What beautiful weather we've had here in Wales this last few days, absolutely glorious!  Still have to laugh when they say warmer than Malaga!!! It hasn't been, it doesn't matter what 'they' say on the news, its just impossible, from dawn to dusk the heat builds and builds in Spain, and just gets hotter!

Anyway, we also had beautiful sunny warm weather, everyone was wearing short and t-shirts, summer dresses, men in sandals [with socks!!! have a word!], this was at the market in Resolven on Saturday morning, and after we left there we headed north and up to the town of Brecon and the Brecon

 Beacons... wonderful countryside, huge  mountains, green ones here, apart from the granite rock formation.

There are reservoirs too of course, not the same as the lakes at El Chorro, I know we shouldn't compare, they are equally as beautiful, just differently.  The tower here on the left is at one of the many reservoirs we passed..

We couldn't beleive the amount of people out and about too!  Hundreds of people, parked, walking with or without their dogs!  Every single lay-by was

full of cars and each one had a take-out van there!  Burgers, tea, coffee everything quick!!  Loads of bikes on the road too, still like Spain, a few crazy drivers about!!  And Franco seems to be stuck in the old kilometre driving state of mind, so we're doing 40 or 50 miles an hour, feeling like we're going too fast, we would be in Spain, 50 is about 80k an hour, and we wouldn't be doing that anywhere where we were in land,  except on the coast or toll roads;  so there we are pootling along at almost 50mph and its in a 60 zone, and people are coming up behind going 'what's occurring!'  And I'm going, 'come on Franco, we're going to slow, 
they'll think we're a couple of old biddies!!!

Still we got where we were going, and came back again!

Next door had a BBQ, and everyone had their washing out so we couldn't light our fire!

Yesterday we visited Franco's Mom, then visited a few shops in Swansea and home!  I made an apple strudel, I am suffering badly from  apple strudel deprivation!  It came out sort of okay, I went out into the garden and chatted to the neighbour just long enough to ruin the apple pieces, so it was a bit too wet and leaked out the ends, caramelised nicely though!  I am definitely going to make it again, but better of course!!

Yesterday we did manage to burn quite a load of garden waste and household paper rubbish, Franco cleared out the little back year area by the back door, it needed it! 

I am keeping an eye out for my bluebells to come out, I think I will just have to go and lay down amongst them and sleep.... the bluebells are surrounded by bracken at the moment, which will be fern soon enough!

We have another book published also, The Doorway, link on the other website, over there >>>>

Will put a link tomorrow on here, along with some dodgy photos of my failed apple strudel!

Have doctors this afternoon, a couple of hours time, to find out what they found in my blood test this time!  I am sure its only something to do with what's already there!

TTFN
Marian

[just add tea to make human!]

 I put these photos in draft about two hours ago and forgot to do anything else!! Losing my mind?  Quite possibly!

Today is Mothers Day!  I got some lovely flowers... from Pippa!!!  Well, you know how it is! The photos here on the left as promised though, top one, the fire we started yesterday during half time rugby Wales V France, then I got carried away and started to make my through to the end of the, as yet, unseen garden of ours!

 Up those steps to the second tier of the garden, patios either side, and then I took this second photo... today!  All the rest were taken today actually!  The tin thing you can see is just a wire cage of some sorts!  There is so much junk up there!  Anyway, as yesterday, in I went, Bear Grills would be proud of me!

Then, the next few I took where the brambles end, now I have cut my way to there that is of course, today I also wore gloves so I could hold

 trees for stability and not run the risk of falling over, again!  This third pic I took looking back down my path, can you see the top patio?? Zoom in it is there!  Also now well above our houses from here...

This morning went to visit Franco's Mom, taking her some lovely flowers and card, had a cup of tea there and a chat, then we went to the Sunday boot sale market in Clydach, then to Matalan!!!  The weather was beautiful first thing, clouded over a bit, then in Matalan's it looked like it was having a hail storm out side, but by the time we came out, all gone, blue sky and sunshine back again, and we could see the sun was still shining on our patio later on as the sun was setting, we have the sun in our back garden from dawn to dusk, I guess thanks

 to the rise of the land...

Ok photo four, having turned from the above path and looking up again.... Look what we have here!  A beautiful bluebell wooded area!  All that green is bluebells, and I can't wait to see them, I will be up there everyday once those little beauties are out in bloom!

