Allie in the South of Spain

  After what turned out to be a strange spring, we followed it up with a summer that we struggled to make as normal as possible. Online school ended in June for both the girls and Jose and I think everyone involved was ready for a break. Our community pool thankfully opened after much debate between neighbors and we took full advantage as the heat started to bear down on us. Summer here in the south of Spain is awful and after having spent months inside all day we used the pool as a much needed break. We also decided to book a house in the mountains for a few weeks early on when we saw what travel restrictions were going to look like. Since we weren't sure what the beach scene would be (and because going to the beach with three small children is a daunting task), we decided to head to the nearby mountains to a place with a pool all for ourselves. We stayed in a tiny village with about six houses so social distancing was not a problem and our days looked pretty much like they do whe...

You may remember our first canary, Skittles, who lived with us for over three years (read here ), making the move from our old apartment to our new one. He brightened our lives every day with his beautiful song. One weekend we left him out on our terrace when we went away and when we came back we found him dead. He had been killed by some kind of bird of prey (read here ). Bastard. You might think that you wouldn't come to really care about a pet that doesn't cuddle with you like a dog but I really did love that little bird. I was pretty upset when he died. RIP Skittles. It's been a while since we lost our last canary. We kept the cage and all of the accessories in the hopes of one day getting another one. They really do make things happier with their singing (unless you want to take a nap). In the end it was Jose's Dad who gave us another bright orange bird. We got him about 2 weeks ago and have named him Starburst to stick with the candy theme. Here he is! He...

The second half of February was pretty blah in that other than work and normal everyday life stuff there wasn't a whole lot going on (which helps explain the lack of posts here on my blog). The last few days of the month were a holiday here in the south of Spain, Andalucia Day, so Jose and I had a couple of days off work. We took advantage and went to Portugal for the long weekend where we relaxed and recharged. When we arrived home this afternoon we went to check on Skittles, our canary. His cage usually hangs out on our terrace, unless it is raining, in which case he stays inside our laundry room. This weekend predicted good weather so we had left him outside to enjoy the sunshine. He had just begun to sing again for us, something he hadn't done in a while. Life seemed good for our little bird. Jose ended up finding Skittles in his cage, dead and pretty mutilated. I would first have guessed this was done by a cat but we live on the 9th floor. Instead we figure he...

For those of you who do not know, Jose and I have an ORANGE canary named Skittles. Before receiving him as a gift two years ago, the only thing related to canaries I knew about was Tweety Bird. Here is the most important thing to know about canaries (at least the males), they sing. A LOT. Skittles is almost constantly looking for a ladybird friend. He sings his little heart out as soon as the sun comes out and keeps going pretty much all day. A canary's song is actually quite pretty. I am providing a link to a youtube video of a typical canary. Apparently  there are singing contests for these birds and Jose claims Skittles would give them a run for their money. I am inclined to agree. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=es5p9yrMHTM&feature=fvwrel So we have established that Skittles is a skilled singer. He has different registers, different sounds, he whistles, warbles and tweets. He preens and fluffs. He is one randy bird who works it to the best of hi...