This morning William started barking in that high pitched way that said he had found something very special and he wanted everyone to see. More like he needed rescuing... Sure enough he had decided he wanted to play with an eighteen inch lizard known I am told by my friends on Iberianature forum as ocellated lizard.

 A salutary tale I heard from our friends who live up near Tonosa involved three local dogs on the campo who took on wild boar and two I believe did not live to tell the tale. Wild boar are actually very shy but when there are babies the male boar will defend with his life.

Coming down from the wildlands of the Alt Emprdà, the moment the train pulls into Girona, you feel that familiarity is returning and you are that much more closer to home. 

May started well as I now have a residencia card and a medical card. I guess obtaining those documents have been the hardest things to achieve so far.  The next thing is work out what is best to do about paying taxes so we have made arrangements to see a Spanish fiscal specialist.  At the moment though I am having to send certified copies of my passport back to England, even to the Premium Bonds people. 

Financial institutions are now obliged to share information within the EU.

Amazingly we are still having rain here. The almonds are already bigger than they were when we picked them last year. 

We (my wife - Julie - me and my two nephews Jake and Josh) spent the week with Debbie and Marcus and one of the highlights was placing a geocache at a remote beach near a place called Portman.

For some reason added a comment to my own diary. What does that tell you?!!!!! And me an IT trainer. Plot lost I think :-)

.....mounted on one of the superb local stallions.

mounted on a fine stallion

Just a taster of the main event

St Helena was the mother of Emperor Constantine and was instrumental in converting him to Christianity

waiting to parade

The romans came well down the coast of Iberia......

- impossible to do justice to the workmanship

Our Lady of Sorrows carried by at 100 people during La Semana Santa in Lorca

One of the most exciting things for me living here was meeting a tortoise (tortuga mora - originally from Morocco) Photo going up on line  - he wanted to get away from me so out came the head and he scarpered into the undergrowth and shut up shop.  There has been a trendous loss of these interesting creatures down towards Portugal because of the forest fires and over development.

Ivan Cervantes - Second day at Maxxis Enduro 2007: Great week for off road racing in Puerto Lumbreras - this is where the local support went. Ivan Cervantes not sure who was outright winner yet..... This is hot off the press This was the Spanish leg of the World Extremadura 2007 The excitement of the weekend was the Maxxis 2007 World off road motor bike Enduro Spanish leg.  There is a photo which I uploaded  but I am not sure where it is I have loads it was fascinating stuff. I am still struggling to master the setting out of photos and it is making me feel a bit stupid but hang with me and I will get it sorted.

Just to let you know that I've added Photo Galleries for Barcelona, Girona, Tarragona and Lleida. General images can stay where they are, but if you want to put your photos in a more appropriate place - open the image, click on the Edit tab at the top and simply change the assignation from Catalonia to whatever's more relevant in the Image Galleries tab.

All the best

Simon

The picture was taken today, even though the date says 2005. (Gotta figure out how to change the date on my camera!)