Also, can you see the wall right at the back?? That's where the garden

ends!!!

Photo five, turning again back towards our house, this is the view from up here... if I ever make it the next step up, of course I will, I will take a photo and am quite expecting to see Spain from there!!!




TTFN amigos
Marian

ps Happy Mothers day Mom... xx

Well just before I switch this off today, having just spent well over an hour on an online job application form, which included a 45 minute no going back/forward questionnaire...  At least it answers lots of questions for the prospective company saves them time, and the person looking for work too of course.  Hope I did good!

This afternoon during the rugby... not intentionally, Franco had gone up to start burning some of the undergrowth we had already cleared during half time... Pip was tied to the washing line, sounds worse than it is ok!  She has a complete run of the garden with her lead hook running free on the line, and she loves it!

I went up, secateurs in one hand and a bit of a tree in the other... and went in!  I started at the top patio and cut my way through the brambles, incredible things, I know I keep going on about them but they are wicked, they are alive, in more ways than one, the more I cut, the more they seemed to spring back at me, catching me on the face, hands, arms legs, tripping me up under foot!  I had to cut them back, then down nearer the roots, I broke off dead branches and moved stuff... stuff included old tin cans, wire baskets, tin tubs, then stuff I couldn't move, concrete, lots of broken glass metal spring thing that is covered with plants and seems to have become part of the ground now, there are old toys, a cage of some sort, a huge piece of corrugated metal... I had to bend low and cut my way through! And I did, I fell a couple of times, and stupidly used my hands to save myself, but luckily missed any broken glass or wire 'thing' whose spikes were uppermost!  I made a little path up and up and couldn't see our patio any more, could see the smoke from the fire, the M4 and the sea!  I could hear the cheers and car horns blaring.... so knew Wales had won the Rugby! Still I went on, up and up... and then I reached a bank that was quite high and worried I wouldn't be able to come back down it, so dug it out a bit and made a step, sort of... cut back the final bits of bramble in front of me, still fighting their cause of ownership of my garden...they lost!  And I came out onto a green area, and the huge tree we can see from house was nearer, not close, just nearer and the whole of the floor area around the tree, no brambles here, but bluebells are going to come up there!!!!  all the green stems are there!  Can't believe it, my very own bluebell wood!

Ok, Ok, not the wood above, the photo I took in Ashridge a few years ago, but can't wait to see what our little wood will look like, oh and beyond the tree another few yards... or more? Is a beautiful old stone wall!

Photos tomorrow.

Went to a car boot sale this morning in Resolven, in a huge warehouse, its one we went to a few weeks back, can't remember if I mentioned that during the week its a reclamation place, its so sad inside, the walls are lined with doors, fireplaces, stair rails etc, then at either end there at pews, fonts, organs, pulpits, everything wooden you find in a church is there.  There are huge meeting tables, not like ours outside bar cruz forsure, 20 30 foot long, old desks etc... Amazing place, and on a Saturday the interior, surrounded by these amazing objects is a boot sale!

We bought some beautiful flowers for Franco's Mom, and I got some too... some amazing purple tulips, they were 3 bunches in one package, amazing color...

Tony's Mom's day card arrived the other day and Barry's was on the mat when we got home today... I am addressed as 'The Mom'... arh.. that's my boy!

I am ending on a sad note, started the day in tears and will no doubt end the same.. 2 years ago today was Mom's cremation, so much of that day was a blur, and yet now, 2 years later it seems clearer to me now.  Every moment... Then last year Auntie Linda died on this day, St Patrick's day, I'd had a day to remember, for happy reasons, then came home and a call from my cousin and bam!

My Mom would have been proud of me in the garden today, cross I didn't have gloves on, crosser when I would have told her how many thorns I have in my hands and legs, and that the secateurs gave me the biggest blister between my thumb and finger I have ever had in my life!  Then laughed that the only band aid I have is a Mr Men's one, small and meant for a child no doubt!

TTFN
Marian
 

Not sure why this photo today... came across it whilst uploading one for my other blog!

Which has then made me remember this one that I took, wish I could say I am just such a fantastic photographer that I got this on purpose, instead of my fluke! capturing a drip as it fell from the neighbours house!

