Sunday 27th September, 2020
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| On the cliffs overlooking the sea by the Playa de Poo, an unfortunate name for a superb beach in the area. |
Good morning all.
Well, we are home now and it has been a great week. I should clarify. It has been a great week for us but the dark cloud of coronavirus is getting darker. We are now at nearly a million deaths worldwide. Madrid is the epicentre of the pandemic and that is not something I am proud of. We have areas with over 1000 cases per 100.000 inhabitants. Where we live the figures are much lower but they are still high. The local and national government are at loggerheads at what to do about Madrid vs a vs the restrictions. We cannot rule out all the province going into lockdown again and that thought is pretty frightening. But what is the alternative?
Coronavirus was not on my mind last Sunday when were still in El Cueto. Asturias is one of the few areas to be nearly free of it so we felt safe there. Last Sunday the day was ours for the taking. Despite the forecast there was not a drop of rain that day. We were very lucky with the weather throughout our stay. That morning the bread van arrived and brought our order: a loaf of wholemeal bread, a tuna pie and what they call here "bollos preñaus" (literally pregnant buns - a small bread roll with chorizo inside). Here is Eladio taking the order from Francisco the baker who does the deliveries in the area. How civilised I thought and how quaint.
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| Eladio picking up our order from the bakery |
It was a sunny day and we decided to walk down the steep hill to have a coffee at the bar in Meré, "La Tilar". The views on the road down were of lush and green meadows and mountains. The scenery is very attractive with the peaks of the Picos de Europa in the distance.
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| On our walk down the hill to Meré |
At the entrance to the village we came across a horse shoe stall which seemed to be in full use or at least Eladio thought so. It is quite a sophisticated contraption and not something you see often. This is it. Of course it's in use as there are lots of horses and cows in the area.
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| The horseshoe stall at the entrance to Meré, if that is what it is called. |
We found the bar closed and were told it didn't open until midday so we walked back and had a cup of coffee at home on one of our sunny terraces. We read outside until it was time for lunch - delicious leftovers of the fabada (bean stew) that we had brought back in a doggy bag from our meal, days before at Los Montañeros in Carreña. They made us both feel sleepy and we had our siesta. I was reading afterwards on the terrace in the sun and we decided to venture out again. We both wanted to see a very popular local attraction: "Los bufones de Pría".
Los Bufones de Pría are a natural phenomenon, whereby the pressure from the waves of water from the sea penetrates cavities in the rocks on the cliffs. Wikipedia calls them blowholes in English and they are apparently a crack in coastal rocks where air and spray is expelled when the waves break the shore. Well, I never. When the sea is rough this can cause a geyser like phenomena with great big bursts of water coming out. I suppose this is why they are also called marine geysers. When the sea is calm, there is not much water but a very loud hissing and crashing of wave like sound; thus the word "bufo" which means to hiss. The cavities are everywhere and people were crowding around and listening. It was weird and spectacular at the same time. I have never seen anything like it. Here is a video of Eladio listening to one of the blowholes.
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| Eladio watching and listening to one of the blowholes. It was fascinating |
Other people thought so too as they wondered the rocks over the cliffs in search of more blowholes. They were all over the place. The thing is they are not visible until you get up close and that can be dangerous. There have been deaths here over the years and I think they should be fenced off.
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| People searching for the blow holes |
Dramatic too were the cliffs. They always are in this area. Here is Eladio on the cliffs by the Bufones de Pría, a place we can highly recommend. We must go back when the sea is rough to see the geysers in all their glory.
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| Eladio on the cliffs by Bufones de Pría |
On the walk down to the village nearby we passed a very special beach called Guadamía. It is really a beach at the end of a fjord; another geological formation. People were swimming and when it is warmer I want to go back.
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| Guadamía beach |
We are spoiled for places to visit in this area.
We were home by 8 pm and the sun was still shining. It was time for dinner and for once we were hungry after all our walking. We tried the tuna pie and "bollos preñaus" which were delicious. All was well until later that night. After watching another episode of Borgen I kept hearing a machine like noise outside which was annoying. Eventually I fell asleep but woke up to a louder sound. I soon realised the sound was coming from within me and I got worried. There was a constant buzz in my ears and a feeling that I needed them to pop and they wouldn't. I woke up on Monday morning and could still hear the buzz. I began searching the web and was worried I had tinnitus - something some people have to live with; a constant noise from within. We quickly found a local private clinic in Llanes and that was the second task of the day.
