Friday Smiles 2025 # Week 11

Yes I am still smiling, but maybe not quite as much, because Yes, it is still raining! It is on and off showers now with some of them quite heavy. Twice I have had to dry my washing indoors, which is a shame because I love to see it blowing on the line outside. But it was so windy on Tuesday that half of it lost some pegs, and was twisted round and round the line, srangling anything that had managed to hang on, so once again I moved indoors. Fortunately I now have a good size drying rack, and with it still being cold enough to light the fire in evenings, everything soon dries.

Between the showers we have had some lovely sunshine, and in places out of the wind, it has been warmer too. The wild flowers are loving the rain and sun, and are blooming everywhere. The oxalis is now a carpet of sharp yellow over the ground next door,and sometimes we pass whole fields of it, that shine out amid the campo's drab colours.

Next door it is covered in flowers, which close up at night but open up as soon as the sun touches them in the morning. Peeping out between the flowers are little pink stars of Erodium.

Also  we are now  seeing Echium plantagineum which  has flowers that start deep pink and slowly change through pale pink, mauve, purple and then deep blue. Because it flowers continuously for weeks and they are all at different stages, you often see all the colours on one plant and it is so pretty. But it is a 'touch-me-not plant as the leaves and stems carry hairs that are extremely irritating to our skin.

This week has been mainly taken up with a few official appointments with solicitors, attornys, removal men and estate agents. And between those I have been busy packing boxes while Chris handles all the administration, plus any heavy lifting. (We make a good team).  It all looks a bit chaotic right now, but I am actually fairly organised so it will all make sense soon.

We have now agreed that our boxes etc will be collected on May 1st, and will be delivered to a container site in Shropshire on 5th. Our son Mike will be there to supervise the unloading. As we are not taking the furniture with us, we will be able to remain in the house for a few days, and maybe go to hotel for a couple of nights, and we will travel to UK the following week when everythng is signed off. 

By the evening I am ready to sit and relax so some nights I do a bit more of my cross stitch picture. I can only do two or three threads before my sight gets blurred, but it is coming along quite nicely.

And that's really all my news this week, so I will get ready to post this tomorrow and link up with Annie's Friday Smiles.