In the Donana National Park

I'm linking up with The Sunday Post at Caffeinated Reviewer.

We arrived in the Doñana National Park on Friday afternoon, a huge protected area of pine forests and sand dunes. Our current campsite is about 5km from the little town of Hinojos (which translates as Fennel). We cycled to and around Hinojos this afternoon along the dedicated off-road cycle path and spent three hours yesterday hiking in the National Park. We plan to stay here until Wednesday although, on arrival, we weren't even sure we'd last 24 hours. Our magic internet gadget Doesn't Work. Quelle horreur! Fortunately the Donarrayan Campsite has good wifi, but it's pricey so we're sharing an access code. My being quiet(er) online over the next few days will be due to this.

Music news: one of my favourite singer-songwriters has a new Kickstarter currently running. I've only seen Peter Mulvey play once - at the Lewes Con Club supporting Birds Of Chicago - and it's high time he got himself back over to Europe for a tour!


In bookish news, congratulations to author Erato who won the Literary Flits Spotlight Post giveaway this month for her historical fiction novel The Virgin And The Bull! I'll be posting that Spotlight on the 22nd Feb, I think. Any authors reading this, add your own book links to the giveaway page to enter next month's draw.

And thank you to Terry Tyler for tagging me in #7books over on Twitter. 1 book I've loved per day, just posting the covers. If you don't already follow me on Twitter you can Do So Right Here!


Giveaways closing soon
3rd Feb: Win a copy of Oh What A Pavlova by Isabella May to celebrate her The Cocktail Bar blog tour).
7th Feb: Win a 4-seat dinner at HiR Fine Dining in Costa Rica (value $580) or win a paperback or ebook copy of Accessible Fine Dining by Noam Kostucki.
Win one of three copies of Piggybacker by Mikki Noble.
Win copies of Melding Spirits by Michael E Burge and $20 Amazon gift cards.

(All current giveaways here)

On my blogs this week were:

Stephanie Jane
#Veganuary Food Diary - Week Four
State Of The ARC - January 2019
Books From The Backlog - White Walls And Straitjackets by David Owain Hughes
A Month In Books - January 2019

Literary Flits
The Night Knight by C H Clepitt review + #Giveaway
Piggybacker by Mikki Noble spotlight + #Giveaway
Melding Spirits by Michael E. Burge spotlight + #Giveaway
The Judgement Of Richard Richter by Igor Stiks review
The Cocktail Bar by Isabella May spotlight + #Giveaway + Q and A
The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell review
Ink by Jobie Baldwin spotlight + #Giveaway + Excerpt

Airing Out
None this week

Camping with the Portuguese Police!

Tavira 

I'm linking up with The Sunday Post at Caffeinated Reviewer.

That headline caught your eye, didn't it?!
This week we pitched up at Parque de Campismo da PSP which is a largish campsite at Tavira on the Portuguese Algarve. It feels rural with olive and carob trees for shade and terraces that are only vaguely marked into pitches. The campsite is actually owned by the Portuguese police and is only open to police families in the summer, but at this time of year anyone can camp here. The facilities are pretty good and we've enjoyed playing on the outdoor gym each evening! It's not a cheap option (€16.70 per night), but is beautifully peaceful and very handy for walking and cycling into Tavira.

Tavira is a lovely old town - a jewel of the Algarve! We visited here five years ago and it's still great. We cycled out to our previous camping spot - Cabanas - a pretty seasidey village to reminisce.

View from Cabanas 

What I've been particularly looking forward to showing you though is Street Poetry! Instead of the more usual street art, Tavira has placards up at various places displaying the poems of famous Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa. Each poem is printed in Portuguese, Spanish and English so I could guess at the original meaning and then read the English translation to see how close I got! Dave and I are talking about buying a book of Pessoa's poetry which is great because I need a fifth Portuguese author for WorldReads! These are two of my favourites from Tavira: (Click in to the photos to enlarge them)

In bookish news I am currently reading The Light Of The Fireflies by Paul Pen. Is saw this one reviewed on Daniela's Bookiverse blog a while back which reminded me Dave had a borrowable copy on his Amazon account. It's a gripping, but seriously strange story so far.


Giveaways closing soon
5th Dec : Kindle HD Fire and The Lights Of Time book
(All current giveaways here)

On my blogs this week were:

Stephanie Jane
State Of The ARC - November 2018
A Month In Books - November 2018

Literary Flits
The Diary by Vikki Patis review
The Blogger Trailmap by Chivi Frost review + #Giveaway
Death Going Down by Maria Angelica Bosco review
Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger review
The Wooden Hill by Jamie Guiney review
The Lights of Time by Paul Ian Cross + #Giveaway + Excerpt
Christmas At Black Cherry Retreat by Angela Britnell review

Airing Out
Campsite - Parque de Campismo da PSP - Tavira - Algarve - Portugal

I will finish with this YouTube that Dave found during the week. Love it!

