It is nice to get a few good bright days back again. We woken by the builders again this morning. They are going hammer and tongs. All the ceiling boards are in place and when we came back from Albox this morning, a lorry had delivered about six pallets loads of hollow, elongated, diamond shaped roofing blocks. Goodness knows how much they weigh but they are all on one part of the roof boards and jacks. We keep getting told that ‘they know what they are doing you know’ and they obviously do, but it’s just the thought of it all. On top of the boards, supported by the jacks, the re-enforcement steels join up the all pillar top steels. These roofing blocks seem to then get laid one at a time inside the steels, we presume on some sort of rail. We then presume that they will put boards around the whole thing and pump a load more concrete on to it all. It’s a bit like constructing a mattress I suppose only using concrete.
We are now just going to scrub up in readiness for our Wednesday evening dancing marathon.
Just think: this time last week Elayne and I played tennis, and we are playing again tomorrow (Thursday instead of Wednesday because Allen and Mags are flying back from the UK today) morning. Have we just lived through one hell of a week (Allen and Mags missed it all of course)?

Three days all in one, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.

Sunday 28-1-2007
The snow has done one hell of a melt since yesterday and we are left with slushy waterways on the camino. The ground has become very squishy and where it has recently been moved it is like quicksand. The thaw continues and we have been for a short walk this afternoon, in our waterproof, windproof caggies on top of our fleeces and with our wellies on. However, with the wind, the temperature of 3.8 feels more like minus 3. We would not be very happy if we had to survive for a long period of time outside.
Bob and Pam (from Lighthouse Properties, and who live 800mtrs away, as the crow flies) found that they got out and down to Taberno yesterday, in their 4WD, but couldn’t get back up the hill, out of the rambla, to get home. They stayed overnight with Gill and Malcolm and called us from there this morning. They used up so much diesel trying to get up the hill that they have been down to fill up again. There is no snow at all below Taberno. They have now managed to get back home. Whilst they were at the petrol station they kindly bought some petrol for us so that, if push comes to shove, we can arrange to collect it from them and survive a few more days. We wont be sorry now when his cold snap finishes. Certainly the cats will be pleased to get outside once again.
Monday 29-1-2007
Internet access has been off for twenty four hours now, and it’s annoying to say the least. However all (and I mean all) of the snow has now gone. It is amazing that we have had twelve to eighteen inches of snow and it has all melted in twenty four hours, we have had little rivers of melting snow running for twenty four hours around the caravan, yet down in the bottom of the rambla there are no signs of water flow, now where dose all that water go?
I went out in my wellies this morning to feed the genny and although places were still wet it was quite walkable on the ground surface. We will cautiously attempt to drive down at least to Taberno this morning and replenish the petrol and gas stocks.
Another peculiar observation. The Relative Humidity reading on my barometer is usually around twenty to thirty percent, even when it is raining and during the snow. This morning it has shot up to eighty seven percent. It is sort of misty rainy outside and the temperature is 5.8 degrees, visibility down to perhaps 2k. Why does it normally read so low?
Tuesday 30-1-2007
“It’s not been as bad as that since 1954“, is the word on the Taberno Streets. This is a great comfort to us because we have now lived through that (and the high winds) and survived relatively in tact. The heavy snow has damaged quite a lot of olive trees in the area because they are not used to such a weight on their branches (until I get in amongst them of course).
We were woken this morning by the lovely sound of hammering, by the builders, up on site at eight o’clock sharp. We are also back on line, sorry for not being around since Sunday. They are continuing to do the roof decking and adding more steel re-enforcements and many more bracing jacks underneath in readiness for even more concrete. See pictures, and a prize for guessing the number of bracing jacks in place right now.
The whole weather pattern has now changed again and we are having more sunshine (it is very good to see it again) with big fluffy clouds. We can see the distant mountains once more.
We set of for Huercal Overa, this morning, dressed up in thick jumpers and fleeces. As we got lower and off the mountains we could feel the heat of the sun through the windscreen. By the time we parked in town we had to remove our fleeces and nearly took our jumpers off as well. Down there the temperature was a nice 18 degrees (up here it is a nice 11 degrees, after what we have had, that’s very good). Bob said, the other day, whilst we were talking, that up here you have to worry about things in a much more basic manner than you ever need to in a UK winter. We now know exactly what he means. The scariest part of the whole siege was just not quite knowing when it would all stop and when we would be able to replenish our essentials (petrol and gas) or if our water would freeze.
The fact that all of that snow disappeared in about twenty four hours is incredible, but good for us. In the UK a fall of snow like that is usually followed by below zero temperatures that can go on for weeks. Had that happened here we would have been in trouble. Anyway all is well now, and thanks to Cathy for her very thoughtful and kind call this morning. The internet also went off, so we seemed to have vanished altogether, watching from the UK. Cathy called to see if we were OK, XXX from us both to you. John Young (thanks John) also called, but I’m not kissing him.
I think that I have solved the vexing mystery about why the ramblers have not flooded, at all, since we have been here, despite heavy falls of rain and this snow. The ground is mainly made up of sand, this is why after rain it is OK to walk about without getting too muddy. The water will keep sinking into the sand until total saturation point is reached. After total saturation any rain at all that falls will then flow down into and flood the ramblas. We have obviously not quite reached this total saturation point yet (it must have been a close call with the melting snow though). When one thinks, that until the other day, we had had no significant rain here since early December. You can see why the ground has taken up so much water without flooding the ramblas. It will be interesting now to watch the local vegetation waking up again.
Once more we can enjoy the sunshine and take note of the beauty of the blossoming almonds. Later, when the builders leave at six o’clock, Elayne and I will walk down in amongst the olive trees to see if they have suffered much damage.
‘I can see clearly now the snow has gone’ seems a good first line for a song, now how about a tune.

