The fine weather has continued throughout May with temperatures building up to the high 20s. The odd shower has been nothing, if not a nuisance (our rain in spring/summer seems to carry a lot of sand and this means after each brief downfall the pool and patios need to be cleaned), but they are good for the garden.
The garden and patios are now ready for summer; we ditched our old glass topped table and replaced it with the teak one from the naya, bought a new big umbrella and lounger covers. As an anniversary present to ourselves, we bought a new dining table and chairs for the naya (after days of trawling all the furniture shops in a 30km radius, several times)! I think (hope, pray) that we are finished spending for this year but I’m sure you will agree the overall was worth it.









I mentioned last month that I had been working on a project in the garden and I’m pleased to say that it is now completed. The area we designated as the “woodland” had a large carob tree which at times overhung the patio near the pool house and in high summer dropped lots of leaves. It was a strange tree in that it did not have a central trunk but rather several trunks spreading out over the whole area. I cleared all but two of the trunks and exposed the earth beneath then set about building a ruin, yes, a ruin! Using old rocks, I made a wall with apertures for windows (I managed to buy an old window from the antiques market). The finished work is supposed to look like part of an old ruined caseta.




I know I won’t win any prizes for construction but it does add a point of interest, if you have a vivid imagination!
After my unfortunate experience in buying a load of special geraniums from the UK only to find that the survival rate was zero, we bought a number of healthy geraniums from the local garden centre which have bedded in well and together with the rose-bed they give a pleasing effect.




At golf, I am trundling along and was pleased to win my match play round against the society captain winning 6 & 5 (I had one of those outstanding games which comes along all too infrequently). I sneakily chose to play him on my home course (which I knew he did not relish) and as they say “played out of my skin”.


With the fine weather we have had a couple of lunch sessions in the garden with friends. Our co-adventurers from indo-china, Bernard & Margaret together with Liz & Tony were here and, following a fine lunch, I then did my “King Alfred” and burnt the apple crumble!


That’s all for May,Hope you enjoy.

Ramblings in Retirement
April 2009
April has been a lovely month with the weather becoming hot and little rain. The air is filled with the smell of orange blossom and spring is truly here. Talking of oranges, the main crop has been picked and sent off to the packers for export but there are still many orange groves where the fruit has been left on the trees to drop and rot. This is because the price to pick isn’t worth it for many growers. I recently saw 20kg (44lbs) for sale at €6 and that is only about 12p per pound!!
Work in the garden has stepped up; more weeding, planting of geraniums and work on my special project (you will learn more of this in May when I hope to complete it). The rose bed in particular looks great this year with many aromatic blooms. Our Jasmine which is arched over the back wall has been profuse with flowers and I only wish you could smell the heady aroma which greets us each day we go out.











Penny has created a lovely little spot at the end of our pool patio, it’s what we call our “Rincon de Silencio” (quiet corner), see for yourself but no noise please.








On Easter Saturday penny went to the UK for a few days to see the grandchildren, staying with Steven, Gail, Millie and Daisy. She enjoyed every minute although unaccustomed to the noise of young active children!! She had bought the children a dress and cardigan and had insisted that they be identical. The picture below does not do justice to either the dresses or the kids but what can you do!






My good fortune at golf seems to be continuing and I manage to pick up a couple of prizes yet again this month.


I was invited to a memorial golf day in the UK (it’s in memory of a restaurant manager who died of leukaemia) and went there with my friend Paul who lives near Tarragona. The flight from Barcelona with Ryanair was only €59.95 return which was a very good deal however, on enquiring about taking my golf clubs the cost would have been €60 return for the clubs alone! We flew out from Reus to Stansted on the Wednesday and all the weather reports gave out that it would rain heavily on the golf day, Thursday. On landing in the UK we headed off to a shopping centre to buy some wet weather gear and some golf balls and managed to pick up a bargain. On the actual day it was a little drizzly early on however this soon cleared up to a beautiful sunny day, sod’s law! Unfortunately my game was very poor and although I had to play with borrowed clubs and golf glove it would not explain my miserable performance. My only success was to get “nearest the pin” on one of the holes. Nevertheless, it was great to meet many old friends from Scottish & Newcastle swap horror stories and generally have a good time.


This issue has been written rather later than usual as things have been a little hectic since returning from the UK and the first few days of May have been unusually busy but should make for some interesting reading when I get round to writing. I’ve put many more photos on the weblog so go there if you can.
Meanwhile take care,