WEDNESDAY, 13 December - This morning shortly after I arrived in the bar, a gentleman came into the bar with a big camera. He is French, he explained that he just came from the Juzcar ayuntamiento and that he needs a room for the weekend as he is preparing a story on Juzcar for a magazine called 'Geo'. They are doing eight pages with photos and text about Juzcar and as we are the only restaurant in town, he wanted to take some photos of our dishes that are typical of the area. Unfortunately, we do not really have traditional dishes of this area but we do have a couple of dishes that include chestnuts which do come from this area.

HE had a look around the hotel and wants to take a few photos today. He asked if we had a cleaning woman who he could photograph so we called Maria Jesus to ask her to come along for this and she has declined. She is too shy and or embarrassed to have photos taken of her "cleaning". Perhaps it will be me instead. He will also be taking photos around Juzcar this coming weekend including the old tin factory, the first factory in Spain and others of some of the people. This is very good for us as it is free publicity for the area and hopefully will bring us some business.

THE Jazz Festival meeting did not come off yesterday. I got another answer in the morning from one of the recipients of the email saying he could not make the meeting but wants to know what happens and will attend the next one. Someone else called to ask if the meeting was happening. And the day before, we stopped by the Casa Grande in Alpandeire, another small hotel, whom I invited to the meeting, Jesus said he did not receive the original mail and he could not attend on Tuesday. So I have decided to send another invite for the another meeting in the early days of January.

I received yet another query for a booking over Christmas on Sunday, this one from a doctor based in Detroit! I sent a note saying we are closed for Christmas. We need to have at least one holiday a year with family. Even though Ivan and I are spending this Christmas apart, a least we are spending it with our respective families. I'm off to NY on Saturday, early, and will have some time to have drinks with friends in London as I have an 8 hour layover, provided there are no delays in arrival. Ivan heads north on 22 December for four days with his family. And it turns out his parents can not come to help out for New Year's Eve this year as Ivan's maternal grandmother is not well and his parents are caring for her.

OUR new brochures were ready on Monday so we will collect them this afternoon. Yesterday afternoon, we went pine cone collecting. We got four big sacks full of them. They are great for starting fires in the stoves... much better than fire starters.

AS predicted, it is just about dead here at the moment. The weather has improved today as yesterday was foggy and cold. Today is sunny but still cool, not cold.

WE put up a Christmas tree in front of the hotel on Monday with Christmas lights and the bar is all decorated now, thanks to Dani, our bandolero waiter. He does have a talent for this. Here are a couple of photos...

WE also have a new employee, Iris, a Belgian woman who lives in Cartajima. She's been with us now for about three weeks and seems to be working out OK although she is going home for the holidays which is a bit inconvenient for us. She helps Ivan in the kitchen which is great for him as this was something seriously lacking. She has problems, however, frying an egg... she always breaks the yolk! It's becoming a joke now. But she is quite pleasant and is helpful.

HERE'S what it looks like here today. See ya.

Monday, 11 December, so we had a fairly busy passed few days although yesterday was extremely disappointing for a holiday weekend Sunday. We had one table for lunch.... no passing traffic yesterday to speak of at all. I figured it would be a bad day because everyone was heading home after the long weekend. Ivan's brother Gaby and his wife Natalia came down from Madrid for the weekend but they left on Saturday to avoid the traffic. I'm sure many others had a similar idea because business was so bad yesterday.

We were full on Friday and then 7 rooms on Saturday. Everyone ate in the restaurant every evening and a couple of the rooms were repeat clients... came back for the food. And other new clients are already planning to come back in January or February for a couple of nights with a large group filling the hotel. They loved it here and were sorry to have to leave yesterday after spending four nights with us.

The dogs now have a new dog house that Francisco built for them. We have a quiet week in front of us. I got only two response on that email about the meeting for the jazz festival so I am not expecting anymore new developments in that area. I suppose people have lost interest as I was so late in coming back with a date for a first meeting... or they will just show up tomorrow afternoon unannounced. I'm not really sure what will happen but for the two that answered I will send them a note to cancel the meeting... I see no point if all cannot attend.

