Hello to all my friends on this stormy day.

                                                                           

After a thundery night with lightning flashing around, managed to get this picture of the sky getting ready for the next lot of rain as the sun was just starting to rise at dawn.
When it rains, it sure does rain. You get a heavy deluge which suddenly stops as if someone turned the tap off, then a few minutes later it chucks it down. You can get hail the size of golf balls, then brilliant sunshine it's going to be one of these days
                                                    We had our next door neighbours moving out here to live so had been looking around at properties for them. On some of our drives around we came across several places that only needed a little make-over. Natural caves, some even had two rooms. Some even looked like they had been used, maybe years ago to keep goats in. Afraid these did not go down to well with the lady of the house, our good friend  Maggie and her husband Bob. Love her to bits really. Both are very special friends.
                                         

The natural stone bungalow

. We really did tease Maggie about what you could buy out here. But we enjoyed the drive around looking at our stunning scenery out here. Green one minute, then slowly getting dry and dusty the next.Spring is glorious out here with the blossoms and the wild flowers that grow everywhere. And then we get the wild poppies, growing everywhere and the splash of red is all around in the fields.Summer is now on the way.                

What a pool!

Here was a lovely bungalow built of natural stone, landscaped gardens, what more could you want!

Even had its own natural swimming pool

     
We also sent back pictures of goat sheds all crumbling down as 'good buy's'.



 We did send them pictures of proper houses and addresses of estate agents to contact.
Ended up finding them a lovely bungalow which was just what they were after. They sold their house in the UK and now live happily out here.
Talking of goats and also sheep, we sometimes have them coming into the field next to us to graze. This sends the dogs mad, but the goats don't bother at all. It's lovely to see them and hear the tinkling of the bells. Gives you a real country feeling.

I took a lot of photo's of them, was going to paint a picture of some, but the one I started  did not turn out right,  Had trouble with the goat's eye. This one ended up in the bin! Might try again another time.

                                                         These were walking out of our garden one day. Had been in to inspect the flowers and shrubs growing.
                                                                   

     

Thankfully we now have a hedge of 'Prickly Pear Cacti' which also makes a good fire break. Farmers used to use them as firebreaks and to keep the livestock in or out as was required.

 Having fields next to us which in summer are a fire hazard, we are thankful for this kind of hedge, also a fenced of area for our dogs, as they would be in their element chasing these across the whole island. Klaus also goes out and clears the grass on either side of the house as well, just in case. We have seen how quickly fire can spread out here. Luckily now the village tractor also comes to cut the grass ready for making hay for animals.

Picture for the week 

A beautiful butterfly

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Now to the art side of thing.

As you can see I have now started the old boat. Thought it looked better out of the water than in, more to see.

Hope I can get the right look to the old boat and the roughness and cracking of the wood.

We shall see!!

Look forward to catching up with you all next week.