The awfulness of it, just concrete instead of beauty...

I drove left here, away from the lakes... and told myself to look up! To look at the mountains, the 'why' that people were here to see, the reason I was there, the stunning countryside, the mountains and valleys, the bridges, the rivers, the eagles... [Bonelli eagles], look up look up! LOL

Driving back to Alhaurín I put on my Time playlist from my phone, I hadn't realised how many songs mentioned the word Time on the list!! Well, maybe only three or four, but still strange...

Time changes things, places, people...  I am certainly not the girl I was even one year ago... There is actually even more of me than there was before! That's what life does, fill us up with things that make us who we are, until maybe we reach our fill...

Time... Tom Waits...

That was a heavy dog walk this morning... Deep and meaningful... As Pippa and I were walking through the park...

And I thought about Pippa... Dogs, animals, don't have a clue about what's ever going to happen to them, they live in the here and now... She never knows if I'm coming home from town, or when I take her to the doggie hotel when I'll come back, if?  She has no guarantee even of food or walks... in a way...

Then I thought I suppose we don't either, we go about our lives, for good or for bad, thinking we know a little at least of what's ahead, yes, we know more of that than our pets... We can plan for meals, work, regular stuff.  But there it stops! We don't actually know what tomorrow holds, or later today... We can plan all we want, because what's around the corner is unknown, even if we think otherwise.

The universe conspires for us... For the good and for the bad; even things that appear to be bad may have a reason because we don't know why change has come...

We really then have no more idea than the dog!

My dog now, tired from her walk and watching me... the one she trusts, who knows more about her future than she does, and still she trusts... I think I have been missing something my whole life.

I actually wrote the above yesterday morning and forgot to post... The sunset from the night before, the 8th, sharing the moment...

And I have had a placement offer, in one place for eight weeks!  Again, universe conspiring within twelve hours of my thought of working for eight to nine weeks before Christmas!  Decisions to be made... What other great changes can I make with my thoughts!

Chico time!

Pippa and I met up with her 'ol pal Chico the other afternoon... walking through the park he came along as he used to from his driveway, to say 'hi' to Pip, they sniffed noses and that was it! We don't often see him anymore.  The last time was on our way back from the doggie hotel.. when I came back two weeks ago nearly...

His color makes him almost fade into the pathway... I was going to play with the quality, or do something with the image, decided to leave well alone... he looks like a ghost dog...

And two photographs taken in the park... the water has been drained from the pond... too much rubbish chucked in there, its such a shame, people just can't leave well alone... The park looked lovely when it was first opened.. now plants have been pulled up, this abandoned due to lack of care... Dog mess all over the place, despite the plastic dog bag dispenser!

And at the entrance to the park, someone left their shoes... and more shoes... LOL, might see the odd pair here or there, but really, the whole cupboard full!!

I had my stitches out today, I did seriously think they were the disintegrating type... so I was expecting a bit of a check and that would be it... not a snip and a pull type of thing, with me owwwing! Poor woman, not me the dental nurse!

And an appointment made for a week on Monday for the ongoing treatment, then it will be stitches again, then after ten days I can at last get back to work!

And the new road? I took it yesterday going down to the coast, turned a left at Aldi and the new dual carriageway took me to the old roundabout, and you miss out the whole of Fuengirola, its great!

And today I started to watch Game of Thrones! Only six years after it begun... Ooops! Its good! Only like my son said... don't get attached to any of the characters!

Hold my hand...

Sardines, on the beach, of course!

The Shared Road... I have been missing the point with the line of my Blog... The Shared Road... I have never been alone on my road... a bit like the piece by someone many [many!] years ago, about footsteps in the sand and only one pair of feet when the going got tough...

And not so many years ago but still when I was in England a friend wrote a beautiful piece to me, I wonder I might ask her if I can write it out here... I think I know where I left it safe... I'll go check... Later...

La playa!

After I said how this September was just right, temperature-wise, it goes and slaps me down! LOL... Yesterday was hotter than hot, and still last night at 11:35pm 35 degrees! [95F] in the evening in the dark, at night!! Whoa!! On the beach with family around midday, and the sea breeze was lovely, taking the edge of the heat... but hot hot hot all the same... and once back home in Alhaurín I opened the car door and got hit by the heat only a glass melting machine could give out!! lol... Okay, maybe not that hot, just an ordinary oven then!!  Or we would all have melted!

El Torro!

Coming home from the coast yesterday using my track... there was a new road!!! A new massive roundabout and a new road!! I think it probably comes out by the new Aldi and Burger King on the Mijas pueblo road... and when I come home tomorrow from visiting again, I'll scoot down it to try... it on for size!

Okay, going to find the letter from a friend... still a best buddy friend, hope she lets me share this... lol Well that's sorted! Its not where I thought it was, also something else I thought was there isn't!! Something else was that I didn't know about! LOL... starting to sound like an Agatha Christie Novel!

In the letter my friend gave me, she talked about how I had helped carry her load when life got too heavy for her...

Maybe its time to go through my... paperwork? memorabilia? crapola?? again... Every time I do, I thin it out a bit more; no good for anyone but me, and its not really any good for me...

I remember coming out here end of 2002 with about five boxes of 'above stuff' and now I have only a couple of boxes...[plus one]...

Every year I lighten the load of things I never read or look through anymore... every year I feel the better for it!

What counts is whats in our hearts and souls and minds...
I think I've turned another page...

Purloining a photograph of a t-shirt advert I saw on Facebook in July... because? Well, read...

I'm getting used to the stitches in my mouth, well, trying to ignore them... Which is fine if I don't eat!

I had fish out with friends down on the coast on Friday, I did just eat the fish, and thinking about how good it was is making me hungry!

And in the evening I went into town with friends, tried some tapas, but hurt my mouth, so didn't eat too much... Just stuck to the gin!

I, as most people know, do not really drink, so three gin and tonics should have wiped me out, but apart from feeling a bit tired Saturday morning... I had an extra hour in bed... That was it! It was a long evening so three drinks lasted long long time...

Today has been a beautiful day, the weather now has dropped a notch or two, still hot but not that blasting heat we've been having... This is good September weather, last couple were hotter than the preceding August's!

I've got my paints out again, two years in the cave, the drawing paper is a bit damp, but the acrilic paints seem fine. I'm feeling inspired, so I popped down the local bizzare and bought some canvases, I've prepped one, it should be dry by now! Just need to get my thoughts onto the canvas! I've tried doing some sketching today, and sketchy they were! Lol

I feel unfinished here, something is missing... Oh yes!

Friday morning my car battery wouldn't work! I came back to the house and asked some of guys working on a house nearby if they had jump-leads, one did, and we got my car going; instead of going directly to Calahonda, my destination, I drove towards Málaga, getting onto the motorway and through the Churiana tunnel... Down the toll road to El Zoco! I drove my little car as fast... as permitted! After lunch, back to my car... the battery did start eventually, but I couldn't risk the uncertainty of it! So went to Miramar Parque and got a new one... Not sure of the prices in the UK anymore... This one cost nearly 100 Euros... Including a 'free' diagnostic check! Sounds a lot, but he did fix my driver's door too :-)

Okay... If something is still missing... It's not me!