What are you doing?

 I saw it far too late, after a row of 12 squares and 3 grey squares of the next row, I noticed for some strange reason I used the wrong shade of pink, pale instead of rose, it did not look out of place, my brother would never notice, but I knew it was wrong. So 15 squares ripped out and rose pink used, I'm happy again.

This is Lilly, she is beautiful, I love grey cats, so she is perfect, daughter took kittens and mum cat to vets for a check up, all are OK. She is the smallest of the litter, which is OK. I had my first cuddle, which I hope to regularly do, so she gets used to us, daughter has one on our cat baskets, so when we we bring her home she will already be happy in her basket. Daughter has found homes for all five kittens, everyone is sharing the vet cost, to help out. 

I missed Wolf Hall the first time round, I watched the first episode of the second series on Sunday evening, it was so good, I decided to go back and watch the 6 episodes from series 1. I am watching every day, something I never do, it's made so well, even though I know what happens,  I can't wait for the next episode on Sunday. 

Our Spanish friends are OK, their small town is almost back to normal, the lower section was flooded, most of the homes there have garages on the ground floor, so not too much damage was done. Other friend in Valencia have a much harder task, the mud stuck to everything, once that is cleared they need an architect to check their homes, Spanish house bricks are very different to ours, they are hollow and much lighter, so many building now need checking. There is so much anger in the city, the centre, which was not hit so bad looks back to normal, main roads are open, but still many places need lots of work.

Hubby had his cataract removed and a lens put in place on Monday, a very different process than he had a few years ago, our eye hospital is away from the main hospital, it's very modern and very efficient. Hubby saw the optician only 3 weeks ago, and it's all been sorted, last time he had a few months to wait, this new unit has completely cut waiting times. Sadly his brother in Wales is getting near the end of a two year wait, he is still in hospital, due another operation on his leg, this time the hope is to have him home soon, he's been stuck in there for months. 

My back is much better, I've been doing small bits most days, I picked up leaves in the back garden on Monday, and a bit of weeding. I need to raise my netting over my broad beans, the shoots are getting big. We have had rain twice both times overnight, and lovely blue skies next morning, it is getting colder, which does not bother me.

This is our November

 5 little kittens, 1 grey, 1 beige, 1 ginger and 2 tabbies born on 29th October, it will be a while before we can work out which are girls and boys, I would like a girl, male cats roam, and I like the idea of having a cat which stays in our garden. Both Molly and George are not touching them, George spends loads of time sat watching them. Daughter got a kiddies netted side, ball pit, which will keep the kittens in and allow mum to escape if she wants and loads of old towels for them to lay on.

We all say we have the best grandchildren, but these three in the 'spooky' PJ's look adorable, oldest boy Will was not sure if he wanted to wear his, Molly and George now look like twins, people are always asking daughter is they are twins. Lovely and clean after their bath.

I have started my brothers lap blanket, I have a few more colours to add, these will go well in his sitting room, again very different colours than I normally use. I have purchased a few balls of yarn, but this is a Christmas gift, so it's not recorded on my stash list.

Christmas cakes are doing well, I used one recipe and made two smaller cakes for brother and daughter, our bigger cake will be baked later today, I have loads of dried fruit left over, as I purchased for 3 cake mixes and will only make two. 

It was days before we heard from our Spanish friends again, we knew they had no electricity, so did not expect to hear from them, they are all well and dry, their ground floor like so many others is a garage, it escaped the flooding as they were on higher ground. Still no electricity and very limited phone coverage, they cant get out their town, their new large supermarket, which is close to their flats is open for limited supplies, its a case of sitting it out. The huge issue in Spain is the ground is so parched so the rain ran off rather than soaking in and took loads of top soil with it. We are both shocked to see the devastation in Valencia, it's hard to match the scenes with our recent visit. Valencia has loads of street parking, which are always full, so seeing so many cars wrecked us not a surprise to us.

We have daughter and the children here today, so I have left all my Halloween decorations up until they go home, it's going to be a messy noisy day, filled with laughter and fun.

Last of the sunshine

Just a few final photo's of our trip, here we had lunch in a new restaurant in Valencia, all the planting including the ceiling were fake plants, but all done with a woodland effect, so it felt cool and shady, tables were in coves, which made it even better, and the food brilliant, Begin, Secret garden.

To watch the fireworks, we went to our friends friend's house, 

on the roof, best view, always they have fireworks and big displays, every towns displays are on different dates and they do compete with each other to have the best. This is a small town and no building can be above three floors, the tallest building is the church.