Before going to the clinic we had to wait for an architect to come and examine the attic which we would like, at some point, to turn into a bedroom come suite for ourselves. It's a bit of a dream but would add enormous value to the house and it would be our own private space here.
After the architect left, we drove to El Castillo Clinic in Llanes. A GP there examined my ears and told me I did not have tinnitus and that the noise I was hearing was coming from air pressure and that it would go away shortly. If it didn't he told me to see a specialist. I came out feeling relieved and as the day went on the noise went. It did come back occasionally but seems to have cleared up now. I feel very sorry for people who live with a constant buzz or ringing in their ears and very pleased I hadn't got it. As I was experiencing the buzzing I asked myself whether I would be able to live with the buzz and clearly the answer is no as it's most annoying.
At the same time of day Suzy was at another clinic, at the vet with Norah. She is better but not over the hill and has many problems including a tumour, ulcers and possibly cancer. Poor thing she is 12 and I can only hope we can give her some quality of life for as long as possible. Suzy took her home with lots of medicines and a long list of complicated instructions on how to administer them. She had to tell Lucy how to do so as our older daughter was going on a short holiday, leaving for the lovely island of Menorca that evening for a few days.
From Llanes we drove back to our nearest town, Posada de Llanes, which almost feels like ours now. It was while we were shopping there after a cup of coffee in the square that I got my first enquiry for a booking on Airbnb for the new house, La Casa del Cuetu, in Asturias. I was amazed to see it was from an Englishman in London especially because of Covid. Andrew and his partner wanted to come and stay for 28 days and live at the house while working from home. They were concerned about wifi and I soon assured them it works fine and it does. An hour or so later they confirmed. Whoopee I had my first booking for Casa del Cuetu! I couldn't believe it. How come, I wonder, did they choose our house if there are so many in the area, including 11 just in this village? I put that down to my superhost status and the fact that Airbnb has placed my listing, as it is a new one, towards the top of the list. We were both delighted.
After lunch I had a skype call with Amanda which I took outside. I was so happy to tell her about my first booking. She was not surprised it was from an English couple coming to work from home as it appears many people are escaping in a similar way, to get away from Covid and because many can work from home from wherever they want in the world. They are probably not worried about self isolating when they return to London as no doubt they will be working from home whilst isolating.
At 6.15 or so we set off on foot to go and see the previous owners of the house, Mari (Paz) and José, who live nearby in Debodes. There they have a set of country houses in a huge area of land which they have converted into holiday homes. The place, called "Caserio de San Pedro" is spectacular, as are the houses.
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| Just two of the three houses. |
We were received very warmly. This Asturian couple in their 60's and 70's have worked hard to build up this business after abandoning their farm some 20 years ago. The work they do there is quite remarkable. Now though as they are nearing retirement they want to sell the complex and live in El Cuetu. I think they thought we might be interested but of course we aren't. We cannot buy any more houses hahahaha, unless of course we sold our main house in Madrid which is not in our plans.
They showed us around. Apart from the houses, there are typical Asturian graneries (hórreos) and even an old cider making facility called a "llagar". Here Eladio took some photos. Mari and José no longer make cider but maintain the facilities just as they were probably over 100 years ago.
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| In the "llagar" with José and Mari |
Later we would enjoy some cider on one of the lovely sitting areas our hosts have all around the different houses. José, being Asturian, certainly knows how to pour it. In Asturias this is called "escanciar" whereby you pour cider from high up to maintain its sparkle.
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| José pouring cider for us |
We left just before it go dark as we had to walk back along mountain roads. We enjoyed the walk back and marveled again and again how it hadn't rained either that day. We were so lucky with the weather. Once home I set about making a delicious dinner which we had with Albariño wine. The day ended with another episode of Borgen.
Tuesday came. I was up later than usual and at 8 am caught Olivia on the TV twice. Both times she was talking about Coronavirus figures which are not only on the rise everywhere, but especially so in Madrid. It felt so good to be far away. Finally the authorities are agreeing that we are going through a second wave. We are seeing this happen all over Europe but Spain, so far, is the hardest hit.
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| Oli reporting on the figures from the second wave of coronavirus on Tuesday |
The figures went up daily this week and that evening there were rumours the whole of the Madrid province could go into lock down. That hasn't happened but the rumour continues. France too is reporting similar numbers of new cases as is the UK. In the UK there are now new restrictions everywhere but they are all a bit chaotic.
