Pinos del Valle has featured many times on Channel 4s A Place In The Sun.  For current & past episodes find them on Channel 4s catch-up site.

Well summer has well and truely arrived and we have temperatures up in the mid to high 30’s – great when you are relaxing on holiday but having to work in the heat is another matter!  Even the fish in the resevoir below Pinos are suffering and hundreds have died from what the authorities think is oxygen starvation due to an increase in algae in the water, but they are still doing more tests – tests on the water came back normal.  I could see fish floating on the surface when I passed by this morning on my way out of the village.

We’ve made a start on our new porch and have built the new brick archway and tiled the floor and step to the new front door.  We’re tiling the inner walls and the next job is to put the finish on the walls before we can paint.  Then we can add the finishing touches and it’s all done and can move on to the next job – cladding the lower part of the exterior walls in stone.  Suffering with a broken ankle put hubbys work plan back by 6 months so we need to get as much done on the outside whilst we have dry weather and then move back to the work inside.

Still keeping busy with the TV work and other bits and pieces so no chance of us getting bored!!

Our local Fiesta, San Roque, takes place in August from 12 – 16th.  The peace and tranquility of the village is shattered and you can’t find a place to park but they do have a good time!!

Well that’s all for now folks – have a great summer whatever you do.

Well here we are in 2011 and work is continuing on the street at the side of our house.  They have now put new sewage pipes and water pipes in and the street has been dug down, old rocks taken out, leveled out with gravel and wire mesh laid!  Today they came to start laying the new surface but rain stopped play so to speak.  As it’s the weekend no more will be done till Monday now and weather is looking better for then.  Up until now we’ve had a mild sunny week with just the evenings getting a bit nippy.

We had an eventful Christmas – we went up to the Sierra Nevada to do some snowboarding on Christmas Day and met our friends up there.  Weather wasn’t great with very limited visibility but we thought “what the hec”.  We managed to get some runs in and stopped for a coffee/chocolate break at mid-day.  After that we thought we’d go up for another run then try a different one.  However after getting off the lift and only a short way down hubby took a tumble and hurt his ankle.  He couldn’t snowboard down to the bottom so I hiked back up to the ski lift with him to see if he could hop on to get down.  However the weather had got so bad they’d stopped the lift so they had to call for a snowmobile to take him down and I had to make my own down in virtual “white-out”.  Bad enough but as my board had been sitting in the snow it had iced up on the edges and was running backwards!  After scraping the ice off I managed to get it going in the right direction and got down to the center.  I met up with our friends and made our way to the Red Cross center only to be told they’d taken hubby down to the main Medical Center.  We made our way down there and I found him laying on a steel table with his leg in the air and a man putting bandages around it.  Thinking it was only a bad sprain I then found out he’d broken his ankle (he did say he heard it crack twice when he fell!).  After sorting out all the paperwork we borrowed a wheelchair and our friends helped us get back down to the car and hubby settled inside the passenger seat.  After returning the wheelchair we waved goodbye to our friends and we made our way home (thankfully they were staying up at the ski resort for a couple of days and got an excellent days skiing in the following day – which was clear and sunny – totally the opposite to Christmas Day).  Not exactly a Christmas present we’d wanted – I managed to buy some crutches from the local Pharmacy (25 euros which I thought was very reasonable) and he’s hobbling around the house on those and also using my office chair to whizz around on (thank goodness our living area is virtually on one level.)  Two weeks have passed since the break and two more to go before we have to go and get another x-ray to see if it’s healed enough to take the cast off.  In the meantime as he can’t do any work he’s honing his driving skills on the PS3 with Formula 1 and GT5!

Well that’s all for now – will let you know when hubby gets de-plastered!!

Hasta luego

First of all we would like to wish you all a very Happy 2009 and hope you come through the current credit crunch unscathed.

We had a nice quiet Christmas and went up to the ski resort on Christmas Day to do some snowboarding and it was brilliant! Nice blue skies, not too many people and great snow conditions. We arrived at 9.00am and left at around 5pm so had a full day on the slopes – highly recommended. We are hoping to get up there again a couple of times between now and the end of the season – mid week is best when there are less people.