On our walking tour in Valencia, which I would always recommend, our guide spoke very good english, we stopped at this house, one mans dream, so very ornate, we had not seen this before. 

At the north gate we decided to walk along the parks just outside, Paula when her phone beeps, she takes a photo of what she is doing and sends it in, so here we are just after the beep. It is very popular with the young Spanish, we have not heard of it before.

Whilst we were taking our photo a street vender took a photo of us and set it into this sheet, which was fun, they are everywhere, but not to pushy, if we said no they just moved away. You choose how much you want to pay, it's another level of fun.

The bulls run in the streets twice a day for five days, the town put up barriers to ensure they run just where they should, it is a tradition, but kinder to the animals, as you see the bulls only run, no one makes any attempt to interact with them, all along the route there are men to ensure the bulls are OK. We hear a loud firecracker to say it is starting and then another when the bulls are secure.  

As always this part of Spain is very family orientated, families together and often really loud, we had lunch at a younger bar, which was just too loud to talk to each other, but for us different and enjoyable. Everyone in the family, except the elder father speaks fluent english, so most of the time it was the mainly spoken, both daughters and our friends sister took it as a huge practice, hubby spoke some Spanish, he is able to order in bars and cafes, sadly I struggle with speech, but can understand some written words. 

Valancia as a city has an airport, but it is smaller than most cites, the departure lounge was very different, in the centre was a soft seating area, with big padded loungers, we managed to find two together, so our wait was very comfortable. We used the underground from the city to the airport, we were with one of the daughters, but the signs were so good, she allowed us to find our way, clean and fast journey. We had a taxi waiting for us at Gatwick, it was about 90 minutes drive home, we were both happy to sit back and relax.

Now it's warm jumpers and laundry, sadly I have packed away my sandals and sunglasses, I have yet to check the garden, and I need to check the calendar to see what is happening in the next few days. We also need to pop to Lidls for fresh food. I can also comment again on your post. 

Valencia

 We visited the town hall, it's public building free to enter, here we are on the first floor, taking a selfie, our friends caught us, making a better photo thans ours.

I really love this view of the chandelier, taken from underneath, this building is so opulent, everywhere you look, is beautiful. 

Most people visit here to view the city from the balcony, it is stunning, a mixture of building styles and heights, the streets below were full of people, Tuesday is a market day, loads of streets full of clothes, shoes, sewing and household wares, none of which you want to buy, but interesting to see.

The rail station is stunning, they have major works inside, but the front is beautiful, I have more photos on older post, if you check my label Spain on my sidebar, I'm not able to add links using my tablet. 

The north gate has been restored, on our walking tour we were informed this gate and one other ( there was many more) survived when the city walls were removed to allow the city to grow, this gate was for male prisoners and the other for women.

Valencia is a stunning city, plenty of places to see, it has a huge food market near the cathedral, always worth a visit, loads of places for coffee and cakes and places for meals. The city has a huge dry riverbed, they moved the river from the city centre, it is now a green space and perfect for walks, closeby is the science park, which I have blogged about, you would need a day to visit, very modern, well worth the visit. There is a huge bullring which I have never entered.

 

Jaycee, I'm hoping I am selling the city to you, it's beautiful, most places we find someone who can speak English which helps with our limited Spanish.

Fiesta

In this small town of Cheste, it's a fiesta weekend, so much going on, loads we don't understand, these ladies have all recently turned 18, this parade happens every year. They help celebratethe finish of the grape harvest, in one parade they carry small baskets of grapes to barrel for 2 young men to tread in the old-fashioned way.

The costumes are very heavyweight and have many layers, the embroidery on the skirts beautiful, some items pass along the generations, here is our friend's daughter when she participated. Her hair, jewellery are styled the same as all the others.

The next morning the tractors came, some of the prade pass our flat, all the trailer are full of young people having fun, load music. Everyone stops to watch and chat, very relaxed atmosphere. 

The bulls here are walked through parts of the town, it's all very controlled, at the end of the rides was a vet, who always attends the parade. It went by at walking pace, not at all what we expected, a modern way for their traditions.

The bulls do have one run through the town, but again it's very modern, safety is always thought through. I did not think it would ever want to watch the bulls, I have always avoided the bullfighting, I've never visited the bullring in Valencia. I'm in Spain and therefore I honour their traditions, our friends are modern and also see these things as heritage. 

It's very warm here in low 20's so T shirt and sandals, it feels good to know we can wake up to blue skies. Our friend's are taking us to wonderful restaurants in Valencia, we are seeing many new places. Yesterday we did a walking tour of the historic city centre, very informative as the guide spoke English, the whole Spanish family are fluent, mum teaches English at local  academy. 

