Introduction

As I understand it, a Blog is a day to day record of small, or big things that you have done, or are going to do. Full of photographs and little text.

I would like to do it differently, if I can.

I would like to start this blog ten years ago and tell you what I did starting in 2002 right up to today. I will skip blank periods because I want to share the adventures not the tedium. A lot of the events can only be described in words. Without the context of my thoughts, the pictures are meaningless.
To begin my little adventure, I must go back to 2002. After twenty seven years of marriage. I split up with my wife. I was a paraglider then in England and after the split I took my first flying holiday to Algodonales 15km. from Olvera. I returned four or five times on flying holidays over a period of two years at the end of which I had made up my mind to live here.
Olvera is nothing like the Costas. It has always been an agricultural village and is still very much the same as it was fifty years ago. Everybody has TV, internet and sometimes, top of the range cars, but the older end have seen some awful years, yet still treasure the way of life they have always lived. Many still cannot read or write.

Winter here in Olvera can be cold with occasional snow on the mountains. It’s views are amazing and ever changing, with the seasons. Summers are always hot and dry. Summertime is when the Spanish move onto the night shift. Walking around in the 40 degree heat of the afternoon is not to be recommended. Blinds are pulled down windows and doors shut, to keep out the furnace breezes from outside and a siesta is the norm. August afternoons in the Pueblo Blancos of Andalucia are like living in a ghost town. Close to midnight all the people come out and sit on their doorsteps chatting across the streets in the warm darkness. A cool breeze is a blessing.

When I finally did come to live in Olvera five years ago, I was amazed by the countryside. I began to explore the land around me. This blog will cover memories and photos of the people I met and the things I did and saw.