Laws and bad smells

Granny has downloaded new version of Firefox; to no avail. All she can do is write on it, as she does now. When she tries to save what she writes, it disdains it; 'no data' it claims sternly. Meanwhile blogger proceeds to put the post up twice. And granny's site on Firefox goes back even further in time; allowing no posts beyond two before the last. Is it looking for a role for itself in Dr Who, she wonders? Thank goodness for Safari, for all its limitations.

What she is wanting in this new post is to direct you to this which explains to her and anyone else's who interested about the Ley de Costas 1988, not implemented up till now, as explained in her last post. The matter has become of still more interest to her today. Beloved, her Mr Rochester, has discovered that the house he owns in the village, contrary to earlier reports, is also affected. In one half of it lives the attic woman, tended by her carers. She is due to move shortly to a sheltered housing complex with many more facilities. Beloved was then planning to sell the house, but who will buy it now with this threat hanging over it? He needs the money for the care of the attic woman not least, so what to do? It can be let, but that is only a short-term solution. And at least he has somewhere else to live unlike many other inhabitants. In theory he and they should be paid the price of the land at market values, but on the edge of the National Park whose land is it anyway? And so-called 'market prices' as defined by government departments are always peanuts; worth much less than the price of buying another house. Of course the big developers can drive a much harder bargain. No doubt that's why the little people are targeted first; despite all the years in which developers did their much worse things unchecked. On this island as everywhere else.

There is a lawyer in Valencia who specialises in this law now and takes on such cases at a price. Some of the villagers are already turning to him. But where there is a law there would be lawyers wouldn't there? Where there is a law there are profits to be made getting round it. This lawyer claims to fight for the small people, not developers, but who can be sure of that? One thing can be sure, he won't be losing money by it.

What a week. The weather has been delicious, Granny and Beloved have swum, rock-pooled, Granny has taken the Beautiful Wimp and Tiresome Terrier for some good walks. But problems have multiplied all round them. Beloved's family problem escalates. One of Beloved's family problems, previously solved, reared its head again, if only for the moment. The accommodation thought booked for the overspill of next years Natural History Course has been declared unavailable. And now this. Expropriation. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. Spanish law can be, it is, brutal.

Oh and the dogs have been rolling in bad fish. That stinks too. But at least a hosepipe and dog shampoo can get rid of that, eventually. Of the rest Granny's not so sure.