Sunday 3rd October, 2021.
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| Norah's last photo. Taken yesterday morning, hours before she died. |
Good morning everyone.
How are you doing? I am sad because our dear, sweet and naughty beagle, Norah died yesterday. The week was fine until then as you can imagine.
Last time I wrote I was grounded and out of action. This week I have become slowly more mobile as I suppose the water on my knee is receding.
Let me start today's blog post with the latest Covid figures. Have you noticed how Covid is no longer front page news? I think it's because of Covid news fatigue and because the figures are increasing more slowly now. This time last Sunday the global figures for infections and deaths were 232.295.615 and 4.757.625. Today these numbers have increased to 235.438.565 and 4.811.923. In Spain we are all very pleased that the percentage of those infected is at an all time low of about 59 per 100.000. More and more restrictions have been lifted except for mask wearing indoors which I think is a good thing. One of the countries where the pandemic has fared better than others is Germany.
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| Global figures - courtesy of The Times (figures published Monday 27th September 2021) |
With a population of about 83 million the number of cases and deaths reported is lower than countries like the UK with a population of 66 million. In Germany the number of deaths per million inhabitants is 1.117 compared to 2.006 in the UK. The crude reality is that the UK with a smaller population has recorded 136.000 deaths to Germany's 94.000. Spain too has fewer deaths. With a population of 47 million we have 86 thousand recorded deaths. Why is the death rate so much higher in my own country or put the other way round, why is the death rate so low in Germany in comparison? I hate to have to say this but in my opinion Angela Merkel did a better job than Boris Johnson. Without proof I can guess too that the German public health system is in a lot better shape than the NHS.
So we come to the story of Angela Merkel, often known as "mutti" (mother in German) who has been the Chancellor and leader of the CDU (Christian Democratic Union - the conservative party) for 16 years. Aged 67 she is finally stepping down. She is the end of an era, a figure with humble beginnings and a bit of mystique - there is something enigmatic about her - having been born in Communist East Germany. In those 16 years I don't know whether she was a great politician or did great things, but it is an undisputed fact that with her own sort of very German charisma, she rose to be perhaps the greatest statesperson of our era. The fact that she is a woman gives her even greater merit. She was the de facto leader of the European Union and over the years after a lot of economic austere measures she became a conciliatory figure. She was the glue. Without her I am not sure in which direction the EU will go. No one knows. Last Sunday the Germans went to vote. The results were inconclusive with her party losing votes with a slim chance to lead a coalition government. But the SPD (Social Democratic party) managed a few more votes. Both parties have grey men (in black) as aspiring future chancellors and both will have to talk to the liberal and green party leaders in order to form a coalition. I should add that neither are a patch on Mutti. But obviously 16 years is far too long for a person to be head of state. For the moment it is a hung parliament and negotiations could go on until the end of the year. Meanwhile Mutti will be acting Chancellor until a new government will be formed. We will probably be saying "auf wiedersehen" to this remarkable woman but will never forget her and her mark on world politics. I for one am her fan.
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| Auf wiedersehen Angela Merkel. A salute to you too. |
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| Angela Merkel in all her coloured jackets |
So yes the German elections were much in the news last Sunday. The volcano in the Canary Islands was too and still is as new vents open and more rivers form with the consequential destruction of even more people's houses. In Tuesday's Photos of the Day section in The Times I came across this spectacular photo of the volcano erupting and the rivers of lava, taken at night.
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| Photo from The Times of the eruption of the volcano in La Palma |
The expelling of rock and lava continued through the week destroying everything in its wake. Everyone was worried what would happen when it hit the sea. It was deemed dangerous because of the explosion it would cause bringing acid rain but many experts said it would only be localised. In fact one of the lava streams did reach the ocean on Tuesday night. So what happened? Well, it caused a huge cloud of toxic gas forcing people to go into lockdown and sealing off their houses. It also added more "land" to the island, quite a lot in fact.
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| The moment the lava reached the sea - Tuesday night |
By now over 850 houses have been destroyed and another 1600 or so are expected to have the same fate. If last week I wrote about the "miracle house" that withstood the lava rivers, I'm afraid it too was destroyed in the end. The banana plantations are now affected which is the main stipend of the island. I think I told you last week that La Palma has an annual production of 130 million kilos of bananas. So the banana industry has taken an enormous hit. The Spanish government declared La Palma a disaster area and promised funding for those who have lost their houses. But they are not offering very much just 105 million which will go nowhere near to the amount that is really needed. Islanders have complained and rightly so as the average price for housing is over 150.000. Some people were still paying mortgages for houses lost. Will they have to continue to pay for them with rubble under lava? I really hope not.