As I said, Asturias is the area in Spain with the lowest figures and they are not alarming at all. We would have loved to spend more time here but had to go back. We couldn't leave my father for too long and besides we had the English guests coming today.
I spent a lot of Tuesday morning working. I drew up a three page information sheet about the house and things to do in the area to send to my first guests. For each of our houses listed on Airbnb I have what I call an information pack. I think Andrew much appreciated that. He also appreciated that I found him a bike rental outfit in nearby Posada. I spoke to the owner and could hardly believe how cheap it is to hire a bike, from 14 euros a day down to just 5 if you rent for 10 days.
In the middle of working on the document I got an enquiry from a young French student who wanted to stay at our house in Madrid long term. She wanted to book half of October, the whole of November and 20 days in December. Later the plans were shattered by Covid as the local UEM told her that there will only be online courses for the moment. It is a difficult time to be a student. While we were away our house was full of guests. One of them was a professional tattooist hahahahaha. The other was a lady from the UK, Shaz, who had come to accommodate her daughter at the Uni.
While I was writing the information sheet, Eladio was upstairs in the attic inspecting the beams. He had it in his mind there may be woodworm and bingo he found it in two of the main beams. He was so upset and I was upset he was upset. We got ready in a hurry to drive to Posada to see Jesús, the architect who had come to see the attic to draw up plans to turn it into a bedroom suite for us. He agreed to come the next day. My husband then rang the owners to tell them and to ask them to come and see the woodworm for themselves. José, the husband arrived after lunch and it was a tense moment. To begin with he only offered to buy a new beam but not to repair the damage. I wrote to his more reasonable wife Mari and she assured me they would take full responsibility. Thus a carpenter who has worked for them before would come on Thursday to see what could be done. No work on the attic though can take place until our English guests leave at the end of October. Meanwhile though the solution to eradicate any woodworm seems to be to spray diesel oil all over the wood which the carpenter will do. The good thing though was that both experts coincided that the woodworm were dead. We had got on so well with the previous owners up till then and the last thing I wanted was any friction with them. I think when Mari decided to take responsibility for all the repairs she was thinking the same thing. We were very relieved.
With all this happening we didn't go for our walk that day and I had planned to go on a 10km walk nearby which had been recommended: "El Caminu encantado" (the enchanted pathway). In any case we couldn't have gone as it was during José's visit that he, Eladio and a friend of his - a neighbour - took everything from the attic that the previous owners had stored there and needed removing. That took a while and was a very dirty job.
While the men worked, I read on the little terrace. That's when I met new neighbours, a couple who live in Palencia (some 300km away). They were working on their kitchen garden which, by the way, is right next to the wall of the terrace. Eladio and I would love to buy it from them one day. They very kindly gave me some fresh spearmint with roots and Eladio planted it in one of the spare pots. They later came and gave us a bottle of their own home made cider. Loli, our other neighbour, the lady who will be looking after the house, also gave me something from her kitchen garden; 2 huge ripe red peppers. We felt spoiled.
Before dinner I rang both girls. Suzy was having a lovely time in Menorca. I have never been but know it is a beautiful island. Suzy and her friend hired a motorbike to get around and enjoyed the beaches, singing and playing the ukelele and making healthy meals at their holiday apartment. She didn't send me any photos but I took a screenshot from her Instagram of her doing yoga on the beach. I was so happy that she was happy. That's all a mother wants for her "kids".
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| Suzy in Menorca |
It looked like they had the beach to themselves. They probably did as very few people are travelling these days thanks to Coronavirus.
Eladio and I made our own delicious dinner that night: fried eggs and chips hahha. We were in our bedroom by 8.45 which is a little early. Or course that meant I would be up terribly early on Wednesday which I was. It was 6.30 when I got up and it took me a while to realise it was Eladio's birthday. Happy birthday dear husband. I felt a bit bad as I had nothing prepared. I would have had we been at home but of course we would celebrate by going out to lunch. The family celebration would be on Saturday.
The day began watching Olivia on TV reporting on the new facts and figures of coronavirus. She is a veritable expert on the subject now. The architect and a carpenter came to inspect the woodworm and confirmed it. They also said it was dead but that the beams - two of them - were in the state they were in also because of some humidity. Thankfully the roof had been changed a year ago so there is no more humidity. First things first. They assured us the house is not going to fall down because of the state of these two beams and secondly they told us the solution is to reinforce the beams with new ones and that the job should be pretty easy. They also told us this could wait until after our guests leave in October. We needed this information to contrast with the carpenter coming on Thursday, the one the previous owners were bringing.
