Spanish landscapes

I'm creating a drawing a day, just for the art of it.
Today's, yesterday's and the day before's are Spanish landscapes.
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Living in Spain: pirates, salvage and ice-cream!

Living in Spain: What Can we salvage from our Chevy? And history with ice cream!

So the broken Chevy arrived in England today. Dumped outside my mum and stepdad's house by a huge truck. My mum was quick thinking enough to film the unloading so at least my two year old was happy!

The classic car garage in Rouen quoted £4,000 to replace the transmission unit but you can get them reconditioned on eBay for £400. There may also be something wrong with a piston but even that could be fixed according to our mechanic friend in Spain (who we made two days too late to ship the van here!). We need to catch a break with this van as it is ALL our savings.

It has lots of good points. Low milage, undersealed against rust, five new tyres and two new batteries (normal one and one to run laptops, kettle etc.) clearly a huge part of the quote is labour. So if someone wanted to fix it themselves, (not us we don't have the skill set) they could get a great van cheap. Do any of my friends know anyone interested? Or even know what I can charge for it broken? Any advice is welcome?

On another topic, back in Javea, I keep thinking about the fact people have lived here since pre-history. All the beautiful greenery around here is kept alive by black water pipes that loop round every tree. The palms don't grow in the sand like that without them. So when people first came here it must have been a brutal, baked place. Broken red earth and caucus plants, scraping salty rocks to find something alive to live on. Today it is raining. Those people from pre-history would have willingly handed over the last of the dried lizard meat to the gods for such a gift! English kids will be familiar with a day off for snow, Scottish kids will be familiar with wishing they got one, some kids here got a day off for rain! (I have been corrected, power cuts as a result of rain).

Even when the people here developed farming and irrigation their existence was still tough, pirates so molested the town by the sea, that the townspeople got together and had a meeting, where they all sounded like the villagers in computer games; "hrmm! humph! hrmm" as a result of the meeting they packed up the whole town and moved it two miles up hill, and inland, and built a wall around it! Me and my kids have done the "attacking pirate walk" up the hill to the old town and my nine year old will tell you, the last thing you want to do when you make it to the top is fight anyone, even if they are not behind a meter thick wall, ice cream is in fact the only way to recover! Please note: you may want to check a few dates and such if you are planning to repeat my history lesson in an exam - also don't say anything about computer games!

I have been teaching my kids to make rubbings and have included a rubbing of the city's coat of arms. We got it off a drain cover! Although it can also be seen on the court house wall. Also a shot of part of the wall that still remains in the old town and the face my daughter makes to any pirates that might survive the climb! Towns people 10, pirates 0!

The girl who rules the sea.

I'm creating a drawing a day, for two years, just for the art of it.
Today's is "The girl who rules the sea" after the wonderful Ros Reece (also drawing every day this year) described my daughter as such!
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http://www.youthforhumanrights.org

Three bright Spanish light pictures!

I'm creating a drawing a day, for two years, just for the art of it.
Only 36 days left! What would you like me to draw in the remaining days?
Today's and yesterday's, bright seed, bright trees, bright hibiscus!
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http://www.youthforhumanrights.org

Living in Spain: What exactly is that child learning?

What exactly is that child learning?

One of the strange things about homeschooling, or worldschooling (as they call it when you go off somewhere and they learn from the change of environment) is it's hard to say exactly what they are learning. I've been on the facebook groups asking questions and in response I get amazing stories of the success of this education method. Some of the worldschool parents teach a bit, some just let them learn. Children who had literally no formal education, dropped into the American school system often scored at their year level or above straight off the bat! So they learn, but what? You just mess about on the beach right? Well actually I teach quite a bit but that's not my point.