I have learned a lot about volcanoes ever since this eruption. I had no idea there were different classes of volcanoes. Apparently the one in the Canaries is Strambolian with a low index of explosivity (1-2). Even so it causing a lot of damage. I am still not sure if that refers to the type of volcano or to the type of eruption. The more I research volcanoes the more confused I get. The volcano is the main news in Spain still this week but Mount Cumbre Vieja is by no means a really deadly volcano. In a programme I watched recently I learned that the most deadly one in the world is Mount Toba in Indonesia. The earth's largest known explosive eruptions came from the this super volcano located in Sumatra. According to what is known as the Toba Catostrophe theory, 75.000 years ago its first eruption nearly wiped out the human race with only 2000 people left alive in the cone of Africa. This one event caused the world's temperature to cool for a ten year period and possibly caused the Ice Age. Now that is some volcano. Thankfully for now Mount Toba is quiet.
On the home front everything was quiet too. It was last Sunday I regained some mobility and could walk with a limp - my Lazarus moment (hahahahaha). That made me so happy. I could now go to the loo and into the shower without the help of a wheelie chair. Going up and down the stairs though is still a challenge and of course no walks for at least another 2 weeks. It is such a relief though just to be mobile again.
I missed the girls. Oli and her family had gone to the coast for a few days and it was a joy to see Elliot on the beach. He seemed to love it. I got some photos which comforted me, such as this one of Oli with her babies on the beach.
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| Oli with her babies on the beach last weekend |
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| Tomatoes from our neighbours |
We had some for dinner in a salad I made with avocados. Wow they were amazing. I always think anything home grown is much better quality than shop produce. Maybe I am wrong but there is something so bucolic or even romantic about eating home grown produce, like our plums and figs.
Monday came and the sun shone. We are having wonderful weather even though it is the beginning of October. Where did the summer go? It flew past didn't it? Summer may have gone but we still have our Indian Summer - called "Veranillo de San Miguel" in Spain (St. Michael's little summer). The pool is still open and will be until the end of the month but I doubt I will be going in it. Our guests do though. Good for them. The main attraction of this house is definitely the pool.
Being more mobile I could see to lunch myself that day. With Lucy's help in chopping all the vegetables I made a carrot and coriander soup - well without the coriander as I didn't have any. For "seconds" (Spaniards always have two courses for lunch) I made my trusted lamb casserole which we all love. This is it, topped with sliced roast potatoes.
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| My trusted lamb casserole |
It was wonderful to get a call that day from my dear Uni friend Adele who is from Yorkshire but has lived all her working life in France. Like me she will retire next year. They want to retire to her beloved Brittany and my friend was excited to tell me they had just bought a house there. Wow I look forward to reunions there as I don't think I've ever been to Brittany. Congrats my friend.
I spoke to another girlfriend that day. On Monday my school friend, Amanda - my oldest friend - and I resumed our weekly skype calls. We hadn't spoken for at least 2 weeks and had lots of news to exchange. Her dear husband has just retired too. Gosh I am nearing that stage of life too with the date of February 8th looming. We met when I was about 11. Where have the years gone? Did we imagine then that we would still be friends in our "old age". We forgot to talk about the problems in the UK - the fuel crisis which was top news there again this week. Fuel is running out because of a lack of HGV drivers - what chaos. I imagine my friends don't need to fill up much as they do a lot of walking. But I am sorry for others. I was wondering when the Army will take over and I won't have to wait long. I think they start tomorrow. Everyone is worried about Christmas shortages and buying up turkeys like there is no tomorrow. The government wants people to think that the situation has come about due to panic buying. But the crude reality is that one of the reasons is because they got "Brexit done". They can't admit that though can they?
The rest of the day was quiet for me and we followed our routine so nothing to report there.
Tuesday came, another sunny day. That day I was determined to leave my bed and the house. So, armed with an emergency shopping list of items I had forgotten to add the Friday before, Eladio and I went out. What a wonderful feeling. My leg didn't hurt and I walked slowly and also took the lift at Mercadona rather than walking up and down the stairs. From Mercadona we went to have a coffee at our favourtie place, "Alverán". We sat in the shade avoiding the noon sun and heat - about 25ºc. Coincidentally our semi permanent lodger, Felipe, was having a coffee there too. When we asked for the bill we were told it had been taken care of. Thanks Felipe. It felt so good to be outdoors after 5 days of forced confinement.
