Down came the rain !!

I now know what Noah felt like on the first day of the flood, as he watched the land slowly disappearing under the water! I think there must have been lots of people praying for rain in Spain this week, because today it came with a vengence. We woke to the sound of it pouring off our roof and it had obviously been raining for several hours by then. Sometimes it stops at daybreak, but today it just got heavier and heavier. There was continuous thunder and lightening right above us. I had poor Miki in my room and she was quaking. We had to turn the computers off for a while to protect them, but it has eased a bit now so we have turned them back on. Chris took some very reluctant animals outside for five minutes and he was soaked to the skin, and had to get changed. Then I braved the elements to take a few quick photos, and I also got soaked. Our swimming pool almost overflowed. The water was right up to the top of the rim. Our little patch of garden at the front, and next door's orange grove were completely under water, and the road was a river. It would have been a raging torrent but as the top half of the street is now complete, some of the new flood drains came into use, and carried a lot of the water away. Our bit still has the new drains standing several centimeters proud of the road, so until it is paved, they are not very useful. (They have started the stretch of paving outside our neighbour's house, so had the weather been better, we might have got our bit done today!) Anyway, it is now 4.00 and the rain has finally stopped. I expect the floods will go down as fast as they came up, but the sky is still very dark so there could be more tonight. At least we are warm and dry in the house. I used the time to prepare the last of my seville oranges to make one more batch of marmalade. It is a shame to let them go to waste, and they won't keep for long. The fruit is cooked and I'm just about to go and boil it up now.

This morning I also sat under a bright light in my craft room and finished my fourth lace project - the square. It was much more difficult this time, and for ages I was stuck at a corner and couldn't see what to do. I spent two days undoing and redoing it, and I was getting really cross with it, then the penny suddenly dropped and I was able to carry on and eventually finish it. I didn't know I had so much patience, but perhaps it wasn't patience - more grim determination. Chris said I should leave it until I see my teacher again tomorrow, but I refused to be beaten by a few bobbins of thread, and in the end I got it, which was very satisfying.

I looked at my calendar at lunch time and realised that it is today I should have gone on another coach trip with my sewing group. This one was to a tiny village up in the hills to see local craftmen (and women), making lace, grass weaving, making pottery and cooking. It was a 'watch and have-a-go' day and we were all really looking forward to it, but it was cancelled at the last minute. Wasn't that fortunate? We couldn't have done much walking around a village in this weather. We are now going in a couple of months time when it should be much warmer and drier!