I am still learning about the fruit trees! The bananas although exotic looking are so untidy! We need to thin them quite regularly I was surprised to find the trunks were soft and the saw just slid into them. The sap ran freely and stained the tiles on the drive which no amount of soap and water would remove. Our plot also has oranges of various sizes, lemons and a date nut palm. Although one lemon tree has much fruit, it is a very old tree and in need of hard pruning each year. The other we bought 4years ago as a small plant and this year is it fruiting for the first time since it's transplant after we moved it. We have three orange trees. One navel and two seville.The navels are lovely to eat and juice and the seville are great for marmalade.

Spain is one of the European countries that have adopted the Euro. It's a simple system but well worth in the early days, laying the coins out, face up, and testing yourself as to their value! Those bronze coins are very small to see and handle. As the UK is not part of the Euro community, tranferring funds to Spain is subject to the exchange rate on the day. There seems to be no way round this. I have a Nationwide current account. This means I can draw out cash from the cash dispensers (ATM) at a very favourable rate of exchange and no commision is charged. To transfer large amounts, for a house purchase for example, Currencies Director HIFX are professional and safe. This may take upto two weeks so for speedier transactions, a SWIFT transaction is better but will cost around 25 pounds from your UK bank. The acronym stands for `Society of Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication'.

We arrived in Spain in April so we were acclimatised to the heat very gradually. The summer days are very hot. Regularly around 24 to 32 degrees celcius. We understand that if the sun is shining on the house we should keep the blinds down, this makes the rooms quite dark and ressembles living in a bat cave! Fans just seem to circulate the hot air and air conditioning makes it so comfortable that we may as well be living further north! I prefer to live an outdoor life albeit in the shade! The aircon does make it comfortable at night so we can sleep well. Drink plenty of water, wear a hat and stay out of the midday sun. This is the time to take a long lunch, and a longer siesta. It works all over Spain. Get up early, when it’s cool, and stay out late. Turn up at a Spanish restaurant at seven o’clock and you’ll eat with tourists – the locals come out at around ten.

I want to mention mosquitos somewhere! These tiny creatures are so small and lightweight, you cannot feel them land on your skin and they can be nibbling away without you being aware. Only female mosquitoes bite. They are attracted by several things, including heat, light, perspiration, body odour, lactic acid and carbon dioxide. After she has bitten you, some saliva remains in the wound. The body's response makes the area swell and you itch. Eventually, the swelling goes away, but the itch remains. To treat mosquito bites, you should wash them with mild soap and water. Do not scratch the bite area, even though it itches. Some anti-itch medicines such as Calamine lotion or over-the-counter cortisone creams may relieve the itching. Much better to stop the mossies getting to you in the first place. We have mesh screens at all the windows and doors. We use radarcans in each room. (these are ultasonic devices) and also the small personal devices for clipping onto clothing.