A bit up and down

It seems to me that the weather and the landscape here have a lot in common. They both go 'up and down a bit'! When we drive along the road from El Calón to Villaricos, we have a glorious view of the coast on our left, and on our right there are layer upon layer of these little round hills (or mountains, depending on how you see them). Ben said they are like what we used to draw for mountains in primary school and I see what he means. I think they are just as lovely as the more rugged mountains further west, and right now they are looking quite green after all the rain. The weather is just as uneven. Saturday night we had thunder storms and torrential rain then Sunday was hot, and we sunbathed on the roof. Last week we were blown away one day, scorched the next, and felt chilled the next. You just can't predict what the next day will bring. Today started damp, but cleared by lunchtime, though it never got really hot. On our way out we saw a beautiful double rainbow. I took this photo throught the car window. We think it has been rather nice on average since we got here, but we were talking to two of our neighbours this morning who have been residents for five years, and they said that this is the worst autumn they have known here. Both were wearing shorts still and they teased Chris a bit for being in long trousers and a jumper, but I think he lost so much weight while he was ill, (about six pounds in two weeks), that he is feeling the cold more than usual. I am still fine in my summer dresses though I need a cardigan for the evenings.

Today we did some more exploring, this time up into the hills and inland a bit. We were looking for a small village called Partaloa, to the north of Albox and Arboleas, where we originally started our search a couple of years ago. We didn't know much about Partaloa but had seen several properties there on the web, that looked interesting. We did find it, and it was a pretty little, very Spanish village, with one main road, a church and a school, and a couple of bar/restaurants. Next to it was a rambla, or dry river bed. These cannot be built on as they may flood in bad winters, but they are used for car parking in the larger towns and agriculture in the countryside. The bulk of the larger houses in Partaloa were on the far side of the rambla so we drove across to see them. They were rather nice but we weren't sure about the position of the one we were particularly interested in, or so we thought. When we got home and checked its details on the web we realised we had been looking at the wrong house! We have now contacted the agent and asked him to arrange a viewing for us. It could be ten degrees colder there than on the coast during the winter, but the views were lovely and the village was only a five to ten minute walk away. I have put a few photos on my gallery. The bright green in the valley indicates that they have had quite a lot of rain already. On our way back we stopped in a small town called Antas and we both really liked it. Unfortunately there is very little property for sale there, but we are investigating a couple of places.
For anyone who has been following my cullinary disasters, I must tell you that having finally found some self raising flour, I did manage to make a creditable batch of scones on Sunday, in my Ramoska of course!