Reaching for the thermals

I'm back in Culebrón for the weekend. Before I left La Unión I checked the State Weather Service to see whether I would need a wooly or not. After all Culebrón is at nearly 600 metres. I was a bit undecided - daytime temperatures have been fine, sunny and clear with maximums of around 27º/28ºC most of the week. Minimums though were a little scary. It got as low as 10ºC on Wednesday and it rained. I decided against a jumper though, I have some in Culebrón anyway, and I stuck to packing T shirts. Mind you, around 7pm this evening I decided it was a bit chilly and I dug out an old cardigan and closed the doors.

It's on the cards. The clocks go back this weekend. It'll be dark around 7pm and we can look forward to a gradual worsening until the depths of December when it will be dark by 6pm.

As I was driving to work the other morning I realised that trees were shedding their leaves and as I sat outside a bar the other morning around 9am I wished I'd chosen a long sleeved shirt to start the day. It brightened up of course and got warm as the day progressed but there is no doubt that summer is beginning to fade.

Who knows, maybe it'll rain before long. I haven't seen any yet in my two months in La Unión but the garden here shows signs of that Wednesday rain.

Home to stay

Usually coming home to Culebrón for the weekend is something to look forward to. Not this time. No, coming back to Culebrón today was a horrid journey for a horrid purpose.

I was bringing Eddie the cat home to bury him.

On Monday evening he left the flat in La Unión to enjoy a bit of freedom outdoors. He'd done the same thing several evenings on the trot usually whilst I had an after work cup of tea and a sit down. I went to bring him in, maybe an hour and a half later, at around one in the morning. I found him lying on the ground, unmarked, but quite obviously dead. Most likely it was a car, which seems incredible given the quietness of the streets, but dead he was.

Eduardo had been with us since July 2005 when he was tiny. He could be funny, he was always clever and at times he could be a right pain in the backside. Now he's buried besides the nispero tree in the garden in Culebrón.

My life will be substantially poorer without him.