Strewth!, this morning we woke to find more than a foot of snow on us and it was still falling. After the shock we had to look to our resources, water, gas, petrol. We are OK for gas and water so with the gas fire and the gas cooker we can cook and keep warm. The pipes are not frozen so we can still get water through from the hebe for drinking and the loo. The petrol for the genny will run out tomorrow night but that will only put our lights out and stop us communicating by SKYPE, Email or blog. So really we are OK and can sit this out for however long it takes. All of that being in hand, we can enjoy the panoramic, spectacular views of the mountains, valleys and our surroundings.
We hope that you can zoom into the pictures to see what it was like earlier this morning. Note the picture of the house and all the snow on the edges of the scaffold. Needless to say we don’t expect the builders on site today. It’s twelve o’clock now and I think that the snow has turned to rain. It’s around 1.5 degrees outside, and a cozy 19 inside. Since yesterday the barometer has gone from a low of 1003mbs (the lowest I’ve seen it so far) and steadily climbed to 1018mbs where it has leveled off.

The blue tinge to the pictures seems to be the camera compensating for all the white, until you zoom in and then it goes to normal setting. Has anyone got any explanation for this please?

Snowballs in Spain
Someone commented, when we were debating about coming out here, that they wouldn’t come over here because they like the seasons in the UK. Well I can not remember who it was but see the pictures of the snow this morning. The ground is still quite warm at our altitude (850mtrs) so the snow has almost gone down here (15-30hrs) now but the mountains look very dramatic in their snow coats, above about 1000mtrs.
We spent the morning watching the tennis, the men’s semi finals from Melbourne and said that after the tennis we would decide whether to sit tight or go shopping (in emergency we would be warm and OK for at least three days, so no pressure). We went to Albox, all the roads are OK because they are lower than we are. We shopped and then wanted to replenish the petrol and the gas, on the way back, at the petrol station in Taberno. When we got there, there was a power cut and none of the pumps were working. We changed the gas tank and will go back down tomorrow to top up the petrol.
No sight of the builders today. The cold, wet and snowy start today must have made them go to work somewhere else, and who can blame them. The temperature only just stayed above zero last night but now it is a balmy 3.8 degrees, almost tropical again.
Muchos apologies! The builders have just turned up in a lorry with a crane on the back. They have brought some more reinforcing mesh and steels for the ceiling.

