Time to Take a Change

At the same time new rules came into the frame this weekend, all children’s play areas are taped up again. We are not fully in lockdown but little by little new rules are making us feel it is easier to just stay home. At least this time the children are going to school and some have returned to work. We are living in unusual times and the months just have to pass. A vaccine, mutation or evolution will change this virus eventually. How to occupy that period and keep the country solvent is the question?

Some of the incomers to the Soller Valley recently are certainly ahead of us with that one. They are so busy nesting into the houses they have bought and creating their new adventure. Some of them have children who have just joined the local schools. Some have installed kilns and presses into their houses ready for vast creativity. I love all the reasons people come and join our community. This winter the newbies will be very evident as so many other people have left. Even this weekend in Soller Square was exceedingly quiet for our busy market day. That is except for the group of ‘Flying Vicars’ being shown around.

Flying Vicars were a feature of the winter programmes for Thomson and other tour operators’ years ago. I was talking to an ex Thomson friend this week who told me of the Vicars. They were employed by the tour operator to look after the flock installed in the hotels of Palmanova and Magalluf. This was in the day when an extended winter programme for older people was a regular feature of life here.
Saturday’s Vicars were being shown around Soller by a Priest in charge. They were in Majorca for a conference and had a day trip to see our St Bartholomew’s Church. Of course, we all know the only Cathedral in Majorca is in Palma. That doesn’t stop Sollerics referring to St Bartholomew’s Church as the ‘Cathedral of the Mountains’. The Flying Vicars were impressed by all they found in Soller Square that morning.

The weather has been a talking point this week and the Soller Valley has benefitted from copious amounts of rain. All the straw coloured grass has turned green again and the freshness of the vistas is stunning. So very lovely and so few of our friends here to see it.

There is a current feeling amongst businesses in the Soller Valley that they will plod on to the end of the month. Some restaurants are being more amb8itious and hope to carry on till November. They seem to think that things will change in October and allow more people to arrive. The weather is glorious and the lack of crowds makes this a wonderful opportunity for some to take a chance and join us. In fact, my mention of the Flying Vicars and the winter programme of Majorca of old could be resurrected.

Wherever you live in Europe right now your life is subject to restrictions. The question is where do you want to live your restricted life? Come to Majorca and have a three-month rental in one of many apartments available. Live in Soller alongside all of us getting on with our lives here. Cafes will remain open, some restaurants too and there are lots of well stocked shops to produce some good home cooking. Many apartments have the same TV systems you have at home and hey presto you have a different life location for a few months.

I know all those reading will be shouting at the page saying ‘it’s all about the flights Shirley, no winter flights from where I live’. Whose talking about winter? I am saying get on a plane now and spend some months with us before thinking of the return journey. You don’t have to buy a return flight. See what is available when you are ready to return. You might have to fly to Barcelona and then take a flight home from there. It will be all part of the adventure. We would love to welcome you here…