March has been the month of season change for sure! We started off by having a few days away in the camper and we went up to Toledo, 4 hours from home. It was ccccold! Bright and sunny most of the time but we needed to wrap up for our walks.
We really enjoyed the city which was a very big change from our rural surroundings at home. Built on a hilltop, the old town is accessed by a series of seven outdoor escalators. You get to the top and think, “Phew, glad I didn’t have to climb that hill,” only to find there is yet more climbing to come. But we did it on two consecutive days as there was too much to take in in one trip. The dogs stayed in the camper so we got in a lot of steps on those days as they also needed before and after walks.
The following set of photos are from our two trips up to the old town, too many to individually caption but I have done a few!
(I thought the foundry making them had a nipple fixation)
To break up the photofest a little, there are a few more photos from this trip at the end of the blog.
Shortly after we got home from Toledo, our friends Jill and Graham Budd arrived for the weekend in their motorhome to “inspect” a dog who needed a new home. We went with them to see Burt who then came back to ours for a trial overnight. It all went really well and they decided Burt was a keeper. Poco took to him as well and so it was a success all round. The only drawback was that Nigel started with toothache while they were here which rapidly developed into an abscess with immense pain so he and I ended up at an emergency walk in centre in Cartagena on the Saturday night leaving the washing up and the four dogs with Jill and Graham, to get antibiotics and pain killers. Thankfully these kicked in quite quickly and he was soon on the mend.
This was just few days before we were due to pick up our house sitter who was coming to look after the dogs while we had our trip to the UK. As if this wasn’t enough, we then got the very unwelcome news that our friend Philippa with whom we were going to stay in Cockermouth before going to Bolton, had yet again tested positive for Covid (3rd time). This meant we could not risk staying with her and the very real possibility of passing it on to our family. Kindly, other friends Mary and Martin came to the rescue with the offer of hospitality.
So, we picked up Steve our Australian house sitter in Cartagena on the Monday evening after Jill and Graham had left, spent Tuesday showing him the ropes and then jetted off to Manchester on Wednesday. The flight was delayed owing to weather conditions in Manchester but we eventually landed safely in sleet and proceeded to get the bus to the hire car village to collect our car. We set off in light snow towards Keighley where we were to stay for two nights with Mary and Martin. The next morning we woke to a winter wonderland. We managed to make it to the local pub, The Grouse, for a lunchtime meal and were then glad to get back to the cozy log fire at Wildfell. While we were there I got a facebook memory that said we were there on exactly the same day last year! A pleasant afternoon and evening with wine and gin flowing ensued but outside the snow started coming thick and fast and by the Friday morning when we were due to leave this was the view from the windows!
Kind neighbours cleared the track up to the road so Nigel and Martin set to with brushes and shovels to clear the car. Over breakfast we discussed the options for our route and decided not to risk going back the way we had come over the moors but to go via Keighley, which would be a longer more well used route and therefore less likely to be blocked. I quickly gathered up all the kittens I had given birth to over the last few days and left them in a box and off we went. We had made the right decision as the shorter road we used to get to Oakworth was closed when we got to the other end.
It was fine, as all the rational people around me had forecast and we arrived in Bolton to meet Andrew and the baby for a quick cuppa before he went on the school run. The children were having swimming lessons that evening so we left them to it and went to check in at our hotel, the Last Drop again, where we had our wedding reception 49 years ago. After a siesta, we went to our old local chippy and bought our tea along with some plastic cutlery and a screw top bottle of wine and then sneaked back into the hotel with the waft of vinegar behind us no doubt, to enjoy a proper Chae’s chippy tea!!
The following morning, rain was forecast so we met in Bolton town centre, went straight to Costa where the children stole the show as they are regulars and very popular with the staff. After a bite to eat and drink we walked through town and spent a couple of hours in the museum and aquarium which was a blast from the past and then went back to Drew and Alana’s for the afternoon and early evening. Much excitement ensued with the Spanish presents we had brought being distributed and little Wilbert (15 months) fighting sleep.
On Sunday, we met the family again at Dunham Massey National Trust park and gardens. It was heaving, the most crowded Drew and Alana have seen it. This was likely because it was the nicest day the North West had had for many weeks. We strolled around, Percy rounding up the many crocodiles he could see in the hedgerows, which took him a long time! After a snack and a rest in the cafe we strolled some more, then headed back to the cars and to a local pub where we had a very nice leisurely meal until it was time to part company. The family said their goodbyes and headed back to Bolton and we made the short journey to the airport hotel and returned the hire car.
There are no pictures of the children at their parents’ request.
All went smoothly for our return flight which was on time and we were met at Murcia Airport by our house sitter who stayed with us another night (and cooked for us) before making his way to Madrid the next day. We went away in winter and returned to summer……the increase in day time temperatures was remarkable, we’ve only had the pellet burner on briefly one evening since we got back.
A quick turnaround of bedding and towels ensued because on Friday we had more friends to stay for the weekend, Pamela and David, boating friends who spend their 90 days in Spain to enjoy the pleasant weather of the cooler months away from their boat in Southern France. We walked, we read, we pottered and we ate and drank and enjoyed each other’s company.
David is a keen cook and lent me the benefit of his experience while I salted some lemons from our tree which has produced many little ones over the winter. I’ve made two jars, one for us and one for Richard and Aoife.
I’m glad I have some home cured olives left for them too as they loved them on their last visit. They will be our next visitors in two week’s time. They will be on their second visit and are on a road trip and will be staying with us for about a week. Hoping for good weather while they are here, maybe they will be brave enough to attempt the pool, we have this week removed the winter cover and put the summer one on which acts as a thermal layer.
And here are a few more pics from our Toledo visit to round things off for this month…..
We’ve had fresh oranges every day from December to March, we have just finished the last of them and they have been wonderful. Several visitors have said they are the best oranges they have ever tasted. But now we just have to be satisfied with the heady and hypnotic scent of orange blossom which is just opening and already alive with bees and other pollinating insects, promising more to come next winter! We are looking forward to them already but will miss our morning breakfast juice.
That’s it for this time, more next month, byeeeee!!