In the Garden...................

Stapelia gigantea

Flowering now is this curious succulent producing spectacularly large, unusual, unpleasant smelling flowers covered in fine, short, silky hairs.   Not surprisingly, the flowers are pollinated by flies.

Scott's Story

You could say that Scott is a little rough around the edges but that probably isn't all his fault, he has had a really rough life.

Born and brought up in California, he didn't have much schooling and left home whilst still young and seems to have travelled all over the States even spending some time in Hawaii.
He believes in God, believes if something happens, it's God's will.  He does not bear a grudge, works hard when he can find work and just gets on with life as best he can.  He does not touch alcohol,  does not use drugs and carries no weapons.  

He has been in prison in America and whilst out on Probation with only 6 months to go,  he absconded. 
He told his Probation Officer that he was going and we believe him, having got to know him as well as people might given the opportunity, and his Probation Officer let him go.   The choice he made then ensured that he no longer had options for what was to come.

 He left America some ten years ago and arrived here on the Granada Coast around 6 years ago, finding a place for himself high above the Granada road in a clearing left empty after the high aquaduct was built to carry water down to the coast from up in the hills.  Such a peaceful, tranquil place with amazing views.

He would sit with a stray dog or two outside a supermarket in Motril High Street until he was asked why didn't he get a job.  I'll work if you give me work, was his answer and so he did.  Garden work mostly, and his interest in plants and trees grew and he took cuttings, successfully, and potted them on and made a garden alongside the house he had slowly over the years put together.  He collected broken things from 'the dumpsters' as he called them and fixed them if possible and gave them away, refusing to take money for things that were God given.  Of course he would sell things as well now and again.  He did like to have conversations so it was best not to begin talking with him whilst he was working.
He built himself a 'chariot' on a bicycle and always carried his pet dogs with him when he was going into Motril.  It used to take him an hour and a half to cycle back up to his home from Cortijo Azahar after working in the garden.

                                                             
Meanwhile, his Passport expired.
 Unfortunately, one day, he happened to meet a Spanish woman who decided she wanted to get to know him better.  She had come down from Barcelona where she has a son and parents and where she was running a clothes shop until it went bankrupt.  She has access to a family flat in the next coastal village.
She shacked up with Scott but soon came the winter and with no electricity, only a cold outside shower and a 'whizz bucket' inside the house, she departed only to arrive back when the weather became warm enough in late Spring.   The relationship was very up and down, with her departing when arguments became too frequent then arriving back out of the blue.  Scott has said so many times he would not have her back only to give in when she reappeared.
He acquired chickens and rabbits for her, built a bathroom for her, generated electricity for her, had begun putting in an irrigation system, had made a fishpond from a thrown away swimming pool,  had been given fish for it.....
He was cool, he was happy.... he probably would  have been a lot happier if she hadn't been so screwed up but he must have been lonely up there by himself when she wasn't around.  One thing is for certain, she wasn't normal.

Two weeks ago, almost, they must have had a blazing row.  She rang the police who put Scott in jail overnight.    Scott told the police that she slapped him so he slapped her back.  He also told us that had he wanted to hurt her he could have knocked her head off.   They found no marks on her to justify 'domestic abuse'.   He told us that she had been trying to make him react  for a while, threatening him with an iron bar in one instance.
  Next morning she asked to see Scott to ask if they could get back together but Scott said that she had made a case against him which could not now be dropped, anyway, she had put him in jail and that was unforgiveable.
Next day, police escorted Scott back to his home and removed 'her' and her belongings.  She took out a restraining order - Scott mustn't get within ?  metres or kilometres of her.  Not that he had any intention whatsoever of going anywhere near her.

They have been to court where she and her lawyer lied.  She is claiming Scott's house as hers saying she has lived there for more than a year and that she has paid for everything whereas the opposite is true.  She does not work and has never had any money. Scott has been paying for her petrol so that she can drive about and has provided board and lodging all this summer for her.
Scott has his hearing tomorrow morning and will be sentenced says his lawyer.
She is Spanish whilst he will be classed as an illegal immigrant.  He has no money to buy himself out of prison.

Scott says that she has been chatting up another chap that Scott knows and he thinks that she might take this other chap to live up the mountain when he isn't around.
He has filled the water tank for her in case she goes back. He has left a generator so that she will have electricity and the gardening tools and all his furniture and such furnishings he had acquired.   She told the police that she had lost the house key but Scott knows she has it still so she can go in if she wants to.  He bears her no malice. 

He says she will still be around, persecuting him and anyway, he will have nothing to come out to after time inside.  His animals gone, his plants dead his property looted and taken over. He has been there before.
 
We wish him all the luck there is but he doesn't believe in luck.  It's God's will he says.

                                                             Happier Times              


                                                                                                      Sacha & Sara


















Saffy                                                                                             
                                                                                                                                                            

What was he guilty of?  Nothing very much.  After six years why would he want to leave?    He would not have left the home he had made had he thought he had an option.   He could not have wanted to go but he is philosophical........this night he is gone.  Our loss is enormous.
Vaya con dios Scott.

Update: 
Monday 14th November 2pm.   We heard that Scott was in Barcelona.

