A quick turnaround...

Even while I was busy with B2b, the painters were coming to my house to finish painting the living room and the outside patios. I would get home in the evening and have to take time to clean up the dust and debris, hang curtains, and start putting all my books back onto the bookshelves again. This made it seem like a very quick turnaround, as I only had  Saturday to iron my laundry and start packing a suitcase for my trip to Australia.

As well as painting the outside of the house, the men also put up new "privacy shading" on my upstairs balcony. During the two days with no shading, the cats discovered a whole new world beyond our home. Tobi in particular became quite an intrepid explorer, wandering over the rooftops and looking down at the dogs in my neighbours' patios. I have to confess that I was rather relieved when my new hedging went up and my felines were restricted to my own house again. I would not have liked to think of them wandering all over the neighbours' rooftops while I'm in Australia for two weeks!

The cats weren't the only ones to discover a whole new world recently. When the police told us that dogs were no longer to be allowed off leash in our local park, I needed to find a new solution for exercising  Buba, my neighbour's very energetic, 8-month old English setter puppy. We wandered further up the hill from the park and, to my amazement, I discovered a lovely wooded area with mountain paths along the foot of the hills. I can't believe I've lived in my house for five years and not realised that access to the "campo" (countryside) was close enough to reach on foot. Buba is loving the freedom of running around on the hillside behind my house. It's good exercise for me, too, and I look forward to taking her for more walks when I get back from my trip to Australia.