We had a good, but late, night last night. The wind seemed to calm down a bit as we went to bed. On waking this morning the wind had got up yet again and it was very cold in the caravan (5 inside and 0.9 outside). The caravan cools down very quickly making it challenging to get out of bed and then going out to feed and kick start the genny.
With cold and snow forecast over the next few days we are battening down the hatches and trying to keep warm. The wind has stayed high and the builders have not even turned up today. We heard that about fifty miles north of us had snow yesterday. The news pictures of Madrid last night showed that they had several inches of snow. Allen was commenting last night that last Saturday he was outside painting some garden walls at his house, wearing just shorts and his boots. This is how it is here, but we will find it all a lot more tolerable when we are in the house.
On days, like today, where we stay in all day, we thank goodness for the tennis finals in Melbourne and the European Ice Skating Championships from Warsaw on Sky television.

17-15hrs. NB: 'The lads' have brought two lorry loads of exuipment to site this afternoon including more ceiling boards. One presumes that at the first sign of calmer weather they will resume where they left off yesterday. From the pictures you can see how the weather has closed in, there is snow in the valley opposite and we have a little wind blown rain, the first rain for seven weeks. However there will only be enough rain to keep the dust down and nothing to really water the land.

Last night was another very windy night, more so than Monday night. We woke a few times and laid awake listening to the caravan getting battered. I’m not sure what time the wind died down, but suddenly it is eight o’clock, the sun is shining and it’s not a bad morning. I think that we are actually now getting used to the buffeting of the caravan in these winds and a little more confident that we are not, unless it gets a lot stronger, going to tumble over or take off over the edge of the campo. The temperature last night fell to 0.9 degrees and is now about 2.5, it feels like minus six in the breeze that is left over.
Mags and Allen are not playing tennis this morning. Allen is working and Mags is busy preparing for them to fly to the UK tomorrow. Elayne and I are going down for a knock around and then we will go shopping whilst we are down at HO.
The builders were on site by half past eight this morning and are pressing on with putting the ceiling frame work up. It’s very cold up there for them and they have their hoods and hats on again today. I can’t say that I blame them.
I remember just after I came out of the forces (in 1965-6 would you believe?) and worked in Folkestone for Rediffusion. We spent one cold and windy day putting cables under and across a playing field. The icy cold wind was blowing straight off the English channel at us. That evening and the very next day I was physically ill. Today we would call it suffering from mild exposure, but then we just knew that we were not well due to the cold.
Elayne and I had a good knock -up (tennis in case you forgot) for an hour down at HO. We shopped and then came home for lunch and chill out before our usual Wednesday evening activities. The wind has stayed calm, thank goodness, it’s sunny but the temperature is down at about 8 degrees ambient (feels like about 3 degrees).
The builders are charging ahead with the roof supports, see pictures.

Last night three lorries arrived to lay down the floor concrete, the lads worked until just after seven.
We had quite a rough night again with the high winds. This morning the temperature outside was at about three degrees but it felt more like minus three. We did not expect anyone up on site today, to allow the floor concrete to go off a bit, but at half past nine they were back with props and scaffolding. They managed to put the ceiling supports onto three piles but then they had to give up because of the winds. It was nearly knocking them off the scaffold. The foreman, who brings them, and takes them back home each day is Jose (his brothers are Javier and Dario). After Jose dropped them off at site this morning, he went over to Vera to work. When the lads had had enough, with the high winds, they phoned Jose (they all have mobiles) who must have given them the choice of sitting around until he could get back for them, or coming over to me to ask if I could take them down home to Albox. Of course I obliged because it was too windy to be working up high. Anyway they have said that they will be back manana, and I believe them, if the wind abates. You can probably see from the pictures how hard the wind was blowing.

