Wednesday 17th June

What a time I’ve had over the past few weeks.
My daughter came to visit for a couple of weeks and I thought it would be a nice change to go down to the Sunday morning market in Puigcerda. As usual there was a bit of a difficulty parking but we managed to find a small space between a couple of cars. We checked that there was no sneaky little sign to say “no parking” and off we went to look around the market.
It was a warm morning and the market was buzzing. We sat and had a leisurely coffee and then made our way back to the car via the stall that sold huge water melons. Of course we had to buy one and realised just how heavy they were when it was too late.
As we staggered towards the car, rounding the corner we were faced with everyone’s nightmare…….no car.
My French is not good and my Spanish is non existent. We were in trouble!
We went to a local bar and asked if they could phone the Police. Two eventually arrived in a car but to be quite honest they weren’t really interested and drove off. We managed to find a foot officer who sent us to the Police station [which seems to be part of the Tourist Office] but by this time it was pouring with rain and the white linen shirt I was wearing did what white linen shirts do best and turned transparent. Now not only had my car vanished but my decency had gone too.
The fine to get my car back was horrendous – so much so that I still have not told Mike how much it was [would be a shame to ruin his year]. It was quite weird how I was given the ticket which had one price but when I paid with my card they charged me over double the amount on the ticket.
How do you argue with the Police in Spain…..The answer is you don’t?
So next time you visit Spain for goodness sake watch where you park. Even when there is no sign they can still get you, tow you away and you have no comeback.
I feel there is something wrong somewhere.
Be careful out there.

Saturday 27th June

Where did June go? It only seems like yesterday that we were all looking forward to Spring and now mid summer’s day has been and gone and hey……well, lets just say the nights will be drawing in. What a wet blanket of a statement that is.
Seriously though summer seems to be flying by and the hailstones up here seem to be getting bigger. We have had some cracking storms up here but then nearly every morning starts bright and sunny so there is time to check the veg garden before hurtling back inside to take cover from the chunks of ice that tend to throw themselves down at about 4pm.
It has been a weird week this week with the windscreen on our Landrover being smashed. (Let me just mention at this point the amount of support and the ideas that came from the Forum.
Thanks guys you gave me hope but it was all in the hands of the insurance by the time I was tapping away on the computer.) The car is now down the hill half way to Toulouse. Don’t ask me why that direction, I suppose the insurance people use GPS systems and go the way the crow flies. This is not always the best idea as some years ago our removal van driver ignored our directions and ended up on the top of the Col above Mijanes halted fortunately by a huge snowdrift. The thoughts of what may have happened if he had proceeded further still makes me go cold.
My husband Mike was hit in the face by our over enthusiastic son who was helping his Dad move some wood. Fortunately the damage was not too bad but then when you get to a certain age damage doesn’t show as much. There were mutterings of “If you want a job done right “etc ungrateful soul.
Life in the village is starting to move a little now that everyone has had their holidays and returned to work. Shops are reopening and brushing up the place is in progress.
The trees are beginning to clear down at the forest but there are still places that can’t be accessed on foot as some of the trees are still unsafe. Access to the lake and the restaurant is fine as is the Parc Aventure and the Mountain Biking.
The wild flowers have been magic this year I think it is possibly the fact that we had end extremely long winter. Snow was one the ground at some time from October to May. Long indeed to wear your thermals
Hope all is well down in the flatlands.
TTFN.