Winter is definitely settling in here.

People in the UK often say to my parents, "Why don't you go and visit in the winter, it must be lovely and warm there compared to England?"

It couldn't be further from the truth! Winter here seems colder than I have ever experienced, despite living in the south if Spain.

As the sun drops behind the mountains, the chill sets in. From being about 23 deg all day, a drop of 10 or more degrees within half an hour is quite common. One minute we are sat out watching the sun set, the next we are huddled in front of the fire.

The first couple of years we were here we bought the wood for the fire by the truck load. We could easily spend upwards of 500 euros over the course of the colder months on firewood alone.

Now we are far wiser!

The local tip is fantastic!

We laugh at ourselves as we search the local tip for the latest dumping of wood, made the day before. The wood merchant always visits on a Friday, late afternoon. We arrive first thing Saturday morning and fill up the car with lots of lovely burnable wood.

It is all seasoned, so you do not get lots of residue that could clog up the flue on the wood burner, and once lit, the heat is pretty intense!

Occasionally we find other useable items at the tip.

We have found Palm trees, which we have replanted. Old window frames and doors, which we have used, or are going to use in the garden areas. Wicker chairs and tables, perfect for outdoors. And various building materials, including a huge load of packs of ceramic tiles perfect for the building we are working on at home.

Never in a million years would we have envisaged us getting thing from a tip in the UK, but here it is an accepted part of Spanish life!

So as I have just saved myself a fortune on firewood.what can I buy.well I could do with a Dyson vacuum cleaner, I really miss not having one, although I can't seem to find a shop that sells them here!