It's Been a Good Year

Ok, it's a bit more than a year, but only just, about 13 & a bit months to be exactish but we can still say it's been a good year.

15 Months ago we were going to lose our home in the UK as apparently working more than 24 hours a week (me that is) meant my wife, recovering from a double mastectomy was not eligible for benefits anymore. Fortunately I had used a chunk of pension money to pay our council tax & bedroom tax & rent to the end of the year but as were getting reduced figures on benefit that would have run out before Christmas so we would have been on the streets.

The lucky break was having enough pension left to pay for this house in Spain outright & enough left over to move ourselves & the dogs here as well.
Another cashed out pension, my last until I'm 65, was enough for us to live on for the next couple of years.

We have now lived through a Winter & Summer here, there really isn't a spring or autumn (fall to my American friends)
We now have registered at the local town hall & navigated the extremely funny way Spain has of buying a car so we are mobile.

We are organising Health Care (private) & have cried at the stupidity seen back in the UK on the 23rd June, the daft comments of some people have left us speechless.
We watch with despair the Election proceedings in the USA & so far are not regretting moving to a country that has not really had an effective government for the last year & yet somehow still seems to function, weirdly at times bit still functions.

Anyway, my blogs have got to be upbeat, hey. I live in a country where it's mid October & today is the first day since April, I have put jeans on instead of shorts because the daytime temperature has dropped to 17 degrees celsius (62.6F for those not used to metric yet)

I thought today's chat would be about roundabouts, these are maybe something my friends across the pond haven't encountered much but they allow 3, 4 & even more roads to intersect often without the assistance of traffic lights. Don't take any notice of the way the cars are going, that's what happens when you drive on the left, not too many countries do that (Spain isn't one of them)

In the UK, the first roundabout was built in 1909 which is quite remarkable as the car industry itself was not many years old at that
time, it was built at Letchworth Garden City in Hertfordshire & is quite beautiful, however here in Martos & quite possibly other places as well roundabouts, small & large are taken to a whole new level.

As I said in my last post, Martos is built in the centre of the Olive area of Andalucia & the roundabouts in many cases reflect this.

In the middle of one of the streets towards town is an Olive Press. At the other end of this road are some Olive Pickers in Steel basket work which is quite stunning but as yet, I have not been able to photograph it as I can only see it from the bus.

I have photographed this one (on the left) as it is a steam engine, presumably originally used to industrialise the pressing or something similar.

Water is a common theme on the roundabouts, in a country that doesn't really have a lot of rain & some of these are quite fantastic.

The photo on the left is at the top of the road leading down to the bus station & the one on the right is at the bottom of that same road.

One of my favourite roundabouts is at the end of our road & has the Tabac & a great bar, El Casino on

it, Unfortunately it also has one of the few places in Martos where you have to pay for parking, Officially it is Fuenta Nueva but we always call it Cherry Square as when we came out here to buy the house we bought a huge bag of cherries (for about a Euro) & ate them in the shade, a fantastic & lasting memory.

Of course not all the Roundabouts are completely explicable, at the entrance to Martos by the Industrial Estate entrance is a quite unusual roundabout with a Fiat 600, painted totally bronze & I mean totally in the centre, it always makes me
smile on our trips back from Alcala or Ventas or the Sunday market.

Being a Catholic country, clearly religion plays a big part in many locals' lives & this is sometimes reflected in the roundabout decoration, I have shown one here that is typical.

Whilst I love the town of Martos which we have made our home, we do get out & about locally & have noticed that other towns also set great store & obvious pride in their roundabouts.

For example in Alcala la Real near the Aldi store is a really fun
roundabout with colourfully painted trees, at the other end of the town as you enter it near the Hospital is one with trees that have colourful boxes set into the branches.

In Luque, a pretty little town about half an hour
away set in the hills is one of the tiniest roundabouts that can still be called such without naming it a mini roundabout, it is just large enough to hold the lamp standard surrounded by a stone plinth but still qualifies.

To finish I am showing what doesn't really qualify as a roundabout but nevertheless, I love. Heading from our house up the the pink Church is a tiny narrow lane, at the top it sort of dead ends unless you have a death wish & is mostly steps but technically there are 3 roads meeting, if you squint a bit & in the centre is this.

Until the next time enjoy & raise a glass to people who enjoy beauty.