Tales From A Spanish Village: Two Old Fools And A Delivery

It’s an uncomfortable feeling being without passports. We applied a month ago, and paid a hefty fee to have them delivered by courier. Had we filled out the forms correctly? Were our photographs acceptable? Had the passports got lost in the Christmas mail? Were they destroyed in the terrible floods that the UK suffered recently? … Read more

Tales From A Spanish Village: Two Old Fools and Passports

The reason we wanted extra burglar bars fitted, and doors replaced, was because we were planning to visit Australia this winter. We wanted to leave the house secure and watertight. We had contacted our builders in March, thinking that would give them plenty of time to complete the job. Nine months later they finally turned … Read more

Tales From A Spanish Village: Two Old Fools and Builders

Way back in March I contacted our favourite builders. We needed a new back door, a new terrace door, and front door burglar-bars fitted. None of it was urgent but we wanted the work done before the following winter. Our present terrace door lets in the rain and we need burglar-bars fitted before we leave … Read more

Two Old Fools And Garbage

Since we moved to our Spanish mountain village, we’ve discovered that the Spanish are incredibly resourceful and find ingenious ways to recycle items that Brits happily throw away. The previous owner of our house used an upside-down frying-pan to cap one of the chimneys to stop the rain coming in, and sparks flying out. Itʼs … Read more

Two Old Fools And Homesickness

Joe and I have never once suffered from homesickness since we moved to our tiny Spanish mountain village back in 2004. We adore everything about our life in El Hoyo; the people, the weather, the food and the slow pace of life centred around families. Summer in our village is so hot that people rarely … Read more

Two Old Fools And Feral Cats

Coming from Britain and moving to a tiny, crazy, Spanish mountain village was always going to be a bit of a culture shock for Joe and me. Despite this being our tenth year in El Hoyo, the shock has not entirely subsided. We still love our life here, have settled into the village, and adore … Read more

Two Old Fools And Spanish Water

In our part of Andalucia, we’re lucky. We’ve never suffered from a water shortage as natural springs abound. Just outside El Hoyo is a place where locals fill their water containers, and in the next village is a spring, still surrounded by cement basins and washboards where villagers once washed their laundry and exchanged news … Read more