roses and buttercups

the house is painted, the outside, well nearly all, the bit with the swimming pool pump in it isnt painted but he said he will finish it after easter. it looks great especially with the black window blinds,almost a new house.

we havent done much this weekend, apart from going to a funeral Saturday, the father of the mayor and the father in law of the lady that helps clean the house, we felt we ought to go, t6he whole village turned out. afterwards after we had eaten a bit we went for a walk, not a long one as Moira was wearing posh boots but we did manage to do a bit of asparagus hunting. that night we went to the Cafe colon Mark and Wendy turned up a wee bit later as they had eaten at home, Jaz and Emilly the owners of the restaurant want to sell as its costing them money, mainly because they only open in the evenings and are too expensive for your averidge Catalan.

Today we went to Jonquera to look for pots but came back with a Geum for the garden, and then Moira popped into the bar to get a cup of milk.

the tobacco has germinated

the weekend was Moiras birthday weekend, and Pepes, Saturday we went to chase up the sunbeds, they where going to arrive in May, they had originally said March, we decided to wait and not ask for our money back when the mans boss that was dealing with us, told us there was 4 of the others , the same but with wood on the arm rest, bit more expensive but we could have them for the same price as the others, so we got the more expensive sun beds for the price of the others, that was the price in the sale which meant we got 4 for the price of 3. that night we watched “Bruno”. what a film that was.

Sunday Moiras birthday we went to Llafranc with everybody and walked up until Tamariu, it would have taken 2 hours 30 but we had a picnic in the middle, half the woods are destroyed after the great snow of 2010. that night we went to a restaurant in Emporia brava, called Girasol (sunflower) a good sign as far as i was concerned and they did make an effort with the veggie food we had Tempeh which i havent had for ages, bit expensive though, apparently the meat was very good, very well cooked, i was driving.

Carlos has started to paint the house he was to start yesterday but it rained all day, i worked, Jesus has given up telling me not too.

just went to Roses on the way i picked up some seed potatoes that Ian had brought back from England, ive got far to much. then went on to Roses where i bought Moiras present, card and a card for Pepe which is in Catalan and im not sure i understand the joke on it.

Sunday we went skying, Moira and i went up with Jesus and Merce, Pepe and Cerrie went up on there own as they were going to hire snow shoes and not sky and they needed to stop in a hire shop on the way, as it seems the ski resort doesnt hire out snow shoes for some reason, there was quite a lot of snow, and very sunny, a perfect day, we stopped for breakfast on the way and then on the way back had dinner in a bar/ restaurant owned buy a friend of Pepe, Mark and Wendy where in the place waiting for us. i had a salad for starters which was really nice, i would recommend it, then a plate full of Artichokes cooked in the oven with an almond sauce for dipping, it was delicious so much so that i couldnt even face the chocolate cake for afters. Jesus was a wee bit tipsy on the way back which was entertaining.

this time last week everything was covered in snow, its hard to believe as i was working in a t shirt today.

it snowed and it snowed and it snowed, so much that it broke electricity pylons all along the costa brava with the weight of snow on the cables, which meant we didnt have electricity for 2 nights and most of a day, some villages still dont have electricity. it was quite exciting, we went to the bar the first night and Pepe had put out candles ,we learnt the word for cosy in Spanish, then went home to cold sunday night left overs, the next night we went to the bar as Pepe had got a generator going, thank god for our fire place.

weve lost a few branches from the cedar and from the fruit tree in the corner but thats about it, and i helped our neighbour straighten his cyprus tree. and its sunny again although we still have a bit of snow, Moira has just made snowmen and ive sowed tomato and chilli seeds, and weve bought a huge chunk of parmesan when we where in Figueres this morning.

its snowing in the village, i have a white van,i am white van man, ive been manically sawing up the old doors that the carpenter took out for the fire.

i forgot to mention the wedding in the village we went to on Saturday, the women where wearing summerish frocks, and now the lawn is white.

needless to say im not working today.

its got cold again, we had a night last week where we didnt feel the need to put the fire on, but its on tonight. ive started reading Alice in wonderland again, how on earth can they make a film out of it, it will be really interesting to see how Alices thought process comes across.

Last night we went to El Rancho a restaurant in Santa Margarita, with Mark and Wendy and Diane who is also a veggie, she had eatern there before so new what she wanted, it really is a meat restaurant and Moiras lamb chops apparently were really nice, my escalabada and chips was a pretty good escalabada and chips like the eacalabada and chips in Can Batlle. we went for a walk along the coast up from roses today then back to Roses amongst the holiday homes up on the hill, the views are spectacular, the houses arent to special though.

ive bought a whistyria, a white whistyria, with the last of Malcoms money, im looking forward to pruning it how i want to prune it.

we went to the supermarket Friday night Moira realised that it was the first time she had left the village for over a week.

bit of a hectic weekend. Friday night we went to the Cafe Colon, we was going to go to a restaurant called El Rancho in Santa Margarita with Mark and Wendy but they all decided as the Cafe Colon was going to be open for the first time this year it was where we would be going, so it was Adams salad for me. a fun evening, i didnt drink to much as i had to get up for 7.30 in the morning to go with Jesus to a garden centre 40 mins. down the road to buy plants for clients and a tree for us with some of Malcoms money a Schino molli i bought, its lovely, also called fake pepper tree, or peruvian pepper tree, something like that, had breakfast with Jesus, Moira was working when i got home so i sorted out the pump for the well which was working fine but the pressure control valvue had broken its still within garantee i hope.

that night it was carnival in the village, Moira put on loads of punky makeup and i put on a wig a colourful t-shirt and took my maracus along with us, that finished at 3 in the morning what with the party/ disco afterwards, actually we finished at 3, the party didnt.

Sunday was Rancho, the one day of the year when i end up eating meaty, ricey, beany stew, i take out the meat obviously, but what can you do its a fiesta and the whole village was there, even our carpenter, who did the same as me, as he is veggie as well, we listened to a girl sing, who had had her lips plumped up, for a while then went home to a comfy sofa and the fire.

Jesus and i chopped pruned 3 eucalyptus trees today so i now have more wood for the fire next year.