What's happening in the old fool's village?

[VictoriaTwead]

Quote:
Thank you, Mendygnl!!!!!!

May I quote that comment on my website, please? I'm just beginning to keep all the nice comments I get and post them on my Readers' Comments page.

Victoria

 

[VictoriaTwead]

Hey, Sjisty! How are you, and how's things in Brooksville?

Yep, I've started work on the sequel now. I need a good title... and Two Old Fools, Part 2 isn't bad!

Victoria

 

[Sjisty]

It's cold here - I think I'll come stay with you!

 

[mendygnl]

Yes, you may quote me. I enjoy your writing, and will look forward to Part II. Mendygnl

 

[Lunachick]

Love your post! I hope you post more often! Or maybe I'm missing them??? Anyway............

 

[VictoriaTwead]

Mendygnl: Thank you, you'll find it here.


Lunachick: Thank you!

Victoria

 

[mamagardener]

my in-laws are of Spanish descent by way of Ecuador. We also eat grapes at midnight on New Year's, but we just eat them at our own pace. Each grape is supposed to signify a month. If you do this it's supposed to mean a good year.
By the way, I love your posts.

 

[VictoriaTwead]

Hello Mamagardener,

I didn't know that each grape is supposed to signify a month, thank you for that! And I didn't know they follow the same custom in Ecuador. We had some Ecuadorian builders working on our house here in Spain and they were such characters that I wrote about them in my book. Also, I included a fabulous Ecuadorian recipe, Beef in Fruit Sauce. Does your family ever cook that?

Victoria

 

[mamagardener]

I have never had beef in fruit sauce, I will have to ask my mother in law about that. My mother in law is a really healthy cook, so they eat a lot of vegatables and fruit in her house. One thing I do love is serviche? spelling.

 

[VictoriaTwead]

Mamagardener: Serviche? I've never heard of that. What is it?

Victoria


Sjisty: The weather has gone mad in Spain, I'm not sure you'd like it here at the moment!

Forgive me for talking about the weather, but I’m British so should be excused. We were lucky with the weather for New Year’s Eve but the heavens hadn’t been kind to us in December or the first part of January. A few days before Christmas - it started. Rain. Not just rain, but torrents, bucketing out of the sky, hour after hour, day after day. We've never seen rain like it in our five years in the village; it just poured...

Now, I know that the UK has really suffered recently from heavy snow, but that is no consolation for the Spanish skies opening and pouring on us for such a long time. Spanish TV showed the floods that were ruining people’s homes, the impassible roads, the mudslides.

Around our village, waterfalls that had never existed before began to spurt enthusiastically out of the mountains. Water coursed down the roads and dry streams became lively rivers. Our poor chickens waded around in thick mud, although it didn’t seem to bother them. The sky turned black, the sun trying hard to penetrate but not succeeding.

A brand new river coursed through the village where there's only ever been a dry gully before. I took the photo below standing on the little bridge leading into the village. Notice the trees midstream.

Then we made an important discovery. Our roof leaks. Water ran down our dining room wall. Joe and I rescued the bookcase then rushed around collecting buckets, pots and pans to catch the water. This continued for days. When Paco, our next door neighbour came up for the weekend, we showed him. Paco shrugged. “All Spanish roofs leak,” he said, as though that was common knowledge. Do they? We didn’t know that. So we carried on mopping and emptying our saucepans. It’s strange how you become accustomed to things; after a few days the ‘drip...drip’ became just a background sound. In fact the drips were often quite musical...

When we finally emerged from our house to go shopping, we very nearly didn’t make it. The only road into the village has never been good, but the constant rain made it much worse. Massive boulders broke away from the rock face and rolled down, blocking the road. Luckily, someone had pushed them aside into a pile (Perhaps Geronimo with Uncle Felix and his mule?) leaving just enough room for a car to pass. A little nerve-racking as there is a sheer drop on the other side. But we made it safely down the mountain to the shops to get our groceries.

Now the rain has stopped and things are drying out. Funny how quickly you forget bad weather as soon as the sun shines again!

Victoria