Today cooked lunch for five, was good, I remember the days when I used to cook for seven regularly, had a bit of a mishap with the meatballs!  They were too, well, wet I think would be the word and wouldn't cook in one piece, I got into a temper[!] and just stirred them all together and made a pan of mince meat!!  So Franco had to pop out to a nearby store, just like the one back in Coín!  We had my Italian chicken and pasta too, and a tomato and mozzarella salad.  Very nice it was too, if I do say so myself!  Franco's Mom refused to sit down after lunch so she dried the dishes etc, I seemed to have used everything I had in the cupboards, although I wish I had had a bigger pot to cook the chicken in, was a tight fit and kept trying to escape the pan!  One of the five was a little'un, she is so cute, Franco's great niece, we had been a bit worried about how Pippa would be with her, not being used to small children who are nice to her, she was attacked and hassled by so many before, but she was fine, I taught the little'un to put her hand under Pippas head and not above which can make a dog wary.

I think I have finished sorting through as many of the boxes now that I can do, lots of paintings still wrapped up, they will stay that way for now, and the same goes with the boxes of ornaments.  At least they cannot be seen once we have a spare bed!

Book number 20 published today, brilliant! Looks great, and even as I typed it up I was surprised by each new page and couldn't wait to find out what happened next!  Voices By Peter Maddocks[see other blog for link!]

TTFN amigos
Marian

 First most recently published book by Peter Maddocks there on the left, available at Amazon.com

Another book on its way now...

I have been letting my friends and followers down mightily recently with my Blog haven't I?  And we have the internet now since the 1st so no excuse really, what have I been doing??? Well still going through boxes, here and there, really just don't have anywhere for most of the things, no bookcases, no where for the ornaments... Only one wardrobe!!! Yes really, how I am supposed to hang all my clothes I really

 cant say!!!

Walking Pippa, every morning, and in the afternoons just up in the garden, we look a bit silly I guess, me and Pip, in a garden her with the lead on, but there is no barriers between us and the neighbours and as yet, still not up dated her micro chip, or the number on her collar!  Doing things slowly, down the Job centre, looking for work, and the doctors, again today for another ECG, bit odd, she had to do it twice, and then

took the results to a doctor, interrupting him with another patient, she came back and questioned me on how I was feeling, any symptoms I might have, that I shouldn't wait until I see the hospital cardiologist and if I need to see them I know where they are now and to call any time and come straight in!  So very thorough? Or what???

Back again a week on Friday to have my blood test done!

Both photos on the left here taken at Melincourt falls the other weekend, this Sunday past we went to the huge car boot sale again, its held in 3 massive warehouses, so roof and sides and still cold underfoot but dry and wind free! 

Also on the look out for a spare bed for guests, and also to hide all the spare paintings we will have no room to hang!  All the ornaments are in boxes squirrelled away out of sight! Tony has more paintings to hide away too!!! And another 18 boxes.... oh my oh my!

Can't wait to see my coffee table again either from Tonys... I need all my things together...

I did have a very bad day on Sunday, tried hard to hold it all together all day, we were out and about a bit, visited Franco's Mom for a couple of hours, then the car boot, but everytime I stopped to think, which being me, was quite a lot, I couldn't hack it... I just can't get it into my head Mom has been gone for two years. Two years?? Impossible.

I wish she hadn't.

We changed updated the address on the car insurance, and now its not under Swansea the cost has come down, also its going to be much cheaper to have the policy in my name with Franco as the second driver, I have been away for less time, and have full no claims, which really Franco did too, but as the insurance was in my name in Spain, even though it was the car that was insured, it can only be me with the no claims, anyway, its dropped in price by over 700 pounds for this year, which is fantastic!  We can pay something else now instead!!! Handy!

I am checking on line for jobs every day, and have an interview with someone next week about exactly what type of work I want, and I must apply for work I find online, in papers etc, and let them know every two weeks what I have found and what I have done about it.

I have been downloading free kindle books like a mad crazy person!  The web site pizelofink.com is amazing, you can grab books for free, for only a short time each day, there are enough books on this kindle here to last 2 years, if I read one book a month, I'm such a slow reader, but just using that as an average if you know what I mean!

