Do I look like I want to go for a walk???

Honestly, these animals of ours live the life of Riley. I went out with their leads to take them for their mid-afternoon walk, and found Miki stretched out full length on the swing-seat. She has taken a shine to it, but usually only jumps on when one of us is sitting there as well. Jonathan sat there with them and they got used to its movement. More often they just lay under it as it is always a welcome shady spot. Miki wasn't interested in her walk but I took her anyway. Chico choses to curl up on the cane seats on the porch, but only when we are not there. He knows he isn't supposed to be on them, and quickly slips off if we go out there. I've taken to putting the cushions from it indoors now, so they stay clean enough for us to sit on!

Last night we had the thunderstorm to end all thunderstorms with enough rain to last all year!. That's what it seemed like anyway. There was continuous thunder and lightening for a couple of hours and our power went on and off several times, so we had no TV and we had to switch off and unplug the computers. It is the first time for ages that we have brought the dogs inside. In fairness to them they didn't seem particul;arly fazed by the thunder considering they have never experienced anything like it before, but the wind was blowing the rain into the porch so they had no-where left to lay that was dry. There is still a big trench all down the road but last night it wasn't just full of water, it had disappeared and there was a river flowing the whole width of the street. The piles of earth they had left all along the trench (what they had dug out of it) all washed away down the road and just left the larger rocks.

With all the rain we had to find a new route to walk the dogs this morning as our usual one was a quagmire. So I didn't get to check on my 'fairy flower'. That's what I call it because I have a set of fairy stamps for my craft that has a plant just like it. I have been keeping an eye on it as we pass it each day. hoping that no-one had trodden on it, and no bug has eaten it. I want to see what it opens into. It started off as just a tiny cone peeping out of the mud but it now has quite a long, bare stem. The day I photographed it there was a red bug resting on it. Today, on our alternative route, I saw these lovely grasses. Don't they look beautiful against the blue of an early morning sky?

I have finally found a home for the lovely green lantern that I bought last year in Hoy Ann, Vietnam. Chris managed to cobble together a holder for it when I got a bit too enthousiastic with the mop handle and broke the glass one that was there before. We bought the lantern to go in our bedroom, but the light in there is attached to the ceiling fan so it wasn't suitable. I'm glad it's got a home now. It is too beautiful to just lay around as it has been for the passed six months.

Although the rain is very welcome and everyone was pleased to see it, for once our garden didn't need watering. On Saturday, the folk next door turned on their asecia water, which comes direct from reservoirs in the mountains, and is used to flood their orange grove. This is the fourth time they have done it this year. It is turned on using a valve under a manhole cover in our front yard, and they just come in and do it. Then they turn the valve and divert the water to the orange grove across the road. Well, we are guessing that the roadworks had in some way blocked their duct, so the water backed up and flooded our garden instead. It filled the recessed part where out little tangerine tree is, and then flowed under the gate and on to the pool surround. Chris said that at least it gave our drains a good wash out!! The men came in and cleared it, but it did it again, so our plants are actually very well watered for now.

'If it moves, eat it' seems to be the motto for the mutts, and they are experts at grabbing a cicada mid-flight, licking up the ants, and nosing out the juiciest snails. Well this week Miki grabbed at something off the wall and thinking it was another snail, (which don't really agree with them!) I forced her to open her mouth so I could retrieve it. Instead I found myself holding the cutest baby ghecko. He had lost his tail but he can survive without it and will eventually grow a new one, but other than that he seemed to be alright. So I carefully carried him into the front garden, which the dogs can't get into, and released him on the wall, with a warning to keep a safe distance from now on. I hope he was listening!

A leap of faith!

It is a while since I posted a new blog isn't it? This is really just an indication that, now the visitors have gone for this year, life has settled down to a fairly regular routine, so there is less to write about. But I am sure I shall continue to find a selection of trivia to entertain you with from time to time.

