Bedrock

And a very nice way to end the day – with one exception…

I spent the morning doing a spot of Raspberry Pi programming as well as getting some goodies in the post from China – but yesterday was just about the warmest day we’ve had so far, topping 30c so off we went to the lake for a dip. The road to this section of the lake is a mess, full of potholes – really, it’s just a service road and it is very long – hence – once again we had the whole place to ourselves – wonderful. We took our new glorified inner tubes to float in and had a marvellous time. The house on the right is just one we spotted out in the wilds while travelling. Brand spanking new by the look of it with silver trim on the roof – an absolute masterpiece.

We popped into Lidl for shopping and as I was happily chewing on a very soft cheese pastry – a rear lower filling just dropped off – I could have sworn it was something in the food – but no – so that’s a job for Monday – fortunately the local dentist apparently speaks English!

In the evening we popped over to a friend’s house for a BBQ and had a great time. Maureen has done something to her foot and it is painful so we didn’t stay too late.

Today (Sunday) I’ve been working on updating some control software on a Raspberry Pi3 as well as printing out my proxy forms for the EU elections – and this evening – a quiet Pizza somewhere.

Castrol is a small town somewhat west of Galera – but due to available roads the route is a little convoluted. Non-the-less it only takes maybe 40-45 minutes to get there and it is worth the trip.

At its peak the town is around 3,00ft about sea level with a population of maybe 2,500. The river Castrol canyon is amazing with a path running along a wooden footbridge over the Rio Castril, including a suspension bridge and a tunnel.

And so today, with temperatures in the upper twenties, six of us headed off to Castril and surrounding areas, stopping in a parking area just outside of town and doing the footbridge walk.

Along the way we came across yet another friendly bunch of schoolkids who were dying to say things in English. 

The walk took up much of the morning and then we headed off in search of lunch, unsuccessfully at first but eventually ended up at Asador Romero and had a very pleasant 3-course + drinks at 10 Euros a head . Good value.

Amazing how a simple walk and lunch can take up almost the entire day! But what a day!

Here then are a few photos of the trip – the rest are on the May 2016 album in Flickr. It is getting warmer now and today we hit over 30c. At this rate, a day lazing around in San Clemente surely cannot be far off.

Last night I did a bit of cementing – incarcerating countless thousands of ants at the same time. Of course that is just setting me up for a painting task in a couple of days. Today for the first time we took off to one of the pools – the public pool in Orce. Fed by constant spring-water, the pool is bollock-freezing cold no matter what time of the year. The fields on the other hand are now dry as a bone but still full of colour.

And so it was, armed with towels we headed to the fish-infested waters of Orce – and my, have they grown. There were no more than a dozen or so people there today including some Germans who were keen to pass the time with conversation. 

This was our first dip and to be fair the water really was not that cold. With outside temperatures peaking at 26c the cool-off was very welcome.

Getting ready to go to a small gathering tonight – no doubt featuring alcohol and we have a couple of new toys to take to the lake tomorrow! I have to say I am quite looking forward to giving these a try-out – each complete with two drink-holders, no less. Or one drink and a bottle of sun-oil perhaps.

This afternoon I’ve been doing a little more work on text-to-speech for my little controllers – had some success with that – and now looking for a spare battery for the camera – not like the old days when camera batteries lasted for months, it pays to have a spare.

The area is looking great now with poppies springing up all over the place. Today I felt sorry for hay fever types as the air was full of spores. Summer is definitely here – I can feel a tour of the coast coming on soon.

The weather has definitely improved here in Galera over the last couple of days – a shame it chose to wait until friends and neighbours had left. Yesterday there was  hardly a cloud in the sky and and temperature peaked at 27c – we went to Lake Negratin to watch the sun go down.

Click on any of these pics for larger versions.

