This morning we, Franco Pipster and I had our walk about the local area, then headed off out in the car, we went to Mijas Pueblo, they have been working on the lower plaza for some time now, seems to be at the stage where it looks like it will never be finished... the stage that comes just before the... Wow! its done por fin!  If I start dropping more Spanish into my sentences its because I seem to be actually understanding people speaking Spanish! lol er yes, long time coming, and maybe after being back in the UK and back to work after a week I

might not again! Feels like I have past a threshold, thats been my problem in learning Spanish really, I remember what I read, what I see, I can spell every word I can speak... I just don't seem to have 'the ear' for it! Like I am deaf to the Spanish language... until this week, just in random passing, hearing people speak amongst themselves I know what their saying! Cool!


Anyway!  We had a coffee down near the 'new' parque, and then

walked up to the upper plaza, where there were a group of Flamenco dancers and singers performing, it was lovely, seemed very impromptu, although there was a wooden floor put down, they were just very relaxed and going with the flow... great to watch and listen too... We sat a while and did so, before walking around the gardens, as we always do, always have and will always...  A fantastic view across the Med to Africa, the mountains over there clearer than my camera has made out!

 You could see miles of the African coastline, all the way along, from Gibraltor to Malaga... Fantastic!  Then in the little pond a great noise of small toads, probably calling for a mate, and this little chap here got more than he bargained for when a dog jumped in!! Not sure who was the more shocked, him, me or the dogs owners!!!  Then Franco saw this wonderful butterfly, it was huge!  Beautiful... there used to be 100's of butterflies in these gardens, and over the years they had gone.

But now they're back! and so wonderful to watch... As was this great locust!  He was huge!  He seemed a bit sluggish!  He was actually walking step by step towards the edge of the wall, when he reached it he tried a jump and landed with a thud, almost!  on the path beneath, and so he didn't get squished Franco picked him up and put him in the grass!

There were beautiful freesia everywhere too, gorgeous, flowers everywhere, spring has sprung and summer has followed on its wing... the swifts, swallows? Whichever, I can't remember again which

is which, but they are visiting here again, by our house sweeping and performing aero-acrobatics!

The car park in Mijas Pueblo is only a Euro now, which is great, brings people into town instead of forcing people out!  So the place was buzzing, I love Mijas... we didn't eat in the town though today, we stopped in a little road-side bar on the road home, we got in just in time we had almost the last table!  and for just over €10 we had four tapas, a

coffee, a glass of white wine and a Pepsi!  The tapas were of good size too, I had paella and meatballs, not together, two separate tapas, both came with bread and there was a spare rib in the paella along with shrimp and chicken...!  Franco had spare ribs and curry tapas!  We sat outside, watching the world go by, which meant only a few cars, bikes and bicycles! a view down over Voltocado...  where Pippa was born and down to the Fuengirola coastline...  Sat in the sun and appreciated how very very lucky we are indeed!

TTFN
Marian

Face the Sun, and let your shadow fall behind you...

I deleted an earlier post, it was full of horrible unlike me rubbish, I don't feel better yet about the reason for my venting so publicly, but the need to share was short-lived... I apologize to those of you who had to read such a sad and angry post...

Time to move on, forget and release... like I used to say to the girls during training on my switchboard "and release..."

We had our cars ITV today, that's the Spanish MOT, motor vehicle text, we had dropped it off yesterday and we got a call to collect today, the test was about 8:30am in Malaga, where the local ITV station is, there is another in Estapona, I have a thought they were opening one in Fuengirola, not sure where that thought has come from lol...  anyway our car is fine, passed for another year.

And after a week of not using the car we were out and down the coast soon after!

Am presently while eating, very unusually eating in bed! Never do, feels like a picnic! Rice crispness and strawberries! Bought a punnet of straws in the supermarket yesterday, a 1.4 kilo punnet no less, for less than €2, made a strawberry trifle last night, added them to my porridge this morning, a Greek yoghurt after dinner this evening and nibbled on throughout, that's my fruit five a day taken care of I hope!

