A bit of a moan.

Up at the crack of dawn. Mist all around, turning into a generally cloudy start to the day. A chilly morning to be out of the pavement at 8 in the morning meeting a local councillor. 

For longer than I care to remember there have been plans to build houses on a patch of land behind our road, not directly behind our house but just a little further up. Building started and stopped and started again. Now, finally, houses are not only completed, some of them, but also sold, some of them, and ready for the first occupants to move in. The access road is a few houses up the main road from our house. And that is part of the problem. 

Because that little side road is now going to give access to some fifty houses, instead of the three it presently serves, there is going to be a whole lot more traffic in and out. Consequently we returned home to find a letter explaining that parking outside our house and our neighbours' houses, was about to disappear, improving visibility for drivers coming out of the side road. Not only that but the promised allocated parking next to the new houses that are being built didn't seem to be materialising. Where would residents of our row of houses be able to park? Parking space is already at a premium around here. Cue for a bit of protest action. 

One of the neighbours contacted a local councillor, (local not only in the sense that she represents us on the town council but also in that she lives locally) and organised a meeting with her. Meanwhile. Phil did some research and found some of the original letters we had all received about the project right back at the start. Armed with statements about the promised parking places, all the neighbours were up first thing this morning to witness the local councillor inspecting things and talking to the building contractor. Will we get a satisfactory outcome? We will all wait and see. 

There's nothing like a little protest to start the week off properly. 

I listened to one of the neighbours commenting to the effect that permits to do various things had probably been bought. "It all comes down to money!" he said pessimistically. And I found myself thinking of all those times in Spain when questions of corruption have come up and Spanish friends have turned to us and said that, of course, that sort of thing couldn't possibly happen in the United Kingdom. Oh, no? Maybe less frequently and less obviously than in Spain but it almost certainly still goes on.

So here we are, back in the swing of things. The weather also swings, between fine and sunny one day and grey and gloomy the next. The big difference is the temperature. The evenings are especially cool and we find ourselves turning the heating on. Have we gone soft by spending time in Spain? 

And time is marching on. Signs of autumn are around. Leaves are turning red and brown and beginning to fall. Rose hips abound. 

 In one of the local Co-op shops they are already selling chocolate Santas and mince pies!! Mince pies! I ask you! Just what is going on? You'd think they could at least get Hallowe'en out of the way first! Surely no-one is buying mince pies and putting them away in the freezer for Christmas already. Pretty soon there will be mince pies all year round as there already seem to be hot cross buns all year round. What has happened to tradition? 

Seasonal food should only be available in season! I cannot imagine Spanish bakers producing "huevos de santos" (literally "saints' bones", a weird piece of confectionary consisting of marzipan "finger bones" with contrasting coloured "marrow") at any other time than in the run up to All Saints Day. Or indeed "orejas" (kind of batter fritters in the shape of huge ears - hence the name) except at "carnaval" time. 

Time for another protest, methinks!