Settling in

 I slept quite well after yesterday's travelling. It's not terribly humid so warm nights I find relaxing. There were several food items I needed to go shopping for, so I walked towards the town centre, for half an hour, further than I did yesterday, until I reached the Marina, with its lighthouse and boat yard, rammed with expensive leisure craft, surrounded by white buildings whose edges are trimmed in blue. None of the buildings seem old, not surprisingly, as much of the Costa del Sol tourism development got going in the sixties. There are a wide range of quayside restaurants with a terrace level housing restaurants above them. Spoilt for choice! 

There's also a modestly sized El Corte Ingles supermarket, and I was able to get what I needed here, no need to walk further. I tried out the tap and pay facility of my Post Office Money card and was relieved to find it worked, and that the smartphone app accessing the account worked efficiently too. Then, back home to make lunch. Two defrosted slices of merluza (hake) to go with the other half of the pasta dish I cooked yesterday.

I arranged for a wedding blessing preparation session here at the house for tomorrow afternoon, and now need to arrange a visit to Sotogrande church next week to let the bridal party to walk through their moves. I also started writing next week's biblical reflection to include a little about San Pedro de Alcantara as an inspirer of change in the church in 16th century Spain.

When it had cooled down enough, I walked to the top of a neighbouring hilltop urbanizacion to check out the view and saw a paraglider circulating offshore prior to landing. The environment around here seems to have many house martins, maybe swallows too, plus the ubiquitous starlings, though I've not seen them murmurating in large numbers yet. Then I walked down to the sender littoral, having found another point of access. Much of the path is nicely paved and there are newish wooden bridges, but in other places this is not so, due to sea erosion. When I spoke with Patricia about this she said that in the eight years she's lived here, she's noticed the impact of climate change on how far in the sea washes when the tide and winds combine.

At one point along the path a large stream not yet dried out enters the beach and forms a charco in the sand, though it's not as well established with a sand bar as ones I recall in Mojacar and Alcanar, but the forest of reeds on each bank is likely to be home to all kinds of bird life. The way off the west end section of beach goes past a holiday village called 'The Island' whose entrance road is just below the Shell filling station at the roundabout on the A7. Although not pleasant it did save me having to double back a kilometre retrace my steps, as the path comes out close to the entrance to urb, Beverley Hills.

I watched some of the news on the house telly - kitted out to show UK Freeview stations. I'm not sure how to access Spanish telly, and while settling in don't have much time for much watching anyway. So many new things to take in, and photos to take.