Colourful welcome

This is the sight that greeted us when we got to the apartment yesterday; a 2-foot deep pile of fallen bougainvillea bracts from the huge vine which surrounds the terrace, and sheds its leaves in dry weather. Being tired, hungry and a bit grumpy after a flight packed with Scousers, I said sod it, we'll sort it out tomorrow. Most of today has been spent shovelling up the leaves (carefully, as they hide a multitude of spiders and beetles), cleaning the outdoor furniture which was suffering from the local "dirty rain", and scrubbing an industrial quantity of bird poo off the tiles - a whole gang of the little critters like to congregate in the bougainvillea at dusk to have a loud and lively gossip session before settling down for the night. While I was thus occupied the offspring helpfully enjoyed the communal swimming pool and sat around reading magazines.

It has taken over 4 hours to upload this image (darn Telefonica) - hope that improves as I'd like to have a holiday too!