We also went to Carrefour Market and the very upmarket BM but did so in a rush as we were expecting our next set of guests, a group of young men from Poland. I knew nothing about them as communication had been scant. They arrived just as we had put everything away and lunch was on the table. 3 young men got out of a hired car, all of them speaking perfect English. They are the perfect guests too, very respectful and a delight to host. They told us they had come from the Ryder Cup in the US. Oh, so they are in the golf industry. They are not players but work for a company that provides the statistics they explained. I have no idea what that involves. They were coming to work at the Spanish Open in the Club de Campo golf course, one of Madrid's most exclusive. We had a chat about the Ryder Cup outcome (Europe lost to the USA)- I am no golf expert or even fan but do keep up with sporting news. So I knew that the Spanish pair, Sergio García and Jon Rham, had been the best European players. My three Polish guests seemed to know them personally. They told me they travel the world to golf tournaments. What a lovely way to earn a living when you are young. I gave them a tour of the house limping up and down the stairs. I don't expect to see much of them now as they told me they would be working from 5 am to 8 pm most days but when I do they are a pleasure to chat to. I was very touched when two of them told me they wanted to read my father's book.
At lunch I told my father we had Polish guests as he is always interested to know where they come from. I commented to Eladio that Polish had some similarities to Russian but really very few. Being interested in languages in general I also commented that Polish was one of the Slavic languages that doesn't use the Cyrillic alphabet. I only wished my father who is so hard of hearing could have joined in the conversation as he would have known so much and could have enriched it. Instead I had to resort to Google. The main example of the Cyrillic alphabet is Russian but it is also used in other Slavic languages such as Serbian, Croatian (used to be Serbocroatian), Ukrainian, Bulgarian and others.
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| The Russian alphabet |
In contrast Polish which is West Slavonic while Russian is East Slavonic, uses the Latin alphabet but with a rather large difference.It uses a lot of double vowels and consonants. What must make it difficult are the letters with diacritics. Here is an example of what the Polish alphabet looks like.
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| The Polish alphabet |
There is a very low lexical overlap between the two languages - just 38% so Poles and Russians do not understand each other. It's nothing like Spanish and Portuguese for example where the overlap is about 89%. Even with such a high overlap Spaniards and Portuguese don't really understand each other either. It's 56% for English and German by the way.
That had us talking about alphabets and I commented that the weirdest one I knew was Georgian, apart from of course Egyptian hieroglyphics, Chinese characters or Arab script. Georgian belongs to the group of Kartvelian (South Caucasian) languages and this is what it looks like.
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| Georgian script |
To complicate matters even more there are three writing systems used in the Georgian language Asomtavruli, Nuskhuri and Mkhedruli. That's about where my research finished. I remember seeing Georgian writing for the first time in my life when a ballet from Tbilisi performed at the Alhambra theatre in Bradford when I was a child. For some reason my mother hosted all the members of the Georgian ballet company. I remember being told by her that the Georgian alphabet was different to the Russian alphabet. I remember her telling me too that Russians loved ballet and that it was in their blood as is poetry. At the time I had an autograph book, like most girls did then and some of the performers wrote in it. I was amazed at the script. I have an ex colleague from my Yoigo / Telia Sonera years, Irma, who is from Tbilisi. She is on Facebook and I am always amused to see her posts in Georgian script.
Hopefully if our dream road trip to Georgia and Armenia comes true I will get to see more Georgian script and also be introduced to the language. I really must write to Irma for tips. I would love to see her too.
Sorry if I have rambled on about languages and alphabets but they do fascinate me. My father too which is why I wish he had been a part of the conversation. My father was also always fascinated with etymology. I also love to know the origin of words and also to see how they have evolved from language to language.
Anyway, enough of that. I didn't see my Polish guests again that day. I think they spent the time sleeping off their jet lag, poor guys. I spent the afternoon literally with my leg up until dinner. That night I made clams in seafood sauce (almejas a la marinera). This is what our dinner table looked like in the kitchen. Unfortunately 19ºc at 8 pm was too cold for us to dine outside. Not so my Polish guests who eat their breakfast early in the morning by the pool!