I am off to NY on Saturday. More later. Today's weather, very cool, cloudy, a bit damp.

Monday, 4 December - today we should be closed but as this is a big holiday week here in Spain, we are opened. There are two national holidays this week, Constitution Day and something else to do with the Immaculate Conception, which falls on Wednesday and Friday of this week. We had four rooms booked for today but two cancelled this afternoon due to illness; we have rooms booked all week now and the hotel is full for the weekend.

We had to take our road signs down last week because of the possibility of a fine. The local tourist office manager is trying to get rid of the fine for the hotel in the next village and to prevent them from fining us... he was going to speak with the provincial government as they are the ones who would issue the fine. Good luck to him!!

The last weekend was fairly quiet as the one booking we had didn't turn up. There was lots of rain on Saturday so not much trade and yesterday we had only three tables for lunch.

This morning, I came out of the house late as this was supposed to be our day off so we had a lie in instead. I was walking the dogs when a car went by and of course stopped at the hotel. Two Belgian couples wanted some food and it was not even 12.00 yet. So they some jamon (ham) and wine and then Ivan made them some tapas. They were very happy.

One of our cleaning women stopped working for us a few weeks back because she and her husband were taking over the lease on the bar in their village, the next one over from Juzcar, Farajan (pronounced "fa-ra-HAN"). We went over there for some tapas ourselves today.

I've been doing some accounting today and a bit of website work in addition to some marketing. Our artist friend, Maggie Price, sent me an email a couple of days ago with information on possible artists that may be interested in having painting workshops here. I revised my invitation letter asking for their business.... all Americans, amd sent a few out. Hopefully something will come of that. We already have one more workshop booked in September 2007 thanks to Maggie. She sent us one of her friends who also does painting workshops and he booked a week with us. It's late to be getting any more of these in the first half of 2007 but I will continue to try to build more of that kind of business.

The weather has cooled more so lately. That said, this afternoon felt like an early summer day with a mild breeze and bright sunshine all day. The leaves on the chestnuts are turning a burnt color now and falling more rapidly. Around the valley, one can see that the burning has already started; this is an annual event, cleaning up the fincas of leaves and trimming the trees for next season. I was told that this year was not a good season for the chestnuts because there was not enough rain. I guess when there is a significant drought, it takes a couple of years to get things back on track. I thought there was lots of rain this year but because the rain was late and not enough, the chestnut yield was slim. Next year I suppose things should be better.

Anyway, at this time of year and until the spring now, one can see plumes of smoke rising in various locations around the valley on any given day. There are strict rules in place from the Junta de Andalucia on how one can burn, who and when. There must be water not far, one can only start burning from sun rise until about 13.00 hrs and one must obtain permission from your local ayuntamiento (village hall) who will tell you on what dates you can burn and for how long that permission is valid. So everyone awaits their turn and in the meantime, cleans the finca preparing piles of rubbish (leaves mainly) for burning. I suppose the branches are taken for firewood as the houses here do not have central heating(!!)... everyone uses stoves or fireplaces for warmth.

I also finally sent out that invitation to those possible participants for the Jazz Festival I proposed. Yes, a Jazz Festival in Juzcar!! Alfredo, from the local Serrania de Ronda tourist office, is very interested on the idea. I proposed this idea about six months ago and circulated a discussion paper with the various things to be considered. It met with a lot of interest then but I never got around to sending out an invite for the initial meeting to discuss what's actually possible and who would be willing to undertake what. I finally sent out the invite on Friday and am waiting for all to respond.... so far only two have. My idea is a music event here in Juzcar and a couple of other villages, the idea being to raise the profile of the valley. I receivedsome comments back from those that saw the paper and it was already suggested that the event should only be in Juzcar initially as it would be easier to organise. I think it is a good idea if it comes together..... let's see where this gets to in the coming months.

So, this blog format for creating new entries has changed... they eliminated the possiblity for me to preview my new entries and the spell check as well. What are they thinking? I'm not sure how this will look now but I'm going to go ahead and publish it.