The little things we appreciate after missing them.

I feel for you rberon, that must be terrible having to live like that without fresh air. I'm in a very rural area and while we have no air so to speak of at the moment, just thick humidity, most of the time we do. The best thing is just after the rain when the scent of the wild herbs seems extra intense. In the cooler months we often walk near the sea and can smell it in the air, and the countryside around the house smells of olive trees, wild herbs and wild flowers.

I really hope you save enough to go back to your province soon and escape from the polluted city.

I have missed having time to visit the local lakes this year. I work opposite shifts of my husband, so when I am home I usually just come online. Way too bad, I think. I love fresh, natural water, swimming and wading in the waves. I think that is why my knees hurt so much.

Hi Alice, I'm just the opposite. I have 650 square metres of land, most of it olive grove which I do love, but the bit around the house which is meant to be a garden I don't use and just leave it with the natural look which is either huge dry grass (when it rains) or flat schorched grass (in the heat). I am more than happy just to sit out on the terrace which requires no looking after at all as I've discovered I have not a single green finger to my name.

So anytime you feel like mowing AliceActually that wouldn't work, you'd need to pack an enormous oil strimmer, wrong kind of grass for a mower

Hi UltimateAsoka, that is a little thing that I imagine would be really missed. I love to eat out but also love the freedom to just eat what I fancy at home. My son believes my cooking is the best in the world, but when it comes to the cookies and cakes he loves best I get him to help me to make them, so hopefully he'll be able to do them himself when he needs. You should get your Mum to send you a cookie parcel.

I agree with you Gertie, it's all those little things which don't actually cost anything. The pain was is the main one though so hope your knees keep a bit better, my mans been having some serious leg and knee problems recently and although he was masking the pain well the other day he really appreciated being able to walk across the beach to the sea without a pair of crutches. Cool weather sounds wonderful but don't think it's going to happen anytime soon and I hate to complain about the heat because I truly hate the cold.

Hi prash, so reading into that you maybe appreciate that you don't take the time to appreciate the little things, but don't waste your time worrying about things you can't have. A good philosophy to have.

Hi James, I can empathise with that one really. We are yearning for rain right now, just to clear the humid air. Rain once in a year must be intolerable, everyone always thinks they can live without the rain easily but it's not so easily done. Last winter we literally had torrential rain every day for 3 months and I swore I never wanted to see rain again, but the little bit we've had this month, over in less than a half hour, really makes one appreciate it, after months of draught. I just wish it could be a bit more evenly spaced.

It always seems to be one extreme or the other these days?

Hello Sandra, we don't have postal deliveries either but it doesn't bother me at all, the postman drops the mail at a designated spot such as the cafenion. In the higher isolated villages it will be at a taverna or cafenion, but even if I had a post box there'd be no way to persuade him up here. The only thing that bugs me about the postal system is registered mail. The postman will leave me a note at my designated spot to tell me I have reg. mail but he won't leave it at the post office, he drives around with it and the only time to get hold of it is by going to the post office at 2pm when he is sure to be there. On lucky occassions he might flag me down on the road and give it to me. Our system here does sound better though than your one in Spain as it does not involve queuing or paying.

Hi versio, you are so right and I completely forgot about that one. When we've had no water recently, which has been frequently, the pressureless trickle which finally emerges from the taps is usually scalding hot from the solar tank baking in the sun on the roof. I have to clean my teeth with water from a bottle as who wants to do it in hot water, and sometimes it is too hot to get under the water in the shower. Both my fridge and freezer are bursting with bottles of cold water for drinking. If you have a freezer too try popping the bottles in there and you that way you get iced water.

Hi xsammiex, when that happens it really does make you appreciate those things and I know exactly how you feel. Two winters ago the electric company staged a two hour strike every single day for over a month but the problem with that is that it needs electric to run the oil heating so the house would be freezing plus of course no hot drinks or food to warm up with instead.
My shower has never broken but we often have no water, this summer has been really bad for that. On other occassions when it's been off for more than a day I call a friend and use their shower and have places where I can go and shower lined up.

Hatley that is absolutely horrible, I've never heard anything like it, that is just humiliating. I remember when I had my son I was too weak to stand up myself but my husband came in and made sure I was okay in the shower. Even after surgery I would only accept help to the bathroom door to shower in privacy. In Greece the relatives do all the nursing for family members, the nurses are just here to dole out drugs and run round after the Doctors.
I'm not suprised you appreciated the privacy of your own shower after that ordeal, I had no idea American hospitals were that bad.