Cycling to see Les Frères Sisters at Chef Boutonne cinema

It's been ages since I had time to write a proper weekend roundup post so my apologies to those of you who've kept popping by to find out what we're up to and who have then clicked away again none the wiser!

We returned to Chef Boutonne a week ago where I was relieved to find that Horace does indeed fit just fine onto the parking space by our static (as Dave said he would, of course!). The weather was beautiful for most of our journey down through France, in contrast to that from the UK which saw our Poole-Cherbourg ferry cancelled at about half an hour's notice (having got up stupidly early in the morning too). So we zoomed(ish) from Poole to Folkestone, stayed overnight at a nice CS near the Channel Tunnel, and made our first journey under the sea on the train next day. I appreciated that we got to be in a double-height carriage as I imagine it would have been very claustrophobic in a car. However, the journey was certainly swift and, other than not knowing when to leave the holding area, pleasantly easy. I think we'd still use the ferries further west rather than drive all the way to Calais or Folkestone again, but if we find ourselves needing to cross in that eastern corner again, the Tunnel could be our choice.

Horace at Bec Hellouin aire 

It's felt like a busy week, although I am now struggling to remember quite what has taken up so much of each day! Travelling down, we stopped at our first free aire in Bec Hellouin which is a stunningly pretty village in Normandy. It's chocolate-box pretty, almost too pretty! The aire is basically just the car park behind the abbey and there were a couple of other motorhomes already parked up when we arrived.

Bec Hellouin 

If you don't know about aires, they are dedicated places for motorhomes and campervans to stop overnight. Most French towns and villages have at least one such place. If there's no facilities, they're usually free or there might be a small charge if water, waste facilities or electric hookup are available. The system makes finding an overnight place far easier than it used to be for us with a caravan when we had to find a proper campsite each night. The EU offers grants to places that want to set up aires so there are now hundreds across France, Germany, etc. One of our motorhoming intentions is to offset the additional costs by regularly taking advantage of aires - and this one was certainly a great choice. Peaceful and beautiful with only the Abbey bells to distract us in the morning (it was a Sunday!).

Bec Hellouin abbey 

Another intention now that we only have Horace to drive around, is to make greater use of our bicycles for short journeys. The motorhome obviously uses more diesel than our car did, plus it's not always convenient to park - although Dave is turning out to be an admirable parker! So I'm happy to say that we cycled to the shops earlier this week which, as it was our first cycle in ages, was somewhat painful! However we persevered and this evening we cycled into Chef Boutonne to go to the movies. Part of the library building doubles up as a cinema with comfortable tiered seats and a proper large screen. Today's film was an early evening screening of Les Frères Sisters in VO, based on the Patrick deWitt novel The Sisters Brothers. We'd both loved the book so wanted to see the film too. VO is Version Original meaning, in this case, English language dialogue with French subtitles. A good learning tool! It was a beautifully shot film with loads of gorgeous wide scenes of desolate wilderness. I couldn't actually remember much about the novel so have no idea how faithful this film is - Dave thinks there are differences. However it was fun to be able to visit a cinema again and then to jump back on our bikes to whizz home in time for a warming curry!

Chef Boutonne cinema 

My Week in Review to the 20th May

Hope Association book sale 

I'm linking this post up with The Sunday Post at The Caffeinated Reviewer.

I was delighted today to spot that Dani at Perspective Of A Writer included one of my book reviews in her Passport To International Book Travel post - thanks Dani! She's linked to bloggers' posts about books set all over the world some of which are heading straight onto my TBR.

You might have spotted my Bicycle Accident post on Thursday? I'm happy to say that, other than an overdramatic purple and yellow bruise across my stomach, both I and my bike are fine. I've done a couple more rides since and am still loving exploring the local countryside 'en velo', but I now know to double check the brake cables as well as all the folding points. Sometimes it seems to take longer to prepare for a ride than to actually cycle.

We've been out and about quite a bit this week, I'm glad to say. The Hope Association book sale at Clussais la Pommeraie this weekend was Amazing!! Just look at all the books in the photo at the top of this post! And that was just one of the rooms! Thousands of second-hand books in good condition at just €1 each and all supporting a good cause too. We came away with six books - aren't you impressed at my restraint! - and also treated ourselves to a Coffee and Cake lunch. If you're near Clussais la Pommeraie in October - and why wouldn't you be? - there's another book sale on the 19th, 20th and 21st.

And the Atwood is signed! 

We cycled to the regular Chef Boutonne market yesterday morning and this afternoon drove in the other direction to Ardilleux for their Farmer's Market / Vide Grenier (car boot sale). There weren't as many stalls as we had hoped, but this was a very French affair in contrast to yesterday's English-style fete. We were delighted to snap up a box of ten large vintage Kilner-type jars for €5 the lot. Bargain!

