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.