Further in; further up!

Trip to the village con mi amiga!

Small real Spain.. It is off the beaten track, surrounded by acres and acres of olive trees... so many you can smell the olive oil driving through. Its just over two hours drive, and the roads here are good, so a good quick journey. I drove, we made good time, the two dogs in the back behaved very well, and slept most of the way.

Reaching my friends house, we unpacked the car and went in, the key needed a bit of jigging! But once in all good to go!

I had a quick sweep around, and mi amiga opened windows and doors..

The beautiful lake air rushing in through the door and and causing eddies as I swept!

The village is - one helluva big lake, man-made, two bars one plaza.. one tiny store.. it has the darkest skies and the most beautiful bright stars..

Milky way included.

We walked the dogs..

We ate.. laughed, cried... and drank coffee!

On the first evening we walked down to the bar and for every beer a huge plate of tapas arrived! More a ration than a tapa!

Two friends arrived and joined us... A really great evening, a small village, with a handful of British residents, everyone welcomed into the arms of the local people.. I saw how my friend had been missed, and checked on her.. and I felt included and welcomed in not just as a temporary visitor but as new friend.

After the bar.. we went to get the boys (the dogs!), and walked to the lake.. it was so dark, and I mean dark, no light bleed. You actually could not see anything! It was the first time I have really seen the Milky Way..

I didn't want to leave! I could have laid down and just watched the skies.. it was around one in the morning by then and the Perseid Meteor shower at its best.. apparently.. We walked to the waters edge, we stood.. we saw one brilliant amazing shooting meteor enter our earth's atmosphere and light and burn briefly... absolutely wonderful! Couldn't have been better!

The next day we went to a neighbouring town and had coffee's... it was late morning, very quiet and very very hot!

That evening a repeat of the one before, but not so late and no lake-side walk! The next and final day, we went for lunch in the nearby town this time, more people about, a lively thriving town, very few of us foreigners.. in fact I can't be certain but I don't think I heard another British accent apart from our own!

Now, a couple of funny things... my friend and I do laugh, a lot, see the same funny side of things... the latter thing I will tell you was the funniest, this first was just funny! I pulled up by the kerb and she pulled up my hand-brake! She drives a right-hand drive and although she had no steering wheel.. I pulled up and she pulled up the hand-brake!

You had to be there? Well... we laughed! Now, the next thing... you really don't need to have been there!

When we arrived she turned the water on, ours are all accessible at the front of our houses... just how it is here in Spain... The water was a bit thin on the ground so to speak, a mere dribble... we managed to flush the loo a couple of times, and do a wash in the machine... We didn't manage to brush our teeth with tap water so had to use bottled water and just get on with it, so to speak.

In the morning, no improvement, spoke to friends, learnt the water had been low... there is a tank which is filled by truck and used by the residents... and that is the supply for the whole village! We were at the top of the road too.. so made even more sense there was even less up there..

Anyways, friends brought up a couple of bottles of water, two by five litres and we made do with them, again, as best we could, didn't go short on coffee, just no flushing and no showers!!

The day we were leaving.. nothing, nada, nowt! She asked me to switch off the water anyway, before we left, as we all do when we're away, I opened up the front, looked at the gauge and the tap, turned the tap opposite to the way it was... and.... the gauge started to turn, the meter... it turned fast and wonder of wonder I could hear the magical sound of water gushing through the pipes from there into the house!!! I called out my friends name... sort of slowly... she thought maybe it was broken or a dog had got out... I walked in and said... "water!!! there is water....

Oh em geeeeeeeee!!! We laughed so much it hurt, our faces our throats... stomachs!!! Those two nights and three days!!! We had water all along... We literally laughed till we cried.

We flushed the loo... (just don't ask.) We washed up, we hosed down the back yard... watered plants... and flushed the loo again!!!

So, next time we visit, I am in charge of the water meter!

So so funny, driving home we just randomly kept on remembering and laughing till we cried again and again...

What else has been occurring???

I have applied and am waiting for my new passport.. its on its way, from the opening of my info and them saying they were starting the process to a message to say finished and on its way was six days!

I've food shopped, drank copious amounts of coffee... I am eating well, maybe too well!!

Its been wonderful being in close proximity to my neighbors dogs, although, when entering my house now I automatically look down and feel I have to be careful Pip isn't close to the door...Pip or any dog, just a feeling of a dog being close to me now... reading on the terrace yesterday a movement caught my eye, and I thought it was her...

I am growing thyme! Yes thyme can be grown, it can't be turned back or moved forward, but it can be grown! Ha.. funny!!

I planted the seeds nearly six weeks ago and it has taken five weeks for any growth at all! When they are big enough to plant out I am planting in the crevices in the mountain wall behind my house, its a very hardy plant and requires very little water, once established... but, at this rate, not sure they'll make it before I head off back to work again, can't plant seedlings this small and no way would they survive the heat without water like this!

We're all being bitten by little somethings, no mosquitoes, I really don't know what they are, because none of us can actually catch whatever it is that's doing the biting!!

Enough already? Okay, that'll do then; it is not that I don't think to blog, I just can't my head round to it.. I haven't been sleeping well, the heat to start with, now I have AC in the bedroom that helps immensely, but sleep is a thing of mystery.. elusive, an enigma... We wrestle with it and lose the battle constantly...

I did my yearly modules for work, and that night I slept better, maybe my brain enjoyed being active that little bit more! So what then? Learn something every day... every day most certainly is learning... doing Spain every day again now... needs to be a habit...

Every evening, well, most evening then, myself and a couple of neighbors gather on our terraces and have a cup of tea... how very civilized! But its nice, its companionable.. We chat, we listen, we watch the sun set over the beautiful country we call home..

TTFN

Marian

"It's our living that counts; all the years that have past us by when we didn't realize how very important they were...

...whichever our decisions in life, some things we've done will feel wrong and others right, because there is no wrong or right, there is just trying to do the best we can."