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| Clams in seafood sauce - our dinner on Tuesday night |
Wednesday came. It was a quiet day. I did more cooking that day experimenting with a recipe for hake (a white fish called merluza in Spain which is highly prized). I first made a parsley, onion and butter based sauce to which I added peas, carrots and cauliflower. Towards the end I added the hake fillets steaming them on top of the sauce with the vegetables. I should have taken a photo but we ate it too quickly. It was delicious.
Who was cooking that day too was my daughter Suzy. She stayed on in Santa Pola where she is now living in our apartment and is searching for different jobs. She has partnered up with a co working space called Simple Social Hub and that day saw her offering vegan lunch boxes to nomad and digital workers who use the Social Hub. I think she sold quite a few and I am happy for her. On Friday too she gave a presentation on healthy vegan eating which she is passionate about. I am not passionate about her being a vegan but I respect it. If she is happy then I am happy and happy she looks in the photo below.
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| Suzy with her vegan lunch boxes at the Simple Social Hub on Wednesday |
I like the fact too that she is busy and totally focused on creating a sustainable life in this new stage of her life. No more worries about the dangers of her travels in Costa Rica, Nicaragua or Bali; for the moment at least.
While waiting for my sauce to simmer, I decided it was high time to clear out, clean and tidy the main food cupboard in our kitchen with the help of Lucy of course. Eladio remarked he had read a story about a young woman who had done the same with her grandmother's deep freeze and came across produce from the 1970's. It wasn't quite like that for us but there were plenty of items way past their shelf life, some dating back to 2017. We threw away a lot of stuff - mostly open packets of pulses, pasta and rice and filled at least three medium sized rubbish bags. I was pleased with the result. I have slowly been doing that with all the cupboards in our kitchen and it amazing now how much more room we have in them. Good job done I have to say.
We didn't go out that day as I didn't want to force it and knew my leg needed rest. And rest it got every afternoon this week while I binge watched Grey's Anatomy. Eladio calls it my drug.
Thursday came, nearly the end of the week, not that it matters much to me but there is always Friday night dinner out to look forward to. As we hadn't been out to dinner for Eladio's birthday owing to the injury on my knee while in Santa Pola, I booked us a table at Proverbium. We later changed it to yesterday night. It's a great and authentic Italian restaurant in Boadilla that has rave reviews. I kept debating do I want pizza or pasta and would only decide once there. Do you too think a lot about food or is just me? Probably not.
We were pleasantly busy in the morning doing errands. We went to the post office to reclaim a parcel from my friend Joanna which she sent on 6th September for Juliet. It had not arrived but we hope it does soon. From the post office we drove to our bank to sort out a minor thing so that my dear husband can use a "payment between friends" app or option called Bizum. It was designed for small quantities of money to be sent instantly between friends using just their mobile phone number and is so much easier than making a bank transfer. It was coffee time by the time we came out of the bank and we enjoyed it sitting in the shade in the old part of Boadilla. We then went to the jeweler's to pick up some watches we needed mending. One of them was a beautiful giant man's watch I got from Nokia years and years ago. Nokia made the most desirable corporate gifts and I still have quite a few of them, including this watch. It was nearly 1 by then and time for Eladio's all important barber appointment. He hadn't been since July and was in dire need of a cut. It was only after badgering from me that he agreed to go. We now go to a hairdresser called Conchi - a tiny woman with the figure of a young girl - who charges the same as my previous hairdresser, Cati, who retired. For just 23 euros I get my roots dyed and my hair washed, cut and blow dried. Eladio's cut costs just 9 euros which is a paltry sum. I must say my husband looked dashing with his new hair cut. He has to go more often, definitely. Here he is posing for me. He doesn't look his age does he? No way.
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| Eladio after his hair cut looking dashing |
We were home just in time for lunch with my father. I didn't sleep much of a siesta and was soon downstairs making my afternoon cup of decaf tea. I was joined by two of my Polish guests. They needed help for other people from their team driving from Poland to Spain for the Spanish Open and wanted to know which parts of Madrid were off limits to certain cars - zero emission areas as they are called. I really didn't have enough information to help them but did the best I could. The laws keep changing and it seems the latest affects an area called "Distrito Centro" - the areas being called ZBEDEP ("zonas de bajas emisiones de especial protección"). The problem was that some of their colleagues would be staying in hotels in some of these areas. With a lot of help from Google I found them the page for appointments to get stickers to allow foreign cars to drive in these areas. I think from now on if we go into the centre of Madrid we will just leave the car at the metro station and take the train into town.