Hope to be out relaxing tomorrow, got to make the most of next few days before I return to work placement next week... we, or rather Franco was busy when were home today, between getting car and coast shopping, he built a bbq area up on the terrace, we have a two burner gas stove top up there, so now that and an electrical hot plate have a permanent home, metal and glass candle sconces are up, and they looked very pretty with their little tea lights twinkling in them earlier... With the cream privacy curtains it's like a Bedouin tent up there now, lovely, just need some comfy seats and we will be well away!

TTFN
Marian

I have been a very poor example of a Blogger recently my friends... Been home going into four weeks nearly now! And not Blogged!!  Infact up until yesterday I hadn't even turned on this lap top at all!

The first week of being home Franco and I were out and about, a lot! Local and down to Fuengirola... Then the second week Franco was back home with his mom and family for a week, I was out and about, again! Local and La Canada, Torremolinos... Miramar! And time out just relaxing at home with the Pipster...

Also the week Franco was away was the Semana Santa week, so very noisy and busy around out house, the parades, the people, the parades.... and more parades! LOL

Franco arrived back in the evening of last Sunday, and we stayed at the airport to pick up daughter of a friend who was coming in quite late and staying further down the coast with her friend, so we had a good run down the A7 to drop them off, and home eventually.... We got to bed quite late and felt like we had jet lag when we got up last Monday morning!

We should have got the car ITV'd but something came up on Thursday and by the time we got the car to the garage it was too late, so we are staying close to home this week until we can get it back into the garage for its check up and paperwork on Friday!

Now on the mountain from a week ago last Sunday, shame about that tin sided 'thing'... we had a great view across to that mountain range until a neighbor decided to cover up the whole of his terrace with that delightful tin monstrosity!

Yesterday we had wild wild winds all day, they came with rain and cloud cover so deep even when it wasn't raining you got wet just being out side!  Last week sun burn, yesterday ground level cloud!  I suppose being half way up the mountain doesn't help!  Today is better, still windy, but more sun than cloud, and none of the wet stuff!

We went into town this afternoon, and for half an hour I stood where I used to, when I worked in the papeleria there, people coming in and out, thankfully a quiet half hour for me!  I had trouble working the photocopier! Worked it out in the end!  As a man patiently waited I said "its making a lot of noise with nothing much happening, a bit like me!" he laughed I laughed... my last resort, comedy if all else fails!

Sunday, we as in the town, had a motorbike fest!  Thousands of bikes all on display in the local feria ground, demonstrating this and that, and driving around the town, a lot! Old bikes, new bikes, road and mountain, from the oldest to the youngest, one small boy, must have only been about 7 or 8 on his motorbike!!! Seemed a bit dangerous to me!?!  The police came round on the first circumnavigation of the town with their sirens blaring to warn people motorbikes were coming through!!  We could hear them from here, even on the upper road, this coming weekend is the bicycle... there is always something going on in town, so often we miss things though, seeing it on the local television channel the next morning... Not sure how accessible it is outside of Spain... RTV Alhaurín....   We always see the film crew about town...

Franco has been painting up on the terrace, bright white, tiles back on where they have fallen off, looks great up there now, real bright!!!  I moved a huge lavender plant, it was small when I planted it in the big trough up on the terrace, but it completely took over half the area!  Dominating the rosemary so much it lost its rosemary smell, which is weird!!  And a little succulent I planted months ago, that had disappeared underneath its huge shadow!  So lavender is down on the back terrace by the skylight, its looking a bit sad for itself since the move, hoping it will pick-up eventually, planted a nice new climber near the back wall and we're going to get some flowering flowers for the trough to just be small and look pretty!!  The fig we had there before would have been lovely, but when we weren't here it perished...

