April, that is (in the words of the Paul Simon song). Fantastic weather (up in the high twenties) and clear blue skies. Clear skies in all but one direction, as the longed.for reopening of the Bar Niño has been postponed due to recalcitrant builders.Well, I think it has been postponed, as Juan reportedly told this to Gill when she asked if opening was imminent - and she would not lie to me about something as serious as that. She also reported that the "other" local bar (the Alarcon), shut since covid times as it had no possible outside space, now has a "to let" sign outside. It will probably end up being taken over by the German guy who owns most of the restaurants in the village - and become another high priced tourist trap. I must ask (Fer)´nando what he thinks (waiter of many years at the AlA and who drinks in the Niño (when that is open, that is).
Danish neighbours are down here en-famille at the moment so it is more lively than usual - and the kids above are on holiday, so around more than usual too. G took the three of them to the pueblo for a walk last weekend and spent 3 hours about it. Got a very thankful text from the parents(!!). While talking about the neighbours, the German lady has gone back for one of her very irregular visits to see her family in the home country and asked G to "keep an eye out" for her husband. He doesn't drive anymore and can't walk that far, so I don't think he will be straying - especially as she stocks the fridge and freezer to see him through her absence. I seem to remember the two of us hit a couple of bars in the pueblo on her last visit and it ended up costing me nearly a thousand euros (bit of crab shell in a tapa went in between two teeth and sheared off a crown - resulting in a new bridge). I shall not be taking german-Jonah out again!
I have been keeping myself busy doing the spring tasks - which means that I have been on teak-oiling for the last few days. I say teak-oiling, but it is more of a Cuprinol-style varnish which I put on my accident a couple of years ago and basically committed myself to eternal perdition - especially as it has some weird fumes which get to my chest and thus necessitate a mask - which means my specs steam up and I can hardly see what the hell I am doing. All I need to do now is fire up the BBQ and the summer season will be upon us.
An interesting development a couple of weeks ago was the arrival of a flock of sheep (and some goats) in the parcella next door. We used to see them a on the mountain quite a lot a few years ago, but not for a while. Turns out that they are actually owned by someone we vaguely know and they keep them a few hundred metres down the mountain from us. The shepherd had three very excitable young collie dogs which ran around like lunatics, but personally I rather liked the large lazy white dog (Pyrenean?) which just positioned itself at the far end of the area - " they shall not pass ". I found out that the family keep the flock for meat and milk - and also have a few hives too. I am currently working on trying to get some real artisan mountain honey from them if they will sell it to me.
All the Easter processions have just started, so G will be zooming off into the pueblo to watch them next weekend. I found theatre local tv (yes, really) is on our system, so might just observe remotely (been there, seen it, felt the atmosphere before - a bit like the British Open Golf) and know you see more on tv than by being there.
コメント