Two in a bed, constructions, flowers and other ramblings!

I had to start my post today with this lovely picture of Luna and Baggins sharing a little cat bed. This is a rare occurence. Baggins is lovely with me, purring all the time and following me like a shadow, but he dislikes Paco, probably because they are both males, and they often have quite fierce fights. Arwen is worse because she doesn't even want me to fuss her, and she growls if Paco goes anywhere near my room. But they both tolerate Luna as long as she doesn't have a mad half hour, playing with their tails and practising her pouncing skills on their backs! So quite often, when I am working down in my room for the evening, Arwen is on her perch on top of a little set of drawers, Baggins is on my table (usually on my work!) and Luna is curled up in the little cat bed beside my chair, which at least is relatively calm. But I was really surprised to come down here last night and find these two actually curled up together, and apparently enjoying one another's company. Long may it last!

The additional work on our road is finally finished! After negotiating the mess outside here while they renewed the road outside of our house, just over a year ago, we had a brief respite before they started doing similar work at the top of the road. This took from July until Christmas. Just when we thought it was all over, the day after Three Kings, the men appeared again and this time they started from our house and worked down the road almost to the entrance of the village. This meant that once again we were unable to drive into our road and had to come in from the other side. For a few weeks, while the lower road was actually fenced off, we drove down to our house against the new one-way system, as that was the only way to get the shopping home. However, this week the road was reopened and it is now very nice with a black bricked road which is single line, one way only, the entire length of it, a designated parking lane (where the two-way traffic used to drive) and a wide, red-bricked pavement on each side. All the turnings off it alternate one way in or out, which, when everyone gets used to the new system, will make getting around the village much easier. The roads just aren't wide enough to take two-way traffic and there were always holdups.

While all this work was going on, two other large construction projects were underway in the village. Firstly they are building and greatly expanding the school. This is mainly a primary school, and they take children from three years old there, and they stay there for their first two years of secondary school. After that they are taken by bus to the nearby towns. I hadn't realised how many children there are in the village, but I presume the school also provides for families in the surrounding area. When we first came here the school was mainly pre-fab buildings which must have been very hot in the summer. I haven't been up there for ages, so when we passed it with the carnival procession last week, I was surprised to see how large the new building is. This is not a good picture as the sun was setting by the time we got there, but you get some idea of a very modern white complex.

The other main construction is the building of a new medical centre. My visitors will have seen the little, one storey building where I go to see the doctor when I need to. The waiting room was open to the street and it was small, dark and uncared for. And the room where the assistant worked (I go there once a month for a blood pressure and diabetic check), was just big enough for his desk and a chair, that you could only sit on after you had closed the door! Well, back in January the doctor moved into the little bungalow next the old centre, which is much nicer than his own premises, and almost immediately the old one was demolished. They are now rebuilding on the same site, but extending back a bit and across a small empty plot that was next to it. The new building looks huge and is at least three storeys high. I don't know what else will be housed there but we have heard it will be a proper medical centre. It is certainly much too big for one doctor and his assistant!

Isn't this yellow flower lovely? It is one of my favourites. During the winter it has rosettes of glossy green, succulent type leaves, and in spring, these beautiful cones of yellow flowers appear. I don't know what its name is, (but I know someone who will probably be able to tell me!). We have one of these plants just beyone our back fence and I was disapponted when it failed to flower last year. There are no flowers on it again this year. I think it is a bit overwhelmed by the orleanders, and it is a very barren patch of land there. I saw this plant on the rambla at the back of a bar where we stopped for our elevenses.

And finally I am adding this for family members who probably don't follow my other blog. if you do read that, then sorry, this is just a repeat. I have just finished a piece of lace-work that has been on my 'pillow' since before my accident back last summer. I decided to fill the centre hole with some fine cotton material onto which I had transferred edited photos of the boys, in the style of the Fry's five boys chocolate bar. Here is the end result. If you want to know more about how I did it you can read it on my other blog here.