Accommodation

Fishing

Golf

Benifallet, Spain
October 2004

Dear Friends,

I know this letter is well overdue, but time seems to have no meaning over here. I am not just referring to the local "manana" time comment- but weekends and week days roll into one and Fridays can feel like a Tuesday and dates- well they blew ouverboard on the ferry from Portsmouth to Santander…long forgotten.I don't know where the time goes to. We are kept quite busy now with at least one.

I am still ticking over with Naming Projects from California and when I am not doing these I bundle the family up to cousins' finca to tackle a gardening project ( that means try and find a mountainous terrace beneath the undergrowth, that has not been tended for years). If Tourists are due in, then I've the Villa to see to, and guests to meet and so on. They are a good opportunities to polish up my vocabulary in various European tongues.

Our cousin Dave and Angeles have great plans and prospects for extending the villa and re-building the section that was destroyed in Castro times when El Figueral was a "look out post" along the River Ebro. The panoramic views from off the mountains and River Ebro are just amazing and they await licences to build Lodges in the mountainside, that are tasteful to the tourists and kind to the environment. This is obviously a long term project and just as well as these permissions move very slowly over here and involve a great deal of hard work, details, expertise and of course, expense.

Angeles says I now know more Catalan than she does…but with her being of Valencian stock, they speak proper Spanish -Castellano. The latter I can read and understand more than I can speak it…on with the lessons!

Alan is also picking quite a bit of vocabulary of Catalan and knows all the essential bits about football and so on! Even Mom seems to be picking up a little understanding, especially with the shopping and the post office on her lists of chores. She keeps saying "My French is coming back" - her grand kids thinks she has devised her own language called "Eurolese"!

We have just finished a late Sunday morning breakfast/ brunch cooked so delicately by "Alan de chef's". Can't beat the good olde English fry-up! We met a colleague of yours Bill, he says he is a member of "the old fart's club" he is ex-Raf and one of those salubrious fellows of the Coldstream Guards- Brian and his wife Caroline. They are over here for a week and arrived on the late flight from Stanstead on Friday night. They followed us up the dark road to Figueral, so did not witness any of the wonderful scenery. I'd loved to have seen her face when dawn brought the morning chorus and the shutters were open to that breath-taking panoramic views.

Anyway we left them in peace yesterday as it was past 1 o'clock as we drove back down from there. Every finca has at least one ferile cat if not a few. David's "Marmalade" has the most striking colour of ginger,white and grey, is our favourite. Whereas her kitten we've called Smudge (Honestly, this was named before we met Brian Mudge.Promise!) and is more tortoise shell and hides until the mother calls him and lets him eat the leftovers. Marmalade now waits for our arrival and as soon as she hears the sliding door on the side of the van she dashes towards her dishes. Croutches down at a respectable distance and waits to see what treats are in store for her. But at least she doesn't "skoot" away anymore.

Mind you she watches David and Gary sort there fishing bait out and if they take their eyes off the sardines for a minute, they vanish. Oh dear, she does like a diet with variety and has the shiniest of coats now with her improved oiley fish diet.

This afternoon around 3.00pm Brian and Caroline want us to show them another bungalow we looked at. Caroline says they have just fallen in love with this area. We also advised them one day to seek out the seaside of Cambrils (definitely not in the style of Salou or Benidorm) and they enjoyed it so much, they are going back there this morning to do a bit of "take home shopping". But even so they don't think they would want to live on the coast permanently- just access to it.

Last night Brian and his wife Caroline took Alan and I out for a lovely meal as they said they had so enjoyed their stay at El Figueral as we had looked after them so well! Alan who normally detests eating out thoroughly enjoyed himself and felt very at ease and thought them a wonderful couple. This local grill house "Rosa Marie" is nestled among the old town houses of the village of Benifallet, next to a tiny square for the children to play out on and where the village characters will chew over the fat of the days gossip.

Mom had cried off from going with us, as once she has hauled herself up four flights of stairs to our apartment at the end of day she just wants to crawl into bed with her mountains of letters to answer, if she doesn't fall asleep writing them.

Still we hunt for our own property. The stipulation is "no stairs!" It would be nice to have something where we can have a German Shepherd or two, one or several cats (I know I am going to regret saying that at some point!) and our own garden and, and, and, and….I have a never ending list of what I would like…if only I could have Internet at home… Adios or adeu.

Roseann.