Caring for the trees

All those trees that Bigastro folks planted need looking after. To that end, the Town Hall, in collaboration with the water company Hidragua, have organised a walk up to La Pedrera to water them.

Protection at last

We recall the time when the socialist council, lead by Moya, sold off land at La Pedrera to build an aparthotel, golf course and houses. Fortunately, the plan was squashed when the environmental action group Semprona claimed that the land was protected.   

Finally, the Bigastro town council, lead by the area of ​​Environment directed by Antonio Meseguer, has initiated procedures to declare the area of ​​La Pedrera and the hill of Bigastro as a Natural Area.

This initiative will allow the entire area of ​​ ecological, natural and historical value to be protected  against  any type of future urban threat.

Meseguer has announced that they hope to meet this goal before 2019 "it is important and we will work at forced marches because this natural space is protected, preserved and has improvements once this declaration has been achieved as a Natural Area".

Technicians from the Consellería de Medio Ambiente will visit Bigastro to delimit the area to be protected and finally, once all the graphic material has been collected, the proposal will be taken to the municipal plenary session to make the initiative official.

The new Karoq

The other day I spotted a new Skoda Karoq in Bigastro, the successor to the Yeti that I own.

I've had my eye on a Karoq since it was introduced. The range starts with a 1l petrol manual and goes up to a 1.5l petrol. Then there are two diesels, a 1.6l and a 2.0l. Most are 2 wheel drive but there is also a 4 wheel drive option. In Spain there are two trim levels, Ambition and Style and there is a 6 speed manual gearbox or a 7 speed automatic box to chose from. With plenty of add ons to pick from you are unlikely to meet another Karoq driver with an identical car.

There are an increasing number of Skodas on our estate, surely a testimony to the quality of the brand.

Quite an acheivement

Yesterday, Chris Froome became the first Britain to win the Giro d'Italia and only the third person to hold all three grand tour wins at the same time. That puts him in the illustrious company of Eddy Merckx and Bernard Hinault.

Sadly, the issue of an excess of salbutamol in his urine after Stage 19 of the Vuelta is still to be resolved. Froome says he is confident that the outcome of the investigation will be favourable, let us hope that he is right.

His four Tour de France wins, combined with his wins in the Vuelta and the Giro, put him in a class that other Britains can only hope to aspire to.

We're back!

I dare say you didn't miss us but just to let you know, we were in England from the 10th to the 21st of this month.

There were two important occasions for us to attend; the first holy communion of our granddaughter, Molly and her dance show a week later.

Unfortunately this meant that I could not help my good friend, Fonta Bigastro, by taking photos of his daughter, Lucia at her first holy communion which was on the same day at Molly's.

It also meant that we missed San Isidro which I normally take photos of. Thankfully, Fonta was there and got plenty of photos which I know the people in the town will love. On occasions like that, Fonta has the advantage over me in that he knows the people and they know him.

Anyway we are back and enjoying the glorious weather. To be fair though, apart form one day, we did have excellent weather in Manchester.

I'll leave you with a couple of photos of Molly from her big day.

Very local

We could hear the thunder in the distance and the sky was very overcast. About 6pm it did start to rain but only lightly. Then the sun came back out briefly and that was followed by weak drizzle.

Just a few kilometres away though in Almoradi and in Cox, it was a very different story. I've watched a video from Almoradi where it bucketed down and there was even hail in the rain. Another video tells a similar story in Cox. 

Major renovation

The shopping center or old town of  Bigastro, will be completely renovated with an investment of 450,000 euros.75% of the money is coming from the Provincial Council and the remaining 25%, about 120,000 euros, from the City Council as approved at the municipal meeting held last week.

The objective is to improve accessibility, road safety and also increase the attractiveness and, therefore, the value of the tourist project of the town called the Ruta al Sur.

The streets included in the project are: Calle San Joaquin , Calle Sepulcro, Ramón y Cajal Square, Maestro Grau Street, Calle Mayor and Calle Goya.

The work should be completed by Spring 2019..

Make the most of it

Once BREXIT is complete, Britain will be out of Europe so should we then celebrate or not?

The Holy Cross

San Isidro

Light up the sky

Let's hope the sky is clear so I can get a photo this year.