And so it goes...

Well, have been a bit slack about posting with the holiday and all that. You all must be DYING to see some more pictures of the building work and our animals. Right?
So Zanzibar was pretty amazing really, as you would sort of expect. We particularly enjoyed Stone Town with its winding alleys, amazing doors and architecture, friendly people and great food. That place is indeed packed with history in the sense that you can somehow feel the mix of cultures, languages, ultimate suffering and ultimate riches, glorious pasts and uncertain futures swirling in the air. Unfortunately we forgot (yeah alright, I forgot) the memory card for the camera at home, so...not many piccies. Besides, that place needs a blog of its own so I'll leave it for now.

Came home late at night after 30 hours travelling to no power and practically no work done on the house...Happy, happy, happy. I don't know what the builders have done over three weeks but it's sure as hell not work...What is WRONG with these people???? Anyway, it seems we have acquired a bit more of a Zen attitude these days (alternative would be stroke or heart attack I reckon and/or a heavy dependence on Xanax) and now work is plodding on OK - so far with Paul doing most of the work himself actually - he is cheaper than those slowcoaches and just a tad more motivated...!
Thankfully, this summer we are so much more settled than last summer - we have things like running water, a kitchen, an inside toilet - LUXURY! The small house stays beautifully cool during the day and seems to keep a nice warmth in the evenings - perfect!
And, to stick to the normal range of subjects - yes the kitchen garden is going great. Tomatoes, sugarsnap beans, green beans, courgettes, peppers, sweetcorn, parsley, coriander, carrots, lettuce, rocket, spinach are all doing fine. Sugarsnaps are the only ones actually matured already and I eat them like snacks - very nice.

And see below the new addition to the family (we have given up on Sissi, sadly, and don't even want to contemplate her fate): I give you MARLEY, a mix begotten from a loving relationship between one neighbour's Pyreneean Sheepdog and another neighbour's Catalan Sheepdog. Paul picked him up the day after we got back, much to the relief of Ali, who already have five of the buggers. If his relatives are anything to go by, he'll weigh around 70 kilos and his shoulderheight will be around 90-100 cm when he is grown up - now that's what I call a proper dog.

As I am not very inspired today, here are some pics:

Springtime in Spaiiin!!

The rain is still falling and I am loving it probably as much as the vegetables and the flowers - everything is growing amazingly!

Now on our third set of builders, we are chugging along with the work. The house is being rendered on the outside which is starting to make it look like...a house!!! It is massive, now that the new extension is built, will try to throw up some updated pictures.

Leaving for Zanzibar in a couple of days - that one still feels completely unreal!! We are celebrating Pauls birthday in style, on the Spice Island and I think it might be an amazing experience. And the builders will stay here and finish off the rendering and some other work, so when we come home lots of things will have been done (fingers xxxxx!!!). It feels almost wrong to leave at this time, what with the garden and all but we have gotten a house/catsitter, Jack, who will hopefully take care of things. We also discovered we have another houseguest...Look carefully at piccie above.