More bike rides – we alternate direction each time, going either south/east to Taberno or north/west to Los Cerricos and beyond.  There’s a small village on the way to Oria that has some pretty blue flower pots all over an old stone wall.

About ten days ago there was a festival up at the Sanctuary – it actually started the evening before with dozens and dozens of people walking up the rambla beginning around 8 in the evening.

The procession continued the entire night – every time I woke up and looked out the window I could see individuals or small groups with flashlights moving along up to the Sanctuary.

The next morning we took our ride up to Los Cerricos and were astounded by the number of vehicles – hundreds of cars and dozens of buses, and even police directing the traffic and parking.

The village has a lot of cats – some of them strays that forage for food in the dumpsters, and others that belong to the bar.

The folks came to put on the winter pool cover but it didn’t quite fit so they took it away to trim it a bit.

That’s ok, though, as I’m able to get in a few more swims.

They’re starting to bring in the almond harvest – there are piles of them in the strangest places.

We went out for lunch on my birthday, intending to go to the bar in Los Cerricos but it was all closed up.  We then decided to go up to Chirivel, but…same thing!  On to Veliz Rubio where we had success at the steak house, and was it ever good.  The portions were so large that even Colin couldn’t finish his and when the waitress came to collect our plates she looked very concerned and asked if we didn’t like it.  We assured her that no – it was delicious and we would like to take the leftovers home – she was very pleased to hear that.

I must say that I’m not feeling my age!  The next day we met Carlos and Maria for lunch at the restaurant just south of us – it was another excellent meal and we were there for over four hours.  They are great to visit with and Carlos will be doing a lot of work on the house for us over the next few months.

We’re really looking forward to having all of the work completed – new pellet-burning stove, having my bath-tub installed, and a complete re-do of Colin’s bathroom, just to start.  

Lots of other things as well, both inside and outside, including screening of the sun/pool room.  Sitting out there is lovely, except for the flies and wasps so having it fully screened will be great.

Oh – Remco won the Vuelta – woo-woo!

Leaving on Thursday morning was kind of sad – I love the house and the area so much already, but have really missed travelling and seeing the races live.

We chose to take three days rather than just two to get up to Mansle, and stopped the first night at Horche, which is just south of Guadalajara.  It turned out to be a lovely hotel just outside the town and we spent a couple of hours on one of the outside terraces enjoying some refreshing beverages.

The drive up to Logrono the next day was much shorter and we passed through some spectacular scenery.

We’d been to Navarrete before, staying in the campground just south of the town.  This time we were in a hotel that used to be a seminary – it was also very nice.

Our friend Richard met us there around 6:00, delivering two cases of Rioja and some floor polish for Joyce and Tony back in France.  He also gifted us with some local chorizo that he says is very tasty, although quite spicy – we’ll have to eat it sparingly!

The last day of travel was somewhat longer, but not stressful.  In fact getting past Bordeaux was possibly the best ever – hardly even had to slow down, let alone the usual bumper-to-bumper crawl.

Getting to Mansle in late afternoon we had time to go down to the bar and were warmly received by Edith and Sylvain, as usual.

We’ve gone on a few more nice, slightly longer rides.  A couple of times to Taberno for coffee, also to Los Cerricos, again for coffee.  The little bar cat has had her kittens but we’re not sure how many – she looks like a baby herself but apparently this is her second litter.

Another ride was to Chirival, and it ended up taking much more time than expected as there was a diversion just before the town that sent us west.  We knew we were going a bit far out of our way when Colin hit a large, unexpected pot-hole and got a flat!

Even the smaller roads here are in so much better condition than almost all the roads in Italy that perhaps we weren’t being as careful as usual.  In any case we made our way to a nice cafe on the ‘main’ east-west road through the town and had a nice coffee.  Then Colin hopped on my bike and rode back to the house to pick up the car and return to retrieve me and his bike.  The wait wasn’t too bad – I had one of his phones so was able to read the news, etc, and also they had a very nice red wine.

A few days later we rode towards Albox and stopped for a coffee – we were halfway back when two things happened.  The first was seeing an old woman hand-washing her laundry in the water channel.  My first thought was ‘oh, she’s getting free water’ – then Colin mentioned that if we were downstream from her we could be brushing our teeth in water she’d used to wash her knickers in – yuck!

We were a few km further on when once again Colin had a flat – this time the front tire went.  Luckily we weren’t too far from Las Pocicas, where once again he rode my bike home while I sat and enjoyed another nice red wine.  I especially like it when it’s chilled, and it’s always served chilled in Spain.