A Day in Melilla

The sea journey from Motril Port to Melilla, the Spanish enclave on Morocco's eastern Mediterranean coast,  takes around 4 hours but an overnight stop in Melilla is necessary as the ferry leaves Melilla on the day and returns the same day.

Situated halfway between the Moroccan cities of Al-Hoceima and Oujda, the city has been under Spanish control since 1496, although it has been an important port city in the Mediterranean since Phoenician times.  Now many of this outpost’s inhabitants are Spanish military troops.

Begin by exploring the old city’s medieval fortifications and enjoying the views of the Mediterranean from its ramparts. Dial in with your cell phone to get an audio walking tour of the old city; you can get the numbers for each city section by calling the Tourist Information Office at 952-67-54-44 or visiting the information kiosk in Plaza de España before you start your tour. 

While in Melilla la Vieja, be sure to hit the Museum of Archaeology and History and the Military History Museum. When the port of Melilla was dredged, more than 10,000 coins from different periods were collected, including some as old as the first century BC. Many of these coins are on display at the Museum of Archaeology and History.

The Military History Museum has an extensive collection of weapons, munitions, flags and reproductions including a scale model of Melilla Square as it was in 1846.

Before you leave the old city, be sure to visit Las Cuevas des Coventico, the Caves of the Convent. These natural caverns are said to have been excavated by the Phoenicians and have been used as hiding places throughout different eras. Guided tours are available, but the caves are closed on Mondays.

 Head over to the GASELEC Foundation’s Egypt Exhibit; there you can see over 850 reproductions of ancient Egyptian artifacts.

In the evening, sample wine and traditional Spanish dishes at the tapas bars clustered around Plaza de España. Several discos offer dancing well into the night, although these venues are most lively during the summer tourist season when the city is full of Spaniards visiting from the mainland.

A Working Weekend

Saturday morning saw us driving up to Villa Tranquila in the early morning sunshine.   It's another world up there.  Peaceful, quiet and the views are simply amazing but no time to stop and stare for long, there was work to be done.   Our young French Gendarmes had left the house tidy and clean as they usually do so the work wasn't arduous and didn't take overlong.

then...back home for lunch.

The new arrivals didn't arrive until very late afternoon. Coming from north of Almeria up in the hills, we had expected them earlier. News was that it was raining when they left home, so they were pleased to see the sun. They brought with them their two small rescue dogs and were celebrating a Birthday sometime this following week. His or hers?  We don't yet know.

We have been recently advertising that we are 'Pet Friendly' and trying to encourage more people to bring their Pets on holiday with them. 
The UK quarantine laws being relaxed from January next year will make it so much easier to bring Pets across the Channel.

                                  ..............................................................


 This morning, Sunday,  saw the exodus of the two, just retired,  French couples who had been enjoying their hols here at Cortijo Azahar for the past two weeks and also the exodus of their sweet little perra who Dobby had been oh so wanting to get to know over the past fortnight and.....

this afternoon, the arrival of part of a very large English family who will all be getting together, here in our pool no doubt, to celebrate the birthday of the matriarch on the 12th of the month. So we are informed.

Life goes on.......

Only two weeks now and we will be away in our campervan en route for England fair England.
Can't wait.

Villa Tranquila and Cortijo Azahar will be shuttered and locked,  Layla & Dobby with his squeaky ball packed off and enjoying, we hope,  their own holiday vacation at 'Seacrest' and we shall be as free as the birds in the air.  For almost three long weeks.   

A-7/E15 Gorgoracha-Puntalon Moves Ahead

The Seaside Gazette

Monday, September 26, 2011

Something, at last, is happening along this long-delayed, problem-beset stretch of the A-7, even if it only involves paperwork.

The Sub-Delegate for the Government, Antonio Cruz, visited the site on the day of the completion of the boring work on one of the tunnels – there’s daylight at the end of the tunnel, and never better said.                                                                                                    

 Sr Cruz announced that the contract for the Gorgoracha-Puntalon stretch will be adjudicated by the end of next month (October 2011).

Sr Cruz claims that all the autovia between Malaga and Carchuna will be put into use by the end of 2012, just in time for the destruction of the Planet Earth, according to the Mayan calendar.

As for the A-7 between Carchuna-Castell and Polopos-Albuñol, he didn’t want to venture a guess, bless him. Sr. Cruz reiterated that they have tried to give priority to the Port of Motril.

Anyway, the tunnel that has finally been completely bored,  just like the citizens on the Costa Tropical waiting for the said autovia,  is the one between Taramay and Lobres and is two months after the first one reached the same stage.

This advance in the construction work means that the link between Almuñécar and Lobres is 45% concluded.  Bear in mind that there is still lot of work on the tunnels to complete before they will be ready for traffic and also on the five connecting passages between the tunnels.  The stretch still needs a lot of work on the two motorway bridges; one 600-metres long and the other 700.

So, the question is, can drivers expect to be able to connect with the A-44 (Granada-Costa) autovia by the time that next summer begins, or more to the point, before the N-340 slides into the sea?    Which it is threatening to do in front of Urb Alfa-Mar.