After a very long period of excellent flying weather today gave us a good Cu filled sky but strong S winds, so a no go for paraglidng.  Tomorrow it seems like it will be sorted again with light NW winds.

Another amazing looking day.  I flew the tandem with Lionel´s friend and we took climb near launch to 3200m before setting off after the rest of the group.  The Ambles valley had fantastic looking Cus, our valley was blue up till the pass.

Classic XC day, though starting very early and initially threatening to OD.  We made a flight at midday, but landed as the clouds started to build high.  Then the sky became perfect around 2pm so we went for another go.  An easy ride to Avila For Bill Samson, Andy Massey and myself.  Andrew Bucknill landed halfway, and Liz tried to fly back to Piedrahita.

Back at 8pm for another epic soaring ridge run in evening conditions. 

A very easy week with plenty of flying so far.   Today the early morning sky was dominated by Cirrus, though heating soon got through and brought a light wind on the hill.   Just about stayupable at 11.30, and a nice jaunt to Barco at 2pm.

The last days, Saturday and Sunday, for our Devon and Somerset Condors group really started to come good.  We flew to the pass on the morning flight , some of us making it back to Piedrahita.  Bruno Crué on his Mantra flew back and then onto Salamanca….a bit of an epic!  In the afternoon both Simon and Paul got over the pass, Simon getting around 40km.  Sunday was an excellent day, but just a short morning flight then off to the airport to pick up our regular  guests for over a decade,  Bill and Liz Samson.  Also Colin Huges, who will be with us for much of the season now.

Colin made is first flight on his new Niviuk Hook 2 in yesterays evening flight, and today , in lovely conditions we made a flight to wards Barco.  Colin got over half way, and Bill and Liz reached the goal.   The Hook really impresses me.  So easy to launch.  As Colin is a little challenged in the leg department I usually help him off, and the Hook seem to do most of the work for us!

Wednesday turned up with the goods against the forecast.  Thursday was not so good, but two flights but OD later on and plenty of rainfall at night.  Today, Friday, a low base start, so some tourism in Salamanca, then 2 afternoon local flights, the late evening being a stonker rigde run of the whole mountain in magic air till sunset.

After Monday and Tuesday finding alternative activities (a walk on Monday and a white water descent by raft and Kayak of the Tormes on Tuedsay) today the conditions came good again.  Three nice flights, the XC cut off when Simon and I got near the pass and felt just  a little too much wind.  Classic evening conditions with a trip along the ridge to the corral and back.  The weather ahead now is looking very good now.

After last weeks dismal weather Saturday turned good with Cu filled post frontal NW conditions.  I had a busy weekend with tandems and had one unfortunate customer spend a lot of time vomiting in the air.   Things have blued out a little as the week has advanced, but with higher themal tops  (getting near now to 3000m) and a more easterly flow.  The warm weather and good XC conditions looks set to continue well into next week.

Next Monday on the regional TV there is a programme called Me gusta y me quedo.  Last week they came to to Piedrahita to do  a short documentary.    Essentially it is a programme about foreigners who have come to make their home in Castilla y Leon and how they adapted to the  Castillian way of life – in this case the Brit who has lived in a village in Avila for the last 20 years.    I hoped to do a tandem with the presenter, but the weather was very poor so we were limited to interviews with people who know me a visit to my bee hives and a look at some paragliding material.  I have no idea how it will be, but it is on on next Monday at 10.30pm on Castilla y Leon TV, also shown at the same time on their website www.rtvcyl.es

This weekend we welcomed 8 Charolais cows into our garden.  They will be keeping the grass down to a managable level for the next few months   They belong to Pablo and Jesus from the local Ferret shop and hopefully they will give us a few buckets of milk in exchange  from their dairy stock which they have up at La Cañada. 

Not much flying this week due to a most unpleasant turn for the worse in the weather.  However, still plenty to do with the house build.  I have just finished the railing of the Terrace, so the children have less chance of falling off now.  The geese seem to like it too.

On the chicken front we recently had another disaster with more  lost to dogs or fox, including our Cockrel and Bantam.  We now have a new Cockrel, a very hansome Estremaduran.

I have moved my hives down from the hills, so they are all nearby now.  A large flock of colourfull bee eaters now spend most of the day around the house.  Although they are very pretty and lovely to watch, I am becomming a little annoyed by the amount of bees they are taking.