Christmas was a quiet affair here at our cortijo in Lanjaron, but we did manage to cook ourselves a proper Christmas dinner which was great. The dogs had the chicken that Richard didn’t manage to eat so they were very happy.

I grew parsnips for Christmas and New Year, I’m not keen on parsnips but I have to admit they do have a better taste about them when taken straight from the garden and into the oven. According to Richard, Emma and Jorge they all agreed they were the best they had ever tasted. As for the brussel sprouts, well they maybe ready for next year??!!!

For new years eve, we went to Emma and Jorges for lunch. We had decided to try the Spanish way of celebrating and so didn’t go out until 11pm. We went to one of our local bars called El Volante, this is typically a Spanish bar but was strangely full of British? It was to early for the Spanish, they come out to play after midnight!

As midnight approached Jose, dished out the party bags and handed plates out which contained 12 grapes each. It is tradition here in Spain to eat 1 grape with each chime at midnight for luck or something like that, one problem is that they have seeds in them. At the end of the chimes I still had 5 grapes on my plate, not sure what that means, but keep reading over the year and I’m sure it will become apparent or not. Anyway after the chimes are done everyone is milling around wishing happy new year but all with mouths full of grapes and seeds so its a bit of a messy affair! Jose then got the bottles of Cava and gave them to everyone. At 4.30am we crawled our way back home. I’m too old for this late night stuff, its going to take a long time to recover.

We headed off to Trevenque (2079m) and arrived in time to see the mothership landing! Its in range of hills called the Cumbres Verdes just outside Granada. Now Trevenque is rarely covered in snow and usually it goes within days of its arrival, not this time, and we soon realised that nobody had been up the mountain in a week! Again on came the snow shoes and I have to say an excellent day was had by all. Its a fab mountain that is usually very arid and dry but you can drop into the Dilar valley where it is lush and green. It stands on its own, is not connected by any ridges and has a steep summit from all angles.

Once again for a full trip report see sierra-nevada-news.com

Snowshoeing in the Sierra Nevada is great fun and enables you to get to places you cant walk to.

For a full report check out Sierra-Nevada-News.com

Whilst rescuing the Hibiscus tree and fetching some fire wood I managed to reopen my cut again which is now plastered together, but on a good note Richard has been making a pumpkin (as we do seem to have rather a lot of these) soup on the aga, we have opened a bottle of wine and have taken our woolly hats off.

We then tucked into a cheese fondue and wine for dinner, wasn’t really a lot left for the foxes after we had finished. We only took 1 1/2 litres of water as we thought we would be able to get more from the lake beside the hut, ha, it was frozen solid and no amount of ice axe attack could break it, so we went thirsty until we got back to Lanjaron. Unfortunately we did not have enough fuel between us to melt ice!

The next day the 4 went off exploring some snow gullies, leaving me behind (because of my still poorly finger) to take the photos. We left the area below Cerro de Caballo and headed back the way we had come in to visit another area of potential snow climbing. The clouds then came in, blocked all views, so we headed out before we froze. A quick way to get down some of the slopes is to slide on your bum or side using your ice axe or walking pole to help control your speed, so a lot of fun was had on the way out.

We eventually arrived back in Lanjaron and headed straight to a bar to help us recover from a very hard 2 days of winter mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada.

To read a full trip report visit Sierra Nevada News

China has postponed a summit with the EU because several European countries are hosting the Dali Lama. China has warned the French president that his country risks losing “hard-won” gains in ties with Beijing if he meets the Dalai Lama! Speaking to reporters in Beijing on Tuesday, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang reportedly said “we oppose any foreign leaders having any contact” with the Dalai Lama.

More than a simple diplomatic signal, some analysts said this could be a deliberate attempt by China to try and split nations within the EU.

“There are internal divisions among the EU powers, and this is a squeeze to try and see who will stick to their principles and who believes they mustn’t upset China… it’s a high-stakes game”.

Beijing accuses the Dalai Lama of trying to split Tibet from China, which sent military troops to occupy the predominantly Buddhist Himalayan country in 1949, and has routinely protested against countries that agree to visits by him.

The Dalai Lama remains deeply revered among Tibetans in exile as well as those in Tibet despite Beijing’s relentless attempts to vilify him.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama topped the list of most respected world leaders among Western Europeans and Americans, a poll showed Friday.

For the latest stories on news from Tibet visit Phayul.com