It's getting hot hot hot!!

Summer has arrived and when we got home from our lunch out yesterday the thermometer on the shady terrace said 29 degrees.

Today at the same time was 31.6.......

To go back a few days,  I have been looking through recent photos and here are some.

The nispero trees are in fruit,  a loquat in England,   it's a bit like an apricot in size although ours are slightly sharp tasting although very juicy.

The mulberry trees are also full of fruit, it's dropping all over the road,  outside our house is a carpet of white mulberries and up by the ermita where there is a black and a white mulberry, the road is stained with squashed fruit.

Then on to more food.  We went out for lunch yesterday after we'd done some shopping.  Usually we stop just for a beer and tapas but this time we opted for the menu del dia.

 

We ordered a beer each while looking at the menu,  they came with a dish of olives and a basket of bread.

John's starter - the mixed salad

My starter - lightly battered and crispy fried courgette sticks drizzled with honey

His Plato Alpujarreño - a Spanish version of all day breakfast-

My salmon

His ice cream dessert and my fruits of the forest cheesecake...... except they'd run out so it was a tiramisu gateau instead.

The menu says 10 euros each,  what it doesn't say is that it includes a drink as well.  We each had another drink, beer for him and a glass of wine for me which made a 3 course lunch for  2 people the grand  total of €23.50.  Or £18.50 if you're in UK.

 

If you're wondering....

It's the end of another month,  and if anyone is wondering where we are,  what we have been doing,  are we still here.....

Everything is fine, but I feel after umpteen years of writing that I am going round in circles.  The same flowers,  fruit and vegetables.  The same fiestas.  The weather varies to some degree - warm enough this week to swim but some huge clouds too - some rain forecast for tomorrow but it may not get this far south. 

So unless something different happens I'm not going to be writing much.  Some of you have my email to keep in touch,  if not then you can always post a comment on here - it gets sent to me by email for verifying before it gets uploaded.

Until then,  ¡hasta luego!

At last!

It poured with rain Monday afternoon and evening,  very blustery as well,  so some of the rain was going past horizontally and at high speed.  We had the shortest of short walks that evening,  out the gate,  both dogs did what they needed to do in the shelter of the first tree we came to and that was it.  Straight back inside,  via a rub down with old towels first.

But the good news is that all the rain we had,  came as snow up in the Sierras.  And the snow - when it melts - is our summer water.

Taken this morning on our way to Orgiva..





We went to Orgiva for the ITV road test for the Polo.   We used to go in February,  but last year it failed the test and we had it redone in March after a repair and 2 new tyres.  Unfortunately  for us it failed again this year,  we drove home via the mechanic thinking 'is this it, it's nearly 16 years old and maybe it'll just be too expensive to keep on going  but it's our favourite car,  and  really low mileage so maybe,  fingers crossed,  all will be ok'.

The repairs are done,  not as cheap as we'd hoped but such is life,  we went back today for a re-test and got our sticker for another years motoring.

Spring has sprung.

Although the morning after the fire there was an obvious burnt area,  we have had a few showers since then and I don't suppose it'll be a blackened stretch for very long..




Now the sun is out - again - we keep thinking this it,  spring has sprung,  but then it surprises us with a few cooler cloudy days,  and we start all over again.  But the plants think it's Spring,  the leaves on the fig trees are unfurling...



The Jerusalem sage is coming into flower,  our sage plants are not in flower yet, in fact they are struggling this year and look a bit sad  :(



This grows wild,  and although the leaves look like sage they do not have the flavour of the real thing.  But pretty none the less.

Broom covered hillsides are echoing the sunshine..


And then we have the strange climbing plant that is the Dutchman's Pipe.  It grows along side the footpath on the way to the fuente,  twisting and twirling in the brambles...

And the most enormous seed pods!

Yátor this afternoon.....

Normally we have a lovely clear view down to Yátor from here,  something like this...



but today was completely different....

Just after 3.30 I noticed smoke drifting across the valley below - bear in mind we have extremely strong winds again today and you wouldn't expect anyone to even think about doing any burning on the land -








The helicopter landed at the end of the hill behind us where we could see flames and about 8 or 9 guys got out and started to walk down the hill.  The helicopter then had it's bucket attached and flew off in the direction of Ugijar,  came back with this water drop and did at least half a dozen fly by's (is that a word??)  We can still see it  smouldering  - no doubt we will find out eventually who or what started it burning. 

Considering the lack of rain this winter I suppose we're lucky not to have had any more fires around here.  There was one at the end of February in between Orgiva and Lanjarón - more about that one here on this blog.

It's now 6.30 and although we've been able to hear the helicopter around we haven't been able to see it until now,  when it has just appeared from the valley where the smoke was billowing from, and it's headed off into the setting sun.  Maybe its work is done. 

Many years ago  (October 2010)   when there was a fire here,  the guys on the ground stayed for a few hours longer checking that the smouldering undergrowth had gone out.