“When southern summers come the air falls fast like a blanket, smothers the breath and wraps itself round us. We long for the cool air of autumn or even the chill of winter’s fingers on our throats. We overheat like cars with faulty radiators.
To get to sleep we try lying still, but the air feels like a heavy quilt pressing down, turning breathing into gasping, and making skin shine like dawn dew.
We learn in school that most things expand and lengthen in the heat. There is always an exception, of course.
Tempers get shorter and tolerance diminishes as the hot days grow longer, generally it seems best to just stay out of everyone’s way where possible.
The more caring days of autumn are still some time away so for now we rise early, rest when we can, and wait for the heat to lose its sting, and for the relief that cooler air brings.”
Like the vast majority of people here I just can’t wait until this latest little “ola de calor”, or heatwave, does its thing and clears off until next year. It is really, really difficult to get anything done in such searing temperatures, and here in inland Murcia we have seen the mercury rise to around 40C or more. It will be such a relief when the sting of the heat leaves us and we get back to lovely warm days and cooler nights.
Meanwhile, until then, there’s always this…
and this…
When you’re in the pool there’s a lovely cool breeze that is bliss on wet skin, then it’s a race up the steps out of the courtyard onto the terrace and into the shade of the verandah where the same cool breeze is always there all day, no matter what the air temperature reads.
Peter has nearly finished the plastering part of the pool courtyard. We’ve agreed that really only the one very higgeldy-piggeldy wall needed plastering, it was far too rough to even be described as rustic! The other walls are grand, so within the next few days the whole area will be painted white, and the solar lights will be up all over the place. It is really difficult to do manual workoutside in these temperatures, but we should have had the courtyard done before the end of June – just another reminder that you should never put off till tomorrow something you really should have done last year!
There is one wall, where we built the seating area, which is made of very jagged layers of rocks. It looks rather interesting and we wanted to keep it,but if you were sitting there and leaned back you would have a rather painful set of lacerations. So we thought we’d try to get an enormous piece of clear perspex and bolt it onto the rough part of the wall. Then we can dangle down a load of solar lights behind the perspex which will look rather pretty when the sun goes down. I’m currently looking at where to buy a big sheet of perspex so we can get it on the wall as soon as possible.
The floor of the courtyard will be sprayed with white paint, then I have a lovely big thick cotton rug to put down, much easier on the feet!
We’ve recently had just the best time ever, when Laurie and the grandchildren were here for just over a week. I had been counting down the days with growing excitement and it was so, so good to have them here.
We took them to the waterpark in Torrevieja and they absolutely loved it. For me it was just proof that purgatory really does exist – too many people, too hot, too noisy, too everything, in fact! However, it didn’t matter a jot as the children had a ball. Laurie and Peter went in the different water areas with them – I sat in the shade with my book and a big bottle of half frozen water, guarding our belongings – I’m not entirely daft!
I think most of all they enjoyed just being with us at home – as they could be in the pool as much as they wanted! The best time was their “midnight” swim. Well it was about half past nine but it was dark and that was what we needed to bring on the LED and solar lights. They really loved the floating lotus flowers and thought it was great fun to dive down for the little colour-changing lights we scattered along the floor of the pool.
The boys saw a little dragonfly had got bogged down in the pool – we have a couple of them who visit every day, one red and one blue – and Scott lifted it out of the water. Marshall let it rest on his arm until it was able to fly away again, something else to tell their friends! Incidentally, the Spanish word for dragonfly is “libelula”, isn’t that lovely? Those wee beauties can each eat around 100 mosquitos a day, so they’re well worth having in the garden.
All too soon the holiday was over and I had to take our wee family back to the airport. We had had such a great time and of course we are now looking up flights to get over to see them again in November/December. Always a good excuse to do a bit of Christmas shopping and catch up with friends.
Meanwhile, the day they went home I went into their bedrooms to strip the beds and in the boys’ room they had left me their wee sliders, until next time. Tissues required to stop my eyes leaking!
We have a fabulous little pasteleria now in Fortuna, called Dulce Sueño by Sara. She and her husband are Polish, so Peter is always happy to call in! Sara makes the most delicious little cakes, very different from your average “buns”, each one is truly a work of art. They are indescribably delicious and such a treat! Sara has a Facebook page, it’s here so you can look it up and see what she creates. https://www.facebook.com/dulce.sueno.by.sara
Well? Are you jealous yet? Gorgeous cakes! She is a real artist and the flavours are simply sublime. Any of you who come to stay with us will be marched down the town and into the pasteleria with great anticipation!
And here’s another wee sneaky one of Laurie and the children enjoying a treat there too!
We got up the other morning and as I looked down the driveway I could see something unusual – a big cactus had flowered overnight.
Now I’m not a fan of those spiky things and wouldn’t ever want to plant them, but we inherited this one with the house and this is the first time I’ve ever seen a flower on it in the five plus years we’ve lived in this house! It looked rather lovely but….by the next day all the flowers had vanished!
This garden and the local wildlife continue to astonish and amaze me. I took this photo of a bee collecting nectar from our big bougainvillea – it looks for all the world like a butterfly or hummingbird but is actually a bee. Nice wee thing!
I was lucky to get a photo of this cicada on a tree in the garden – they are masters of disguise and you can just about make it out in the middle of the photo, with its wings folded down along its back. They are about a couple of inches long, and they make a sound like electrical charge flowing, designed to attract a mate.
Apparently their eggs are laid underground, where they stay or up to 7 years before hatching and making their way to the surface to find a mate. They don’t live very long, the females then lay their eggs underground and the whole cycle begins again.
I had a couple of great finds recently, while shopping. Our brilliant supermarket chain, Mercadona, has come up with a fabulous perfume that smells like Mediterranean lemons, my all-time favourite scent, along with neroli, or orange blossom. It’s only €6.50 a bottle and is just divine.
And for my neroli scent, Zara has nailed it with this one – wonderful!
I’m currently smelling gorgeous!
One final word about the heat, before it starts to cool down in the run through autumn and into winter….
That just about sums it up!
Right, I’m away now to finish off the last of the dulse that Laurie brought over for us, if Peter hasn’t beaten me to it!
My life in Spain 