Anyway, today I will start with some more snaps of our furry friends. We have a very set routine with them which means that when they wake us around 7 o'clock, we take them for a quick 'comfort break' across the road and then bring them back for their breakfast. At the same time I feed the cats and make our cup of tea, and then we all sit out at the back of the house while we drink the tea, before taking the dogs off in the car for their proper walk. Each morning Paco comes out with us but Chico and Foxy won't leave him alone. They don't hurt him but they pester him, and seem to feel they need to protect him all the time. So usually he jumps over the wall into the orange grove next door, and then down into the green zone at the back of us for a quick run around. When he has had enough, he climbs up the fence and balances on top of it. For a campo-cat he is not very agile and he wobbles around trying to stay put with one wary eye on Chico's nose, until he has his balance just right to take a leap of faith, and sail over the waiting dogs to land in my or Chris' lap. When we walk the dogs I carry a bag with a few treats in it, and when they come back to us on command, sit to have their leads back on, or jump into the car boot with out assistance, they get one. Then, when we get home they have a big drink and come to me to have their leads and harnesses taken off. I make them wait until everyone is sorted, and if they sit still and wait properly they get one last treat. Talk about cupboard love. Look at the eager anticipation on their faces for what is usually just another little piece of the food they had for breakfast! But at least they are learning a measure of patience and obedience. And finally here is one more picture of Paco that I took this morning. It had rained in the night and the bourganvillia was wet. I felt it drip on my arm and turned to see little Paco peeping out from among the purple flowers. He looked so sweet I just had to take his picture.

We woke up this Monday, not to the sound of dogs barking, but instead we could hear heavy machinery outside. It turned out to be a digger and lorry and they were systematically digging up the path across the road from us, and tipping the rubble into a lorry. They worked all morning and soon had a long trench dug. Then we had an almighty thunderstorm and the trench was filled with water! We have had to park our car down the road a bit because our stretch is cordonned off at each end. The trench now reaches up into the village with little help for the poor folks who live alongside it, though I did see a few planks across it this evening. As far as we can make out, they are laying new pipes to carry electricity cables (currently overhead), and installing new street lighting, as part of a big road improvement scheme for the village. We suspect we may wake up one morning to find our side of the road dug up as well. That will be fun, making three hounds walk the plank several times a day!!

Our local bar, 50 metres down the road from us, has had a live music session with a barbeque each Sunday through the summer. We have been to a couple of them and they are great fun. Now the schools are back, they need to quieten down earlier so they are going back to a lunch time carvery on Sundays, but they are continuing with live music events on Friday nights instead. We went along to the last Sunday one last weekend and the entertainment was by a couple who call themselves The Blues Brothers. They sang a good mixture of blues, soul and rock numbers, and the smaller guy was really good at playing a harmonica which I love. They really looked the part too. When we got there they were in their jeans and tee-shirts, busily testing out the sound system. Then they went back to their van and emerged in black suits and trilby hats. They were very entertaining. and we had a really good evening. In the second photo, a local man called Antonio, who I think is in his seventies, got up to dance with them. He is a real character and everyone loves to see him enjoying himself. He certainly likes the music. He is often in the bar and occasionally I get to sit and have a conversation with him in Spanish. He only knows a few words of English, but we muddle along together quite well.

In my last post I included a photo of a butterfly that I caught on the campo. Well the next day I caught another one. Then, this evening I heard the dogs suddenly getting noisy and went out to find them fighting over this huge moth. Handsome fellow, isn't he? I did as I said I would, and made the first photo into a rubber stamp. Then I used this stamp to build up a 'Nature' collage and made a big stamp of that. Here is a card I made with the collage stamp. It's not bad but it needs a bit of refining. I am working on it again now, and hopefully I will be able to make a much smaller one the same, to use on my ATCs when I have improved it a bit.

I see I have rambled on a bit now and by the time I have added the photos, this will be a long post. I'll try not to leave it so long next time. Hasta luego !