Monday

Today I spent the cool part of the morning in the kitchen. Potato salad, cole slaw, all home made..no such thing as store bought here...roasted the last pork roast for the barbecue..strange, there is no smoked pork shoulder, or boston butt here it would seem. If you ask for a pork shoulder you get a center cut roast...and the price is always right.  anyway..the barbecue was a great success, most here had never had it.. We had 14 in all, Marion(American) brought corn bread, Jo brought a greek salad, Val brought cruditeies, all brought wine...and Aurie(Spain) brought a wonderful cake, and for us figs, fig jam and blackberry syrup that she made while here. She and Pete will head back to Alicante Spain on Friday. Sad to see them go, but Michael and I will visit with them when we stop in Alicante in Nov. It is cool tonight with a hint of autumn in the air. The dinner went really well, and everyone got plenty to eat and the conversation was flowing everywhere. Our guests were Mike the American Jazz man been here 10 years, Marion the American who came for a month and didn't go home3 years ago, Jo and Stewart from Brighton, been here 2 years, Val and Martin ? British, Paulo and Didier, Jean Loui,Pete and Aurie, Alicante Spain,  cool lots of different experiences around the tables tonight. We ate on the terrace, it was wonderfully cool, I am tired... I made baked beans, something new and different to many here and what a hit..I had to go from scratch with the only bean in town  Harricott blanc..but a little brown sugar and molassas will make it work...LOL   tomorrow I will clean the house and get ready to go to Barcelona for Kim and Billie Kaye. can't wait...