Since Semana Santa Pippa has been a bit nervous to go out, slightest noise and she won't go anywhere... some days we have gone out the front door, turned right and left and Pip just pulls to go back into the house, despite wanting to go out initially, or we have been out and she has heard something that makes her think a rocket is going off, like the sound of a persiana being raised or lowered and she refuses to go further and its a question of trying to find a way to get home without her trying to back out of her harness and bolt!  One day a little dog followed us out of the car park by the house and was with us all the way home to the front door!  He would not go away, he was on her tail the whole way, and on some busier roads it was a nightmare!  Pippa is getting very irritated by other dogs now, her patience is as slow as it could be with smaller dogs, she is fine, well better maybe? with bigger dogs, but little things running around her feet get her crazy, and of course me knowing this probably makes it worse if she senses my thoughts!

Okay rambling now time to go!

TTFN
Marian

A couple of frosty pictures from a couple of weeks ago... Above a tiny work of art, a piece of moss living on a shrub... So pretty...

I am off and away from here tomorrow, should have been leaving here at 2pm, but just changed the taxi from going to a nearby town as my train isn't until twenty to five and thought I would have walk about there, then get on the train which is a stop down from here, but checked with the taxi company how much and I am afraid fifteen pounds is a no no!! NO NO NO!!  So getting a cab now from here at about 4.30pm hope he isn't late!!! Five minutes from here, then train in five minutes!! ARhhhhh!!

So looking forward to going now, its been okay, all good, no problems... but still, home home home!  Firstly going up to see my grand daughter, can't wait!!

Then off on Sunday to the airport and home....
I am packed, as much as I can be, travelling so light now, worrying a bit about the trains, so many, well three, but its a five minute dash from this one to the next at Shrewsbury... last time I wasn't sure I was even on the right train!! And then off again at Birmingham... so busy there, and last time was a Sunday, this is 7.30pm Thursday evening, rush hour time still I am guessing!!!  I have 19 minutes if my train is on time, to get from one train upstairs, along a corridor and down another flight of stairs... Case and bags and me!  Then its off at Nottingham and onto a tram near the station... Don't panic eh!  Mmmmm!

I think tomorrow as I now have two and half hours before I get going I'll take a walk into the town here, if the weather is okay!

See you on the other side!

TTFN
Marian

I am finding it hard going these days, it is six years ago... six years today... feels like yesterday, so much has happened since that I have to tell my mom, I still think to pick up the phone, still want to share my life... We are never prepared for anything really in life, and death we are least prepared for when our loved ones leave us... everything left unsaid, all the new stuff, all the silly stuff, the non sense stuff, and mom's want to hear all of it!

Its just gone 7am, woke up to a covering of snow, just like mom's final days... its snowing now, the sky a mix of powder blue and powder pink, and tears streaming down my face, it will be very difficult today, especially to keep smiling.

I hope I am taking my mom with me wherever I go, I want her to live on through my eyes, and to always live on through me, she is always in my heart and I keep her alive there...

To live on in our hearts is not to die

TTFN

Marian

I took this the other evening, at sunset... well obviously!  I took it with my phone and posted it immediately onto Facebook and left... Later I realised its not quite what it seems...

The sky blues grays golden... comes down to what looks like mountains with reflection of the golden sky in water...

But it is the sky, then a bank of dark gray clouds and the sunset beneath... then in the dark are the real mountain range and the dark river with the trees in the foreground... You can even see a touch of green from the fields...

I must stop with the ...

I keep meaning to say, there is an enormous spider living on the stairs, he or she, has this little gap behind the carpet on a turn, and when I come up stairs the spider disappears back into the dark, 'he' was missing for a couple of days, which worried me, but back now! LOL  I was going to take a photo... but decided not too for fear of exploiting the poor thing!

Today I have booked flights! Always feels like a great deal of flights, but its only one a month, I used to spend more on car insurance and car payments, never mind the petrol, so still works out cheaper!  Booked my train ticket too for visiting Barry when I leave here in May.

TTFN
Marian

Memory:

A man from the farm, he used to water down the milk, they watched him from an upstairs window, and later asked him 'why did you water down the milk' he said not enough for the calves otherwise... He once went to Aberystwyth, about fifty miles from there, he was old, and had never seen the sea... When he came back he said to them "You should see the size of the lake there!! and there was a 'uman there, looking out towards the sea, she was throwing something, 'arf naked too she were!"  'She' was a statue there, casting a wreath out to sea... Still there I guess.  Must have been there when I met up with my cousin there last year... Seems hard to believe someone wouldn't have seen the sea nearly all their lives so close to it...