On 6th Jan we went to the annual Conchar Mosto Wine Festival but only stayed for an hour as the wind was icy cold and our hands were frozen but we did manage to get 3 different tasings of mosto and very good they were too. This year they had designed new drinking vessels so we have 2 new ones now in our collection!

Just like the UK we’ve been having cold weather here too – not quite as cold as UK but enough to give us snow in the village one night! It’s been pretty windy this week and with an icy edge to it. Not good if you are working outside. Phil is in the middle of doing up the front balcony ready to install a new door (he finished the other balcony last week) – hopefully we’ll get the new door in next week but we have to wait for a dry day and at the moment the weather is up and down. Hopefully drier next week. After that jobs done we need to hire another skip and have a big clear out ready to move stuff around so work can start on some of the rooms on the ground floor.

We have finally decided to bite the bullet and get ADSL installed at home and we’ve found a pretty good deal that also gives us 300 mins of free UK calls per month, free local & national spanish calls and also a cheap dial number for friends and family to call us on from the UK and it only costs 3p/min. If you want to give us a call for a chat then the new number is – 08445987008. We are still waiting for the ADSL connection but have the router ready and waiting – hopefully we’ll get the call within the next week to say it is all set up and we can plug in and start using it.

Not a lot else has happened since Xmas but hopefully by the time we get around to updating the blog some more work on the house will have happened. We seem to go in fits and starts at the moment. So for now we’ll bid you adios and update you soon on what’s happening.

December Already – Where has the year gone!  Have been very organised this year and have written all our cards and got them posted via our friends who we have seen and have kindly taken them back to the UK to post for us.  Have also got all the presents bought and posted off (quite a lot done via the internet and sent direct) so we can kick back and relax now!

We flew off to Gran Canaria for a week at the beginning of November to join our friend and her family for a well earned holiday. It was lovely to see everyone again and spend some time with them and it was also a nice break away from all the building work.  As we’d never been to Gran Canaria before hired a car to explore the island and found it to be so different in the centre and north compared to the South.  The south is very barren and rocky (not so much a surprise as it’s a volcanic island) with loads of tourist complexes and beaches but once you get inland it changes to mountainous scenery with pine trees and much more greenery.  The difference in temperature was also noticable – up to 10 degrees cooler in land and to the North.  We preferred the north of the island because the scenery was so much greener and less touristy – hubby’s not a beach and sunbathe person!  We can highly recommend a visit to the Arehucas Distillery in Areucas – a short tour around the distillery and then a fantastic tasting session of everything they produce!!  Near to Areucas is the town of Firgas where they produce mineral water (a good bet after sampling all the rums etc at the Arehucas distillery) which is sold throughout the Canary Islands.  Places to visit here include San Roque Square where the Townhall and Church of San Roque are located, nearby the Casa de la Cultura, a mill for gofio and the monument to the livestock farmer.  Also worth viewing are the promenades of Canarias and Gran Canaria irrigation channels placed at intervals and tiles painted with bucklers and local village landscapes.

After arriving back from our break in Gran Canaria we carried on with the work on the house. Slowly been scraping/chipping the walls back to the old plaster and then giving them a coat of new plaster and painting them.  It’s been a long, messy job but it’s nearly done.  We’ve had scaffolding up on the landing since August and at last it’s now down and the place looks loads bigger and much brighter. The next job to tackle is putting in the new balcony doors we bought 2 months ago – probably do this after Christmas.

We are hoping to go up to the Sierra Nevada and do some snowboarding on Christmas Day – all being well with the weather.  The ski resort opened about 2 weeks early this year as we had some heavy rain which resulted in good snow high up and there have been regular intervals of rain so it’s meant some more snow up top and lower down on the mountains around us.  The weather here, like the UK, has been cold (we are so glad we are now in our new lounge with the logburner – once that gets going it warms up very quickly) which has meant the snow hasn’t disappeared in a rush.   We are also looking forward to the annual Conchar Wine Festival on 6th January and the 3 Kings Parade on the night of the 5th (not sure whether we will stay in Pinos this year to watch the local one or venture into Granada again).

