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This is Peter and Maureen Scargill's Spanish website. We live in Galera in Andalusia (for clarity, that is the English spelling - Mid-Spain they spell it Andalucia and pronounce it "And-a-loo-thee-a").

We've had a home in Spain for more than 14 years and it is now our permanent base though we retain a small home in the UK.

Find out more about this by reading through the blog entries, menu-accessible pages and archives if you're interested! Welcome to Peter and Maureen's Spanish website.

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Archive

Archive for the ‘Galera’ Category

Autumn in Galera

It is very quiet here right now, all the holiday makers have long since gone, the village is much quieter except on market day and yet the weather is still holding out, cool in the mornings up but up to 30c late afternoon and still warm enough to sit outside at the pub.

Galera

I’ve just been sitting here putting together a series of photos to take down to the local council office to try to get them to come fix our road. As is the case with most things – if you want something doing…  I’d do the repairs myself but in a couple of cases the damage is extensive including a manhole cover on our roundabout.

The lakes have been well down this year, hoping for some snow over the winter to replenish them – but they’re still a sight to behold and we’ve spent a fair bit of time enjoying the scenery.

Negratin

We’ll soon be spending some time in the UK (as little as possible) and we’re going to miss the area.

Huescar In recent months due to changes of people in the area, it has been incredibly peaceful (funny old thing – we have neighbours the likes of which you could not ask for better – and at the same time we had in the past for a time some of the worst people you could possibly come across – but that’s all history and things are definitely on the up and up)– the one remaining “odd” couple are at least quiet when daft barrierthey’re here, which is a blessing, though they did leave the most laughable attempt at a barrier in front of their property when they left after not saying a word. They put a chain in front of their Pergola for a time to tell everyone to stay away – but the Pergola fell down. Oh well, that’s for others to worry about – I should imagine the winds will sort that out over the winter.

Meanwhile the cars have been in for a valet at the local garage – good job too and we’ve generally had a marvellous summer – probably the best yet and we’ve made lots of friends.

I can’t believe how quickly the hot months have gone by, we came here in April and yet it seems like only a short time ago  A great time of year here in Galera as the trees start to change colour quite spectacularly – not wet and miserable like most of the UK – still a little summery.  I’m taking the opportunity to monitor my solar setup to see how it will cope with the sun at a lower angle. It’s all being recorded so I can view at my leisure.

Rural Life

Tuta De La TapaAfter our big trip to Toledo, the last week has been relatively quiet. From my old life as IT Director of the FSB I kept a few friends and two of them have been over here for a visit.

Norman and Alexis have been with us for a few days and return to the UK tomorrow. Norman was the Sponsorship chairman of the FSB and we’ve known each other for many years.

With such a short trip, we’ve done little else but visit the pool in Orce and catch up.  Oh and of course participate in the Ruta De La Tapa.

Norman is into Roman history so we’re going to take a look at some ruins on the way to the airport . 

A Day at Cullar Pool

Spent much of the day yesterday in the pool at Cullar which is 22km away from us. With Maureen at aqua-aerobics in the morning, I headed off with our neighbours to the pool and eventually to meet up with Maureen and another couple of friends.

Unlike the pool at Orce, it is not free to use the Cullar facilities – but near enough at under three Euros for the day. The place is excellently maintained – with 2 pools and restaurant facilities. Plenty of shade around the pools and the grass is in unbelievably good condition (it is real, I checked).

Cullar pool

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Meanwhile in Galera

John and Peter

Stop press: The observant reader may notice that the blog is now forcing https: as against http: in the address bar. I’m doing this with all my sites as this simply means the site is more secure and there is no chance of any personal info spilling out. This is good for readers and good for the blog as Google are starting to “disadvantage” site that don’t do this. With luck in your address bar you’ll see a nice green lock.  Other than that it makes no difference to you whatsoever….

Right now it is Wednesday evening. Today we’ve been at the garage in Huescar getting the brakes fixed on the car after the last “improvement” made them soft as sponge. Fortunately they sorted it without blinking an eye or charging extra…

Spent part of the morning in Galera at the market – which has a markedly improved atmosphere these days and then spent the afternoon working on these blog changes and sorting today’s rather large postbag full of Chinese gadgets. Yesterday I spent the day slowly recovering from a somewhat late evening (early morning) on Monday in which we had friends over – and for the first time in too long – all of our current neighbours for drinks and nibbles. Sadly we could not invite everyone we know – any more and they’d be hanging over the wall but we’ll fix that in time. The area is wonderfully quiet now and we all spent Monday evening simply relaxing and solving the world’s problems – as you do while enjoying fine Spanish wine.

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Interesting Times

Pizza Cave

This has been an event-filled week or so…. Friday night (1st June) we went with friends to the “Pizza Cave” in Huescar and on that Saturday, Maureen and I achieved several goals: the upstairs bedroom is now back in working order with a new ceiling, the hot tub is back in action though currently the heater is disconnected as it was tripping the 30ma mains breaker.

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The Monday Experiment

Today’s experiment involves learning how much heat comes from a little plastic panel!

Panel

Now of course this will be old hat to those who have done this before but apart from heating up the hosepipe in the sun this is as near as we’ve gotten to heating the hot tub. What you see above is a plastic sheet with tubes in it, a small 12v pump, currently running off a battery but will be run off the sun (that side is already sorted  – I have plenty of spare power)  – and a bucket full of water.

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