The other day Jasmine suddenly announced "Back home it's all, a plant! quick cut it back! pull it up! Here it's yay! a plant! grow, fill the bare earth!" Clearly she's observed the differences in climate, types of vegetation and how much there is around. We have seen irrigation pipes everywhere, keeping all the green spaces alive, and cactus plants growing to the size of trees. I found sea sponges on the beach and we looked them up, and found out they are definitely animals, despite having no nervous system, heart or brain. We also found out what it's like to shower with them! A walk to the harbour at night led to finding out about port and starboard lights on a ship and the lights on the harbour itself. Who knows if it's on anyone's required curriculum (except those who sail of course) but I'm willing to bet she's at least as likely to use it in life as I am trigonometry! Perhaps it doesn't matter what we learn - as long as we learn to learn and like it. If you think about it you have the same problem with school, you may know that they sat in a lesson, but you are still taking a gamble that they learn anything. I once took Jasmine to the Egypt exhibition at Brighton museum, she was so interested in the exhibits, and my stories from Egypt that we nearly missed our bus home. When she studied Ancient Egypt at school I expected her to be interested, but all I got, after a long pause, was "Um, they had pyramids." When I expressed my surprise that she was not excited she explained "Well mostly they just write on the board and we copy it." This also leads to beautiful work books filled with data, to further fool you that they are learning. I'm not blaming the school system, teachers or education, I'm pro education, I went all the way to degree level. I'm just saying it's an interesting problem to try to work out what a kid needs to learn and if they really ARE learning it.

I think my gamble will pay off, Jasmine seems to have learned more French in our few days in France than I learned in my entire time at school. She keeps accidentally coming out with it instead of Spanish! The good part is worldschool is very application lead. Is hard to interest kids in learning what they cannot imagine using except in some far off future others insist is coming. For example: Knowing I planned to tour this peninsula in a campervan, and seeing as Tim speaks quite good French, I tried to interest Jasmine in learning Spanish, together with me, some time ago. We watched a YouTube video of basic Spanish for kids, she got frustrated and annoyed with it. Yesterday I put the same video on and we watched it avidly together, repeating every word. When I went off to the kitchen to start making lunch, she put it back to the beginning and ran it all again of her own accord, by the time I had assembled some food she had made a page of notes, pausing the video to get the Spanish spelling right. The only difference is she could really see it's usefulness! Today, out there, I can use this to make a friend, or get what I want to eat! It's good motivation. Do I have a point? Can I prove my point? Not really until she's grown up and you can ask her if she judges her life a success, and if so, did her unusual education equip her for it? But I can tell she is learning and she is having fun.

If anyone urgently needs any trigonometry done this week, I'm only a message away, and I think I can remember about a third of it from school! 😂 (And if you really do need help with it, my husband, the tutor really can help you on Skype.)

Poinsettia and a sketch of a street.

I'm creating a drawing a day, for two years, just for the art of it.
Today's and yesterday's are a poinsettia and a street.
#drawingadayclub

The more painted pebbles. It's the art form in our household this week!

I'm creating a drawing a day, for two years, just for the art of it.
Today's and yesterday's are painter pebbles.
#drawingadayclub

#createadrawingadayforhumanrights
http://www.youthforhumanrights.org

Pebble

I'm creating a drawing a day, for two years, just for the art of it.
Today's is a painted pebble. Childish perhaps but I enjoyed it.
#drawingadayclub

#createadrawingadayforhumanrights
http://www.youthforhumanrights.org

Mountains from the balcony.

I'm creating a drawing a day, for two years, just for the art of it (only 43 days remaining!)
Today's (and yesterday's) are the mountains from my balcony.
The close one is El Montgo, 753 meters high, 2,470 feet. That means it's not really a mountain in Scotland, mostly Scottish people only classify it as a mountain if it's over 3,000 feet, a Munro (after the climber who first listed them). There is a crazy sport in Scotland where you run up and down three Munros in the SAME DAY, as if tossing trees around was not a hardcore enough sport! I'm not planning on running up the Montgo, even if it is just a hill. The way it goes straight up from almost sea level would make it a brutal climb, and I don't think there are streams up there so you would have to carry a lot of water.

The mountain range in the distance is the Sistemas Prebeticos. We flew over them on the way down. I'm pretty sure some of them are the real thing!

I'm afraid I have completely lost track of where the art blogging ends and the travel blogging begins, hopefully my friends are interested in both. :)

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http://www.youthforhumanrights.org

Living in Spain - The "What am I doing still here?" Feeling and two drawings.

I'm sitting in "La Siesta" it means the nap. It's a beach cafe. The view is out across the sea to the headland. The floor is literally sand, although the beach here is shingle (they have brought it in to be more beach venue). The kids are at the flat with Tim, Dylan is having a real siesta. I'm drawing the view and the jumbled white carved couches and floaty curtains that decorate the place. The sea is quiet, it's only about eight meters from me, but every now and then it "cheeks" me by sending a sudden loud wave! Sparrows abound, clearing up the crumbs the French family in the next nest of couches have overlooked.

