March
'08
Birthday
celebrations
Not.
PG & I spent the previous night being very sick with some sort
of stomach bug, so my birthday was spent lying in bed dozing fitfully.
We didn't manage to eat properly till three days later, by which
time we had both lost 8lbs. This was the first birthday in years
in which I didn't drink any alchohol.
Happily,
the previous Sunday, we had an excellent meal in a fish restaurant
(Casa Asmundo) in St. Carles de la Rapita. The menu was delivered
frrom the managers memory and the courses we were served were absolutely
delicious.
The
hinterland
We
drove up past the Els Ports park to Morella and on to Alcaniz to
see what they were like. Morella is dominated by a large castle
and boasts an ancient aqueduct which carried the water to the fortress
from the nearby mountains. We are told there are excellent meat
restaurants there and they are not too expensive. Alcaniz was more
of a working town, but had an impressive Parador which we briefly
visited for a coffee before we moved on. The mural is on one wall
of their bar.
The
Royal School, Tortosa
After
Catalan lessons one day, we slipped into the old Royal School next
door and snapped a few pictures. It is an amazing building, but
we were not able to get to the upper floors to take any more pictures.
Random
Pictures
A rainbow
framed our Finca as we were driving up to the village last week.
The
Cistus and the Lichen pictures are more experiments in my macro
photography.
Plans
We
are still waiting to get the full permissions to reform the Moli,
but hopefully they will be granted in the not too distant future.
Until then we are getting ready to build a barn to store our tools,
etc. We have met the Ajuntamente Architect who has asked that we
get a written "justification" from an agricultural engineer.
Once the Adjuntamente has that, they will give permission for the
barn as long as it has one door, no windows and a tiled roof. We
are not sure if they will allow us to put solar panels on it in
the future, but we will cross that bridge when we need to.
The
foundations for the barn are complete and the builder will start
in the 3rd week of April. We have also finished smoothing the ramp
which will be part of our driveway and have filled in the huge pits
near the Moli.
PB
February
'08
April '08
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