Happy Translation!

I agree - much nicer name and a rather better match to the plant.

It 's a good description of them. I think I'll call them that now. Much nicer.

Thanks for this "cheerful" news :o)

I like that name better aswell.

Hi, NARIZ!

I lived more than 20 years in Spain till I returned to the UK with my Spanish wife 8 years ago. We left two adult sons behind us in Spain while our daughter followed us here less than a year later after starting a divorce from her Spanish husband.

I began my experience of growing everything in pots in Spain. We lived in a 5th floor flat for 11 years before moving to a first floor flat for 5 years. If you look in my pictures you will find several photos of the plants I used to grow on the balconies & windowsills of the flats where we used to live.

I used to grow a lot of "Alegrias" in Spain & I also prefer the Spanish name to the normal English one! :) Now I grow them by the dozen (more likely the 100s as they self seed all over the place!). I have had hanging baskets full of them as well as wall pouches. I've planted up the two wall pouches with "Alegrias" once again this year! The 1st flower in each of the pouches opened only last week!

It's very nice to hear from someone living in Spain.
I hope your Spanish is coming along nicely! Or are they teaching you Basque?
I only stayed there six months (Feb - Aug 1958) and while there a 10-year-old friend in Blanes taught me the following little poem:

Fecha de tanta alegría
Grabaré en mi corazón,
Recordando noche y día
Mi primera comunión.

Her first language was Catalan but of course all the kids in Spain have to learn castellano.

Thanks Gurthbruins, my Spanish is coming along veeeeeeery sloooooooowly! I WILL get there, but at my age taking in so much new knowledge is a daunting task! We don't speak Basque in this region - we're rather too far west for that, but there is a strange Lebeniago dialect that people from Madrid or further south find rather difficult to understand, whereas WE find Madrilenos and Valencianos easier to understand than some of our locals! Probably because of our extensive reading of the language which, naturally, does not include regional dialects. Life's good here and moving to this village is the best thing we ever did. How's your life in Cape Town?

Extensive reading is for me about the only way to get a vocabulary. But lacking contact with Spanish-speakers makes it very difficult for me to follow the sound of the language - there are no spaces between the words then to show one where one begins and ends!

Having lived most of my life in Cape Town, I find it difficult to imagine surviving away from the inspiring sight of Table Mountain, but past experience convinces me it could be done. Living in Spain is to me a very, very tempting idea.

I suppose the Med countries are the closest you will find to the climate you are used to, Gurthbruins. The coastal regions are probably, in most aspects, the closest you will find in many ways to Cape Town.

I lived in Spain for more than 20 years & I've written a couple of blogs on Cuenca where my wife comes from & where I lived at least 20 odd years.