Old photos and ones that I can't think where best to file!

I stayed here in this converted Provencal farmhouse in my teenage summer holidays (a very fortunate school exchange programme!). I was very lucky! Summer 1972.

From Arguelles in the City centre to the Caso de Campo. A nice trip (about 10 minutes long).

Prestigious business park. I used to give many English classes, in company, here.

A favourite of mine. The first time I went out with my girlfriend, seen here waiting for the rain to stop! Project 21 - Quarterly - 'night scenes'

In the Enclave-des-Pâpes.

I didn't mean to show this, I intended only to use it as my avatar but I am new here and somehow couldn't stop adding it to my photos! I will learn ... slowly!

I try to do these steps at least twice a day as part of my rehabillitation programme, and today I can proudly relate that I didn't have to stop for a breather once, for the first time! It may look easy but there are 98 steps and try doing it in the height of a Spanish summer! And only 2 months ago I was reliant on my walker / zimmer frame! So Isabel, bring on those mountains! :o) www.youtube.com/watch?v=fayL1WTR1Go Just because I like it!

Well, it's more turquoise than blue but it just about qualifies for Isabel's group!

A long description follows. Sorry! But please bear with me. I bought this excellent Portugese red (a good blend of the grapes stated on the label - an attractive label by the way!) at The Old Chapel Wine shop in Truro, Cornwall. They have an excellent range there. This shop used to be Laymont and Shaw, a well known firm back in the day, specialising in Spanish wines before they became fashionable. They actually had wine shipped in from Spain as the shop backs onto the tiny River Fal inlet that is the 'port' in Truro. Anyway, in the early 1980s, I used to drive down to Cornwall from London to visit relatives in Zennor from time to time and on the way back would stop off here to pick up my Dad's annual allocation of Vega Sicilia Unico and Essencia. These are without doubt what are known as 'trophy wines' and are famous as being Spain's greatest reds. They were then (and I think still are) on special allocation only and my parents (who then owned the award-winning wine shop the Wine House in Wallington, Surrey) were fortunate enough to be allowed an allocation of 10 cases of each of these special wines! I mentioned this to the current owner and we spent hours discussing all aspects of the wine trade these past 40 years! I still have some Vega Sicilia here in my Dad's Cellar. I think it's the 1990 (I'll check tomorrow, as we have only recently disposed of the last of my 1970s on my mum's birthday - it was still fresh and lively and extremely complex and very rich; a wine hedonist's dream!!) My Dad still has a 67 but it's so low in the neck that it must have expired by now - a pity! I'll take photos of my 'specials' and post them here one day. Sorry to bore you non-wine lovers!

That enormous converted farmhouse seen under the Roman bridge over the river Toulourenc, had 12 bedrooms. It was the summer retreat of the family of my school French-exchange partner. I came here most summers from the age of 14 until my early twenties. How lucky was I??!!! It was a very formative experience! I'm still in contact with him by the way, so that's 51 years and my first visit there seems like yesterday! I did use black and white for my first holiday there so this must have been taken in 1972. A bit of Led Zep and why not? Sight and Sound www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaVFvWk3VZE

I just thought this was especially nicely selected, arranged and presented. A shout out to Linda of Linda's Flowers, Redruth.

Poor lighting in the kitchen and I could have waited for daylight but someone asked me to show some of my specials wines so I post 2 photos today. It's not always easy to read the labels so here goes (a summary) L to R: Penfolds Grange 1999 - Australia's most iconic red and a recognised 'trophy wine'. Viña Tondonia white Rioja 1981. An extraordinary wine. I once drank a glass from a bottle that had been left open after a wine tasting three months earlier and still sublime! Château Pouilly, Pouilly Fuissé, 2009. Maybe too old but hope not and will open it soon. UPDATE, HAD IT LAST NIGHT WITH TROUT AND ALMONDS - A PERFECT MATCH! Vega Sicila Unico 1990. Spain's most famous wine and another 'trophy wine'. A 1973 was one of the two greatest wines I've ever tasted (the other being a half-bottle of La Mission Haut-Brion 1963 on my 30th birthday. I've still got the empty bottle and might show it one day. Château Mouton-Rothschild 1998. I'm looking firward to my first tsting of a 1st class growth Pauillac, Bordeaux at some future date. It goes without saying that this is another so-called trophy wine! Obviously not everyday drinking!

La Mission Haut-Brion, 1963 half-bottle. Faded label. This wine was found by my Dad in a wine merchant's shop in Brighton. He got it to have with my 30th birthday meal. So it was 25 years old when we opened it, and that was 35 years ago but remembered in perfect detail! (... and so good I kept the bottle, which I very rarely do). So my parents, me and my girlfriend at that time enjoyed two (very) small glasses each - one with the main course (grouse from memory because I can recall helping my mum pluck and draw them) and the other with the cheese. The surprise to me (and to those of you in the know) is that 1963 is widely considered to be one of the very worst Bordeaux vintages of the 20th century. Nevertheless, La Mission have a reputation for producing great wines even in atrocious years and they excelled themselves with this one!