Bedrock

Archive for the ‘General’ Category

It’s just that time of the year – absolutely nothing happening. In the UK it’s freezing cold, in Galera.. well, it’s not exactly swimming weather.

I’ve been sitting here putting a short video together for our holiday rental cottage http://www.hollyberry-cottage.co.uk

Here it is.. the new wall in front of Bedrock– now that’s a little more like it. I have to wait a couple of days for the plaster to harden properly before finishing off the paintwork but from this distance you can’t tell any discolouration. How we get just a little bit of privacy without losing our view of the mountains etc… Sometime next week we’ll get a couple of lights for the posts and a gate.  If only we could get the builder or the council to get their finger out and maintain our road – life would be perfect.

Yes, the little pokey green car is my rental car. We’re still wrestling with the idea of bringing the Merc over – problem is – it’s too big!

Meanwhile our new friendly donkey is still working on the same patch of grass… I’m going to take him down a bucket of water as the poor thing looks parched…

It’s a lovely day today, the mist I referred to earlier is hanging around as you can see in the photo. It’s absolute magic. I went off to Huescar to get some shopping only to find that the place was closed down – something called the “Spongebob Squarepants Fantasy Show” (at least that’s what it looked like and there was a sponge on the advert and the word BOB) is on over the weekend so the entire place apart from a cafe on the square – was closed! I popped in for Cafe Con Leche and some Churos and on the way back noticed the mist. Well, I just had to get out and take some pics.

Now at 11.45am it’s hard to believe it’s nearly winter, the only thing that gives it away is the spectacular colouring on the trees.

I’m hiding out of the way now as Tony the builder is sending clouds of concrete dust up in the air… with luck I’ll finally get to take a decent pic of the new wall shortly as he’s finishing the rendering. That and a spot of white paint…. and job’s a good’n.

I’m just hoping this wonderful weather is going to keep up for Maureen’s week here. According to the weather forecast it might drop a degree, but the sun is planning on staying put. Magic.

Now to try the processed milk in my coffee… I’m not looking forward to this…

Christ that’s cold! I took one step out of the door – grabbed the camera, took a pic and came straight back in. It may well be a fine day ahead but right now at 8.45am it is REALLY cold! Very nice however watching the sun come up…. it’s not that obvious in the photo but there is a very thick mist in the valley surrounding the village. Very “Outer Limits”.

Lovely. Full moon, it’s 9pm and around 13.5c outside which isn’t stunning but it’s not freezing either… got a nice fire inside (22c) and the worst broadband connection possible! I screwed up TomTom on the iPhone and the only way to reload it is via the PC – which says it’ll be done in another 10 hours!!!!

As you can see on the right, I’ve now got 2 sets of the colour-changer solar lights – what a bargain (B&Q) and they work as well. Everything you see there is solar – sky was pitch black but the picture was a 6-second exposure. Tomorrow Tony the builder turns up to fix the gateposts and I’ll put a final coat of paint to cover up my wires.  I spent the afternoon working on the WIFI – I promised neighbours I’d try to come up with an arrangement that lets them use the connection when I’m not here for a contribution to my monthly bill (which I pay whether I’m here or not) and I’ve now got an extended external aerial and teatime I tested it – it pretty much covers the entire area, outdoors at least, I doubt it’ll penetrate cave walls. That meant fitting a second router internally but I had one lying around and now that’s all fitted up properly and tested.

I notice this fellow (left) appeared in the grassy area just in front of our place – he tethered – I’m guessing the farmer put him there to eat the growth – thankfully he’s not quite close enough to smell!

In the process of doing my wiring I ended up face to face with the horror you see below and right – something of an irradiated cricket – except I’ve never seen a cricket even REMOTELY that size, this fellow was near enough 6 inches long! I say was because he’s now languishing behind the woodpile with a mouthful of wasp killer. Hopefully he’ll have told his pals to keep away before going to meet his maker. Nearly gave me a heart-attack!

So not a bad day’s work altogether, finished off with a nice chat with my pal Jonathan and Maureen – though in both cases the quality was crap thanks to the TomTom download. I need to get shopping tomorrow and finish the vacuuming so I’m ready to to my rounds on Saturday which include a trip around Puebla De Don Fadrique for Kodak moments, shopping along the coast and finally a trip to the airport to pick up Maureen – that sure was a quick week… but then I learned how to do some serious programming in PHP (a language for the non-technical reader) and I’m feeling quite de-stressed which has to be a good thing. Hopefully Maureen  and I can find a suitable gate and post-lights next week and that’ll look really nice.

Well, I could get used to this… with the blinds closed here in the cave I managed to sleep in until at least 9am this morning – which is a rarity for me…  and thanks to turning off the email I didn’t have to worry about keeping up! Quite liberating. There are quite a few beetles about… and by that I mean slow-moving rather large black armoured types. They make a great crunching noise.

I have to say it was COLD first thing – 4C outside but that quickly changed as the sun came up – clear blue skies and by lunchtime it was 18c – QUITE warm enough to sit outside and relax in a t-shirt.

As planned I spent some time reading my PHP manual (computer programming language – I’m determined to master it this time in peace and quiet) and then started off downloading a bunch of TED videos to watch in the absence of decent TV (no Sky card until my wife Maureen comes over next week).  I watched a great TED video about our false ideas about the “third world” – some of which now has lower birth-rate than the west and lower child mortality. China’s progression in the past 30 years has been nothing short of stunning – though I still wouldn’t want to live there.

I sat with my sandwich at lunchtime looking down at the valley and noticing the utter lack of sound or movement – no-one here but me – though I understand that’s not going to last.

I spent part of the afternoon wiring up the solar lighting outside – new sets of colour-changing lights with separate solar cell which are miles better than the stand-alone units who’s solar cells point up (as if the sun is EVER directly overhead unless you’re in a hot desert).

Tonight I went off to Huescar to get some supplies, but not before taking a few HDR pics as the sun went down – this new technique (well, new for me) really does get across the imagery that normal cameras somehow miss. I note the road from Galera to Huescar has been resurfaced – shame they couldn’t have put a little bit of that money into fixing our dirt track road!! 

Now I’m back, log fire is on, it’s warm as toast in here and the solar lighting outside makes the place look like something out of Disney. Thanks to the miracle of Skype I can video-chat to folk all over without cost – which makes all the difference when you’re on your own! The only sad news is that my colleague Steve has apparently had a fall over the weekend and is in hospital back in the UK – if you’re reading this – best wishes.