'We' went out yesterday for lunch which was wonderful, an old place that used to belong to a local Lord and Lady, and one where the lady I support used to visit as friends... must feel strange going in there now, with the flotsam and jetsam!

The Wye

Blossom Time

 The other day I walked down to the Wye, climbed over a very dodgy stile, it didn't have foot rests either side, so was more of a waist high fence, with the other side being lower than the roadside by about a foot!  Which proved more difficult for the climb back over... and I waited for no passing cars, just in case I fell!!!

The Wye

The river twists and turns just here, so not a great view from either way... There was a train line running parallel to the river and road here, can't work out how they all fitted in, time to Google!!

TTFN
Marian

Bunny in the garden!

Great day today!  Just published a book about my step father Dennis C Randall, and flooding the internet with it!!  He would have been 100 this June, and although he passed about nearly 20 years ago if never far from my mind, his paintings, his miniatures, I still have a few thankfully...  And the last week before I came away to work I got the book done in less than three days, nearly 10 thousand words and a selection of photographs and newspaper articles!  I must have written hastily and not checked out much of my writing, there were one or two issues!!  MMMmmm to say the least, but I am hoping I have corrected enough now... because it is already available to buy on Kindle....  and soon in paperback, that I can't wait to see!

This I need to remember to water more!

 I am chuffed as my mom would say! So hoping the fall won't be too hard!!!

Frost and the River Wye

Before I get back to work, I have a small poem? sing song?  It came to memory by the lady I am supporting... I have never heard of it before, I should check it out... bare with....

Hahahahaha.... sorry, but that is me laughing... okay, checked it... this firstly is the version I learnt last night!

Quick! quick!
The cats been sick

Where? where?
Under the chair

Hasten, hasten
fetch a basin

Too late, too late
'tis all in vain

The dirty boot has made a stain...

But searching I found this instead!

Quick! quick!
The Cats been sick

Where? where?
Under the chair

Hasten! hasten!
Fetch the basin

Alack! alack!
It is too late
The carpet's in
an awful state.

No! no!
It's all in vain,
For she has licked it
Up again!

(sounds so much like our Phoebe and Purdy)

TTFN
Marian

Double photograph set... above... well, you can see what I have done!

Lots to photograph here, would like another really frosty morning!  Was to start today, but then clouds came down and temperatures went up!

Rant Warning:

I cannot believe the bin men here!!!!  Not sure why the wheely bin was not emptied last time, but it wasn't, and there were three extra black bags put to one side, I got them out this morning and put them on top of the recycling boxes, just to keep them off the ground...

Well, they did the recycling, but left the full bin and the extra bags... I checked out the web address for problems as the info suggests... it says if the wheely bin is not closed they won't take it... I checked, and it was indeed open, I went out put the lid down, without actually having to push hard or push any contents down inside...

I emailed them the problem we now have, four bags and full bin!  So, what happens in three weeks time, yes three, 3, three blooming weeks for a wheely bin!!!??!!  There will be ten extra bags next time then, at least, and I suppose they'll be leaving them too!!

I could understand if the lid was up at a 60 or 90 degree angle!  But really an inch or two???  It was resting on a puffed up bag!

Okay rant over, but not answered!!

TTFN
Marian

Have I already posted these photographs? LOL oh well.... The scenery was just so beautiful, I just can't help myself! MMmm, just checked, I hadn't!!

A beautiful day today again, as yesterday, cold outside, but blue skies and sunshine, and some little white puffy clouds here and there...

Time is passing well, and only problems seem to be accessing my photographs from my phone onto here, or from the camera and then trying to find them again!  Little worries that are meaningless!!

Do wish I could get in a car and go for a drive though, not just me, but take the customer out for a spin, jsut to get out, get some fresh air... for both of us!