After helping Macidj (pronounced Machid I think), I got on with what I was doing - making "salmorejo". Salmorejo is a gazpacho like cold summer soup but thicker from the Córdoba region in Andalusia in the south of Spain and is delicious. The ingredients are: 1 kg tomatoes, 200 g. bread, 150 ml olive oil, a clove of garlic and some salt; nothing else. I used our neighbours' tomatoes and some I had going bad - the redder and riper the tomatoes are the better the result. It is traditional to top the thick soup with chopped hard boiled egg and "ibérico" ham. This is what it looked like when we had it for dinner that night.
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| My salmorejo |
It's a very easy recipe. There are variations but the original one only includes the ingredients named above. If you are interested this is the method: Pour the oil on the bread, peel and dice the tomatoes (some people say to scald them to get rid of the peel but that cooks the tomatoes and the taste is not as good), peel and cut the garlic clove into small pieces. Add the tomato and garlic to the bread and oil, add some salt and one small glass of water. Put the whole mixture into a liquidiser - I use a kenwood - and blend until you have a smooth creamy soup; neither too thick nor too thin. This should then go into the fridge for a few hours before consumption. The topping is easy - boil 2 eggs, shell and chop into tiny pieces. The ham should be good quality "ibérico" which you either cut into small strips yourself or buy already cut . Some people add more oil on the top (I don't) and parsley. And voilà there you have a wonderful Spanish summer soup like mine above. I have done a lot of cooking this week haven't I?
Friday came and it was 1st October. It's significant in history for quite a few events. On October 1st 1746 Bonnie Prince Charlie fled to France, in 1800 Spain ceded Louisiana to France (never knew Spain owned Louisiana), in 1867, more sinesterly Karl Marx published "Das Kapital" and we all know what that led to. In 1888 the National Geographic magazine published for the first time, in 1898 Jews were expelled from Kiev in the Ukraine and in the same year Tsar Nicholas II expelled them from major Russian cities (shame on him). In 1918 Sir Lawrence of Arabia captured Damascus from the Turks (sound familiar? Siria always at war). In 1920 good old Dutch law, ahead of its times always, lay down the 8 hour working day. As late as 1st October 1931 the Spanish parliament voted for women suffrage - later than many other countries. 5 years after General Franco, later Spain's dictator, established his rule. in 1945 12 Nazi criminals were sentenced to death in the Nuremberg trial. In 1949 Mao Zedong declared the People's Republic of China and a terrible period began for its population. In 1969 a Concorde test flight broke the sound barrier but the Concorde never really became a success. In 1977 Brazilian football player, Pelé, perhaps the best ever, played his final game. In 1982 West Germany's CDU ousted Helmut Schmidt, making Helmut Kohl chancellor. He would become Angela Merkel's protegée (Helmut's "little girl"). That demonstrates that however successful you are there is always a downfall awaiting you. It's the same with companies. So where is IBM today for example or Motorola? Replaced by Apple and Microsoft. It's the same for Mikhail Gorbachev who became the head of the Soviet Union on 1st October 1988. Sadly too for Michael Schumacher but for different reasons. On 1st October 1995 he won his second straight F1 Championship. In 1998 Vladimir Putin began his ascent in politics when he became a permanent member of the Security Council of the Russian Federation. Well he hasn't yet been toppled but history repeats itself and his time will come. I can't wait for the day. In 2005 a bombing killed 23 people in Bali, Indonesia. It was one of the first attacks of this kind. And just 4 years ago, on 1st October 2017 the fugitive and ex Governor for Catalonia, Puigdemont, held an illegal independence referendum to separate from Spain. When he had to face justice he fled to Belgium where he still lives. This week we saw him in Italy and detained and then let free. One day he will have to face the music.
I hope I haven't bored you with this but for me 1st October is very significant and not because of these historical events. It's the anniversary of the passing away of my dear mother. She left us and this world in 1999 and there is not a day I do not miss her.
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| My vivacious, bohemian, cultured and fun loving mother, Her Serene Highness Elena von Lieven b Rome 7th June 1920. D. Bradford W.Yorkshire 1st October 1999. Forever in my heart. |
I was very happy though when my dear school friend, Geraldine, placed flowers on my mother's grave this week to honour her birthday. Geraldine's parents are buried too at Charlestown cemetery in Baildon and she has often put flowers there for my mother bless her. I am very grateful to my friend.
