Life After Retirement
This monolithic rock stands tall above the Tejeda Valley.
First visit by us and First video of 2023. We visited on the 1st of January 2023, climbing as far as the museum and sending the drone up the rest of the way. Stunning, spectacular views from up there. We shall indeed climb it soon!
A Trip through a few little known villages on the Western Side of Gran Canaria. See the sights that hardly any tourists see. Off the beaten track and down the back roads of heaven.
Sunday Feb 6th 2022. A Beautiful day here on Gran Canaria. We were late rising this morning and so, instead of our usual Sunday beach trip, we decided a picnic by the lake was more the thing…..
January 13th 2022. We felt like spending and afternoon in the sunshine of the Mountains. So, off to Presa Las Niñas for a picnic and a walk.
It’s 5th January 2022. Our “Christmas Eve” here. So it was a good day for a swim, sunbathe and walk.
Join us, and remember… This is Gran Canaria. Clothes are not an issue here.
We love this walk. The wind in our hair, the Ocean and the Sun on our skin. The beauty of nature exceeds all the mundane worries of the world of man.
If you love this type of activity, let us know in the comments section and we’ll get a few more going!
Progress continues. A lot got done today. Last of the facing rocks were laid and mortared in loose then wet sprayed.
A problem with the steps was rectified and the top step rendered safe. (It was far too small and it was impossible to place enough foot area on it for safety in the wet.)
Still plenty to do to get it finished and, since it’s still sunny and warm here on the island, we may yet get it done by Christmas!
Potato Harvest? Rooftop gardening for fun?? Hmmm. Well, not a great success but neither was it a complete disaster! It’s December, it’s still reasonably warm here and the potatoes, the carrots and the tomatoes are all still thriving. However, it’s three months since the spuds were planted and, according to the ‘experts’ here, that’s the key time to take them out. So……. We did!
We got what we deserved I guess. Our way has always been to leave the things in the ground until well after the foliage has drooped and browned. Not surprisingly, we got some decent but smallish units. They tasted good, they cooked well and they filled our bellies for the night.
What more can we ask? Rooftop Gardening For Fun! That’s what we asked for! It’s great fun up there in the sun. Have to remember the hat or I burn being a bald old coot. Sheila just basks in it. We can see the whole valley from up there and it’s pretty fine.
We have carrots and Onions and Beans and tomatoes all planted, some coming up and, with luck, we’ll get most of a Christmas Dinner out of it! Probably not the spuds though! We’ve already eaten them.
Fri 26th November 21. First day with any real rain since Feb this year. A decent recipe for cauliflower with garlic and herbs I discovered yesterday, so we needed a Cauli. Off to the ‘Warehouse’ down the road a ways ands we come back with these beauties. Cauli, Lettuce, Apples and Almonds. Just what we needed.
The car was ‘In’ for service, so we were ‘Out’ for Lunch!
It was a beautiful day. The car needed a few things doing to her, a seal, and idler wheel and a change of fluids in brakes and rad. Sheila and I hate hanging around doing nothing and so we grabbed a bus down to Puerto Mogan for a spot of breakfast.
The idea was, we would have breakfast and a quick wander the get the bus somewhere else to see how the word was doing there too. The weather was too good for that though. In the end we stayed all day. Walking, talking, looking and loving. Eventually, it seemed a good idea to return before my mechanic gave up and sold the car!
Lovely day, lovely company and good food and drink. What more can a poor boy want!
Today, a little trip out. Just as far as the warehouse down the road. A sort of Aladdins Cave of treasures. We needed Charcoal for the Barbie, Firewood for the cooler evenings and some rocks for the rockery I’m building.
Tuesday 2nd November passed like many others as another happy, relaxed and warm day in our retirement.
Up at about 8.30am to make a Cup of Tea for my Lady. Then back to bed to drink it, read the papers, absorb the news and see what the day might have to offer.
The regular weekly call from our son came at the end of breakfast allowing us to digest our Boiled Eggs nicely. He calls from his lorry, usually to tell us he’s ‘on his way somewhere’ with yet another odd or unusual cargo. These calls can last fifteen minutes to around forty five if life has been interesting for one or both of us. Today, an hour discussing films, film people and the other things you would normally discuss over dinner were we all in the same house. As we are not, and not even on the same continent, we being on the African shelf out here, it all gets said in the weekly con-flab.
We have ‘Cool’ nights here… around 16 and down to about 12c at this time of year, so we have a BBQ which doubles as a Firepit in the evenings. Charcoal is all very well for heat but the charm of sitting by a flickering fire is a strong draw. Accordingly, we go out looking for ‘Firewood’ on the mountain… Fallen sticks, branches and fir-cones make a beautiful but rapid burning fire and they are plentiful, thus combining exercise for us, with a decent supply of burnables, the ash from which goes into the garden and makes great fertiliser.
Of course, this wonderful Island is so warm during the day…..
And so, we wandered for an hour or so. Found enough of various sizes to fill our wood box and keep us warm.
To our great surprise, someone is building a brand new Camping and Picnic Area here, right on our doorstep. A huge one at that. Its well progressed so I guess it’s been building a long while.
And so, with wood, sun warmed skin and relaxed, happy Sheila, we made our way back down the road to home, just in time to ready ourselves for our Tuesday evening dinner and Cinema evening.
Tonights film was, The Last Duel. A true story of a Knight and his Lady in 1386 defying the traditional view that Rape never happened at the hand, (Or other parts), of a nobleman. Grin and bear it was what you had to do at that time because, if you were found to have claimed rape and there was any way you could be proved a liar, and there were oh so many, many ways of proving that, you took around three days to die!
Very good film. Very thought provoking for a lot of reasons. Go see it.
Smashing day with my Lover at the newly constructed, 2017, aquarium in Parque Santa Catalina, Las Palmas.
What a gorgeous day!
It was the intention today to go get some ‘Supplies’. We need timber for a project to turn the covered terrace into a warm-when-we-want-it-to-be place where we can be ‘Inside whilst Outside’, so I’m putting a huge roller blind over the open end and glazing the open side which joins the middle terrace which contains the ‘Roof Garden’.
It didn’t go as expected. We have two ways to get to the big DIY stores… “Up ‘n Over” or “Down and Round”. We choose which to do at the moment we reach the top of our road and look at the sky around us.
Today, there was cloud on the Down and Round side so we headed Up ‘n Over only to discover the road closed for resurfacing! Damn. Oh well. Time is not an issue for us sooooo, Picnic and a walk instead. “Yes Please!”
Pico de Las Nieves was our choice since there is a coffee-and-sticky-things van up there. Highest point on the island too and well above what cloud there was. In bright, warm sunlight we ate our bananas and weird sticky cake thing and drank our coffee.
Naturally, one must wander whilst we are there and so, we did. We looked out over Roque Nublo toward Tenerife and beyond, Teide clear above the cloud too.