Feeling in a very strange mood today, keep wanting to do stuff, but my 'stuff' isn't here with which to use! I have my camera, and am taking too many shots of things I will never publish, and am deleting as many as I take some days...

The strange thing in the tree is still there... It still looks like a huge flower??? But so near the top of this massive pine tree... Wish I could get nearer, but the nearer I get the more obliterated it becomes by the tree itself!!

And so, as I am rambling and saying nothing at all I better get cracking!  Half hour left of my break, I should try to relax maybe!

TTFN
Marian

I know I shouldn't I have been reading my own archives...


Its that time of the year when I tend to do so!

Not sure if this is anywhere in my writing of the time... Thinking of the awful morphine mom was on, she wanted the pain to stop, she showed me her hands and said her fingers were sewn together... I pretended to cut them, to free her fingers, she wriggled her fingers and shook her hands and said how much better that felt now she could move her hands freely.... then she pushed the bed cover down and said to me "cut this out! Get it out of me now!"  I said I couldn't and she shouted at me... It was awful, you know I would of if I could have...  This was the week before she passed....

I am so glad, ever more glad, that the vicar came the day that she passed... He talked to, said a similar thing to the 'last rights' that are said when someone has already died; he told her she was free now, free to pass on to pastures new, free to fly.... that her work here was done, that she could go...

And go she did...

TTFN
Marian

 Two snowy views from the car on the way here on Wednesday, couldn't believe it, even with my own eyes!! Snow, snowy fog and nothing else in view!!

Some views as we stopped, and we stopped all over the place!! Luckily we were the only car we saw!!!  I wanted to get out and get closer to the snow, but we were inches deep in water when we went to open the car doors!!

And in Builth Wells, all green, obviously low enough not to have snow, but it was bitterly cold Wednesday!
And below the Builth Bull!!!  Not much more to add to that just yet!!

The river Wye is very wide here, as it is here where I am staying just now, you can hear it all night... think I mentioned that already!

Some more stories from here... I don't think I am repeating my self here?

Firstly a friend of hers, whilst nursing during WW2 and looking after 'the boys' here in Wales... She was asked if she would wash the false teeth... and she did, but all together in one bowl!!! Arh... nightmare!!!  She moved onto other things quite soon after that!!

And every evening they were given soup, not much for lunch, and soup each night, the soup was made up of all the leftovers from lunch time... One might think surely there couldn't have been any leftovers?? But it was what was left on plates!!! OMG, imagine, people forks and knives in and out of the food, saliva left in the food!?! UUUUGGGGHHHHH!! LOL  That is what they made the soup from every day!!  A pound a week pay, chips on a Friday from the chippy as a treat... and soup every night for supper!!!

As a child, stationed in Aldershot, the Aldershot Tattoo... She says the stands and grounds went dark, totally dark, totally quiet, then the sound of a faraway piper began... then a light in a far corner and another piper... lights came on one by one, more and more pipers all combining to make a wondrous sound, she says it was amazing, and gave her chills!  It did me as she told me the story...

Not sure whats wrong with my taste buds, brought chocolate with me, dark chocolate, salted, and I can't eat it!!! It is awful!!  And its the only chocolate I brought with me!!

TTFN
Marian

Great church in Builth, full to bursting with bric-a-brac... I hesitate at the word Antiques, but I am sure if one had time there must be hundreds of good things in amongst the.... other stuff!!  We only had ten minutes, there was a man at the door when we went in, and I was going to buy a book, but when we got to the door again he had disappeared inside somewhere!!!  So I left the book... Didn't really need it, was not going to take it home and I think where I am staying just now I have seen a copy here!!!

My friend who I stayed with when I arrived here in Wales on Tuesday brought me here... We had the most amazing road trip!  It was like travelling though a couple of seasons too!  As we reached barren mountain summits covered in snow... the land the trees the roads... then dipped back down into lush valleys, the sun shining after the high fog, stunning clouds and roads running like small rivers...

A stranded sheep, he had got out of the field, and was trapped between cattle grids and fences, poor chap!!  We crept past so as not to spook the sheep which is here on the road...