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| Flowers on my mother's grave this week to honour her anniversary from my dear friend Geraldine. Thank you so much. |
1st October is also significant for me professionally. It was on 1st October 2006 that I joined Yoigo - a new mobile phone operator on the Spanish market. It was owned by the Swedish telecoms operator Telia, known then as Telia Sonera. I shall never forget the day I joined nor our beginnings. There were only 30 or 40 of us and we had until 1st December to launch the company and have it up and running. If we didn't we would lose the licence to operate. The HR people took a photo of me for the company badge - the badge that opens doors and makes you feel you belong. This was 15 years ago and I remember the green jacket. I can see I had far fewer wrinkles at the time hahaha.
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| My first day at Yoigo |
That my friends is why 1st October is significant for me. I kept my thoughts mostly to myself that day which was perhaps the highlight of the week because Elliot came. In the morning Eladio and I did more chores - more food shopping and then to Spain's flagship department store to get replacement bowls for ever dwindling pieces of our every day dinner set. I seriously think some guests have been stealing mugs and bowls. Really? Well if not what is the explanation? Have people broken them all? In any case we found what we wanted although the items are not quite the same.
I was excited on Friday morning as Oli and co were coming in the afternoon and for dinner. Thus I went all out and prepared a special meal. I also bought a cake at our favourite bakery, Alverán, It was to be another birthday cake for Eladio (only because I fancied cake hahaha) as Oli and her family weren't with him on his birthday. I ordered their enticing lemon meringue pie which looks delicious but which I had never tried.
We were ready and waiting for them by about 4.30 but they didn't come until 7.15. Meanwhile I prepared the dinner; leftover salmorejo and a prawn salad with lettuce, avocado, walnuts and mango served with thousand island sauce.
I was so excited to see Elliot again and he was excited to see us. He calls us Mazha and Bubu (a sort of play on "abuelo" - grandfather in Spanish) and we don't mind. I find it very funny. He or rather his mother had brought a present for Eladio - 2 sets of sunglasses he much needs. But it was Elliot who gave them to him and I had to capture the moment on camera.
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| The moment Elliot gave Eladio his birthday present |
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| A second birthday cake for Eladio when Elliot came to dinner on Friday |
Oli had wanted to wait for Miguel to get back from his dinner to drive them home but it was getting late - after 10.30 pm - so she asked her father to take them home. Thus we all got into our old Volvo and if the police had caught us we would have had a hefty fine. I sat in the front with Elliot on my knees with just one seat belt for the two of us and Oli sat in the back next to the carry cot with Juliet in it. Thankfully they only live about 2 or 3km from us so the journey was very short and no one saw us. If they had they would not have approved. The drive reminded me of when Eladio and I used to go to England in his old Renault 5 car (a tiny model). He would be in the front driving while I sat in the back in the middle with Suzy on one side in a car seat and Oli on the other in her carry cot. I was squeezed in between the two and at times had to get Oli out to breastfeed while Eladio drove. That was in the 80's and considered normal. Not so today. Everything is so much more regulated these days and I don't think that is always for the good. I hate society norms and living under "nanny states". Don't you?
We were home and in our bedroom past 11 pm - late for us. I didn't sleep well that night. I don't often so that is not news.
Saturday came and I had no idea that from now on 2nd October would be significant for me too. It started off fine. I followed my normal routine but no walk of course. Eladio decided to mow the lawn and I attended to lunch. Thus I was in the kitchen for most of the morning. And when I'm in the kitchen I have the dogs for company or I did. This time last year we had 3 dogs, Elsa our lab, Norah our beagle and little Pippa our mini dachshund.