Well that’s all for now folks – hope you all have a great Christmas and a happy, healthy and prosperous 2009.

Abrazos y besos (hugs and kisses)

This years fiesta kicks off on Friday 14th August and will carry on right through to Sunday 17th August. There will be all sorts of activities happening during the 4 days and everyone is welcome to join in, so if you happen to be visiting the area that weekend come up to the village and check out what’s happening. Most events start in the evening from 8pm onwards and a huge firework display is planned for the Saturday evening, 16th, at 10.30pm (weather permitting). There are processions through the village between the two churches and bands playing music every evening at the top of the village at Juncal from 11.30/Midnight onwards with food and drink available to keep you going through the night.  The fiesta is very popular and people come to the village from far and wide and it’s definitely a lively weekend with lots of rockets going off and lively music (not for those wanting a peaceful weekend that’s for sure).

For those who live in the village the Ayuntamiento are now taking donations to help towards the cost of the fiesta and in return you will receive a programme booklet and a free goodie – the cost of donation is 60 euros.

If you manage to come along we hope you enjoy the fiesta.

Hasta luego

Friday 21st September 2007 turned out to be a very memorable day for everyone here in the Granada Region!!

We started the day with a thunder storm at 6am which lasted for a couple of hours and then cleared – we headed off inland to do our satellite work and all went well – the weather cleared there and we were able to do the job. However on the way back it started raining again and by the time we reached Granada it was pouring down – we got onto the highway to head home and then it really came down – so bad that the banks at the sides of the road were being washed away and the drains couldn’t cope – parts of the road were waterlogged and we had to drive very carefully. We pulled off the highway and headed down to the reservoir to carry on up to Pinos and there were floods everywhere – there was water gushing across the road as we drove up and the banks were being washed down with it and stones and boulders too. We managed to get home in one piece but the whole village was a mess – mud, stones, debris every where. We entered our house to find the ground floor covered in water (luckily it didn’t get into the lounge) and water on the landing. It was pouring in from the light well, coming down the chimney in the back room and the internal patio was flooded too (and that’s partly covered by a roof!). The rain had forced it’s way into the new bit too and had come down some of the walls from the terrace. When we went up to the terrace we saw why – there were massive hailstones and ALL my plants were destroyed – looks like a strimmer had been at them. The leaves were blocking the drainage and water had backed up everywhere. We spent a good couple of hours mopping up and thank goodness for the tiled floors. The rain had even forced it’s way into the top covered Azotea with the tin roof so we had a little damp in the bedrooms but thankfully not much. It wasn’t just us affected – the lower barrio in our village came off worse with 2 foot of mud down there and many people had this washed into their homes. The whole valley has been affected and the crops of olive, almonds, grapes, oranges etc have all been damaged and many farmers are having to submit forms now to claim financial support. Padul (one of towns up the road from us) was badly affected when the river there burst it’s banks and a guy from the UK had his brand new 4×4 washed away and written off with the force of the flood water.

Once the rains stopped the big clean up operation began to clear mud from the roads in and around the villages and it’s taken a few weeks to get back to some sort of normality. The coast got the worst of the storm (some even reported it as a mini tornado) and Almunecar was so badly hit that it has officially been declared a disaster zone – cars washed away – bridges damaged and someone was killed when a garage wall fell on them. The EU have put forward 70 million Euros to help with the clear up and rebuilding of the damaged infrastructure to the region. The reports in the press said that approximately 300 litres of rain fell in just a few short hours. Many say it was the worst rain they have experienced in many years (one local said she was a little girl the last time she remembers that sort of rain and she is now well into retirement). If you click on the Olive Press link on the right of the page they should have more about the storms.
We have now resealed the old light well and painted waterproof paint on the old terrace area which let a lot of water in. Under normal circumstances I think we’d have been OK but the rain & hail came down with such force that it devastated everything. Thankfully peace and calm has returned now and for the last few weeks the sun has been out and everything has dried out. At least we’ve been able to carry on with the building work inside the house.

Adios for now