The Seasons they go round and round...

One of my favourite songs, by Buffy-Sainte-Marie, starts with those words. - 'The seasons they go round and round and the painted ponies go up an down. We're captive on the carusel of time; We can't return, we can only look behind from where we came and go round and round and round in the circle game'.

Certainly the passage of time is inevitable and we are now seeing the changing of the seasons and our Autumn is slowly sliding into the start of Winter. I rather like this time of year when the sun is often still shining with real warmth in it's rays, but it is not too hot, so we can sit outside and enjoy it. These days I often spend the afternoon sitting out with the dogs, who love to have our company, and the light is just perfect for my lace-making or cross stitch. Of course, the days are getting shorter, and as soon as the sun starts to sink behind the hill at the back the village, the temperature drops. Chris has started to wear a jumper indoors, where it is always colder than outside at this time of year, but I haven't succumbed to that yet. We did go up to the market early this morning to buy our new slippers for this year. Stone floors do tend to lead to cold feet!

The weather is also a bit more unpredictable now, with clouds and showers in the morning, and bright sunshine for the afternoon. Then the other day we sat outside to eat our lunch and it was beautiful, but by tea-time there were grey clouds, it was blowing a gale and it felt really cold. So we make the most of it when we can, and hope the sun keeps coming back for a long time yet.

Today we went out in the morning and on the way home we stopped for a menu del dia. (A real treat, as we did this last week too and we don't actually make a habit of it). A restaurant had been recommended to us and we decided to try it out. And we did have a lovely meal there. We opted to sit out on the patio where we were sheltered from the breeze. We looked out through a row of arches onto the distant hills standing against a blue sky and it was lovely.

We noticed that there are not many soft fruits left in the market now but the new season's oranges are beginning to appear. They are still rather sharp so we don't buy many of them, but in a few weeks we will. The fruit on the trees next door to us is getting quite a lot of colour to it. I think this is the tree that was ready quite early last year. The oranges on our own tree are still a pale lime green, but it had ripe fruit on it when we bought it in April last year, so it is a later variety. We are quite excited to have some of our own and keep watching them in case the rain or wind takes them before they are ready.

We have a regular Tuesday outing at the minute. I am sure some of you will be surprised to hear that both Chris and I have joined a choir! It is run by Julie (the retired professional singer from my church, whom I have mentioned on here before), and is a mix of folk from our church and English neighbours from her village of Zurgena, near Albox. We are practising a range of Christmas songs and carols and we have three concerts booked so far, in bars and restaurants around the area. But the most exciting part of the project is the links Julie is building with the choir of her own village. This is a catholic choir of Spanish ladies and a few men, and she has become a member and now sings with them. She has arranged for us to sing with them in a concert, which will probably take place in the big church in her village arond the time of Epiphany. This is quite a big step for us, and for them, and it is something none of them, nor us, have done before. We went up to meet them on Monday and we practised a few carols that we are going to sing with them - in Spanish of course. Then they will sing some of their own; their style is very different from ours, and they sing with great gusto!; and we will also sing some on our own in English, in a slightly more gentle style. I sing with the altos and it is quite a challenge to follow the music, read and pronounce the Spanish words, and make them fit together, which they don't always do very willingly. But it is great fun, and I am so pleased to do one more thing in my quest to follow my word for 2011 which you may remember is 'Integration'. Julie has persuaded Chris to come along as well, and although he is completely unused to singing in any form, so it is quite difficult for him, I think he is enjoying it to, and it nice for us to be involved with something together. We have got a lot of work to do if we are going to sound good at the concerts but there are still a few weeks to practise in yet.

How lucky am I?

Back in early September, the TV craft show Create and Craft featured a set of CDs for designing complete scrap-book pages on the computer, including editing and adding your own photos, choosing backing papers, writing the journalling etc. I am very interested in trying this although I would always want to add some of my own extra embellishments for the personal touch, but I do hope to make a journal of our time in Thailand in this way. Anyway, Chris bought the CDs for me in anticipation of my birthday this weekend. Despite that, as my printer failed completely just as I was leaving for UK a few weeks ago, he also agreed to buy me the new printer that I wanted, although it was a lot more expensive than the normal ones that are readily available everywhere now. What is special about this one is that is a wide format printer so it will print large sheets such as my 12"x12" scrapbook papers. It is also a copier, scanner and fax machine, though I will not have the fax part connected as I have no call to use one. The scanner is very important for me as many of the photos I use in scrapbooks are quite old, so I start by scanning them in and tidying them up on the computer. This, of course, means it is a fairly large machine, a big black beast actually, but I am very pleased with it. I rearranged my room so that I could have it up on my desktop, where it is easily accessible. It took a matter of minutes for the cats to think it was simpy a new place for them to lie down, so when not in use I am hiding it under a bright coloured cloth. Then, even if they do sit on it, it won't get clogged with hair. I have managed to find a pack of A3 paper out here, but that is still about 1cm too narrow for what I want, so I am currently searching for the next size up. I have found some in UK but it will be heavy to post, so now I know what it is I want, I shall go back to the local stationers and see whether they can get any for me.

Family members know that my birthday is actually on Monday and today is Chris's turn to celebrate. He hits a very significant age today so now we are both pensioners! I brought him serveral shirts, a jumper and new music while I was in England, all of which he is very pleased with, and he is now happily playing with his new toy - a very up-to-date high-spec. PC, to replace his overworked and ailing one. Here I would like add a very big 'Thank You' to all family and friends who have sent us cards and/or posted greetings on facebook and twitter. It is nice to know we are not forgotten now we are so far away.

Here is a picture I took while I was waiting for my turn to use the bank machine yesterday. There are lots of trees in the village and in the autumn the tree surgeons come around and trim them all up. Everything here grows abundantly, but I am always surprised at how much a tree can grow in one year. They are trimmed into a flat, round table so they continue to give maximum shade while looking nice and tidy. The men are so good at it; I could watch them working for hours. This row will all look like the one at the end in a few hours, and all the trimmings will be in the big yellow container just peeping at the corner of my photo. I really admire their skill, and the way they tidy up after themselves. I wish they'd come and tackle our bouganvillia. It is rapidly taking over the back garden so we are going to have to deal with it ourselves in the next few weeks. It's a big job and the space we have to work in is limited, but the worst part is trying to get rid of all the rubbish. There will be masses of it and it has wicked thorns on it, not to mention all the bugs that live in it. Oh joy!!