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| Our three dogs. We only have one left now. |
Dear Elsa passed away on 1st March after a useless battle against a vicious mouth infection. That left only Norah and Pippa. Norah has been unwell for years as she was bitten by a mosquito called leishmania which can be lethal for dogs. Thankfully we had it under control. But she also had breast cancer. She was old and would have turned 13 at the end of next month. We had noticed a decline in her health over the past few weeks and I wondered how long she would last. I looked up how long beagles live and it is between 12 and 15 years. So Norah was old and ill but she was still our Norah, a fun loving, naughty but gentle dog usually. She loved our guests but above all she loved food. Beagles have no sense of a full appetite and can eat until they die. Many many times she stole food from us and our guests. It was a standard joke. We found it amusing. We had to put a magnet on the cupboard where the rubbish bin is so that she wouldn't poke her head in and rummage around for food. She was always on the prowl. These last few weeks her appetite decreased which was unusual for her but she still begged for food - i.e. human food which she loved best. Norah was the boss. When Elsa arrived 3 years after we got her Norah became her surrogate mother and boss. Elsa learned lots from her. Then when Pippa arrived 3 years later, Norah was not too happy about that. She was jealous and kept Pippa in her place. Elsa became Pippa's surrogate mother. Since Elsa passed away Norah was still in charge. She was always fighting with Pippa over their blankets and beds. She could never decide which one she wanted and often took both blankets. Pippa obeyed, knowing her place. But they became friends and often played together. Now Pippa has no one to play with. Norah adored her walks and knew immediately when it was time to go. She would sit in the garage waiting for us to put on her lead. Her last walk was on Friday but she got very tired and Eladio had to bring her back. We knew the end was coming but not as soon as it did. Instinctively I took a photo of her yesterday morning on the grass by the kitchen patio - her terrain. She sort of posed for me and I think deep down I knew it would be one of my last photos of her. I did not know it would be the last. It is fitting that this is the photo I have chosen to illustrate today's blog post.
We had lunch as normal - chicken casserole- and she and Pippa sat by us hoping for morsels which they got. We went upstairs after lunch to watch the news and have our siesta when suddenly there was a knock on the door. It could only be Zena, our weekend carer. I immediately thought something had happened to my father, but no, it was Norah. She said she had fallen. We rushed downstairs to the kitchen and saw her lying still just by her bed. Zena said she had come in from the garden and had tried to make it to her bed but fell over and just lay there. I checked her heart and looked at her head, crying, knowing this was the end. Eladio and I caught her last breath or two and that was it. Her life was over. I sat next to her on the floor stroking her and crying. I couldn't believe she had gone. My only relief was that she had done so with no pain. It looked very much like she had had a heart attack. What a grief stricken moment. I just sat there stroking her while Eladio called the vet for them to come and take her. I was reliving the moment the vet came to take Elsa on 1st March. Just 7 months later Norah died too leaving us bereft. Now we only have Pippa. I then had to tell the girls and that was hard. We all had our favourite dogs. Elsa was Eladio and Oli's favourite, mine was Pippa with Norah coming second but Norah was Suzy's overall favourite. I knew it would be very hard for Suzy and it was. I had to ring her to tell her and she was devastated. When Norah was taken the kitchen seemed empty. Our house is not the same without our dogs. Thankfully we still have Pippa. I'm not sure she realised what happened but I know she will miss our beagle. I spent a lot of time after that searching for photos of Norah, mostly for Suzy and found a few. This is one I specially like; Norah lying next to Suzy who is sitting in the garden reading. All Norah wanted apart from food was human company, ours and our guests. I write that with a heavy heart.
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| Suzy with Norah - Norah was Suzy's favourite dog |
When she was gone Eladio removed her bed and kept her collar. The kitchen seems empty without her and every time I go in I can feel her missing. She and Elsa both have left a gaping hole in our lives.
I had a table booked for dinner last night. I wasn't really in the mood but we decided to go anyway. It was a pleasant enough dinner but we were sad and didn't enjoy it as much as we normally would have. Anyone who is an animal lover and who has lost a dog will commiserate I know. It makes you think it's not worth getting one if you are going to lose it after only 10 to 15 years. But on the other hand they give you so much love and joy. I'm glad we had the privilege of nearly 13 years with "naughty Norah". We often called her "Norah the food snatcher". No longer will we have to worry about her stealing our guests' food. That actually makes me a bit sad as our guests loved her.
It was difficult to sleep last night. I nearly went down to the kitchen to get Pippa and bring her up to sleep with us .I wanted her comforting company but resisted. I don't know what time I fell asleep but I woke up late for me this morning at 7.40 a.m. It's often my job to feed the dogs but today I only had to feed Pippa. I also had to feed our cat Phoebe but Phoebe is a bit of a mystery cat and only comes in for food in the mornings and then she is off again. I love cats but they don't give you the company and love a dog give you, at least not in my experience.
I sigh as I end this week's post. When the week started I had no idea that I would be sharing with you the news of the death of our beloved beagle Norah. RIP Norah. You will be sorely missed.
Cheers my friends until next Sunday,
Masha
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