After one week.

Well, we seem to be in a prolonged cold spell here with temperatures around 5 or 6 °C in the mornings and highs around 15 or so - the longest cool spell I can recall since we have been coming here.

The cool morning temperatures make early morning photography a bit less attractive but I still go to the beach around 6:45 am as, regardless of the cool, it is still my favourite time to be there. In spite of the cold mornings I have experimented a bit more with long exposures, this time using a slightly different method. Yesterday I took my tripod and made some long exposure photos with the camera on the tripod so that things that are not moving stay in focus while the moving water has a smooth texture to it. This is trickier than the earlier method of just moving the camera while the shutter remains open for 1/6 or 1/8th of a second - everything in the frame is "smoothed" out. Using the tripod method getting the exposure correct takes some work with filters and shutter speed. I know - more than you care to or need to know.

In any case, the photos here are from this method and, as they are my first effort, the photos are not as good as I had hoped. I learned quite a bit as I bumbled my way through the process so, hopefully, they will be better next time.

As I said in my last blog post, we are well settled in now and liking the rooms we have much better as we adjust to them and alter them to our needs. For example, the tiny kitchen had a door on the entry and the open door blocked access to the 'fridge and part of the limited counter space. Every time you needed to get to the fridge you had to close the door. So, I removed the door - what a difference! And, so far, I have not been charged with vandalism. And there are some aspects of this place that we really enjoy - for example, in the afternoon we have sun on the balcony and streaming into our living area, which is lovely. Having now looked at and heard about other places, given that our old place is no longer available, this place seems the best for our needs.

I actually lied above - this photo was made by the so called Intentional Camera Movement method, so different from those above. And I have also been trying a bit of black and white.  Let me know what you think.

I included a photo or two of the stone breakwater in an earlier post, but I have quite a few photos of it and quite like this one.








Ruth is having some hip discomfort so not able to walk far so our usual daily activity patterns have been somewhat limited. She has not been to the beach yet and yesterday, for the first time this year, we went to "old town", part way there and back on the bus. While in old town we found a very good walking stick/cane for her and that seems to help quite a bit.

On the other hand, I have been walking from 10 to 15 Km every day. This is one of the things I enjoy a lot here - being free of the car, if I want to go somewhere I walk. In the morning I go to the beach, then John and I do our daily walk and I usually have my 10,000 steps in before lunch. Need bread or groceries? I walk. It's great!

Last night I went to the beach just in time to catch the sun setting so, no surprise, I made several photos, a couple of which are here.

Tomorrow we meet with our JM Vacations rep so will book our trip to Seville (March 8th) and find out about the possibilities concerning the Douro Valley and Granada-Cordoba trips.