Sunday walk The cortijo is is a wonderful location for walking but planting, clearing and tidying up has taken precedence. Now that our plans to walk the Camino Frances are firming up we need to firm up our muscles too! Where better to start than to walk out of the door of the cortijo. We climbed up to the azeicia and followed it - more or less along the contour - to the take off at the river. At times the channel is cut into the cliff and the drop alongside is vertiginous. The water in the river was icy cold, not surprising as the snowline is not far above at the moment. Here it cascades down over a series of waterfalls and is diverted into our azeicia through gates. Along the way we were surprised by four cabras - the native mountain goats. Spot them if you can! The chestnuts are not yet in leaf, but pussy willow and many wild flowers already bloom abundantly on the banks of the azeicia. The little white spot on the slope directly in front is our car. Just below and to the left is the flat roof of the cortijo. Beyond in the distance is the coast.

Almond blossom and icicles Clouds of pink and white almond blossom everywhere - more near the coast and lower down - but even up at 1,200 metres at the cortijo the buds are bursting. Narcissi too are blooming. But nights are still cold and the water in the azeicias cold enough for icicles to form along the banks.

Experimental salchichas at Bordaila

Encarni told me that this was the first time they had tried to make sausages. 'It's an experiment' she said. Our neighbours bought 15 kilos of leg of pork which the men minced up by hand. Fortunately they had a house full of friends to help.

The women were in charge of the mixing. In go minced garlic, minced red peppers and a variety of other spices - my spanish isn't good enough to catch what they all were.

Then, mix well. Take a little, fry and taste. Lubricate the whole proceedings with a little homemade vino dulce.

We missed the next bit as we had to leave for Salobrena but it was going to be filling the intestines.

Three Kings in Malaga January 6 is the fiesta of the Three Kings when children in Spain receive their gifts. The previous evening, the streets are thronged as children on spectacular floats throw sweets to the crowds. Sweets are great but champagne cocktails and tapas with friends Sandy and Jim even better. A shop window full of traditional 'crown' cakes.

Sunday lunch in Montes de Malaga, a natural park minutes from the city with Jim, Sandy and Mike. The view was spectacular - across the Mediteranean all the way to Africa.

The fare was traditional rustic - ideal fuel for hikers.

No hiking, just a post-prandial stroll through the pine woods.

Santas and the Three Kings in Salobrena

Here's to 2008 A very happy, healthy and successful New Year to all our family and friends. May 2008 be a good year for you all from us here in Salobrena.

Between Christmas and New Year The weather forecast was good and we headed up to the cortijo for a long weekend. Each morning the frost sparkled. The cortijo is halfway up the mountain in the middle of the photo.

Pumpkin soup for lunch on the terrace. Though the air was cool, in the sun it was quite warm.

Frosty mornings call for porridge. Note the 'horno' behind Rodney. This is where we burned piles of prunings and dead brush.

Breakfast - not quite warm enough to have outside.

Pulling thistles - a break from digging holes for our new almond trees.

The snow on the peaks is not far away.

And means getting in plenty of pine cones and twigs to resurrect the fire quickly in the mornings.

Lots of clearing to do but an ideal time of year to do it and great weather. Everything on the white sheet - and about five times more - went into the horno for disposal.

Clearing out the azeicia. The water runs almost constantly in the winter so we took the opportunity to top up the irrigation deposito.

A short drive down to the spring at Pedro Calvo to fill up on spring water for drinking.

And a short drive up to fill up on pine logs. The forest was burned out last year and there is lots of timber on the ground.