Eladio cheered up after that. I kept reminding him it was his birthday and we had to celebrate. We did of course. We went to Llanes, the capital town of this province (Concejo de Llanes) which is a beautiful little coastal town. Numerous films and TV series have been filmed here and I can understand why. Eladio dropped me off to go to sign a paper our local financial advisor needs for all the paperwork involved in putting the utilities in our name and more importantly getting me a licence to rent the house for tourist purposes.
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| A few shots of Llanes a pretty little town |
Later we had a coffee in the main square. It's the one in the photo below. We then walked into a gourmet store - there are loads of them here - to get Eladio a token birthday present. I bought him some smelly blue Cabrales cheese which he loves and I hate, of course. From the gourmet store we went in search of a shop that sells material as I wanted to cover the awful leather settee in the living room here. Paquita and Olga didn't have anything suitable but then we spied a decor type shop and there bought some lovely throws. Unfortunately when we got home we found they were too small for the settee so we took them back the next day when our search would continue for something else to cover the ghastly settee. Our last task of the day was to find a shop that sold kitchen ware as we had to get a kettle, some new drinking glasses, frying pans and a few other items we needed. We found all this at a great ironmonger shop. We took it all to our car and from there walked to the restaurant for Eladio's birthday lunch. We chose Sablón where we went the day we signed the deeds which is right by the town beach of the same name. It was sunny but not very warm and even so people were bathing.
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| El Sablón beach. To the right the hotel and restaurant where we had lunch on Eladio's birthday. |
I had to have a photo of the birthday boy by the beach and this is it. I can hardly believe he is now 76 years old. We first met when he was 35!
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| Eladio's birthday photo - by the Sablón beach in Llanes on Wednesday |
The menu of the day lunch we had was delicious and included the local bean stew (fabada) and paella.
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| Birthday lunch at Sablón. Paella and fabada |
We ate less than half what was on our plates as the portions were so big and brought the rest home in a doggy bag for our lunch the next day. Before heading home we went in search of an ice cream for me as I didn't like the choice of desserts at Sablón. I was in luck when we found an ice cream parlour that had my two favourite flavours; coconut and pistachio.
We drove home to rest and spent the afternoon quietly. We had a sort of photo shoot in the street later admiring the granery (hórreo) and horse cart next to it. My friend Sandra asked me whether they were in our garden. I wish they were and I wish we had a garden but they are near enough. Here are some of the silly photos we took while we were fooling around.
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| Eladio by the granery in our street |
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| Me fooling around with the cart |
Of all the photos we took my favourite is the one of me looking out of our house through the stable door. It is the original front door of the house and has been a witness to the last hundred or so years in this village, including the Spanish Civil war. I do love stabledoors don't you?
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| Clearly happy to be at our new house in Asturias. Here looking out of the lovely old stable door. |
Dinner was leftovers including the last of the tuna pie and the smelly cabrales cheese for Eladio. Later we watched the news which was getting more and more depressing - Covid and then an interesting documentary on the Spanish civil war. Actually it wasn't that interesting as at about 11 pm I fell asleep and we went upstairs to bed.
Thursday would be our last day here. It was a full and productive day and the sun shone most of the time. We had the most amazing weather in Asturias contrary to the predictions that it would rain all the time. Early in the morning we went to a local furniture and home decor shop in nearby Posada that Mari, the previous owner recommended. There we were in luck as we found just what we were looking for to cover the sofas. We made a trip home to see if they fit and they did. From Posada we went to Llanes to return the throws and then with time on our hands we decided to discover more local beaches, in particular one with an unfortunate name but supposedly beautiful, "Playa de Poo" - pronounced "poh" as in "oh". We had this most beautiful beach practically to ourselves and could park right by it. There were bathers and again we regretted not having our costumes with us. This beach is special as many are in the area. It is a bit like a fjord and thus is well protected. The surroundings are the mountains of course, cliffs and lots of lush green. It was pure paradise and we would be back. I think, so far, this is the most beautiful beach we have seen.
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| Playa de Poo |
There were two pretty looking hotels right by it and both served coffee so we were spoiled for choice. Here is Eladio enjoying his coffee overlooking this marvelous beach.