For the first time in a while, I'm not beset by the question "How did I end up back here?" And "I'm forty and I've done what?" It's actually a pretty unfair question because the town I grew up in is a privileged place to live, I just felt too much like I was stuck. The second question is also unfair, I've traveled widely, I've started and sold businesses, I've got my design degree and a brilliant world class studio to sell my work. I've got two perfect kids. I've got a brilliant husband who always steps in and quietly fixes the mess when my plans go wrong. Yes, it's Tim who dealt with the angry buyers of the last camper, and Tim who untangled the breakdown mess - mostly in French! Still I was loading the dishwasher back home and thinking... "What am I doing here? Back where I grew up? Among the middle class, suburban retired people? (And my collection of awesome friends - mostly not local!) One of said awesome friends keeps referring to this as our "first" trip, I think she might be right. I've been around Europe a bit (France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Poland, Austria, Hungry...) with a backpack and visited; America, Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Egypt... but it's different to move off and say "Now I'm out and it's the start of my travel." See what I mean? I mean this as a change, not a ten day mini adventure. And that idea has dispelled the "What am I doing here?" Feeling. :)

Now I better go pay for my lunch, that I ordered by pointing at the menu and saying "Please" in Spanish, it was yummy (mostly onion and oil I think!) if you get something horrid by this method you should always try to eat it anyway, as it's your deserved punishment for not learning local language and customs fast enough - unless it's cheese, especially mouldy cheese, if it's cheese you are excused! Well not if its this sort of yummy goats cheese they have given me... I might be making the rules up as I go! :)

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Living in Spain - get your mittens on!

Get your mittens on!

We are in Spain, Javea or Xabia. Why has it got two names? Javea is the Spanish, Xabia is the Valencian local dialect.

The city has an astonishing 50% non locals but you can spot the locals by their mittens and furry boots! It's only 19 degrees here and a bit windy too so they are in winter clothes next to the tourists and expatriates of various places in their summer dresses!

The mountain that dominates the view is El Montgo but so far it shows no signs of going anywhere. People have lived up there since prehistoric times.

Benedorm is near here and you can get a bus if you fancy some people trafficking or prostitution! We will give it a miss. Ibiza is so close you can see it on a clear day. I've heard that despite it's club land reputation much of it is unspoiled and lovely. We are planning the four hour boat ride. My daughter will love that, she loves boats and the sea.

My kids love it here, beach, beach, beach and more beach. It's taking all my will power to do some homeschool when I want to spend all day on the beach too! The Spanish look on, shaking their wooly hats on their heads - crazy tourists on the beach in November.

The fun thing about going somewhere new is that even mundane things like going to the supermarket become mini adventures "What might be in this packet labeled all in Spanish?" "What is this crazy looking thing?" Tim bought an amazing looking fruit and we were all excited to try it, it tasted like slightly too dry apple with the addition of many huge, very hard inedible seeds! So not a huge success! However the strange melon we bought was amazing!

The city seems half empty to me, (I'm used to rammed Sussex) and very spread out, what is all this land for? between buildings? between the cycle paths and the road? beside the car park...? The answer is nothing, it's just space, land is not at a premium here.

The city also is half empty for winter. People own flats here and only stay part of the year, many apartments in our building are empty, that always saddens me, so much wealth in the world and so much poverty.

The cycle paths I mentioned are everywhere and often tree lined! We want bikes to wiz along the front to harbour or sandy beach. We are looking in the second hand shops.

We are flying back for two weeks at christmas if anyone wants to see us. We will be emptying our stuff from the broken van and selling it for scrap and freezing because of acclimatisation...so a pretty depressing christmas plan! 😂

I wrote, was it really only a week ago? That I may have led my little family down a blind alley...well this beautiful sea was at the end of it! Perhaps a little crazy courage and a leap for change is not so dangerous after all!

Europe by campervan - what now???

Europe in a campervan.

So what happened and what will we do now?

Well the Campervan was worth about £4,000 and expected to make it around the France, Spain and Portugal. The transmission now needs replacing and a piston is not working properly. The bill just for the transmission is €4,000 so it's not worth fixing. The piston not working could also mean a new engine!

Thank goodness the breakdown cover will pay to ship it home. The broken camper is currently stored in Pissy poo-vile, in France, I didn't make that address up!! So I let my kids watch so much screen time while I got that van ready that my son started calling me "Mummy Pig" from Peppa Pig and now it's bust!

