Friday Smies 2024 Week 45

We have had a much quieter, less traumatic week than last week I am glad to say. But I have had a medical appointment most days and as nearly everything is a drive away, one appointment seems to take up much of the day, so I haven't been at home to do a lot. I had no new photos to show so today I walked round the garden to see what effect all the rain has had.

Firstly next door's garden that was a dry, mud plain, is now lovely and green. I expect it will be waist high with weeds by the end of the month, but that is better than dry earth. 

My little herb garden I planted outside the kitchen door last spring, it thriving. The rosemary and lavender at the back are looking good and healthy, the mint is just visible and the front has been taken over by my basil. It has grown so tall and smells wonderful every time I brush past it. Even the parsley which looked dead, is trying to show a few new leaves again.

My oleander is covered in new flower buds. It is usually dying back now.

I coudn't miss this lovely branch of pink bougainvillea that swayed across the path. It is still beautiful despite someone' nibbling its leaves.

Round at the front we have several roses in bloom again. They seem to have flowered off and on nearly all year. The pale pink ones smell lovely too.

This is the trumpet vine in our neighbour's garden. It always flowers over on our side and is prolific when not so much is in bloom in the autum. I love it.

And this is my favourite hibiscus. It doesn't flower as much as my others do but when it does, it is perfect! It used to be pinker than this, but it has a beautiful stamen and the petals are frilly at the edges. And it does love a bit of rain.

I mentioned last week that my covid injection was more painful than usual, and when it was done on Wednesday I couldn't raise my arm, but by nightfall it had worn off and I thought no more about it. But as I got ready for bed the next night I saw that my arm was dark purple almost down to the elbow. This is it a week later. It is fading now and was never sore like a bruise, so I guess he just scraped a vain.

During the time I have managed to get down to my computer I decided to start making my monthly calendar for next year. Usually I am doing it in a frantic rush in January! I like to use photos from the same month this year, so I as I go through it I can look back at what we were doing a year ago.  Here are a couple of the months I have finished. Of course they each have the months dates in a grid hanging below them, but I didn't need to show them in the pictures. I just have September - December still to do. I haven't yet decided whether to wait until the end of the last two months  to do their pages, or whether to take the photos from last year. I will see how I feel when I have done October.

I had a good visit to my dermatologist yesterday, and a full diabetic health check earlier in the week. The latter doesn't happen as often as it should so I am pleased to have that done.

So apart from some nice chats with a couple of my lads, that is how another week just slipped away. Now it is time to get this ready to publish tomorrow and link upwith Annie's Friday Smiles.

Friday Smiles 2024 # Week 44

Week 44 and what a week it has been. For us it has been a catalogue of disasters but they fade into insignificance next to the terrible storms in Valencia and other areas. I am sure most of you will have seen this on the news - pictures of a street in Valencia with piled up cars, houses filled with mud and water, and trains derailed. 

They are saying it is the worst natural disaster in Spain for over thirty years, with a hundred and fifty-eight fatalities so far, and the hunt continues for folk who are missing. Our hearts go out to the families affected and those trying to help them. Nearer to home, in the Almeria area, they had hailstones as 'big as eggs' which caused considerable damage to car windscreens and body work. But can we find a silver lining? Well the reservoir are at least half full and agriculture is benefitting from the rain. (A year's rainfall in one day!). Our gardens are happy too. And I am very touched and grateful for all the messages people have sent us, checking that we are OK.

For us the silver lining is that we have escaped with barely a scratch. Our week started when the waste disposal unit packed up. I love that machine and I felt priviledged to have one as I don't know anyone else in this area who has one. Normally when it stops, pressing the reset, or turning the drum fixes it, but this time nothing worked. So in the end we called a plumber to take it out and replace it with a normal plug and drainage system. I was a bit worried about selling the house to someone who has never seen a  waste disposal, as they can be incredibly dangerous if you don't understand how they work. So maybe removing it was the best option. Had we been staying here I would have replaced it with a new one.

Then we decided to test light the fire in case anyone wanted to see it in action, or we needed to make the room nice and cosy for viewers, and that wouldn't work! We had the same problem at the start of last winter and we had to call a gas man out to clean the sealed unit and replace 'something'. So now we are waiting for him to come again.

Our third disaster was rather more serious. Just inside our garden wall there was a tall telegraph pole set into the tiles, carrying telephone wires for the rest of the street. On Tueday morning we heard a loud crash and when we went to investigate we found the pole had been blown over. We have had high winds before and the pole has stood there for at least thirty years, so it is just our bad luck that it chose this week to come down.

Again it has a silver lining because we are incredible lucky that no-one was out there, no-one was lying on the sun lounger, and it missed the side of the house by less than a foot. It broke the head rest of the lounger and shattered a large plant pot, but the damage could have been so much worse. Of course the cables were down draped across the front of our house, and our fiber cable snapped so we had no internet or TV!

I took photos of it all and took them up to the Town Hall. I was taken straight in to see the Mayor who was in the middle of a meeting, but he immediately rang the local police and by the time I had walked back down to the house, they were there. Their response to any real problem is exceptional.

We know our local police man quite well and he spent ages looking at the damage and taking more photos, and then he talked to the telephone company. They were slow to respond as they had so many calls about damage and flooding to deal with.

But later that day a man did come and make everything safe. The cables have been cut and removed, and the pole is lying up against the wall. Eventually someone will come and collect it and replace all the cables but they are not going to put another pole in which is good. They will use one out on the roadside that carries electricity cables.

We rang the fibre cable company we get internet from and today a man came and replaced the cable and made sure everythng is working properly for us. Another smile.

So a difficult week, but how much worse it could have been. In some ways it is a good thing we have not had any viewings for the house this week, but it is mostly tidied up again now.

We had several warnings about the Dana - also know as Gota fria or Cold drop. This occurs when there is cold air up high and warm air from the Mediterranean coming in below it. So we were expecting heavy rain and thunder storms, but we often get an orange or red alert so folk don't repond as well as perhaps they should.

But it was no suprise to us when it started raining steadily on Monday. This is our pool and it reminded me of mum who always said, if it bubbles when it lands then it will rain all day! She wasn't quite right because it stopped at tea-time. But we had thunder and lightening rolling around us in the night.

Leo is not a fan of rain so he spent the day indoors. He sure knows how to relax!

Yesterday was dry and fairly sunny so I got the sheets washed and they soon dried out on the line. At lunch time we walked round to the medical centre and both had our flu and covid injections. Needless to say Chris didn't even feel his, but I had a painful left arm for the rest of the day. It has eased off now and just feels slightly bruised today. Another good thing done anyway.

So now I am all set to publish this in the morning and link up with Annie's Friday Smiles. I am so glad I have the internet back to do this!