It happens every year and I forget every year too! We have had a lovely winter - the end March showed us a bit of temper and threw some rain (that was the day I chose to go to Marbella shopping with a friend - drowned rats - two of...) but all in all compared to last year it was splendid.
With the start of April we had a couple of murky days and a day when it tried to rain but didnt get very far and now the past two or three days the weather in Spain thinks its mid summer!!! No really - the temperature today is set to be in the 30 degrees centigrade area and its taken everyone a bit unawares.
For instance the animals - if your dogs and cats are bit lethargic or have upset tummies - it could well be due to the heat. Both of our dogs have asked to be let out during the night this week and they never do that so ...... be alert folks.
And on the subject of animals the ticks are about and although probably not in full flow, they are certainly evident.
The swallows have been around for at least a couple of weeks and are swooping in their wild but measured fashion over the pool for all the interesting (NOT) insect life that are practicing their backstroke.AND the flowers - its such a feast at this time of year. The roses are covered in big fat buds (the greenfly and blackfly have not homed in on ours yet!) and all those "flower once a year only" plants are covered in buds ready to burst out. Garden watering is in full flow (well pot watering is anyway) and around me as I write the neighbourhood is planting, strimming, trimming, rotavating and generally making a lot of noise as the business of converting chest high weeds into tomato plants commences!
I am sorry to say that the Spanish here have absolutely no respect for water and the conservation of same! They allow their pools to become murky green dwellings for hundreds of living "things" over the winter and now the annual pool emptying session commences (not even onto the garden but running down the track). All that lovely food in that water going to waste whilst they water the newly planted tomatoes with water from our communal well!!
(Man with strimmer is starting to get a bit irritating now actually!!)
The front door is open and the fallen orange blossom keeps blowing into the house on the little breeze that is causing confetti like showers of the stuff all over our property. Still there are worse things to be drifting into the house than orange blossom.
And so we start again - that little frisson of excitement that heralds the onset of summer (that frisson that is frazzled in July and August) but for now its a lovely feeling of expectation. And you know what I love, I am certain that the summer here will be sunny and warm (albeit a bit too warm at times). That same frisson used to grab me at this time of year in England and so often the lovely April and May weather had degenerated into showers followed by rain for the rest of the summer and that early hope drowned by July!
So I might wax and wane a little on the journey but I love summer!! Bring it on!