Its going to my mum's street and we will have to ask her to take out our gear then we can sell it "spares or repairs", someone fixing an old Chevy can use it, good buy Sparkle.

What will we do? The short answer is live in Spain! My friend has given us her flat while she is away. There is something we are doing to help her - it's a great two-way arrangement, but as she didn't mention it on facebook, nor will I. Suffice to say we are not living on charity.

We have agreed to be here until June. We will see Spanish summer too.

We need to save, keep paying debt, homeschool and MAKE A NEW PLAN!!! I have not given up on touring this peninsula seeing everything.

Living here will also present problems we have not had to deal with before. Firstly we all need to learn some Spanish, but what will we do when someone is sick, buying unusual things...

If my friends are interested I could still blog about the challenges and joys of learning to live in Spain?

Secondly once my poor husband gets a minute (he has somehow managed to keep tutoring on Skype throughout this crazy time) we will make a new plan.

I am open to ideas and input from my friends, as long as they don't involve towing a caravan! What a terrifying idea! We don't want to pay for hotels, or even camp sites every night, so some sort of van that can use the Airs  makes the trip less so so so much cheaper. What could I get? What would we need to save? Who could source a good one that might not break!??

We are all enjoying our time here. We are happy.

Thank you again to all my friends for the floods of love, help and support. ️Xxxxxxxxxxxx 

Europe by campervan, not anymore!

Europe by campervan.

Well not any more.

The van that cost more than £1,000 a night to sleep in for three nights! Argh!!

It's official the bill to fix the van is approximately the same as we paid for her. Both the garages that recently did work are not to blame, the guy who sold it to me is not to blame, it was just bad luck, it could have gone for years, it didn't.

All day on the phone to insurance and grange and UK family.

We are not going to tour Europe in a camper - at least not just now - but we are going to live in Spain until June, after that there is no plan as yet.

We had to snatch some stuff from the camper as they stood over us waiting to load it on a truck to go to "Engleter" where we have to sell it for parts! But we are flying to Spain, via Paris to live till June.

So we did launch!

We will avoid English winter!

We are worldschoolers!

However the camper was a financial disaster. Good and bad!

Thank you so so so much for all the support!!! Amazing!!!!

Europe by campervan - tails between our legs!

Europe by campervan.

I think we might come home with our tails between our legs. You all have my permission to laugh at me. Two days in France and we broke down! The ferry was wonderful! That "we did it" feeling caught hold of us all and the sunlight, struck the sea and our hearts alike. I did pretty well driving on the other side of the road (a few non serious mistakes) and we somehow managed to sleep in the van with too much stuff everywhere! There was a lot of frost on the van in the morning. The morning was freezing!!! We always knew it was late in the year and we should head straight South. I set off to do a decent chunk of France in a day and 1 hour in, on a busy roundabout the steering went shudder, shuddering, shudder! The whole van became difficult to drive and even difficult to stop. I chose the least busy exit and found a bit of gravel (sort of semi-layby) to pull up on. Long wait, very scared daughter crying to go home. Breakdown truck. Long wait at garage for taxi to hotel. They say it's the transition, that's pretty serious. They say call tomorrow and then we have to choose. Getting the van and us home is covered or fix it here (fixing it is not covered) and continue. Jasmine, the trips previous best advocate, is begging to go home. I got a proper scare. If the van had done that on one of the windy valley sides we have climbed then it would have been even more dangerous. Jasmine wants to come home, not that we have one, and get a newer van when we can afford it. She also wants to go a big trip in England first to really test it. We call the garage tomorrow for news. Jasmine may have a point??!!? The trouble with the Chevy is its old and American so it always has to go to a specific garage to be fixed.

If we do what Jasmine wants, where do we live while we fix and sell the Chevy?? And sell it and what should we buy that is reliable and we can afford? A mini bus?" Whatever it is we have to turn it into a campervan and register it as such or no Aires and britstops so no free accommodation! Or should we just fix it and continue? I'm exhausted, scared and sick of the cold after only two days travel. Right now I would love to go home. Have I lead my little family up a blind alley?

I know I'm always welcome on my mum's floor. Perhaps I'll take this opportunity to come home and rethink a bit. Looking and feeling stupid and unlucky. :(

Spanish coastline, Jasmine and seaweed.

I'm creating a drawing a day, for two years, just for the art of it.
I've got so behind, here are all the catch up drawings!
#drawingadayclub

#createadrawingadayforhumanrights
http://www.youthforhumanrights.org