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| Coffee time at Playa de Poo |
We later walked along the beach which was much bigger than the eye could see but we had trouble turning back as the tide was coming in. Later we walked up a path to the cliffs above. Oh how I love the cliffs and coast in Asturias. It's so wild, dramatic, green and a sight for sore eyes. It makes me happy. The photo I have chosen as this week's feature photo is of me on the cliffs above this beautiful beach with the unfortunate name hahahahaha.
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| Eladio on the cliffs above the Playa de Poo on Thursday morning |
When we had had our fill of Playa de Poo we drove further down the road to explore more beaches. We were in search of Playa de Borizu but found two others before including Playa de Palombina in the village of Celorio. We could have gone on a wonderful coastal walk from Palombina but it was a bit late. No doubt we shall do it another time.
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| Playa de Palombina |
This was a much larger beach and although you can't tell from the photo there were plenty of people sunning themselves on it. Again, I wished I had brought my costume.
We are totally spoiled for beaches in this area (Concejo de Llanes). I read somewhere that Llanes has the greatest number of beaches of any municipality in Asturias. With its 56km of coastline there could well be over 40 beaches. Thus, we have many more to explore.
By then it was about 13h and time to go home and make lunch. We were also keen to put the covers on the leather three piece suite we so hated. While I prepared our lunch which was mostly leftovers from "doggy bags", Eladio covered the sofa and arm chairs. The lounge looked a whole lot better after that. Here by the way is the before photo and the after photo for you to compare.
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| The lounge before |
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| The after photo |
It looks so much nicer now and definitely more inviting. You might think we painted it but we didn't. Thankfully the previous owners painted it in a more palatable colour than in the before photo. Imagine an orange lounge? I have to change the picture of the horse which looks a bit cheesy but I have nothing to change it with for the moment. I am actually getting used to it. I should also mention it was painted by Mari, the previous owner, like many in the house. So it does have its value.
After lunch Mari's husband, José, came with a builder to inspect the woodworm in the beams in the attic. That took a while but both Eladio and I were pleased to know it would be taken care of by the previous owners. Hopefully the work will take place at the end of October after our guests have left.
On the subject of guests, I had a couple arriving with their dog at our apartment in Santa Pola. Communication with the guest was not good so I had no idea when they were arriving, information I had to relay to Lucy our neighbour there. Lucy told me the horrible old lifts were being changed and that there was a lot of noise and dust. Thus I had to warn my guests who didn't seem to mind. Lucy told me they were much more worried about Covid. They had left Madrid that morning and the lady insisted that if they had to turn back because of a sudden lockdown whe would have to cancel. Thankfully that didn't happen.
Once José and the builder had gone, Eladio and I took our bathing costumes and a couple of towels and returned to the Poo beach as the sun was out. We got there but couldn't bathe as the tide was out and the water miles away. It was the same at the Palombina beach. So we went a bit further and found the Borizu beach which was very beautiful. We saw signs it had been used for filming as many of the beaches in this area have. It wasn't so much the tide that worried us here, it was the wind. A wind had suddenly appeared and the sea looked rough. We hadn't watched the weather forecast. Apparently that night a huge storm called Odette was to hit the whole of the north of Spain. Thus we had to turn on our heels and drive home. It was raining when we got out of the car and later that night the storm began in earnest. It rained through the night and we could hear the wind from inside the house. The rain had come to stay but we were grateful we had had good weather during our time in Asturias.
Friday came, the day of our departure. It took us a while to get ready to go. It would have taken longer if we had had to clean the house but thankfully we now have our neighbour, Loli, to do the job. I call that money well spent. We left just before 11 am in pouring rain. We had a 500 kilometre journey ahead of us which would take us between 5 and 6 hours depending on the stops. When we did stop for our picnic lunch at some god forsaken petrol station, the sun was out but it was windy and cold (18c). It was warmer back home (20c) but it was obvious Autumn had arrived in our absence, so no dinner for us outside that night. It was great to see my father again as it was to see the dogs. Pippa, especially, had missed me during our absence. I had missed her too. I was happy to see Norah looking better but she is still not well and I have an appointment with the vet on Tuesday. Poor lamb.
During the trip we had bad news from our apartment in Santa Pola. The guests there had opened the windows of the kitchen galley where the gas heater is and the wind had blown out the gas flame and the heater wasn't working. Lucy, our neighbour and the person who looks after the apartment did her very best to get the gas people to come but they didn't arrive until 8 pm that night. There were many calls to make and messaging with Leire the guest who was not happy. She also told us the washing machine didn't work. It turned out it did but that she hadn't switched on the tap. She has turned out to be a needy guest and I was worried she would leave a nasty review. I did my best all day to placate her. Finally all was well that night but the issue had worried me all day. The gas man said never to open the galley windows again, so that's another line to add to the list of instructions on the information sheet I send to guests.
