A mixed start to the year.

It's been a bit of a mixed bag as far as the weather goes so far this January,  mostly blue skies and warm in the sun but for a couple of days we've had very strong South Westerly winds hurtling round the house.  When you have leaves blowing past your lounge window you know the wind is strong, especially when your lounge is upstairs!  And the trees outside that we look down onto are olive trees - evergreen - and there aren't any leaves left on the fruit trees, so I don't know where these leaves are coming from.  The forecast for tomorrow is more of the same,  so I'd planned a nice long walk in the sun today but the wind has come early and we are not going out.  There's dust in the air from the pista,  Pip really doesn't enjoy the wind and tends to hide in the bedroom,  and Monty has developed a bit of a limp overnight.  He struggled walking when we went out this morning,  in fact we only did half our normal walk,  he seems to be having a problem with his back leg/hip.  Something to keep an eye on. 

So to go back a few days, our first windy weather warnings were last Sunday;  most of Monday and into the night was very gusty,  up to 70 km/h apparently.  Tuesday the 5th was gorgeous again,  and in the afternoon the dogs and I walked up to the cemetery at Yegen.






The night of the 5th we heard lots of fireworks from the nearby villages celebrating Fiesta de Los Reyes - the 3 Kings - then the next day the 6th Epifaniá del Señor was a national holiday.  Time to take down the Christmas tree and dust the decorations......we put the tree up outside on the terrace and when the winds had finished hurtling round the house - you can imagine how much dust collects in tinsel and as for the beanie reindeer and Father Christmas that were sitting on the window sill,  well they were washed 3 times before they came clean!  Actually I washed the tinsel as well!

Clouds gathered in the afternoon, ones that look like they might turn into spaceships which normally give us clue as to how much wind is coming, but instead we just had a colourful sunset.








Twice it's tried to rain but only managed a few drops - not enough to keep the dust down.  Certainly not enough for the garden.  The vegetable seedlings and salad leaves I've done with the watering can, everything else with the hose pipe.  The main water deposit is overflowing and  the acequias are full of running water which we use for the garden. 

And so to today.  Monty is resting his poorly leg,  sleeping soundly by the sounds coming from his bed,  Pip wants to go out but it's just too windy for her.  The forecast now says we have  "Riesgo de rachas muy fuertes hoy" -  a risk of strong gusts -  right now 50 km/h rising to 61 km/h overnight.  And maybe some rain early tomorrow too. 

We were reading the online papers over lunch today,  and saw the UK has changed it's guidelines to safe drinking.  Oh no!  We're doomed!  A glass of wine is about 3 units and they say 14 max for the week!   What about my one before dinner,  one with dinner,  one after dinner...... Until we read the upper limit recommendations for other countries.... and Spain has a different outlook so that's ok then.


Thanks to the Guardian newspaper for this info.

I've always been a believer in   'a little of what you fancy does you good'   way of thinking and if my only vice is red wine,  so what? 

Off now to check our supplies  :)

Happy weekend everyone.