December '10
Windy Weather
The middle of December saw us getting the stongest gales that we have experienced since arriving in Mas. The gales lasted for three days and peaked in some extremely damaging gusts. It was a scary journey out from the village, as the car was being blown all over the place as gusts up to 160kph hit it. In the village a 20ft. storage container was blown across a road and demolished a wall. In the fincas near ours, whole olive trees were torn out or snapped off at the base. Luckily, due to our finca being in the elbow of the barranc and lower than the others, we only suffer a few trees having large branches getting broken. More firewood for the log pile.
Puppies
D'Oli, Panda & Piglet are growing up and enjoying the finca life. They run off to go rabbit hunting with their parents whenever they get the opportunity
Their mum,Cleo, is much more friendly now and enjoys being stroked, something she would not contemplate a couple of months ago. Cleo & Theo have decided that living in the kennel by the barn is not so bad after all now the weather has got a bit colder. They are often cuddled up in there when we get down to the finca in the mornings.
No. 11, Av. Catalunya
Been through a couple of iterations of the design for our house and now we think we are close to getting what we want.
The house will be on three floors, with a garage in the lowest floor. Above that will be the main floor which will be at road level and will have the front door on it. It will have a large kitchen / dining room and a large lounge. Both will have log burning stoves in them which will provide the heat for the house. The metal flues will run straight up through the ceilings into the bedrooms above, to act as radiators for those rooms. PG will have a treatment room on the lower floor and it will also have a large study / library. We are required by law to put in solar water panels, so we want to use them to supply under floor heating throughout the lower floor, as well as providing hot water for washing etc.
Access to the garage will be along the top terrace and will leave room for a couple of cars to be parked in front of it. A boon with the cramped village streets. A ramp / steps will lead down to the garden terrace infront of the house where we will have a number of fruit trees, mandarines, lemons and pomegranets,as well as a vegetable plot. The gaden terrace already has a large water storage building which we will fill from our roof guttering.
Christmas in the Parador
As Pondson was coming out to visit us for Xmas, we decided to stay in the Tortosa Parador for a couple of nights and enjoy a bit of luxury. Our room was huge, about the same size as the whole of our flat. It had lovely views over the pool to the hills beyond.
The air was very clear due to the terrible storms we had in the run up to Christmas, so I managed to get some clear pictures across to the Els Ports mountains and Mas de Barberans.
We saw the New Year in with a chance to get my kilt out and attend the usual party up in the village hall.
Now we are looking forward to a good 2011.