Author: Franco

Finding a Legal Eagle

[Another retrospective post. ;-)] Having secured our intended property in Jalón, and by secured I mean that our 3000€ deposit was accepted which apparently “takes the property off the market” for 3 months, our next task was to find a

Posted in Spanish Venture Part 1

Heart in Mouth

[This is one of those retrospective posts, written after the event :)] We were introduced to the Jalón Valley on Spain’s Costa Blanca back in May 2006 by our next door neighbours. That  long weekend trip was our first Spanish

Posted in Spanish Venture Part 1

Xàbia al Plat Mariner

Another grey day in the valley that we could, perhaps, escape, if we headed for the coast. Our chosen target this time was Jávea/Xàbia which, I think, is another Brit stronghold a little further north up the Mediterranean coast. Before

Posted in 2014 Spain

Moraira Reed Bed

Our valley was mostly grey and rather uninspiring again today. We’d spent our best spell of sunshine waiting in various queues inside Dénia hospital. Once again, however, the skies looked as though they might be brighter towards the coast so,

Posted in 2014 Spain

A Novel Experience

Francine had a disturbing night; she was complaining of lights or streaks in the right periphery of her vision, most noticeable in the dark. The effect was still there this morning. We were supposed to be going for a walk

Posted in 2014 Spain

Got the Bug

After a lazy Sunday recovering from our day travelling to get here – lazy apart from an early morning run back to Alicante airport to drop our hosts off for their flight back to Blighty, that is –  our valley

Posted in 2014 Spain

The Joys of Travel

Once again we’ve been invited out to Jalón, Spain, to look after a house and our favourite little dog. Of course, when it comes to me and dogs, favourite doesn’t mean very much ‘cos I don’t like ‘em. This one,

Posted in 2014 Spain

The Final Sprint

I say sprint ‘cos today was a short run of just about 2 miles, about an hour, back to Juniper’s home base at Wyvern Shipping in Leighton Buzzard. Narrow boats don’t really sprint even when they are not having to

Posted in 2014 The Thames Ring

Olympic Locking

Our penultimate day. Having made good time round The Ring and looking as though we’d complete the trip with a few days in hand, there had been talk aboard of using our extra time diverting down the Aylesbury Arm and

Posted in 2014 The Thames Ring

22-Lock Warm Up

Working ones way north up the Grand Union Canal from London involves a lot of locks. After a lazy day yesterday getting to the north-western side of Watford, today we were anticipating tackling 23 locks along the 11-mile stretch to

Posted in 2014 The Thames Ring