One of my favourite Etsy shops, Poody And Berty, has a 10% off sale until the end of May. This is where I bought my beautiful Sleeping Eye Mask which I love so I am happy to recommend them.

We went on a lovely rural walk on Wednesday. Starting from the church at Luché-sur-Brioux, we went on to Tilleul and then found a stunning riverside picnic spot at Sompt. We later had an Exciting Wildlife Sighting at the old Laverie - a half-dozen or so Perez Frogs. Actually we heard them first - very noisy for such small animals! We also spotted a Swallowtail Butterfly. The countryside around here isn't as dramatic as other places we have walked, but I love it all the same.

Luché-sur-Brioux church 

Sompt laverie

Perez Frog 

Around the blogosphere:

InLinkz - who provide the widgets for my Giveaway Linkup and Spotlight Giveaway - have written this excellent post about GDPR and what it means for bloggers.

Anne Goodwin at Annecdotal reviews two books about Disgraced Daughters: Circe and The Butcher's Daughter.

I made a batch of my new-favourite flatbread, Pumpkin Phulka, from this recipe at Sandhya's Kitchen. I actually used Sweet Potato instead of Pumpkin and think that any mashable veg would work just as well.

Here's what you might have missed Across My Blogs this week. Click the images to visit the pages ... and don't forget to enter all the Giveaways!

	Artisan Rainbow	Literary Flits	Stephanie Jane
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Btwin folding bicycle - accident avoidance advice!

Just a quick post today which I hope might prevent any other Btwin (or similar) folding bicycle riders from finding themselves flying through the air (with rather too much ease!) as I did earlier this week. Apart from a beautiful purple and yellow bruise where a handlebar ended up punching me in the stomach, I am ok, but it could have been a much worse situation.

My accident was caused by the bicycle's brakes unexpectedly putting themselves on without my wanting them to. This bike actually has good brakes so it suddenly stopped dead! We worked out that when I had unfolded the handlebar stem prior to riding, I had failed to spot it had whirled around 360° from where it should be. The wheel was facing forwards, but the brake cables were wrapped around the upright. This might make more sense visually:

In the first two pictures, the brake cables are away from the upright stem - as they should be. In the third picture they're wrapped around it. This was so easy to do without noticing, that I am amazed I never did it before! The brake cables were already so taut that just turning the handlebars a little bit to the left slammed on the brakes.

Fortunately, at the time, we were cycling fairly slowly on a softish dirt track and there wasn't any traffic. I went flying off the bike though - my first proper fall since the childhood one that put pay to my cycling for a couple of decades. However, this time I just scuffed my palms and knees, and got the aforementioned bruise. My bike only sustained a bent mudguard which Dave was able to straighten out relatively easily before we carried, gingerly, on our way. Oops and Phew!

My Week in Review to the 28th January

First up, huge news that it is my niece's birthday today!

Happy Birthday Emily!!!

We've had a quietish week this week with just one excursion of note which was a cycle ride from Puerto de Mazarron to Bolnuevo and back. We went out by the roads and returned as much as possible along the seafront promenade so got to see different things to the last time we visited Bolnuevo. I loved this statue of a diver. There wasn't a plaque I could see anywhere identifying the sculptor though. Dave also spotted a trio of flamingos! They are in the centre of this photo below although you'll probably need to click into it to enlarge it - and squint - to see them The birds are white, not pink.

There's an old aqueduct that we've passed several times on our way in Puerto de Mazarron. It has a sign board, by parking up safely nearby is tricky. Dave remembered in time to stop last time though. Apparently the aqueduct was still in use for irrigating agricultural land until just a few years ago when the water source dried up.

In other news, two cooking experiments turned out surprisingly well for me this week! Firstly I wasn't able to find the usual dried yeast sachets at Consum to was recommended to try fresh yeast cubes instead. A pack of two 15g cubes is just 29 cents and worked brilliantly. In my standard Slow Cooker Wholemeal Bread recipe, the change was that I dissolved the yeast in the warm water and then added the salt, oil and flour as usual. The rolls came out even bigger than they normally do! And the fresh yeast is less than half the price of the dried.

I also made a batch of Scottish Drop Scones with aquafaba (chickpea water) instead of egg. These worked perfectly too and the banana slices I fried alongside the pancakes were an excellent topping. I had the liquid from a 400g jar of chickpeas which I used instead of one egg. Everything else was as per the recipe linked here.

	Artisan Rainbow	Literary Flits
M O N D A Y
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Currently reading

Waiting for the Barbarians

by J.M. Coetzee

tagged: currently-reading, fiction-africa, and charity-shop-find