We’ve been out for lunch a few times now – twice to the restaurant in Los Cerricos.  We’re usually one of the first tables to order food as they eat so late here.  The last time we went the place ended up being totally packed – I had a delicious pork loin dish with fries, with enough left over for at least one more meal at home.

We’ve been watching the Vuelta on tv rather than going to the north coast as we normally would.  They moved down to our area on the rest-day and young Remco is still in the overall lead.  He rode a blistering time-trial yesterday and we just hope he can hold on for another 10 or 11 stages.  There are others I would cheer for as well if he cracks in the mountains, though.

Finally we had some deliveries get to us – IKEA met us at the restaurant/gas station and we exchanged one of our light fixtures that had been missing a piece for another that was complete.  Then a couple of days later the bathtub finally arrived – the delivery company had it for 3 weeks and it finally took Carlos (our plumber) to speak with them for them to bother finding us.

Another thing that got completed was the metal gate being installed for the french doors – it was the only really vulnerable entrance to the house so now we feel a bit better about our security.  They also fixed a metal plate to the bottom of the new gate in the back wall so Henry can’t squeeze through any more – he seems a little confused that he can’t get out now.

I’ve still been swimming almost every day, although it got very stormy yesterday so I gave it a pass.  The wind overnight was fierce – it blew a couple of my shutters back and forth so bad I had to close them and I haven’t done that since we were here back in frigid May.  The storm was worse in other areas, though, as I read about hail the size of tennis balls.

The last few weeks have been a combination of busy and slothful.  Colin took a little trip to the town of Murcia one day and got a bunch of household things from Ikea.  One of the wall lamps we got was missing a piece and when I got hold of their customer service they told me they’d deliver a whole new one in a few days and exchange it for us.  Unfortunately the driver couldn’t find the house, even after we’d what’s apped him our location to his phone.

We’ve done a lot around the house – Colin has hacked a bunch of weed shrubs from along the drive, and the carpenter has done several things including installing new locks on all the outside doors and putting up the new light fixtures in the foyer and the sun-room.

We’ve also had the hunky furniture removed from the sun room and some nice patio furniture put in, as well as doing a thorough cleaning of the floor, table and chairs.  The dust from the storm back in March is still almost everywhere but we’re cleaning it up bit by bit.

We’ve gone on a few bike rides, mostly trying to find our way around on the back roads without getting lost.  It starts getting hot fairly early now so we need to get going at a decent time in the morning to try to beat the heat.

On one of my solo rides I passed a field that may have been the site of the fire some weeks ago – all recently burned black right up to the road.

Getting the pool filled wasn’t as quick or easy as we thought – we had to call the local co-op guy every day to get our allotment bit-by-bit but it was taking forever so in the end a different fellow with a tanker did the final filling in no time, although for more money.

Then we had to deal with the sludge that was still left.  A quick lesson from the carpenter, then another from a friend of his that takes care of pools and we were finally on our way!  I can’t believe how much I enjoy going out and just jumping right in – it’s so refreshing on these hot days.

The Tour de France came and went and we watched every stage on tv – a much more interesting and exciting race this year than any I can remember.  No more of one robotic team controlling everything, and lots of surprises.  In fact on one hard mountain stage two Canadians were on the podium – Hugo Houle in first and Michael Woods in third!

We’ve got an ongoing problem with wasps – there was one nest on the ledge of Colin’s dressing room window, and another under one of the roof-edge tiles of the sun room.  They like to dip onto the surface of the pool to collect water and we’ve been killing them like crazy with our fly-swatters.  One of them got revenge on me yesterday, however, when it stung me on the upper neck right behind my ear.

Going by my reaction the last time I was stung I dropped my watering can and ran into the house shouting for ice.  I lay on the sofa holding an ice cube to the spot and praying that wave after wave of throbbing pain would not hit me like they did last time.  I was very lucky and nothing much happened but some redness and swelling.

In addition to the wasps we’ve swatted we’ve scooped hundreds of dead ones out of the pool that have died from some other cause – perhaps they drowned trying to get water, or maybe someone snuck poison into one or both of the nests.

The fellow that’s doing the balustrade/railing for the stairs came the other day to see if they were going to fit properly and should be returning to install them tomorrow – that will be great as they’re a bit scary right now.

I added a strip of white tape to the edge of each step so you can at least see where the next step is on the descent.

Another water issue we have is the pump to the house.  There’s an 18-thousand litre tank at the bottom of the property that gets filled from a pipe by the co-op.  That gets pumped up to the smaller upper tank that holds 3 thousand litres, which then gets pumped to the house for showers, toilets and sinks.

An ongoing problem is that the second pump sometimes shuts off and we can’t get any running water, sometimes for hours.  One of the many great ‘pleasures’ of having an older house that’s partly ‘off-grid’.