The Sun, it has arrived!
The sun, it has arrived!...
And so it is dear reader, yes you ……. in the corner ….. pretending that you’re not actually interested in this. And for the rest of you, there will be a written test to follow!
The sun, it has indeed arrived. After what feels like a good spell of, grey and rain that we associate with the British Isles, and temperatures to boot, all of a sudden it is too hot to put a jacket or jumper on and some slap is necessary if you’re going to be out in it for more than half an hour or so. Wonderful! Estupendo, as we Spanish speakers would say (just a slight exaggeration, if I may say so. Just because you can hold a two-minute conversation with the neighbours! – Ed). I shall ignore that interruption in my poetic flow! As I was saying before I was rudely interrupted, we are languishing luxuriously in the warmth, to which we have become accustomed.
The pool is almost ready for the new season. It survived the winter very well, thanks to judicious use of appropriate chemicals and the pool robot visiting it every so often. Now the water is being polished, yes you read that correctly, you can polish water. Another couple of weeks and I shall need to hoover it. All part of the fun and games of pool ownership. My dear Lady wife has been smartening up the terrace garden, crowned by her Lemon Tree, which is again, producing fresh lemons at a rate of knots. Everything is rapidly bursting into action, plant wise, embracing the rise in temperature and the fact that we have had so much rain that it has penetrated deep into the ground and the roots are able to mop it up with ease.
There is, of course, a negative aspect to the recent rain, traditionally, when it does rain, it ain’t much and when it occasionally is heavy, it doesn’t last very long. So nothing really penetrates far enough to cause a problem. This year though, the rain has been so heavy at times that several neighbours and friends have mentioned that they DO have leaks to be attended to. We are no exception. We have been aware for some time that we have several leaks that penetrate through to the ceiling in the guest apartment under the pool terrace. This, to the point that we need pots to catch it, that need emptying regularly. This year it has really broken through, and we decided that serious action was needed, as this type of weather may be repeated and potentially more often in the future. We had already decided that the water was getting in through a long flower bed which had not been ‘tanked’ before filling with soil. The problem is that there are a family of very expensive Sago Palms growing there that we were afraid to remove, so a plan was hatched to remove the layer of pebbles currently on the soil surface, seal the surface with roofing felt and adhesive roofing strips, leaving a growth collar around each of the trees, then coat the whole area with waterproofed concrete and recover with the stones. At the age of thirty years this is no big deal. At the more advanced age of seventy plus, it turned into a veritable marathon. From carting twenty-five kilo bags of sand and cement up from the car to the pool level, a sloping drive and then twenty seven steps up, to mixing endless buckets of concrete by hand, albeit with a drill mixer, then commando crawling around thorn covered shrubs and trunks to hand spread the resulting mix – dear reader there are blood stains – yes blood stains, on the rough wall surface at the back of the bed where my fore arms scraped the surface occasionally, trying to reach that extra six inches rather than crawl past another thorny object. Looking at the end result, only we know the size of that job and the effort that went into completing it. Visually it looks exactly as it did before we started. In truth, that was the objective. And….AND ….. we included a sub soil watering system utilising rain water down pipes, appropriately perforated (by hand – Ed), yes, thank you Wolfie – by hand, and buried in a trench (by hand of course – Ed), yes, all dug by hand with a hand trowel, (well it would have to be wouldn’t it! – Ed). I’ll have you know that the effort was positively heroic! (Hey listen. I’m a dog. Trust me. I can dig! – Ed) …….Sigh!
Oh! Before I forget! It worked. The last downpour which would have filled a bucket, produced just two drips – and that may be from a different suspected miss in the concrete sealant, elsewhere.
Last year we bought a motor scooter. The town is actually only a ten-minute drive away, but it really knocks the fuel consumption and really isn’t healthy for the engine doing such short trips on a regular basis. We are lucky here in that parking is plentiful and cheap. In fact, much of it is free. British towns and shopping centres please note! So like it would appear the other ninety per cent of the local population, we invested in a motor scooter, and very useful it is too. My lovely other half absolutely loves it because she can see into peoples’ gardens and front rooms as we cruise past. It probably actually breaks even cost wise because the huge saving in fuel is counterbalanced by the ever more expensive insurance costs. Anyway, over the winter we stored it under the arches where we park our car, to keep it out of the rain and cold. What I did completely forget about, was the fact that because it has an in-built alarm system, the battery is slowly always draining, and after several months, well it wouldn’t shock a gerbil, let alone turn over the engine. (Hello, is that the RSPCA? Yes, my man here is talking about shocking Gerbils. Surely that’s blatant animal cruelty? – Ed) Stop it Wolfie! It’s just a figure of speech for goodness’ sake! (Hmmm, all very well for you to say. You’re not a Gerbil! – Ed) So, after consulting the Oracle of all thing moto, otherwise known as the internet, I figured out how to remove the panels necessary to access the battery, slave started the engine with jump leads and rode the bike up the drive to where I could put it on the charger. After a few hours charge and a big-time wash and valet, behold! One brand new looking Scooter ticking over happily. Nice!
This morning, we scooted off down to town for our weekly Spanish lesson with nuestra profesora, Nuria. Nice to be out in the sun on two wheels again.
Until next time, amigos! Nos vemos!