We had a leaky radiator fixed this week by the landlord, big puddle of soggy carpet on the floor!  And he says we can get a heater for the bathroom, we do have a rad in there, and its not that small but the bathroom is flipping freezing!!!!  And I think a nice halogen bathroom fire like the other we have/had, would be great, it comes on fast and heats up fantastically! But basically this house is quite warm elsewhere, even warmer than the house in Spain this time of year.  But not as hot in the summer, I know I know, but this knowledge is good, too hot in summer is no good for me any more.

When I walk Pip up the top here, I can see the mountains, the sea, the valleys, fields and forests... beautiful green, trees coming into bud and spring flowers coming up already, the dark grey of the slate that lines the houses, and helped build the walls layer on layer... but then I look and only see my Guadalorce valley, my Spain, my mountains, my little house, my...

We have some boxes in the room just now, Pip is looking worriedly at them, we wonder if she is thinking... oh no! here we go again, I wonder if she knows this is where we now live?  We were at the cave house for two weeks and she settled in there well, just as she has here, but I wonder if she realises this is it!  We say Oki's name now and then and she tilts her head recognised the neighbours dogs name... she hasn't forgotten, yet...

I read this today. I love it.

"Each friend represents a world within us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born." ~ Anais Nin

Its late now, time to fly....
TTFN
Marian

 Here, I am! Here I am! At Melincourt falls! Last Saturday, went to a market at Resolven!  We went a country route, well actually it really is all country, even saw eagles, one was over head here the other day, and we saw another two yesterday, so I am guessing their the ones that must have followed me over from Spain!!!  The Bonelli eagle it is!

I am still unpacking boxes would you believe, and still have about six not touched full of ornaments, and three full of memories, not sure what to do with them, school books belonging to the boys, drawings, even some clothes, those I definitely wont be getting rid of! Oh and loads of cards from all the years gone

 by.  I just need to go through them and try to thin them out, not likely to happen, so I will box them up, seal them down and put them away until forever happens.

We have had some lovely weather, blue sky and sunshine, we still have a solitary crocus in the garden, a little purple one!  The ones below were at a park we went to after the falls, I seem to be in search of the waterfalls that were on the TV.

I have also just uploaded book number 19 onto Kindle, another short story from Peter Maddocks, should be live in the morning or tomorrow sometime, will be

on my publishing link when its live.

Every time I go up into the garden I think I can see a little bit further, but to be honest it goes up so far there seems no end in sight!  I want to get on protected clothing, brambles warning on every tree! big boots and just hack my way through to the top or end or wherever it leads!!!

I am also every time I go up trying to weave twigs and branches into the plants on the edge of the garden, to stop Pippa getting through, Pippa will never get to be loose in the garden at this rate!  Next door neighbours were out having their dinner on their patio yesterday afternoon it was so warm!!!

Something not used to yet and that's the rubbish collection, every other week out goes the green wheelie bin and all the recycling stuff, all in separate bags, so that's about 3 or 4 depending on what you have, then a small green box for food stuffs and a large box things for tins and glass!! We got very used to having it all magically disappear over night six nights a week in Spain.

Everyone in all the shops and offices, anywhere we have had to go are so friendly, they can't do enough for you, opening a till if its busy, really wonderful, letting you pull out into traffic or waving a thank you, its blooming wonderful! 

So far I have lost our plastic Tesco card and an Iceland savers card thingy!  Well, they must be here somewhere, every time I put something else away from a box, everything get spread out all over the house and lost for a while! 

Tomorrow I have the doctors, signed up in the surgery already, but tomorrow is an appointment so he is aware of what drugs I am on, and what needs doing!

I know I have so much more to tell, but can't think just now?  I need to start making notes, its been such a long time since I Blogged and every day think I must remember....

Too much in my head I think, mostly two years since my Mom passed away on the 4th, can't believe its been two years... I really didn't think I would be here two years ago, here in Wales, and 18 months ago even here at all, I was in such a bad state, I know that now, I know probably everyone else maybe knew it, a little. But I was in such a bad place, now I dearly wish Mom had been here in Wales, where we are now, she has been to Barry Island, we went when the boys were little.  But never here.  Everywhere else I go, went, in Spain, back where I came from she had been also, and maybe it didn't help, but maybe it did.  Even now walking around, driving around, here in the house and garden I wish my Mom could see it, share it with me... at least know where I am.  I am glad I got to go to the ermita in Mijas Pueblo before I left, and light a candle for Mom...

Anyway, I am getting maudlin now, so will away!
I will make notes.
TTFN
Marian