House martins refugees from heat

NOW in the merry month of May, a potpourri of events and delights on our doorstep.

Firstly, I’m glad to see some builders employed again, albeit they’re from overseas, are working for no wages and building without planning permission. Some of the homes they’ve built in this and other villages are already complete and I saw one of the new-come wives looking out the single window of her tidy residence the other day, very well settled, thank you! The homes are small and compact, one room only, pebble-dashed on the exterior, but not painted. In the Canary Islands, up to recently, home owners delayed painting their new homes because as long as they weren’t painted they were deemed unfinished and, therefore, did not attract the Household Charge.

However, the newcomers I refer to could hardly be levied, given that their homes are no bigger than a teacup. Without electricity, heating, running water or mains services, they shelter under the fascia of a friendly human home, which may or may not have parted with the €100 tax lately brought into law.