Taking the Saint back up the mountain

On 8th January the statue of Santa Eulalia will leave Totana and go back up the mountain road to La Santa on the reverse of the 8th December route.  Again the locals will take part in the procession and have a fiesta. Anyone can take part, just join the line of people and enjoy a walk and the fun.

Treasure Hunt (2)

Because the children enjoyed the Christmas Treasure Hunt so much, Paula invited a couple of Lucia´s friends and put on another Hunt for them.  I drew a few more pictures to make it different and Paula chose a different combination to alter the route.  All the children seemed to enjoy themselves, especially finding the chocolate money and the advent calendars at the end.

We just hope that the children don´t expect us to put something like this on every week.

Treasure Hunt

My mother, being with us here for Christmas, brought with her some presents for Paula and Angel´s children.  Because they have their presents for Three Kings Day and my mother would be back in England by then, we decided to make a treasure hunt for the children so they could have their presents on the 25th.

I drew some pictures of various parts of the camperstop and garden, gate, palm tree, etc. and fastened them up, together with some chocolate coins.  They had to follow a picture to the next point, eventually arriving back in the garden to find presents on a pine tree.  The children really enjoyed themselves (especially the 7 year old).  Paula is going to put the treasure hunt on again for Lucia´s friends sometime next week.

22 December, and too hot to sit in the sun!!

My mother is here for 2 weeks over Christmas and so far has had some good sunny weather.  We were invited for lunch at a Spanish friends house today and moved the table all around the terrace chasing the shade.  You cannot imagine trying to get out the the sun 3 days before Christmas, but even the Spanish are saying it is hot for the time of year.  Let´s hope it continues for a few more weeks at least.

Bird Life

Over the last few days we have seen a number of Cormorants flying over our house.  We have seen up to 12 of them on the water reservoir nearby.  We also heard the calling of what we thought were Curlews but couldn´t possibly be here?  Anyway I looked in my bird book and found that they could be Stone Curlews.  A few days ago a number of birds flew up from the ground and looked very like the picture in my book.  As a VERY amateur bird watcher I can only take a guess at some of the birds I see here, but can definitely record a pair of Booted Eagles, a pair of Hoopoes, Kestrels, Little Owls and a tree full of Long Tailed Tits.  I have put out some feeders hoping to attract more of these smaller birds, although at the moment the Magpies are eyeing the feeders greedily.  Other birds seen along the canal over the last few days have been a Grey Heron which flew alongside our car for 2-300 metres as we drove alongside the canal and a few Cattle Egrets.  There are many other small birds around but I don´t know what they all are. 

Orienteering

Sunday, 18th December

The orienteering club of Totana are holding an event in Las Alquerias next Sunday.  We are on the organising team and putting out the control points so won´t be running, but there will be about 150 competitors taking part in the race and then many of us will have lunch in a local restaurant afterwards.  This is our club´s Xmas lunch, with an Xmas dinner to follow sometime soon.

Geocaching (2)

Went to do the first Geocache today.  Drove up to Aledo and to the parking for the Estrecho de la Agualeja (see Surrounding Area).  Walked down to the canyon on the footpath and then walked up the canyon.  Found the cache (had seen the photos beforehand) but because it was a fiesta today there were many people around and so didn´t open the cache to see what was inside.  Will do more Geocaching, especially if it can be included in a walk or bike ride.

Geocaching (1)

Apparently there are many Geocache locations in the region of Murcia with some of them quite near to here.  I have just registered and am going to have a go at finding my first cache.

We were told about these local caches by a Belgian who stayed here a few weeks ago and went to find some of them.  The local ones are very accessible, not a lot of walking involved I believe.

Here´s to my first one!  I´ll report on the progress.