It's mid November and the weather so far has been lovely. My husband has been dying to try out our new fireplace with all the fire wood that we have stacked in the garage and the kindling we collected a few weeks ago. But it's been too warm. Up until now. Last week we had the first of the 'tramontana' the cold icy wind that blows off the Pyrennes. It truly is a beast. Luckily I have a coat that's like wearing a duvet, I zip it up and feel nice and snuggly.
This weekend has been a weekend of hibernation. We lit the fire for the first time (it's fabulous) and only left the house on one or two quick dashes out into civilisation.
Saturday was Carlton's birthday so the boys did a puppet show for him. (Trying to encourage them to use their beautiful puppet theatre.) It was a simple story that we'd practised the day before. Dante was the grumpy dragon. He was grumpy because it was his birthday and everyone had forgotten so he didn't have any presents. Galen was all the other characters who had forgotten the presents until he was one who knew where they all were.
The grand opening. Da da Da! Me (the narrator), "this is the grumpy dragon. Why are you grumpy dragon? Is it your birthday?" "NO!"
"Er, dragon, it's your birthday, have you got any presents?"
"No, it's not, it's in July". Which is a rather bizarre thing to say as Dante's birthday is May. Oh well, he's only 3. Eventually we got the show off the road. They stuck to the 'script' reasonably well (I don't remember rehearsing the line "Mummy my slippers are falling off"). And the big finale was Celeste walking in with her walker and all the presents in it.
Then it started to rain. We don't get much rain here, but when it does rain, it really rains. It started on Saturday evening. Galen came into our room early on Sunday morning telling me the floor was wet in the bathroom. Thinking it was just damp from bath time I told him to go back to bed. And later realised it was like a swimming pool as water had come in from the sky light in the attic above. (I had told the estate agent about it, but it took them 6 months for the plumber to come back to fix the pressure valve on the boiler.) In the meantime, several large buckets will suffice.
On Sunday in Palafrugell, there is a large market selling fruit, vegetable, clothes, everything really. It's a bit of a social event, people sit in the square drinking a 'little beer'. I normally go early to avoid the crowds and buy my fruit and veg for the week. Even at 8.30 there are quite a lot of people there. But not today. It's spitting a little as I leave the house but it's only a 2 minute walk and "I'm British" I think, I can cope with a few spots of rain.
I arrived at the market which was practically deserted. The rain seemed to be getting heavier. There was a flash of lightening, quickly followed by a thunder clap. The word 'deluge' springs to mind. The road was less of a road, more of a river. Luckily I was standing near a manhole cover which was slightly raised and the river seemed to be flowing around me. It was quite good fun. If I'd had my wellies on I could have done splashing in the puddles like the boys. As I finished making my purchases the rain eased up and I even saw the sun poking out from behind a cloud. Hmm, didn't time that very well. I returned home rather more soggy that I had left.
We managed a turn around the market later on in the morning but spent the rest of the day snuggling in our mice warm house. Enjoying the fire, roasting chestnuts and 'tidying up' (the house looked more messy at the end of the weekend that the beginning).
On monday morning, it's still raining and the estate agents says it will send someone round today to look at the window. It seems that there is a 'chico' checking out all the windows in town. I wonder which will happen first, the chico arriving, or the sun coming out?
Feeding Toddlers.
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