Try to keep cool

Looks familiar

Quirky dancing seems to be a traditional feature of celebrations for Corpus Christi.

These two pictures from Orihuela show two groups performing dances that should look very familiar to my English readers.

Mosquito season is on us

Female mosquitoes need water to lay their eggs in. They don't like clean water or chlorinated water though, they prefer water that has been standing.

Once they have somewhere to lay their eggs, the females go into breeding mode and stock up on blood for energy. That is when they will bite you to extract blood. Unfortunately what they leave you with is a dose of their anticoagulant that causes swelling and irritation.

If you want eliminate mosquitoes from your garden, patio or balcony, then you need to make sure there are no pools of water they could use to breed in.

Note the route

It is well worth going down into the town on Sunday afternoon to walk this route and see the magnificent work that the neighbours have done to prepare for the procession.

Corpus this weekend

Photo Rally 1

With my fellow photographers, receiving our diplomas.

What a shambles

It seems that the contest to find the replacement for Mrs May has descended into a farcical situation where each of the candidates feels the need to come clean on whether they ever took drugs. Michael Gove confessed that he took cocaine, others smoked cannabis or opium and Boris Johnson thought he might or might not have snorted cocaine - it could have been icing sugar which either did or did not go up his nose.

They all believe that, one way or another, they can deliver Brexit by Halloween or maybe not. In spite of overwhelming evidence that a “hard Brexit” would cost Britain dearly and in any case would be blocked by parliament, most say that would be their default option. The EU have categorically said that there will be no more negotiation so where does that leave us?

When Gordon Brown succeeded Tony Blair, Johnson said they should have had a general election to give him a mandate from the public. I wonder whether he will stick to that principle if he is elected? Indeed, will any of them risk “going to the country” to confirm their position?

The big clean up

Now that we have more visitors to La Pedrera as a result of the opening of  Ruta Alquibla, there has been a noticeable increase in the amount of litter.

In an ideal world, everyone would take their bottles and plastic bags home with them but sadly we no longer live in that sort of world.

We know that plastic waste is a real danger to wildlife which is why environmental organisations are putting their weight behind this initiative.

This is not a problem confined to Bigastro. Throughout the country teams will be meeting up on the 15th June to clear up their areas of natural beauty.

All that you are asked to do is give up one hour of your time between 7:30pm and 8:30pm to help clean up the leisure zone.

As the slogan says, "we are part of the problem and part of the solution". 

NB You may have noticed a team of workers in yellow vests cleaning up the roundabouts. This is an annual campaign for which Bigastro receives funding. In time they will cover the whole of the town and clean up verges pathways, parks etc including those in our urbanisation.

Photo rally

Having submitted a few photos for this, I'll be down at the Sala Polivalente tonight at 8pm ready to collect my diploma and T shirt.

Spotted on beaches at Mazarron

The Portuguese man o' war is a highly venomous open ocean predator that superficially resembles a jellyfish but is actually a siphonophore. Each man o' war is actually a colony of several small individual organisms that each have a specialised job and are so closely intertwined that they cannot survive alone.

If you spot one, let the authorities know and DON'T RISK TOUCHING IT. Although their poison rarely kills humans, it can be extremely painful.

Little Ana

 Some of you will remember Ana Moya who taught us Spanish in the first years that we were here. The middle girl in the pink is Ana's daughter who is also called Ana.

The occasion is the coronation of fiesta queens in Molins and Ana is one of the three Infant Queens for 2019.

The format of the ceremony was slightly different to that in Bigastro but was equally delightful.

Noisy weekend