A taste of what's to come.

Hello again. Today we had a taste of what it will be like for the next few month. It was a real scorcher. At 28º in the shade, it was much too hot to sit in the full sun, but lovely still under our porch, where we sit to eat lunch whenever we can. I did some washing this morning and by the time it was dry it rather ressembled cardboard! I'll soon have to start hanging it out to dry at night like I did when we lived in Cyprus. Lots of people out here use a tumble drier to keep their towels soft, but it is not a very 'green' option. Jim was a tiny baby when we went to Cyprus and he survived with nappies dried over night, so I am sure we can cope with the towels.
I had a mad moment when I got up this morning and decided to make bread, which incidently rose very well and very fast, but the cooker stayed hot for ages, so I didn't fancy putting it on again for our tea. Instead the 'outdoor kitchen' came into its own. While Chris was at his Spanish lesson I prepared some skewers of meat and we had a little barbeque, washed down with a few cans of beer (shandy for me. I'm a wimp and can't get on with it full strength!). I even did the washing-up outside. We have a big stone sink in the garden with running hot and cold water, so it is ideal for the washing up.

I am enjoying watching the plants develop in the garden. I expect you've gathered that! Our first rose is in full flower and it is huge. It has changed from a rich, deep red, to a purple-pink, and there are five more fat buds about to burst. Just a couple of doors down from us there is a sort of climbing rose with smaller red flowers on it and it looks lovely right now. I thought roses liked heavy, clay soil but they seem to thrive on the dust and sand in our gardens too.