This pillar on a building in Builth, The Strand... They look like faces of moustached men!

Keep seeing this fungus stuff all over trees here in Wales... what is it!! The whole of this tree was covered in it, including the ivy which was taking the tree over!!

The other snowy pictures are on my camera, will have to try to get them on here, thought I had downloaded them, but seems not???  Love this Chromebook, but like my recently updated to Windows 10 lap top there seems to be so much you just can't do with it!!  I miss my Windows 7... wish I had changed it back while I still could!!

Anyway!  Trip here from home went well, wonderful Vueling, all good and on time!  Arrived into Cardiff airport and the bus to the city was there waiting, for me, and once in the city a short walk to the station, I booked my train ticket while on the bus!  So just got into the station and printed out my ticket!  Got on the train not long afterwards and was on my way back to Neath! [Still feeling the irony!!]

Friends met me at the station and we went for coffees, was lovely to catch up with friends there... then my friends husband collected me and whisked us off to Ammanford area collecting a take-out on route!

Great evening of chatting and catching up.... and in the morning we left early, and took two hours to get here... we diverted, we took roads lesser known, we went through Bethlehem... and we stopped and took photos on wild moors, we drove through snow covered roads, the summits of mountains were snowed in... luckily the roads were clear enough, although plenty of slush filled the edges... then, a drop of ten feet and the snow was going going gone!  Took some lovely shots, I will try to get on here tomorrow...

We got into Builth... and I will continue tomorrow!
TTFN
Marian

Ready to go

Well, I'm ready for the off, there is almost a sense of desperation the day before I go... It's as if I have to go everywhere that I love here before I leave again... Managed a hot chocolate at La Trocha in Coín, and lunch at Bar Cruz in Alhaurín... The sun has shone, its been about 20º, one beautiful day here in the land of dreams...



Case properly packed now, things were just sort of chucked in, the case looks empty, the case looks like when I get there I am going to say, "where the heck are the rest of my clothes, and what on earth shall I wear for a month!!"  But, so be it!  Less is more forsure!  Like today, we needed something, not seen it for months, but I found it quite easily because we just don't have much of anything anymore... There really was only so many places something lost could be!  Perfect!!

Getting back to today, the day before going is the hardest, its like losing it all again, but tomorrow, when I am on my way, I will feel better, because not only am I looking forward to being where I am going, every day brings home one step nearer again... I am lucky, I am blessed.... See you in Wales!

TTFN
Marian

Mijas today! Wall to wall blue skies... cool in the breeze and there was one helluva wind up there!  We started off at the Market at La Trocha in Coín... had coffee with friends and a good look around each and every aisle... Then around the artisan food hall and back in the car... Quite a breeze in there, I was glad of having my coat on!

Such a nice day we decided on carrying onto Mijas pueblo and lunch at our favourite opposite a little church near the museum... the road is up there at the moment, the road is up all over Mijas just now!  But works have to be done before summer... so no complaints from us!

We shared a plate of fried whitebait and nice fresh bread, and I had a glass of wine, the only one since I have been home, after coming back with a cold which might quite possibly have been the flu, followed by a jaw thing doing on, probably related the the virus I had had... still coughing now, but so much better!  This is the first time I fancied a glass of vino!  Mind you, I then fancied a cigarette... Franco said no! lol I don't smoke, but really just wanted one!

 Coming to the end of this month back home, feels like two months not one, so been a great visit home... and I am looking forward to getting back to work next Tuesday, working with a lovely lady, in a lovely location, which makes a huge difference with wanting to be at work and not!

We've met up with friends, we've travelled to Ronda, and all over the place, its been lovely...

I am packed, I am taking the minimum amount with me this time, I had taken a few extras as it was Christmas with me last trip back to work... This case is holding, four tops, one pair of trousers, one on... no travel bags with my shower/cosmetics etc etc... a plastic bag will suffice!  One pair outside shoes on, a pair of house shoes, [fewest undies!], pj's... that is it!  Well and lap top, kindle, phones with chargers and camera of course!!

I do not intend to carry a heavy case on and off planes... [well, you know what I mean!], on and off trains at least!

