Colin’s doctor’s appointment was a great relief – he was asked why he wasn’t still getting the twice-yearly shots and was taking the one-a-day pills instead. He was instantly given a prescription for the shot and we took it right away to the pharmacy in Mansle. The nurse came to the house the next morning and administered it. Hopefully that does the trick with the very high PSA.
While back in Mansle we did the usual – had a lovely fish-and-chips lunch, visited Tony and Joyce, said hello (a couple of times) to Edith and Sylvain at the bar. Also on Colin’s birthday Tony and Joyce joined us for a lunch at the Marmite – very nice.
We started the return trip to Spain a week ago, and since we were in the car it was much quicker. We stopped at a hotel just outside Zaragoza that accepts dogs – we’d stayed there before. Arriving at the house mid-afternoon was wonderful – we even had water! Except until the power kept cutting out and thus the pump wasn’t working.
After a call to Carlos he came right up and got it running again, but not for long – apparently something got wet and just needed to dry out. It was very frustrating until partway through the next morning when all was working again.
Our ‘handyman’ Steve has done a bunch of stuff – stained the outside doors and some of the window trims, installed several solar powered motion triggered lights and another security camera. Lots to do but it’s all coming along…
Our fantastic gardener was hard at work again – one of the large yuccas is about to flower, and then will die – it looks like a giant asparagus.
Colin and I made a trip to several different places to collect flowers and trees for Ali to plant for us. We now have orange, lemon and lime trees, two bougainvilleas (one of my favourites!), several small cypress trees and a bunch of various colourful things for the planter boxes.
I’ve spent three days vacuuming and cleaning – first day the ground floor, second day the sun-room (including washing the floor) and today the upper floor – so much dust! Slowly but surely the boxes from Worcester are being unpacked so it doesn’t look so much like a storage place.
Everything is starting to look so lovely – more like a ‘home’ than just a house. I sit outside in the evenings and just drink it all in – can’t wait to get the pool uncovered and jump in! Although right now it’s probably a little cold – we need to get a solar heater and summer cover.
Sally McKenzie's European Adventures 