Bedrock

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.

Comments are closed.