In the house, we have improved, by painting, moving, and clearing...  flowers blooming and all good!  We have one of worlds smallest bedrooms, because I brought the living room up into what was the big bedroom... we had a tiny cupboard on one side of the bed and an old bedside cabinet on the other, we got four Ikea Billy bookcases, of the small narrow variety, doubled them up, and they now reside by the bed sides!  sideways on, second shelves are for bedside stuff, and the other five shelves for storage... having the white side face on they actually make the tiny room seem bigger???

Plans afoot for next trip home, so the time will fly, I start on Wednesday 10th and finish on 10th March...

TTFN
Marian

More from last Mondays trip to Ronda...

                  

Taken from the train...

No further earthquakes have hit the northern Moroccan coast... There was one further up in Spain, actually in Spain, but not a bad or deep one, I feel I have now become a bit of an expert on earthquakes, found a great site explaining them and listing every dam one of them!!  There are hundreds every year in Spain... a biggy took down Malaga two or three hundred years ago!!

                 

Taken from the train... another view of El Chorro and the Kings walk! Even the green bridge above!

We've had met up with friends who are over for a few weeks, they stay down at Calahonda where we used to live and are meeting up with them again tomorrow...  Also tomorrow I might be collecting my new gafas!  Can't wait, went to a new shop in La Cala and the owners are so helpful, so knowledgeable, I actually learnt more about frames than I have ever learnt from any other opticians... ever!!

                

The Kings Walk, Caminito Del Rey...

Yesterday morning up in the car park were two stray dogs... a scruffy black and white long haired one and a younger looking tan dog, might only be a big puppy, its feet seem to large for its body and the way it lumbers about, blue eyes... a lovely pair of dogs, and they are definitely forever friends, because when we came through the car park later in the evening one was laying on the other, we had Pip with us that time and they were all over her... too nervous to come too us, but friendly enough, like they wanted to, but were unsure of us... Well, an hour later I was back up in the car park, handing out food and water, and they were soon my friends too, knowing they could trust me, which was okay, but they wouldn't leave me as I walked back down, and as I followed a couple down the driveway, I explained, as best as I could that these dogs were strays, lost? abandoned?  and could they put them on Facebook for me, I had already but only covering mostly Brits, I wanted the whole of Alhaurín to know about them!  So they took some photos!! Of me and the dogs!!! And the poor things followed me home, and I had to leave them outside... I worried of course... and of course Franco said I couldn't do anymore...

and this morning.... there they were not far from our house again, and unfortunately me with the Pipster, she does not like lots of dogs, even two together, she had already snapped at a little dog earlier in the day, she is getting very grumpy!!  They remembered me and were licking me and jumping up at me, and round and round Pip, she was starting to pull out of her harness, so the only thing I could do to avoid her running off was to pick her up, and I had to carry her home like that! The two dogs at my feet, and as we turned into our street they ran straight up to our front door, and it was a case of who was getting in first!! lol oh heck!  Now before I go to town this morning to join Franco after his Spanish lessons I am wondering if I can risk going the way I normally go, because I know forsure they will follow me down into town, and I can't risk that!

I have put a photo and all the information on a web site for missing dogs here in Spain... and just hope the owners find them... Only worse case scenario is that were dumped there... in the car park, because that seems to be where they are staying, just like that dog a couple of months ago at La Trocha...  It breaks my heart....

            

From the train, I have, shall we say, enhanced these two... made them pop!!

Yesterday we went to La Canada, such a beautiful day!  Really can't believe this weather, its been truly gorgeous, the same today!  But we are thinking ahead and looking into getting a burner, we had though a wood burner but the amount of work it would entail to get the flue up through two floors, Spanish floors remember, we're talking concrete and tiles!  And yesterday saw a different idea we hadn't considered, pellet burner!  It only needs a vent to go outside, so can easily go outside the front of the house downstairs, it will easily heat the dining and den downstairs, and we think the heat would come up the stairs and heat the lounge and bedroom too! So watch this space!

TTFN
Marian