Friday Smiles 2025 # Week 10

Yes I am smiling this week - because we have had rain. We needed some rain so desperately in this, the agricultural area of Spain. On Friday the man on the local radio announced that for the first time in his memory, rain was forcast for seven days 'on the bounce'. And this time they got it right. It  started Friday night and boy! did it rain!. It poured steadily right through to Sunday. Every one was warned to stay at home if possible on Saturday as the ramblas were filling up and there was localised flooding. And it has rained on and off ever since. This is a Facebook picture of the rambla at Sorbas, just a few metres up the motorway from here. And I guess ours is much the same. There is no point for viewing our rambla from the village except from a bridge out on the main road, and I didn't want to paddle that far to see, but they showed a picture of the road into the rambla being closed off by the local police. Ramblas are dry river beds and they are useful for carrying excess water from the mountains out to the sea, so it was good to see them fulfilling this function and leaving the village unscathed.

On Wednesday we had an appointment with out solicitor down on Mojacar player. It was a wet drive and very windy, but fortunately we didn't have far to walk. I took this quick picture of the tall palm trees, bravely standing against the wind. 

The sea was churning and breaking from way out, and crashing on the rocks along the sea front. Unfortunately I find it difficult to take a photo that captures the power behind this.

Today the rain has held off for a short while though heavy grey clouds are rolling down from the mountains, ready to drench us again. But I decided to grab the break in the rain to stretch my legs as I have been sitting around far too much this week. I walked up to the top of the village where there is a look-out bay out across the fields betreen us and the rambla. Just look at how green they are. They were just brown mud areas a week ago.

I really went up that way to see a new supermarket that opened last week. It was one before, but it was dark and cramped and I didn't go there much. It has been taken over by a young man who also owns the busiest bar in the village. He has gutted it, put in  new lighting and made a new attractive entrance. It is now  a well stocked shop with a wider range of goods than was previously available, all well displayed and clearly labelled. I was quite impressed. It seemed to be doing a good trade even on a day like this, and I am sure I will visit it again.

And finially this made me smile today. I cleared some debris and weeds from some of the pots in the front yard the other day, and I mentioed to Chris that one pot looked as though it had a little self-seeded pansy in it. And this morning there it was, smiling up at me, so I smiled back.

Now I have to get ready for two visitors this afternoon. The first is from a removal company to assess what we have to move, and give some advice of packing and labelling each box for customs. And the second is a girl from the estate agency to make an inventory of what we are leaving behind. So it will be all go from now on. First I will take this over to link with Annie's Friday Smiles in the morning.