In today's modern time, most apartments in Spain are designed to incorporate at least one terrace and in many cases two or three if you are lucky enough. The elevated tiled terrace backed by white walls and fronted ornate railings or waist high walls is not only to complement the dwelling in appearance or value but to create a platform to appreciate the wonderful vistas from any angle. Terraces of any floor size from as little as 4sq ms to larger can be transformed to your Garden of Eden, your secret paradise, your retreat, never to be left cold and uninviting, it is after all our extra living space without the ceiling! Mostly around this little town this is all the community have so we make the most of it with beautiful mediterranean plants and flowers, the spanish have so much pride the balconies and terraces glow in vibrant colours. Plumbago is a gorgeous purple, violet blue colour, sundaville in deep red, the Jasmine - white with the perfumed aroma that lingers throughout the summer months and more. My terrace is getting close to being my haven, where i will spend many balmy evenings uplifted by the blue sea, and my garden of many colours - or i can take a stroll and admire my spanish neighbours beautiful artwork

The Crosses of May-Cruces de Mayo Celebrated the first weekend in May (May 3rd), the tradition of beautifully decorated crosses with flowers some of 3 metres high or more made by local residents and neighbours. Dating back to St Helena's discovery of 'Christ's Cross' . The story goes emperor Constantine 1 the Great saw a vision in the sky in which the Cross of Christ appeared with the words 'In Hoc Signo Vincis' (with this sign conquer) so the emperor built a cross and at the head of his army placed it! this miraculously vanquished the hostile crowd. On returning to Rome he sent his mother to Jerusalem in search of the true Cross of Christ , when later she died she prayed for all those who beleive in Christ to celebrate the day the Cross was found - and this being Spain they do just that!
With of course the celebration of eating drinking and merry making. Here we have some spectacular flower adorned crosses, just one street adjacent to me, each year the neigbours amaze me with the passion and beauty they put into it - it definitely is worth a tear!

Residents Day
Here in our town every year we have a Residents Days which is for all non Spanish to get together from all walks of life,young and old. It will start off in the morning with our local Mayor (Jose Alberto Armijo) opening the day with our Foreign Residents Councillor ( Emma Hall), music will kick start the day with local bands, demonstrations from various clubs and associations ie Fencing, Choirs, Photoclubs, Singing and dancing from the theatre workshop, local radio stations and so on. There'll be raffles and competitions
This will be washed down with plenty of local bars offering refreshments, and foods for all tastes english, french, german italian, indian, chinese, american, norwegian, belgian swedish etc. So its a time to be in with in the in crowd and make sure you get to meet other nationlities all living with sun sand and sangria. Its a fantastic day to also offer different cultures to the spanish community as well, and i do find the elders love it!!!!

With the Euro at 1.23 today l remember when we went from Peseta to Euro it was 1.66 that was only 6 or 7 years ago now, business was'nt booming, and alot of Spanish lost out, however we have adjusted over the years and we plod on, however now with small towns relying on tourism throughout Europe this is going to be a bad year for all involved from the Hotels and Apartments offering accommodation to Restaurants offering their menus, to Food Suppliers offering their products, to the Farmers producing - and all in all the amount of working people involved in this undustry! Although there will the the usual reports saying tourism is booming, each individual business will know the truth! and will feel the crunch!
I also know many pensioners retired who are losing on average 200 - 300 euros sterling per month which could be their budget for rent, ( and yes still ex pats do find it hard to re locate back to England purely because they still cant afford to) but most just DONT WANT TO
I see this is going to be the way to come for several years now - so hold on to the purse strings tightly (and loans are nt the way to go!)This is a bleak blogg but the weather here is bleak too

On my travels to the up and coming cosmopolitan Swindon, i saw my first coating of snow, crisps and clean. It was lovely and fresh, full of Swindon Spring, Its a shame i can't say that about the Swindon Council, with refuse bin bags everywhere you walked. As a seasonal traveller to Swindon looking in on the outside this puts my home town to shame. Here in Spain our refuse is collected on a regualr basis, come summer spring winter autumn and christmas day! EVERYNIGHT OUR RUBBISH IS COLLECTED. Our Town Hall Council take pride in this place and its cleanliness you'll see no rats or cockroaches here. Being an expanding international town, full of prosperity why can't the council do some BRAIN STORMING! and come up with a solution - or at least ask the people of Swindon for a solution!
This is my solution - Everyone on Commuity Service, instead of doing a bit of gardening should physically go around with wheelbarrows and remove the rubbish ( this may discourage from crime in the future)
This is dedicated to my sister who has just relocated from Spain to Swindon and all the Europeans that obviously do not understand the Swindon system just like i dont. Yet again another reason for living here and not there!!!

Semana Santa is a religious ceremony dedicated to the Virgen Mary and the suffering of Christ which is celebrated in cities, towns and villages all over Spain. Everyday for an entire week in our town devout believers together with crowds of spectators wind their way through the streets in a slow procession This is the oldest and holiest festival in Spain and dates back to the 16th century, the festival commemmorates the events of Passion, and the followers take part to seek forgiveness for the sins they have committed in the past year(obviously i was not part of the crowd).The penitents strike and eeire image as they process through the streets, they dress in long dark robes and tall pointed hats, as no one is meant to to beable to guess the identity of the sinners. Its a very busy and very moving time Holy Week, as is the Easter Holidays for children. So l am now going to take a long earned break from Semana Santa and the towns bustle of Easter,only known to most as chocolate eggs, seaside holidays, and traffic jams. I will now be looking for Swindon Gastronomy for the next 7 days, l have the weather forecast, an umbrella and my return ticket!!!