De Perros y Limones

Last of the Sun

It’s another sunny day here in the village but who knows how long it will last?  The nights are getting cold, the fireplace has been cleaned, the lemon tree is beginning to bear its fruit and the first of the traditional Christmas sweets have appeared in the supermarches.  There is an abundance of building work going on around Fuente Tojar which makes driving to get out of the place interesting to say the least. 

Fuente Tojar

Winter is coming. 

Will the cold nights dissuade Bindi from doing her business in the garden as she is supposed to do or will she think ‘sod that’ and wee next to the washing machine as she did the other day?   Not happy.

Just run!

The fields are getting busy with people collecting the first of the olive harvest.  Will it be a bumper harvest or will it be disappointing as it was last year?  Ken thinks it will not be a great one like two years ago but we will certainly be seeing Emilio, the olive factory manager, work 7 days a week to keep up with the rush that is coming.  Poor Emilio.  Over the next few months I am sure we will see his easy smile become harder to maintain as the stress of the job starts to take hold. 

The civil war ruins built from the ruins of the Roman town continue to fascinate me

Bar Chico is starting to get busy again in the evenings – he keeps the place nice and warm – but has to shut at 11 because of the curfew.  If that turns into a full lockdown as in France and now the UK is the topic of discussion in the bar.  I’m just hoping that nothing happens for the next two weeks as I have to go to Malaga for a PCR test so that I can, a few days later, go to Malaga Airport for my trip to see Sonalee and Bibi and our new cat, Sparky.  

I’m only going for a few days but we’re both so looking forward to it.  It will be 3 months since we will have seen each other.   I think we both need it.  I certainly do.  I am finding myself going slowly nuts.  A sure sign of it came last week when I had lettuce with my breakfast.  Lettuce!   No, I have no idea why either.

My shortage of gravy granules has been dealt with by an emergency gravy packet parcel sent by my sister Tracy.  But the lack of piccalilli has yet to be resolved and I’m down to my last two puppadoms.   I finally made it to Alcala la Real to get baked beans, so that was a big improvement in my breakfast rations. And, yes, I stockpiled them.

Dora wonders

Otherwise there hasn’t been too much to get excited about recently.  My Spanish is slowly improving from absolutely terrible to merely awful.  Our Spanish teacher told me to stop translating stuff into English and to start thinking like a Spaniard.   I know what she means but I still have a long long way to go before I do that – I still park between the lines and have not yet begun driving with my left arm outside the window.  

Luna the canine dynamo

I’m also trying really hard to not let this situation get me down too much.  I still have bad days – our wedding anniversary last week was a particularly bad one.  Sonalee and I have agreed that we are lucky in many ways, we do have some of the best in life such as our health and the love of our animals.   And at least one of us has a job.   Let’s face it, if I were being paid for the quality of the work on the house that I am doing, I’m not sure I would be earning very much.

So to get all philosophical, what is best in life anyway?   Conan the Barbarian had some thoughts on it.   Personally I can’t see much wrong with his observation but I can see how it might upset some people.  Any more suggestions?

Andalucia – the land of light

I can tell you what  is not best in life is having to drag a tapeworm from the arse of one of your dogs whilst out walking.  Poor Bindi.  She is prone to them.  I had seen the little thing emerge from her bumhole the day before but it nipped back indoors before I could react.  The next day found her doing  her business in private as usual but then wander over to me with this white string thing waving around her butt.  Took a few attempts to get the whole thing out.  Thank the stars for anti-bacterial wipes in the car.

So, in the absence of Sonalee, Dora has decided that she will sleep on the bed each night.  Dora has a habit of licking parts of her rear-end really noisily.  You learn to shut it out, especially at night.  Two weeks ago she was making those noises in bed but I turned over and forgot about it.  Come the morning alarm – Luna’s wet nose – I turned over to see that Dora hadn’t, in fact, done the licky thing but puked up instead.  Right next to my head.  Dog vomit in the bed when you wake up is not the best in life, let me tell you that. 

The mirador

But for now, we have the Andalucian sun to warm the days and the spirits and the prospect of a trip to Morocco to see the love of my life even for just a few days.   My friend Kev sends me lots of pictures of my god-daughter and her siblings, which always make me smile.  I have four dogs who love prancing around the open campo each morning.  And, as Kev pointed out, he and I have no social life so any lockdown isn’t going to change that much for us.  

I know my mum is finding this situation difficult to deal with, as are many others.  My friend Andy in Sri Lanka has just seen the country step into another lockdown.  He said he anticipated it and so has been out every night for the last two weeks.  I like his style.   And his philosophy – make the most of it whilst you can.  There is a message for us all in that.

Autumn still shows its colours amidst the ubiquitous olive trees

Stay safe.

Hasta Luego, inshallah

Ayubowan

Paul

PS  The fourth best band in Hull continue to play on my ancient Ipod.  Lyrically brilliant and often irreverent but always good to listen to.   

an autumnal campo

PPS There is still a lot to celebrate. You want a reason, I’ll give you reasons.

Paul

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