Distant memories …..

Our first day back home has hardly been relaxing. Our flight from Funchal last night has been delayed by bad weather, and we don’t arrive back until 01.30. Fortunately, we’re staying at an airport Premier Inn so we avoid having to drive home, but it’s still about 2.30 am before we fall into bed. 

I have an early appointment at Broadgreen hospital - it’s straight back into appointments again! Basically just a review and further discussions on next stages. 

Back home, the house is in turmoil. The gas engineers have arrived to finally fit our new boiler - and it looks as if it’s going to take two days. For the moment we have no water at all, and although the water supply will be back on later, there’ll be no hot water or heating until late on tomorrow.  Of course, that wouldn’t be too bad if the beautiful spring weather had continued, but it’s really chilly now - especially as the engineers insist on leaving the front door open! 


Out in the garden, the metal bird feed bin has been toppled over, then bungee cords holding the lid on chewed through, and the plastic container holding suet balls lies in pieces. Our lawn looks as if it’s been trampled by a herd of cows. G has been waging war on what we thought was a particularly strong squirrel, but clearly this damage is more than even the most muscular squirrel could manage. It seems the local badger has been paying our garden a visit. We’ve never seen him, but neighbours have, and he’s clearl6 been having an absolute ball while we’ve been away. Poor G - he loves his lawn and he looks at the mess despondently. 

There’s the usual unpacking and laundry - curtailed due to the water situation - and we still have two rooms to paint after the damp course work done in February. It’s usually me that does most of the painting  - G does the ceilings as his height makes it easier - but at the moment my back etc make that difficult. And this all needs to be done before Saturday when Daniel, Solveig and Lili come for the weekend! 

Suddenly, Madeira seems a very distant memory, and as I’ve not even had my camera  out today I’m afraid I’m relying on the Bird of Paradise flowers in yesterday’s sunshine  - with the added bonus of gossamer threads for my blip today! And of course there are extras. Apologies for this  - and for being so far behind with blipping, but hopefully I’ll catch up over time the next week.