Wednesday, January 31, 2024

 

I forgot a beautiful part in my short jaunt away, when I parked outside, got out of my car and stood to listen.. I heard my most favorite bird in all the world! My Hoopoe bird! And now sitting up in bed and watching a bit of a series on my kindle, I hear him again...

M.


Tuesday, January 30, 2024

Life is a funny old thing..

Dropping off half a dozen bags at a charity shop in Coín this morning the track on the CD said it all really.. if I could actually remember the title i would insert here! But it was very apt for now.

And I am now ensconced in a studio apartment down in La Cala de Mijas for a couple of nights.

I watched a very good movie already now onto a second one called The Portable Door, talking of coincidence and mishaps and strange occurrences that bring us where we are every step of the way!


Taking photographs along places I've passed for thirty-six years and never walked upon...


Only a few people on the beach, a few lone lost souls... One had a dog!


I walked over the carretera to the coast side but back through this narrow tunnel..

I go through phases of reading horoscopes..

But today's said 

January 30th, 2024

The Universe is saying to you today: "Focus on what is available to you in the present moment, rather than on what you feel is missing from your life. Set clear intentions and have the courage to take the steps needed to get there. Keep moving forward."

M.




Sunday, January 28, 2024

A very different view from yesterday afternoon, I had been down the coast with my friend and neighbor, tagging along for the ride.. And as we were about to turn off through a polígono and back onto the Alhaurín road, I said we were on the original Mijas pueblo road and he said he wanted to see the route...

So up we went, remember I last took it coming back from the coast a few months back?I think after a tattoo. It's a route we used to use all the time, just nice, away from the tourist run and a bit risky! 

This photograph was taken up near Mijas pueblo, the aim was the coastal view, the outcome was the tree! Well positioned, central stage and front!

'Aging is an extraordinary process whereby you become the person you always should have been.'

I really like this David Bowie quote... I like the thought, the idea, that we are just becoming..

Always becoming until... We have become!

I had a terrible night! Awake at four, so got some mint tea and turned on the tv, watched a wonderful short music documentary called The Last Repair Shop.. Wonderful... 

Then after another couple of episodes of something else I went back to sleep at seven! 

Getting very out of sync doing this, but no work today and what the heck! 

This massive spring clean I have underway is very good for my mind, and soul.. mostly.

Not so much the body, keep jumping up and moving stuff, either to charity or rubbish bags! Kind of need to relax a bit!

And my big issue with attachment makes it very difficult.. letting go of things I've had since being an adult... Am I yet an adult? If still becoming?

Letting go of my mom's things even more difficult, and my grandmothers? And great grandmothers things?? Seriously? Why do I have them? Especially needlework, buttons! Of the latter.

She had numerous children and yet, it is I who have these things that weigh heavy with me... My boys most certainly won't want them, and do I have to burden my grandchildren with them!

What a legacy! 

At last this morning I have removed the DVDs I don't watch but kept, the small game machine I don't play and kept, and the CDs.. will join the others out of the plastic and into the CD carriers!

Had about four or five unnamed DVDs, two were blank two were films, and the last, strangely was one I thought lost years ago, so was wonderful to find and poignant, it made me very happy and very sad at the same time, and also seemed a message to say, you're doing good! 

Yesterday having coffee in town with friends, at the old 'office' destination.. and why I at last sorted out the DVDs always in view every morning as I have my breakfast..

Yesterday, talking about the books I have done for Peter Maddocks, and other authors, one of the friends at the table said she has had a book in the planning stage for a while, the planning idea always in view, which I think in a way something we see every day we start to stop seeing, it becomes just a part of our lives, not something in action, as it were ...

I had some suggestions and I hope I've given her the oomph to get going on her book... I really hope so actually, because I left the table feeling so good at hopefully getting someone else to feel good about her book! 

M.

“See with a different eye, visualize with a colorful mind, manifest your thoughts with the energy within.”

Michael Bassey Johnson



Wednesday, January 24, 2024

24.01.24



Sorry, unlike me to use another's work, but it's just how I'm feeling..

Today would have been my mom's 96th birthday.. I miss her more.. raising a glass of wine foe you mom... I remember finding a bottle of wine with the makers name Muriel, on the bottle, she was so pleased...

Busy days at work, and my knee or back, or both are playing up all the time now ..

Although I've seen a local osteopath twice now .. absolutely fantastic, saw her yesterday and pain today, but I'm pushing myself or my body too much these days.

I hear a blackbird every morning and evening near the house, a new visitor, because haven't heard him before.. and he reminded me of a blackbird I heard at a customers in Witney, every morning and evening..  the blackbird welcomed in the day, and sang the day out every evening, such a beautiful song... Never heard one in Spain before, not singing like this... Maybe he's calling me to move forward...

M.

Once upon a time, there was the simple understanding that to sing at dawn and to sing at dusk was to heal the world through joy. 

The birds still remember what we have forgotten.

~Terry Tempest Williams


🙏💜💫

Sunday, January 14, 2024

 

Did I post this already?

Apologies if I have.. I love the way the mountains always look so different, the time of day, the time of the year, the weather.. Every moment of every day is different..

Haven't done much today, worked yesterday and at last I think the pain is better in my leg.. been five or six weeks now... And it got so much more incredibly worse the last couple of weeks, then .. a bit better.. Still getting it checked tomorrow, I need to find out the cause or it'll be back, and could be worse ..

It has been debilitating not to be able to walk anywhere, I haven't walked into town since January the 1st.  I have managed to walk up to Bar Monika with extreme pain and hobbled home again, it has been okay in work because although it's hard going there's not much distance to walk, thankfully.

