We have been watering and dead heading in the garden of some friends who are, sadly, no longer here to care for their pride and joy themselves. Having retired; sold their house in the UK and made the permanent move to Spain, they barely had time to enjoy it before he passed away suddenly and she, unable to face remaining here without him, went back to the UK to be with family. A devastatingly sad situation but the one redeeming fact, if indeed there can be one, is that they had made all arrangements here in Spain for just such an eventuallity and she wasn't left having to arrange a funeral for her husband at a time when just getting through each day was difficult enough.
Not only have we been affected by the loss but our two dogs, Branwen and Breaca
have missed their company and the treats on offer as they passed their house on their afternoon walk with Mike. The couple were always friendly and welcoming towards the dogs and understood their barking language,knowing that they were just saying 'hello'. Now when they go past their ears are down and they are uncharacteristically subdued..
No one wants to think about dying but this has left us with a huge question mark hanging over our heads. Of course we have made wills, both here and in the UK, but done nothing about funeral arrangements. It has always been something that we have put off - well you do don't you? However, I'm hitting the big 7-0 this year and Mike, although a couple of years younger than me, is statistically likely to go first. Where would I start? We did have life insurance but this expired last year and to renew it at our age is expensive and would only cover us until we were eighty anyway.
We have to do something soon. I don't want to leave my boys with the worry of 'what to do with the old girl', especially if I am out here in Spain. If it was just up to me I'd have a funeral pyre on the beach with Fleetwood Mac playing in the background but funerals are for those we leave behind so that's not going to happen. It's very sad, though, that it has taken the death of a lovely man to jolt us into action.
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We've always had red geraniums on the outside sill of the bedroom between the window and the rejas. Last year, though, they developed white spots on the leaves and the plants started to look very sickly. We had no choice in the end but to replace them with other plants, making sure we changed the compost. This year we bought fresh ones from the local garden centre in Vera (always very reliable) and they have been fine - until now when I notice greyish/white spots have appeared on the leaves. I haven't overwatered them; deadheaded them regularly and removed any leaves clogging the bottom of the plants. I don't know what else to do. If I lose them again this year, I'm going to replace them with lavender. We already have some which is thriving in pots on the patio and, anyway, it's supposed to keep mosquitos at bay
I was relieved to read the article in the Euro Weekly that the early arrival of the mozzies was due to the very wet spring weather. We have some quite marshy terrain around here so that won't have helped. I'm sorry for everyone else who may have been affected by the little blighters but at least I now know that it wasn't personal.