We have heard this morning that it’s cold and wintery in the UK, and that snow is falling on the high ground between Sheffield and Stockport. The weather has taken a little turn for the worse here as well. Clouds have formed, the temperature is down (15) and the wind has got up a bit. I’m sat here typing and I’m flaming cold, would you believe?
We have had another ten tons of gravel delivered to site this morning (thirty tons in total so far) and two guys are hand balling it around inside the perimeter walls of the house. It’s a back breaking job and the wind is kicking up a lot of dust for them. I feel I want to go up and help them, but I wouldn’t last two minutes doing that.
Instead Elayne and I are going to go out for lunch at El Rancho’s, they do a really nice ensalada and we just might have a hamburger and chips with it. That should warm us up a little.
Just back from lunch. It was very nice and it did warm us up a bit. The wind has got stronger since we were away, not good.
The builders, after siesta, are putting down the floor re-enforcing netting and have put in the main drainage pipes that lead the waste waters away and down to the second potho. It’s all very interesting watching the developments.
After they have finished each day at six o’clock, we go up to take a series of pictures, and stand and ponder it all.
A concrete lorry has just arrived (15-40hrs) with the first tip of the ground floor base. Yipeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!! Don’t know how many will be coming but perhaps two or three.
Just as Nadal is beating Murray (4-0) in the final set) in the Melbourne open tennis tournament…… Nadal won.

We arrived home about two this morning after a super evening down at JC Talk of the Town. John was chuffed to death that we have gone down for the opening of his new bar. He, as usual, sang some fabulous songs and another guy, who we see on Wednesdays in Lentisco‘s, played some wonderful music on his harmonica. John introduced him as being like Larry Adler, and by heck, he really was. I must congratulate him the very next time we see him. Due to a spilt drink, we got chatting to a couple who were sat near to us. They are originally from Rottenstall in Lancs, but despite this they are a really nice coupleJ They retired from teaching a few years back and came firstly to live in Garrucha, quite near here, then moved up to Campagne sur Aude in France, where it is a lot greener. They come back down to Andalusia on occasions for a holiday. They said that they might come up to Taberno on a Wednesday evening to have a dance. JC’s bar is quite small, down on Mojacar Playa, and only a few people could dance at any one time, although lots of people wanted to. Despite this it was a great evening. The journey back is a bit arduous after a long evening, but we did get our sleep in until the cats jumped on us this morning. When at first we didn’t move they waited a while and then jumped on us again.
So far today we have poodled about doing bits and bats.
Elayne found an Egyptian grasshopper on our jasmine plant. It was about three inches long and is apparently related to the locust. See pictures. We never saw it jump, but with legs like that I bet it can.
About two o’clock we took a can of beer each up and sat on the walls of the house. It was a really nice half an hour up there, trying to see where all the rooms will be and then trying to imagine what it will be like when it’s all finished. We all basked in the very warm sunshine on what will be our dining room patio.

It’s six months, today, since we arrived here in Spain. What a time we’ve had in that period. We have learnt so much that we didn’t know that we didn’t know before. We have made so many new friends and visited so many new places that it’s sometimes hard to get to sleep at nights with the exhilaration of it all. Both of the cats are looking healthier than I can ever remember seeing them and we are feeling at ease with our decrepit old bodies. Elayne is not yet ‘performing’ again but she does make a performance from time to time, just to keep her hand in :-))). We are playing tennis once a week and lots of people are talking about putting their own tennis courts up, including us if the finances survive enough after the house.
Today it is in the mid twenties (again) and the sun has shone since it rose at quarter past eight this morning. The nights just now are only cooling down to seven or eight degrees. It is six weeks since we had any rain at all so we are enjoying it all just now.
We shopped in Albox this morning, sat and had tapas and a drink on the terrace at Lentisco’s at lunch time. Just now we are chilling out before we go down to Mojacar this evening to the opening of John’s new bar (John performs at Lentisco’s on Wednesdays under the name of JC). He is calling it JC’s Talk of the Town. I feel we have another late night coming up.
We were woken up at eight this morning by the arriving builders who are carrying on at a cracking pace. They are building the foundation surround wall that the ground floor plinth will sit on, see pictures. We were surprised that they worked today and we don’t expect them at all tomorrow (so we can have a have a lie in, after tonight’s merriments).

