The processionary caterpillar

If you look in the pine trees at this time of year, you are sure to see a weblike covered cocoon, in it are hatching and growing processionary caterpillars, Not only do they devastate thousands of hectares of pine woodland every year. They cause bad skin irritation and can cause blindness, sometimes permanently, if handled. Dogs and cats are inquisitive and can suffer very painful death if they sniff or lick them.
If you have them in trees on your land the best thing is to try and set fire to the nests or cut out the branch and burn it.

Hopi ear candling

No, Ive not gone mad


Every so often my ears get blocked with wax and my hearing goes so normally i go to the doctors to get them syringed, its a horrible feeling having it done and im sure it creates a situation where you have to keep having them done. But Bec told me about Hopi ear candles, they are around €7 for two from most alternative health shops, and they do a fantastic job, All you do is light the candle which is hollow and stick it in your ear and wait for it to burn down to the collar you are provided with. Dont be alarmed by the crackling and gurgling noises you hear, you know the candle is doing its job. When the candle has burnt down to the collar put it in a jug of water to extinguish it, if you really want to see what it has removed from your ear you can open the candle up - you´ll be surprised. I recommend them every time.

Siesta time

Me and the cat having a kip !!

Talking about plastic bottles...

Some facts about plastic bottles

As recycling rates remain dismally low, making bottles requires virgin materials, namely petroleum feedstocks. It takes 162g of oil and seven litres of water (including power plant cooling water) just to manufacture a one-litre bottle, creating over 100g of greenhouse gas emissions (10 balloons full of CO2) per empty bottle. Extrapolate this for the developed world (2.4m tonnes of plastic are used to bottle water each year) and it represents serious oil use for what is essentially a single-use object. To make the 29bn plastic bottles used annually in the US, the world's biggest consumer of bottled water, requires more than 17m barrels of oil a year, enough to fuel more than a million cars for a year.

Makes you think doesnt it?

Which water do we drink?

Well it appears from the poll that 82% of people who voted drink bottled water, i myself drink tap water, in the summer its nice chilled, i have not suffered any ill effects - yet, so i will stick with it.
It is recommended that men drink about 3 litres of water a day and women 2.2 litres,
and in a hot climate you should drink more, that is a lot of plastic bottles to recycle or better still not use, so think about your carbon footprint and wean yourself onto tap water, start with a couple of glasses a day and gradually build it up, you'll be fine.

Time stands still

Time still stands still on the Vega Baja, passing by San Fulgencio we met up with these old guys and their bullock cart, on the way to do the weekly shop? The beasts were certainly content with their task but they were not in a hurry, so they may not get there for a while. Drink driving is obviously not an issue when you´re leading a bullock cart.

The Slender billed Gull

Following on from the last post, La Mata Reserve has a special gull that now nests and winters there, it is the Slender billed Gull. The gull is different from other gulls in that it is less aggressive, lives in colonies and has a creche system for care of the young. An island in the middle of the lake has been raised and better screening provided to encourage the breeding. Spain has about 1000 breeding pairs, 431 nesting pairs are at La Mata, which is 43% of the species in this country, where they are only in 5 locations. There is an exhibition of photographs taken throughout a four year study of the gull in the Virgen del Carmen Centre in Torrevieja.

La Mata reserve - a bird´s paradise

We went for a great walk round La Mata reserve at the weekend, more and more ground is being planted with vines and the area is being well maintained, there is now a wheelchair friendly walkway down to the picnic area, set among the pines at the side of the Lagoon, The bird life is fantastic with many different species of waders and land birds, including stints, ducks, crested larks, and finches, and the bird song is amazing, only ashort distance from the busy N332, you cannot hear the traffic, a real haven of nature and peace.

**Update 2** New Centro Commercial

The ground is cleared

The Estate agent situated next to the Museum in the centre of Rojales has the artistic plans of the new Centro Commercial in the window of the office, so if you are interested in what it might be like, take a look, mind you the artistic representation of our road had palm trees along it, and a grassy square, these did not happen so obviously we will have to allow for artistic licence.

Rojales Jazz Festival

Organised by the town hall of Rojales and the tourism sector, we have over three weeks of jazz related happenings in Rojales, starting on the 14th March and finishing on 4th April, entry is free to all the events.
There will be concerts of modern and classical jazz at the Teatro Capitol and workshops and seminars at the Centro Cultural. A full programme is available at the tourist office.

The Moving Population

Well we have been here for over three years now, we were the first to move into the road along with John and Linda, we watched the block of apartments opposite get finished off and people move in, its noticable how many people have sold up again, left to go back to the UK or permanently let their property, there are several properties on the market in our road but there are so many in this area for sale they are like a needle in a haystack, and with the the slump in the property market there is not a lot of hope for sellers.
Quite a few of the properties are now used for holidays ,and the longer term tenants seem to come and go on a frequent basis so we see a regular change of faces.
As more and more people realise they are not going to sell easily it will be good if they rent longer term so that we can continue to have a good community.