Quiet Time

Half term holidays are behind us, so the family holiday makers have long departed. Christmas and New Year are still a month away, and so those who holiday over the Christmas season have yet to arrive. The tourist coaches still visit the village, at the weekends as many as seven at a time. Now though they bring Spanish pensioners who dismount their coach and climb into the tourist train - or wally-trolley, as we call it - for a tour of the village. After that it's find somewhere for a drink, then back onto the coach and away. In response to this annual dose of the doldrums many shops and restaurants close until Christmas, some for even longer, next opening at the end of February or later. The restaurants that do remain open do reasonably well as people look for alternatives to their regular haunts, but it is still probable that you will get a table without booking ahead. After the temperatures dropped a few weeks ago, an anticyclone last week lifted them again last week into the low twenties. This rise was accompanied by strong easterly winds - El Levante - which severely rattled shutters and blinds and deposited a thin film of Saharan sand on everywhere. Thankfully the wind dropped on Sunday and we've had a couple of really pleasant, sunny, mild days. Today's forecast from the official Spanish weather agency issues a yellow warning for high winds and heavy rain from midnight tonight until Saturday, so once again we'll batten down the hatches and uncork a bottle from the rack. At least it will wash away all the sand!