OUR REGULAR NEWS FEATURE FROM

SUNNY SPAIN    

April  2010

Deepest apologies for yet another delay in producing the newsletter.  Without going into fine detail, which would be boring, the problem this time was hardware. 

Our engineer recommended that we obtain the part from the UK and all went well until it was mislaid by the carrier. 

April started on a very down beat note due to the disappearance of The Bandit. 

Despite the best efforts of friends and neighbours no broken little body has been found on any of the local roads (all too common an occurrence in Spain)

His disappearance has created something of a void in many local lives as he had become a district character as he strutted around driving the local dogs into frenzy.  

However, we shall probably never know his fate. 

Of course some of the producers are taking positive action so that on the opposite side of the Arroyo the land owner has responded by planting a vineyard! 

  We wonder whether he, like farmers all over the world, has a very good grasp of available subsidies etc. 

Meanwhile Spain has become ever more secular with fewer people attending religious services than ever before. 

Perhaps one effect of this has been to exacerbate the wine situation, as I am sure consumption of communion wine had a significant impact! 

It was announced that Spain would join other PC Nations by the end of June this year with a ban on smoking in all public places.  

There is of course firm opposition especially from the hospitality industry where the owners of small bars in particular see their business suffering. 

Toward the end of the month we were delighted to see the Bee Eaters return and regale us with their usual masterful flying displays.

Unfortunately they are not the only thing that flies and the insects are joining in, although where we live we don't have too much trouble as the rapid rubbish pickup helps enormously.

It is said that no sooner does mama fly lay her 20,000 eggs then some bloke in a green truck pinches them and takes them up to the waste processing plant.  Happily as I have said before we have no mosquito problem here due to the lack of standing water.

The evenings are presently alive with the mating calls of various amphibians from down in the Arroyo (creek)

During the day we peak in the mid to late 30s. 

This has led to something of a sea change in our lifestyle with even the summer duvet coming off the bed,

Although they are remarkably cheap neither of us can stand synthetic fibres whose non absorbency doesn't go with our climate.

We don't seem to have had a spring this year as mid April saw winter turn abruptly into summer, which encouraged the garden to burst into life and bloom,

...with the grape vines developing almost as quickly as I can prune them! 

Bedding plants etc are in blossom and we have had a particularly good winter for the geraniums which I am sure is down to Susan's careful attention with regular spraying of geranium spray which certainly seems to work against the dreaded moth. 

We thought tragedy had struck again toward the end of the month when Zoo Zoo disappeared, but happily he returned 4 days later albeit with a nasty scar upon his face which became infected ...

and thus required Susan to use significant ingenuity to get antibiotics down him (we are still not allowed to touch him of course). 

However by the end of the month all was well

and he seems to be back to his normal self

(I won’t say normal because he never is).

such a relief ...     

Sue says remember to click for more in her

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