winter in extremadura

arrived here 8th december, and house not livable in straight away, due to lack of woodburning stove and bed. but now we are cosy and have furniture (two visits to Ikea – I never want to do that again). so this blog is going to be a lot of pictures.

the weather has been up and down – rain all day last Saturday – a lot of frost, and now we have sunny and cold. really we need lots of rain; there is a drought, but also I need sunshine to recharge my solar power, especially as there is a leak which makes the pressure pump work and uses electricity. in the afternoons on sunny days the porch is comfortably warm, and Tilda gets a little too hot.

I have a stack of Ikea flat pack to put together, but mostly its the drilling walls to put up mirrors, towel rails and stuff like that which is left to do. meanwhile I have to design the knit collection this and next week.

Luckily I have a collection of big kelims which dress the space and warm it up. I think I won’t get the paintings up this time – I hope I can bring the stretchers next time, probably in April.

yesterday it was very misty most of the day, which was photogenic, but cold, and no good for my solar panels.

first thing in the morning I thought it might burn off, but it took until after three in the afternoon.

there were several of these beautiful spiders’ webs in the bushes.

after the sun came round the hill the mist seemed to thicken up.

I have prunings of encina to burn, the ilex oak. its very dense and a big piece smoulders all night, so my tin box cheap woodburner actually works very well.

one of the treats is to sit indoors and watch the birds in the olive trees near the porch. there are black caps, and hoopoes, shrikes and several small birds I have not yet identified; and then across in the craggy rocks and cliffs above Pippa and Manfred’s house the eagle owl swoops and sails just before dusk.