Now how do I put this without appearing to gloat a little? and, in full knowledge of the dreadful weather that you are having in the UK just now. Well I’ve been paddling in the Med today, and it’s been in the mid twenties, in the glorious sun. I know it might hurt a little, but it does no good to beat about the bush on these matters.
We went down to Mojacar to get loads of hard nosed brass, from our bank, to give the builder, as our second of five stage payments on the house.
We breakfasted and then walked and paddled and then went to the bank. We were met at the door by a profusely apologetic Ramon the manager (here your bank manager speaks to you civilly, and in a very friendly manner, and not as though you’ve just dropped of the bottom of his shoe, as in the UK. We even borrow his office sometimes if we want to count out some money in a quiet place). Some flats above the bank are having sewage disposal blockages and the whole place smelt like ‘Esholt’ on a summers day. Cor’ did it pong!!! Well we got our brass and departed ‘toot, not so, sweet’.
On the building front, we were surprised to hear the arrival of the builders at just after eight this morning. They started knocking the shuttering clamp pins out and taking the shuttering down all together. The concrete obviously was dry enough to support itself and so they continued. Just as we left for Mojacar, a thundering great lorry arrived in a trail of camino dust, looking like it’s on the Dakar Rally. It delivered five loads of breeze block type bricks. When we got back from Mojacar the lorry had been backwards and forwards a few times delivering cement, gravel and sand. The lads had finished removing the shuttering on all except one pile which they had to top up with some more concrete this morning. Using a water tube as a level they then marked the base level right around all of the piles. This level denotes the height of the house’s surrounding bricks. They build to this level with breeze blocks and then fill the middle with gravel. This forms the base for the ground floor concrete. I estimate that with the piles, and the foundations, and then the floor concrete we will have about one hundred and twenty tons of concrete for the house to sit on. The enclosed pictures will tell a better story of the days’ developments than I can. All I can say is that from sunrise it has been a very exciting day. Sorry for the little gloat, but we hope you can understand our delight in today.

PS: After we had shut up shop for the day and after it had got pitch black tonight, there is a horn hooting outside and the agua (water) man arrives, after calling him for a week. He delivered abouth eighteem thousand ltrs of agua and charged €100, less than half a euro per 100 ltrs. It's a good job it was warm or I would have frozen to death in the half an hour it took to fill the hebe. It's good to have it full because the builders are needing a lot as they start to make and use cement.

It’s usually a good sign when the builders show up on site early in the day. We had to be up early today because we were leaving at half past nine to play tennis The builders arrived on site at twenty past eight. They then sat around talking for a while, it was still quite nippy so they had scarves, hats and big coats on. At quarter to nine we heard ‘the rumble on the camino’ and a cement lorry arrived. Then another rumble and the cement pump arrived (see pictures). In another ten minutes they were filling the pile formers and as we left they were on about their fifth pile fill.
We had a fabulous game of tennis, Mags and Elayne are getting good and Allen is a strong player anyway. Two hours of playing tennis in glorious sunshine and then a lovely coffee nearby, what a good start to the day.
On arrival back at site after a little shopping at Lidl (about half past two) the site was deserted and all the piles were filled to the top including the cardboard tube formers for the veranda pillars. We are told that now we must be patient for a few weeks whilst the concrete cures. That’s going to be quite hard to do but we will try.
After the exhaustion of dancing last night and tennis this morning we are chilling out this afternoon and evening. Malcolm Pinder has just informed me that in West Yorkshire just now you are having a ‘hooligan’ of a wind. We do really sympathize with you and we would certainly NOT like to be in a caravan over there just now. I hesitate to tell you that the ambient today is just over twenty (mid to high twenties in the sun) and the door paint is starting to blister ;-))
We thought that we had another interloper in the caravan last night. When we came back from Lentisco’s at about half past twelve, we had just settled down in bed and Saffy started darting about and generally going a bit silly. We waited to see if anything came out from under the bed, but then he calmed down and we all went to sleep. Just to be sure, we have just hoiked the bed up to have a cautionary look but found no strays or homeless animals. We concluded that Saffy must have slept well whilst we were out last night and just wanted a silly half an hour when we returned, before settling down again for the night. He’s now getting very good at jumping onto us whilst we are asleep (it’s a hell of a shock sometimes) to tell us that it’s daylight and we should really get up and let him and Pippy out for their pre-breakfast stroll.