Despite getting late to bed, a decent night's sleep, rising late. Owain went for a swim after breakfast while I checked that had everything ready for church, and found that I hadn't printed a large sized font version of the day's Gospel, to make for easier reading, as I've been having trouble with the print in the Gospel book used in church. The printed sheet will fit nicely into the appropriate page, and I can relax when reading. I had to start the ancient chaplaincy laptop and network printer, which seems to take an age when you have a deadline for leaving, to obtain a copy. Then we were ready to go. Just in time.
I was the first of our congregation to arrive, so I opened the sacristy and store room, to get preparations under way. John's wife Julia arrived with another full bottle of olive oil from their finca orchard in kind response to my request for more when I got to the last 10ml. More culinary pleasure ahead! Several people were away today so we were nineteen for the Eucharist, and half of them were at Bar Atalaya afterwards. Several people took a friendly interest in Owain, as they did with Kath when she was with me.
We had a drink and then drove to Maro to have lunch at the Balcon de Maro restaurant, my third visit with a different family member each time! We both had the dish of the day paella with a mixed salad. It wasn't quite as good as hoped for. Owain compensated by having flan - a sort of egg custard, for postre, then we returned to Church House. He decided to go for a swim in the sea, but couldn't find the swimming trunks he'd left drying on the back of a chair furthest away from the balcony rail. After searching high and low, he spotted them on the next door neighbour's lawn.
The house isn't lived in at the moment and the swimming pool is empty. There are high walls between each property and a high end wall beyond, 3-4 metres depending on where you stand. How to retrieve them without a ladder? In Church House garden are several three metre poles, one ending with a net, one with a brush, one with a scythe, and one plain, extendible to four metres. This we poked through the netting atop the wall, both standing on the steps down to pool level, taking turns to fish with the pole, with the higher placed one giving navigation directions.
Neither of us had much faith this would succeed, but working together with as much patience and care as we could muster the trunks were retrieved, after about twenty minutes. After congratulating ourselves, Owain went off for his afternoon swim, happy not to need a shopping trip tomorrow in order to swim again before he leaves on Tuesday. "Next time", he says, "I'll use the draw-string to tie the shorts to the chair when I dry them!" Sadly, the sea was too rough for more than couple of minutes dip.
We had an indulgent supper with dried meats, stuffed olives and mixed salad, accompanied by a bottle of youngish Ribera del Duero Tempranillo rojo. By the time we finished, the sun had set. I went out for a twilight walk up the hill. Around ten I heard again the strange gutteral call of the large tailed nightjar in the vicinity of Alcazar #1, but initially no sign of it. Then I saw it land on the antenna at the top of the roof, and call again. It flew up and circled, only to be joined by a second bird of similar size and shape, judging from their shadowy profile against the twilight sky. So there's a pair of these birds in this area, as there may have been for ages before this wild hillside was infested with seldom occupied human dwellings. Unless our greedy intrusion into their landscape kills them all off, they may well be here long after we have made our species extinct.
I remembered to post this week's Pew sheet on the Chaplaincy website, And then it was time for bed.
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