Today we are staying local in Cheste, we have walked alot in the past three days, so today is just relax. I will have more photos in my next post. I'm using my tablet and not able to make comments, it ask me to sign into Google, when I get to the directed page, it says I am signed in 🤷🤷

Science Park and river bed

The science park in Valencia is huge and very modern, we were last here 14 years ago, it has water everywhere and is very clean. This location has been used on a Stars Wars film, I am not sure which one, but it does have a skyfi look about the place and on a very sunny day it could be another world.
Walking further along the old river bed, which has been turned into park land again with loads of shallow ponds, shady spots and wide walking and cycling paths. We visited on Sunday and it was very busy, as you walk along this area all around you the city towers over you. . Many years ago, the river bed would flood when the rains came, so the path of the river was moved and the old river bed was used for leisure, further out there are football pitches and other sport areas.
We love Spain and visiting our Spanish friends, we are lucky to be able to stay in a simple family environment, with 3 generations of 1 family. In July they will come and visit us for a week, we have visited each other for over 20 years and have watched the daughter grow to young women.

Valencia

Train station and bullring

Cathedral from the back

Love this tree

City indoor market

We love these fruits. 

Lunch

Cakes

I love this city, it is busy, clean and so welcoming, we traveled by train to the city center, and had a perfect day just wondering around. The buildings are all very old, but well looked after.
We have many times visited the food market and always love the smells, colours of the stalls, the variety of things for sell on each stall was huge,  and all looks so fresh. Lunch had to be Paella, afternoon coffee had to have cakes, plus sitting in the sun people watching with a beer (hubby) and red wine for me. With the amount of walking we did averaging over 12,000 steps per day, we did not watch our diet at all.
We did not do much shopping, it was tempting as the prices in Spain are cheaper than here, we did bring back Spanish sweets and chocolate. They are not in Christmas mode as we are in UK, we were told they start closer to December, we only saw a few shops decorated, and we saw very few Christmas decorations for sale. I did buy some  sewing items, mainly because they are different from anything here in UK.
I read three books on my iPad, Sue Grafton books, I is for Innocent, J is for Judgement, K is for Killer.
We are now getting used to the cold again, every where feels so grey, I have lit my candles most evenings. I am happy to be getting up each morning at 8am, missing the worst of the early mornings.
Monday I went shopping with Su and Will, just a few stocking fillers, and a nice lunch.
The wonderful hello we got from Will was brilliant, he was so pleased to see us.
Yesterday I went for a walk around our local park, and later I had Will over, so mummy could do some jobs. We had a fun day inside, watching the birds in our garden and playing.
Today I had a friend here, we walked to Portchester castle, the tide was in so the water was flat calm, later we had home made carrot and coriander soup. A perfect day, but still I am totally tired,

Cheste, Spain

Views from our flat

The countryside, full of oranges

I love to see these views from the summer house

Huge street Paella 

Street food

Some of the bikes, there were hundreds. 

A visit to the co-op fruit plant.

Sizing the oranges

Down to packing

We have been visiting Cheste for 25 years, it's a small town near to Valencia, which sits on the med coast down from Barcelona.
Life here is very rural Spain, which has changed over the years from growing grapes to oranges, the main crops for the area are Oranges, Grapes, Olives and Almonds.  We love staying with our Spanish friends and living their Spanish lifestyle.
The weather was great, warm and sunny every day, I loved being in my sandals again, sadly they are now packed away until next year.
We were lucky enough to be offered a visit to the local orange sorting and packing plant, simple operation to ensure the oranges are all to the standard required.
The town is a quiet place except in November, when the local GP motor track has it's main race, the whole town is transformed into a biker paradise, through Friday, Saturday and Sunday the population doubles in size. The street markets are huge, we loved all the street food. It 's the first time we have visited when the event is running, and in true Spanish style, it was busy noisy and loads of fun. Most of the town stayed awake until 5-6 each morning, so sleep was not easy, as our flat is in the center of all the fun. We often find they have a very relaxed way of doing things, there were bikes everywhere and loads of showing off, alot of which would not be allowed in UK. Hubby was in bike heaven.
We had a lovely meal out on my birthday, the whole family, we elected for Chinese which we enjoyed, plus I had a great birthday cake.

We are now back home and it is cold, we woke up to a frost this morning, so my tender flowers in the garden will not last much longer. I hope to get outside later this week, but other than picking up leaves there is not much to do.