LITTLE RED ROOSTER....

Caliph...showing off!

We have a new member of our ever-growing managerie....

At a party last summer, at our friends Norman and Viv’s house in Algodonales, we met Isidoro, a charming Spanish builder, who has subsequently done some work on our house!

During our conversation, we happened to mention that we had chickens, as did he and when he discovered that we didn’t have a cockerel, he insisted on giving us one of his as a present.

Months passed and nothing was forthcoming, so we assumed that he had forgotten. However, one day to our surprise, he suddenly turns up with this magnificent cockerel…

We have named him Caliph (Moorish leader) and as you can see from the photographs, he seems to be very happy in his new surroundings and with his newly formed harem!!

The alpaca boys look on....

Leader of the pack....

FOR ALAN AND LORNA...

Lin and her 4 faithful companions

Our first BLOG entry of the New Year is for our dear friends Alan and Lorna from Cordoba, with whom we have just spent a couple of smashing days. We had a gathering of alpaca owners yesterday at Jane’s new house in Gaucin and as it is a six hour round trip to there from Cordoba, Alan and Lorna stayed over with us last night.

Although it was a miserable evening weather-wise, we decided to go into Ronda for bite to eat at a very well known restaurant; the name of which I am forbidden to divulge, as I have been sworn to secrecy by my dear wife!!!

Alan…the mushrooms are now history!!

Since the beginning of November we have been rather pre-occupied with our olive harvest, which has demanded a lot of our time. The weather this winter has been very kind to us, so we have been making hay whilst the sun shines. To date, we have collected close to 3 metric tonnes of olives, which is our best yearly total by far and we still have a dozen or so trees to do.

We had a lovely time over Christmas with Eddie and Karen, who came over on Christmas Eve and stayed with us through to the New Year. It was really nice to spend sometime with them and due to the favourable weather conditions we were able to take a number of days walking in the mountainous areas of the Sierra de las Nieves Natural Park, including the ‘Puerta Verde de Marbella’ which is a restored network of cattle trails 43 kilometers long that weaves its way from Ronda through to Marbella.

Ed and Jack on a mission!!


Two birds eye views of the main Ronda to San Pedro Road

The remains of the Guardia Civil post that they maintained for hudreds of years to protect the merchants against bandits that terrorised the route....

An ancient collection point for water

Needless to say, Ed found some time helping us out with a number of jobs that needed doing around the place and also pitched in with the olive picking, prior to his return on the 14th January!

Can we take this opportunity of wishing all our friends back in the UK a belated Happy, Peaceful and Prosperous New Year………

Some fantastic winter views from our house at sunrise!

The sunsets are not bad either...