Last time we had just had another little break in the motorhome. we came home earlier than expected because Ditto was in discomfort and needed to see our vet but soon he was moving more easily and so we went off again for another short trip.

But first, let me show you the flowers on that very tall spiky agave plant I wrote about last time. The flowers hadn’t opened, it was just carrying on growing like something out of Jack and the beanstalk. But eventually the flowers started to open from the bottom upwards. From a distance they were nothing to write home about but close up……very intricate and also very attractive to wasps!

For our next trip before the weather got much colder, we headed over the Sierra Espuna, our local Murcian mountain range, on a scenic route towards Andalucia and spent a few days exploring places we hadn’t been to before.

One of these was an old bronze age settlement, Yacimiento Arqueológico de La Almoloya. Only while writing this blog, several weeks after we were there did I find this interesting BBC you tube clip about it. While we were there it was much too windy for our drone but here you get to see a different perspective.

Google maps told us it was a 10 minute walk from the car park to the site, mostly flat….oh no it wasn’t. Took us at least half an hour and at the end it was very steep.
Nigel on his way down the steep section, I came down backwards and we sent the dogs ahead off lead.
We had the car park to ourselves that night……

Next morning we headed over the “county” border into Andalucia. We had seen two interesting looking towns on the hillside from the motorway on our way to and from Granada/Seville/Portugal and had both said, “One day we must stop and explore here.” So we made a special trip and ended up at Velez Blanco to explore the town and the castle.

Castillo Velez Blanco courtesy of Nigel’s drone. Our motorhome is in the dark shadow almost centre at the bottom of the picture.
As we entered the imposing gateway, a flock of about 50 griffon vultures flew overhead on their way to find breakfast.
Looking towards the hill where the griffons came from, we suppose. This terrace was as high as we were allowed to go in this castle, the ramparts were not accessible to the public.
The town of Velez Blanco, I had a walk down the previous afternoon when we arrived, in a vain attempt to buy a stamp for a postcard. It was a long way down and up again.
Trying out the panoramic feature of my camera phone.

The next few weeks came and went in a bit of a blur, including getting our driving licences renewed and shopping for little Christmas treats. Our elder son and his lovely partner came for a few days before Christmas and we were pleased that the slippers I bought for them to insulate them from our cold hard floors were a great success.

Slippers from Ale Hop, cows for Aoife and dogs for Ric.
I had no idea they did this until they put them on! Luckily they survived Ditto’s curiosity.

We had a lovely few days with them, we briefly explored Murcia City one day and were able to go into the Cathedral for the first time, we saw many musical groups around the city including this group of ladies playing castanets to pre recorded music.

Some of the groups included children and young teenagers who were seemingly just playing through enjoyment and sharing their talent. It reminded me very much of National music day in France (Fete de la Musique) which is held on 21st June annually. (But colder) We had a table booked for lunch and outside the restaurant was a brass band playing themes from Disney movies. They were bizarrely dressed in Halloween type costumes and make up….who knows why….presumably they did.

After our meal it was raining so we headed back to the car and home. That evening we still weren’t hungry so we just snacked and had a look at some old home movies. Memory lane time……

The projector is older than the projectionist! Richard was fascinated to see how it worked and was very impressed with his grandad’s filming skills as he watched footage of their family car trip to Norway in 1963.
It was “only” 9 years before Nigel and I met!

Monday was clear and dry so we all headed to the beach at Bolnuevo, first time the dogs had been to the beach for a while so they were very excited. We expected it to be busier but as you can see we had it to ourselves.

Back to the Oasis beach bar after for Coffee Asiatico and Carrot cake before heading home to a relaxing evening and Aperol Spritzes with our evening meal.

Last Tuesday was their final day, they were flying early Christmas Eve to Cork from Alicante to spend a few days with Aoife’s mum, so we took them to their airport hotel in the evening and as usual it was sad to say au revoir but we and their slippers eagerly await their next visit. None of our family are fans of social media and prefer their faces not to be shown, so out of respect for their wishes that is why there are no photos of all of us together.

Christmas day here was a washout, it rained hard all day but we had a lovely video call in the afternoon with Andrew, Alana and the three grandchildren.

It’s certainly been the coldest and wettest winter since we have been living here, it’s usually only “wrap up in layers weather” later in January and February but this year the pellet burner is earning its keep!

It only remains for us to wish all our family and friends a very

Happy and healthy New Year

Or as they say in these parts……

Feliz año nuevo