Walking is my thing, can't imagine not being able to just walk where and when I want.. also although sleeping has never been an easy thing for me, at least laying down in bed had been ok, now even that is very painful.. on all sides!

A man came into the store yesterday, probably late 50's early 60's... He bought whatever and said something about something and then we were talking about cooking for one, and other stuff.. he said "living the dream eh!" And yes, so many of us came over, came here, for our dreams, many of us found our dreams.  And so many lost them again.

I guess this is probably true of all people who pick-up and choose to take their belongings, hopes and dreams to other countries.. It can be amazing and wonderful and everything and more than expected, and it can be the opposite.

These days we are lucky that air travel is easy, and unlike yesteryear when they couldn't go back, even to visit, and goodbye meant goodbye.

My grandparents said goodbye to family in Naples a hundred years ago, boarded a ship and never returned...


Quaglietta, our village 



Can't imagine how they felt.. I'm bad enough leaving places I know I can, could, come back to.. but then maybe I have attachment issues!

M.

'The lives we don't live'

Sunday, January 07, 2024

Early Middle Age (ages 35--44), Late Middle Age (ages 45--64), and Late Adulthood (ages 65 and older).

So funny! So both my boys are middle-aged! And I'm in late middle age! Just!!

Watching an old Rosemary and Thyme episode, the description is on, because I can't turn it off!! And she said, 'Rosemary, a petite late middle-aged woman...'

And I thought, when is middle aged? When does that end!

And above was my answer in Google!

So funny!

I am, shall never, feel old; definitely don't feel old yet, in spite of a couple of things not feeling too good just now.. they don't define my age...

And this photo below..

Do you remember it? From a while ago now, maybe eight or nine years ago..

It was a photographic competition I was in, the title was 'Toast' anything drawn or photography, but Toast was the subject.

I was working in Swindon Village, and the client had these amazing Pacific oyster shells! Amazing! So I decided I'd place this beautiful piece of well buttered toast upon an old plate, with old knife here! 

Didn't think anyone else would! They didn't! 

Automated spelling came up with battered instead of buttered to start with, I  wonder what battered toast would be like? Gone off on a far flung tangent now! 

Been warm enough all day, windows open, but I can really feel the temperature dropping now.. looks like we're going down to 2° overnight.. we 

As usual, feel like I have so much more to tell you! 

Oh! Yesterday! During the day, sat here, watching tv, I muted it because I could hear something downstairs.. It was my mom's musical snow globe! I ran down and it continued until I reached it! 

I think the last time that happened was on her birthday, not last year, the year before... 

Her birthday is this month... 

M.


Thursday, January 04, 2024


Last evening view across the Guadalhorce vally.. 

Taken to drinking colacoa of a night time, was adding a shake cinnamon powder and ginger into the brew...

Now it's a broken cinnamon stick and Star Anis! Beautiful; and Star Anise is very good for numerous things, although it seems a different Star Anise can get mixed up or purposely mixed up and it's a poisonous type! 

We worked on the second, stock taking! 

And I was sort of expecting, but not wanting, a phone call from the hospital with my results from the biopsies taken, not, because I had in my head that the second would be the latest I'd hear, and then relax until hospital appointment February 7th.

So counting away in work, and telephone rang! Hospital!! Panic, but she had the wrong name?!? So now not entirely sure whether it was wrong number right name, or right number wrong name?? 

No call back so have to hope it was the first option and not the latter.

We've had some rain! And not before time, but nothing worth writing about, drizzle and sparse at that.. nothing that will change our empty embalses, reservoirs.. 

Says 18.9° out on the street and it's 10° in doors.. I'll be lighting the fire soon! 

I've roasted veggies for dinner for tonight and leftovers for tomorrow! 

M.

A poem to end

Part and parcel of wishes and dreams

Often thought and sometimes lost

Excitement, adventure and treasure 

Memories return, memories made

A poem to end where we begin

©MB





Monday, January 01, 2024


I should Blog today shouldn't I, begin the year correctly.. January 1st 2024... I do like the year 2024 it equals 8! So a lucky year ahead for us all, how wonderful if that could be so.

Went into town today, not too cold either, had coffee with a friend and came home; house is swept, mopped and dusted! Washing done and dried, ready for work tomorrow... Just the bare tree left now.. looking like a pot plant!

Cousin from Watford called me, we were on the phone a while, hadn't spoken for a few years so was good catch up.. my moms cousins daughter.. 

My day has ended with hot chocolate with a sprinkle of cinnamon and ginger! Very nice! 

I had some boxes in the house which are now in the car ready for the bins tomorrow, I had to check there were no rats inside! Or had been inside! Before putting in the back! Could imagine a rat running around in the car while I'm driving! 

Well, not much content here! 

Must have some interesting stories! 

There were fires overnight around Mijas areas, fireworks, of course, we've had little or no rain, everything is still fairly tinder dry, so still the fires catch! 

Fireworks have been going off for about five days and last night started early evening, so I am guessing some confusion as to when midnight is, or even what date is the beginning of the new year! 

No sarcasm here, I am deadly serious!

Saturday I went into town after coffee with a mate up this end, had more coffee with my friend who I published so many books for years ago, now... 

I then went down to another friend, and went to the coast for stock for him and a few bits for me; the store, used to be a public supermarket/furniture store, it's where my dining table and bench came from, over twenty years ago! 

Then we went to a store up the top of Miraflores, I hadn't been in there for about ten, twelve years! Was like passing over old memories.. 

I have, had, been watching Columbo, and an episode ended just now, Series 7, episode 4.. and it ended! 

Need to post! Or miss my mission!

This year will be amazing! Everything will be!

M.