Summer is here

You will say that I am like Grumpy, the dwarf, as I don't like many things and I don't mind saying it.

Well, I don't like Summer at all. I can't stand the heat, the display of bare bodies, the discomfort. Nah, I'm waiting for Autumn since the last days of Spring.

Ah but the beach, people will say. I don't like it. I don't like the sand, the heat and I'm afraid of the sea.

And those almost naked bodies !

But the country, you may go to the country. Well, there we have the heat too and mosquitoes.

(from this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNHG_d9_480)

But there are also things that I like:

Going on holidays

Ice cream

So, it's ok, let's have Summer, then.

Lourdes, close to Heaven

We went on holidays. As my children say, mum only goes on holidays to places where there  are plenty of churches. That's true. I like the landscape, trees, flowers, nice houses, fresh air but without churches no holiday is good enough for me.

So we went to Lourdes. We has everything booked, plane tickets and hotel, since January - or was it last December ? Anyway, we did it a long time ago. We counted our days and it looked as if there was years before those dreamt holidays in France.

Let me tell you. I went to Paris with my husband in honeymoon, which was like hundreds years ago. The girls never went there or any part of France. England, Spain and Italy several times they did but not France. One of them even went to Morocco and other to Ireland and now it was time to go to France but we didn't go to Lourdes only to go to France, it was the opposite way.

The Catholic world knows Lourdes, if not more, at least the name. It's a town in France, in the Pyrenees, where in the 19th century Our Lady appeared to a girl called Bernadette Soubirous. People interested in the matter can read about it here. It's the recount of the Apparitions. On the history of the place, please go here to know more about it. I can even leave here an excerpt: "Located in the Pyrenees Mountain region of France, Lourdes is the home of one of the most important shrines in the Catholic Faith: the Grotto of Massabielle. Approximately five million pilgrims, of whom a great number are sick or handicapped, come to Lourdes each year. It may be through curiosity, through a desire for a physical cure, in a movement towards belief, or to be of service to those who suffer, that they come to drink the water from the Holy Spring. "

So we went. 

The beauty of its surrounding it's astonishing. Mountains and mountains everywhere we look covered in a delicious green, many times smoothed with fog. The quality of the air and all the beauty around us makes that place a delight for the senses.

And then there is the spiritual side, which makes most people who go there.

I must say that I knew about the Apparitions since I was a child and, as a grown up, I always wanted to go there but the trip was not that easy as we would have to go to Paris and, from there, take the train to the town. But some months ago we had a delightful surprise: direct flights to Lourdes ! We booked at once. And last month we went.

I knew about Lourdes and I even went to interactive maps to know the way to the hotel and to the Sanctuary and all but what I didn't know was what we feel there. I didn't knew what I would feel there ! The strong sense of spiritual is amazing. Only going there we can understand what we feel in Lourdes - and I am used to go to Fátima, so tell be about spiritual !

As Catholics we were so happy to go and we knew it would be wonderful, what we didn't know was that it would be even more wonderful that we could dream. It was like to be in Heaven. The people there, most of them, knew well what they were doing there, they were pilgrims, not tourists. It feels really good to be amongst people like us.

Here we can see the candle procession minutes before its beginning. Every evening at 9 pm there is a Procession with a huge crowd.

Another daily Procession is the one of the Blessed Sacrament from which I almost have no pictures because, due to the most intense sense of the presence of God, I almost haven't took any and the few I have are from the end of the Procession, inside of one of the Basilicas, at the Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and Benediction and from before it started. 

I will leave you mainly with pictures of the outdoors. This crown is the exterior of the cupola of the Basilica of the Rosary. Inside there are fifteen altars with "paintings" representing each one of the Mysteries of the Rosary. I wrote paintings in comas because they are not really paintings, they were made with tiny mosaic. A most astonishing thing !

The church on the right side is called Basilica of the Immaculate Conception. We can see also the dome and entrance of the Basilica of the Rosary on the left. 

Look at those stairs. We climbed it but decided that next time we would go by the ramp !

There are ramps on each side full of statues. In this image we can see Saint Anne and young Our Lady. From here we can have amazing views of the river and surroundings.

The Basilica of the Immaculate Conception and the entrance to the Basilica of the Rosary.

It's unforgetable ! I think I must make another post, another day, so you may see more of Lourdes. And maybe you will want to go there. You will not regret it.

Partying at:

Inspire Me Monday

Inspire me Tuesday at A  Stroll Thru Life

Travel Tuesday at Intelliblog

Our World Tuesday 

Home and Garden Thursday at A Delightsome Life

Grace at Home at Imparting Grace

It's Autumn - or it is not

I'm amazed.