This week we’ve spent some time down at the market in Galera,  I’ve written review to write for Seeed Studios for their new processor board and I’m awaiting some more cutting-edge technology arriving soon

Yesterday  Maureen had some paperwork to do and after seeing some visitors we went for a short trip to the lake before returning to the Music Bar and La Posa to finish the night with company.

I’ve ordered the Samsung Gear 2 Classic watch as I’m in love with some of the watch faces at Mr Time. The TAG watchface in particular has my attention.  Meanwhile we’ve been testing Dave’s Roku 1 – very impressive but a little more speed would be good so I’m busy comparing Roku 2 and 3 to decide which one to go for.

Today we’ve done a spot of shopping and car washing. Next stop a pool somewhere.

Yesterday was a good day, despite our friends Aidan and Helen having now gone back to the UK.  Sunday night I took another half-decent moon pic as you can see on the right (click any of these and other images on the blog to see larger versions).

Monday, despite being a holiday here and despite constant predictions I was wasting my time, once again the couriers delivered gadgetry to the door, on time – this one was a microprocessor board I’m writing a review on this week and as they’re launching the product this coming Friday, that was good timing.

The rest of the morning was spent working on new and significant Raspberry Pi updates and blogging some of the more complex programming aspects of the unit – as well as staring at intermittent clouds hoping they’d disappear in time for our BBQ and indeed they did – by mid-day things were warming up and by the time we got the BBQ going out in the beautiful countryside near Maria, the sunshine was out and eight of us (and 3 dogs) had a great time in an area kitted out for BBQs with dedicated stone BBQ units way out in the wilds.

A huge zoo-full of school-kids turned up and of course being from the UK I was expecting someone to cause  trouble – instead – they were really good – they wanted to speak English, take photos and learn about us – quite refreshing.

Ultimately I needed a break from the constant chatter of kids and took the opportunity to go walkabouts for a while, followed most of the way by Debbie and John’s very friendly (and quiet) dogs – and got some great shots of the surrounding area.

Around this area you can only have BBQs until sometime in June from which point they are rightfully banned as it gets very dry and hot so we’re taking advantage of the opportunity while we can. No doubt it won’t be the last.

We all had a great time and four of us ended the evening watching “The Hateful Eight” which despite having blood and guts as the central theme as with all of his movies, turned out to be yet another Tarrantino work of art and a great laugh.

This morning (Tuesday) my long awaited displays turned up together with some other new bits and pieces the Chinese want me to take a look at – more tech blogging this morning then possibly a grocery shop. Time for a quiet spell before the heat starts in earnest later this week – wonderful.

After a successful morning which saw Aidan and I working together by Skype as he helped me sort out thermostat issues (successfully up to now) at Hollyberry Cottage (Skype and decent broadband are a wonderful combination), a bunch of us headed off to Restaurante El Maño II at the far end of Huescar for lunch which ended up filling the otherwise rather miserable (weather-wise) afternoon  – and I have to say, the service and the food were both excellent.

It’s going to be a couple of days or so before we see the end to this unusually damp weather (hopefully by the time Aidan and Helen get here) and so chatting with friends all afternoon made a great alternative to fretting about lack of sun. We had a nice time. Thanks to all for making it that way.

Tonight I’ve been debugging some silly issues with lighting here in the cave – again successfully (one of my late night experiments I’d forgotten all about and left running). That and the first of several additions to my new camera turned up – a screen protector for the display. I’m hoping to continue my current success record at actually getting post delivered to the house! About the only thing that hasn’t gone well, I left my charger out yesterday in the short-lived sun which as it happens was quickly followed by a downpour – I’m not sure the LCD is ever going to recover.

Working on the hallway water feature to make it all WIFI controlled – this needs a little more care than usual given the fact that it uses water!! 

Finishing off the night with a nice glass of Spanish wine and some blogging. I could see an early night tonight as we have a busy day tomorrow.Hopefully will pick up some material to restore the Pergola to showroom shine after the winter winds have taken their toll.