July is just around the corner and Summer has well and truly arrived here in Spain, the weather that is not the tourists thankfully – they will arrive in another month being predominantly Spanish from ‘Up North’ and Madrid.
Each year is the same, there is no Spring Time in Spain: one day jeans and a polo shirt, the next day vest and shorts, and even that feels like too much! Over the last five years or so two things have been noticeable as far as the weather is concerned here in Almerimar: the summers are far more humid (touching the levels we used to encounter in Clearwater, Florida), and the winters are longer, colder, wetter and a lot more windy.
Climate Change is certainly having an effect, and throw (pardon the pun) in all the plastic washed up on the beaches here (again more and more each year) and you do wonder what we are doing to this amazing planet!?
Still that’s not the subject of this blog post!
For us the summer means we have two times of the day when the weather makes it tolerable to do things: early morning and late evenings, and that in a nutshell explains the Spanish way of life – get up early, a light breakfast mid morning, a siesta in the hottest part of the day, and a main meal in the evening when the temperature (and your body) is as cool as it’s going to be.
For us these are the two times of the day that we see the Cats and Dogs so our days are very much book ended by the weather and the cats:
Day starts officially at 6.30am with the alarm, but in reality Dusky has woken us up long before that wanting to go out on the roof. First task is to open the roof, feed the cats their Gourmet wet food treat (dogs get a Dental Stick to keep them out of the cats way!), then tidy litter trays, move dog beds into their day time positions, have a Nespresso, and then I go for a run (OK not every day but the plan is I do as after 18 months of rehab I have finally got my knee, back and shoulder to the point where they are not the reason I am not exercising AND I have a lot of weight to dispose of!).
Sands drives the dogs down to meet me so after my 3.2km run, we take the dogs for a 3-5km walk. Back home, hot and sweaty, Sands heads off for a Faster Walk, I feed the dogs, and then I head up onto the roof to exercise, stretch and listen to the Radio 2.
All of this before 9.30am and it’s already hot, humid and pretty much that’s it for the day!
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The days themselves are taken up with AlStrays Re-Homing and Pet Transport activities, watching TV, listening to music, reading and in general trying to stay cool (although I will have an hour on the roof from time to time, whereas Sands has zero interest in being in the sun).
Light lunch, a quick comfort walk for the dogs, and then we usually all decamp to the roof with the animals, occasionally a cigar for me, and it’s fair to say most days a cold beer is much appreciated.
Rinse, repeat and see you towards the end of September as the above is pretty much it for us over the summer. Sands is currently in the UK and I have one more Pet Transport on the 21st July, but then like a tortoise in reverse, we will hibernate for the summer to avoid the tourists, try and stay cool, and spend time with the animals.