Usually, in this corner of the world, the Autumn arrives so late which is a bad thing for me as I don't like the Summer, other than when we go on holiday all together. That I like and the fact that my younger girls are school free till September.

But something good happened this year: the Autumn arrived on time and even gave us some little samples when it was still Summer. Oh, I was happy. It' so good to not have to endure the hit anymore, the display of bodies dressed in less clothes than they should, the heavy air with less oxygen, the car being hot when I get in and the sun burning my skin.

Not anymore till the middle of next year! I felt so relived and full of psychological energy. I felt I wanted to live ! I caught myself making plans for me, for the house and just breathing the nice fresh air in the morning.

I was even thinking of wearing stockings already. I think I never did it before October - the middle of it.

I know for many people the Autumn and the Winter are prone to depressions but not for me, with me it's the opposite.

I had a big smile in my soul.

Life is good.

And then...
Summer came back. I can't believe we are in the end of October and having bouts of heat for days and days.

First it came a little and I thought that it was the Summer saying goodbye for good. But then it came such a heat wave that it was hell on earth with cathastrophic fires and all. It was the Hurricane Ophelia bringing all the heat with it.

And now we are having heat again... Some forecasts say it wil be 28 today but I saw another saying it will be 31 !!! I just can't believe it !

Oh, well, let's hope that it will end soon and we will have a good, true Autumn. I really want cold days.

..

Just a note: maybe you are wondering why I posted about the heat and put a picture of a nice day of rain. Well, it's to counteract the depression the heat gives to me. Some days ago it rained and very nice it was, so each time I think on the heat, I look  at this and feel better.

Endless Summer

Dreaming of rain on the windows

I don't like the Summer. Yes, that's true, I like Winter and Autumn and the beginning of Spring - not the end because it's already Summer.

So we are having a reasonble Summer this year, not too hot but with some heat waves now and then that lasted just some two days each.

And so now we had another of those waves, Truly high temperatures that make me almost unable to think and to walk. I know, big exageration here, except for the part of thinking.

It's the end of Summer now but he doesn't know it and keeps going on. I long for fresher days with cardigans and sweaters. I even like gray days but now it's a endless Summer.

I read in some blogs how people are already beginning to decorate their houses in a Autumny way - in America, where they do that - and here it's like July or beggining of August.
I can see the Ivy blossoming, which is a sign that I look every year to give me hope that Summer is ending.

I even went to Weather Underground photos  - another place I like to go - looking for pictures of rain to keep my mind  off this eat. I looked in British blogs for posts on the coming of the Autumn. I look outside the window and all I can see is Summer.

Oh, well, most people like it. Not me.

Update:
After I wrote this post complaining about Summer I realized that the temperature today is falling down a little, they forecast a maximun of 27ºC. Better than nothing. I hope Summer will feel encouraged to go away for real. There is hope.

At last!

I know, but it's better late then never. Here they are my holidays pictures.

Do you know where this street is leading to? Our hearts are already burning with anticipation.

Here!
The hapiness that we feel here. The first step is to go through a scanner as in the airports, then we must get between two guards because lots of turists forget they are in a sacred space and dress almost to naked. I saw some people sent away. Not the muslim women because they are always properly dressed.

Going to the Basilica we can see these handsome men.

Inside.
We feel so little. First time I went to the Vatican, my girl that is now 11 was a little girl on my husband's shoulders. The moment we went in, she couldn't help say: Wow! Yes, that what we feel.

It's everything so grand.

Here we only can enter to go to Mass.

It's a special place, even for turists.
Looks like our hearts will burst with that light.

Such a blessed place.

For some days, I will post some pictures of the Vatican and Rome.
----------
Here is the Piazza Navona.

More tomorrow.

Hotel Paris

There is an hotel in Oporto called Hotel Paris that exists since the XIX century. It's delightful. I was there twice, each time for several days.

It's always full because everybody likes it, it's so picturesque.

Last time I went there its was full of people, even a couple from New Zealand.

The Entrance.

The way to the Breakfast Room.

This is the Breakfast Room.

It's full of corridors. Our room where here, one in front of the other. In the botton, a window with a view to the town - also our room had big windows with beautiful views.

The bedrooms and all the hotel have antique furniture.

Delightful!
More pictures here.

Summer

I just realized I've been away for quite a while and I don't like it.

The weather has been very hot and I don't like it also. At all. The ones who know me know that I can't stand summer. I feel I can't do anything. But, well, summer is here and I must endure it for some months until autumn comes.

Having said that, let's go, one day each time.

I just want let you with some flowers of mine. They are liking the summer because I keep watering them, otherwise they would be all dead.

Look at them, aren't they nice?