Belvis, not Elvis or Pelvis

Goodbye tenth century buildings (even older than I thought) stuck up on the top of a steep hill with the remains of a castle and its castellations and hello to a compact modern bungalow in pretty, bird-filled countryside on the edge of the village of Casas de Belvis. Yes - Belvis, not Elvis or Pelvis. 

We are number four of about five minute homes, laid out overlooking trees and more trees and some tiny fields to match. Each is planted with a lush garden of its own out front. With most of the windows wide open, it has the camping feel of being outside. I can watch birds swoop about from tree to tree making a din at the same time as sniffing the evening air and unbelievably the sun is out. 

There are children out and about which adds to the camping feel. The non-camping feature is reflected in the occasional grump of frustration coming from the other computer user in the nearby tiny bedroom whose new laptop is behaving badly and is repeatedly rejecting the wi-fi network.  I sympathise as mine has been terrorising my photographs in one way or another. I got my own back by downloading Picasa yesterday and apart from having over two thousand photographs floating about unmanaged, I can now go back to editing before posting on this blog (I think). If I can remember what I did yesterday.

Fortunately we don't have to cook (as per some camping), as our order has been taken and we will be fed in the dining room across the way, which has a small terrace overlooking the trees and fields. Our order was taken from another lovely person (our host Jose and his wife are lovely), who not only knows not a word of English but speaks very rapidly in Spanish without waiting for answers, body language or anything else. All my recent Spanish learning went right out of the open windows. Thank goodness for pen and paper, except that I was in such a tiz by then that I wrote 'swordfish' (in Spanish of course) instead of 'cod'. If Jose hadn't come to my rescue I could have ended up having my throat stabbed with all those point bones - apologies vegetarian daughters. 

Fortunately I hadn't lost the ability to ask for a couple of beers and all soon became well in this tiny world. 

Ladder Snake (Rhinechis scalaris)

We saw this on a country road this morning. It was about a metre long and made up for a lack of exciting happenings. 

Red-striped Oil Beetle

It's just as well that this was only 5 centimetres long and not the same length as the snake.