There was no sign of our guests at home. I did not see either of them but would finally see my UK guest yesterday when she left. She wrote to me on and off and complained the the house was dark when she came home in the evenings and would be please leave the lights on. That did not make Eladio happy. One night she wrote to tell me there was a lizard in her bathroom and would Lucy, our home help, go up to her room to help her get rid of it. She was so worried you would have thought it was a crocodile. We live in the countryside so lizards are just part of the garden and do sometimes make their way into the house. She probably lives in a town and is not used to lizards. Thankfully Lucy who thought the whole episode was ridiculous came to the rescue. I only saw here yesterday morning when she left. She was charming actually and it was interesting to know that although she lives in the UK she is originally from Iran. Despite the lights and lizard issues, I do hope she comes again. She, like many other parents, had come to settle her daughter into Uni here. I am wondering if she may have to go home if Madrid goes into lockdown.
After unpacking, even though both Eladio and I were very tired after our journey, we had to go out and do the shopping as the cupboards were practically bare after 10 days away. We went to the chemist for pills for my father, to Mercadona for the main shopping and to Carrefour for stuff I can't get at the latter as well as fresh fish to make fish and chips for the birthday lunch yesterday. While Eladio and Lucy were unloading everything I got on with making the birthday cake; my trusted cream and jam filled Victoria sponge cake. Suzy was on her way home from Menorca but wouldn't get back till midnight, thus it was just us for dinner that night. We weren't hungry but had some of the pie I had ordered from the baker who delivers bread to El Cueto. It wasn't that good so I won't be getting it again. We watched the news while having dinner and learned that more areas of Madrid had been put into semi lockdown thanks to the second wave of coronavirus. Now over 45 areas are in semi lockdown which affects 3 or 4 million people.
We were in bed by 9.45 or so and I was happy to be so as our bed in my opinion is the most comfortable in the world. We watched some more of Borgen until Eladio fell asleep. I couldn't fall asleep so read for a while until my eyes began to close.
I was awake on Saturday at 06.30 with lots to do. I had to finish making the cake but had forgotten to get the icing sugar. After a small birthday breakfast with my father, Eladio and Suzy, Eladio went to Mercadona to get me some. Soon the cake was ready. I fill it with whipped cream and bilberry jam and cover it with fresh bilberries and raspberries. This was the result.
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| The birthday cake I made yesterday |
Oli, Elliot and Miguel arrived just before lunch. We were delighted to see them but especially delighted to see Elliot who, in our absence, had turned 1. He is now nearly walking and stands up by himself. He was a little overwhelmed but was soon in Eladio's arms. We brought out the tricycle we had got him for his birthday and he seemed to like it a lot.
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| Elliot on his new tricycle |
There were more presents and cards for Elliot. My dear friend Jacky had sent a lovely one with his name on it. There was ours of course but also a magnificent one from Joanne, my Airbnbn friend who lives in Lancashire. She had gone all out and made a card using photos from my blog of his first year. I think Oli is going to frame it.
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| Joanne's card to Elliot |
Joanne had also sent a lovely fluffy toy: Spot the dog with a book too which I read to him in the afternoon and he loved. My friends are so kind. Olivia was overwhelmed by their thoughtfulness.
Everyone enjoyed the fish and chips. Finally it was the cake moment and we all sang Happy birthday to both the birthday boys. Elliot didn't really know what was happening. He wasn't interested in the cake either but I think he liked the candles.
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| The birthday boys |
We spent the afternoon chilling out on the kitchen patio and enjoying Elliot. The girls' friend, Elenita and her dog, Nana, were with us. When everyone left it felt very quiet. I spent the time reading outside with a jumper on. Eladio was threatening to cover the swimming pool which is generally the nail on the coffin of summer so I told him to wait a while. We were not hungry at dinner after all the birthday food so just had a token something before going up to watch the news and more of Borgen which we have nearly finished.
Today is Sunday. My guests in Santa Pola and my guest here who I only met once are leaving. My new guests will be arriving at El Cueto and I really hope they like it and don't have any issues. Next week we have no guests booked for this house although that can change.
I am now at the end of the tales of this week, I shall sign off, publish this post and print a copy for my dear father.
Cheers friends and readers, until next Sunday,
Masha
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