Sahara Dust

[Alberta56]

Yesterday I found a layer of what looked like dirty cream paint on the bolt of my garden shed. Then another on the side gate bolt and spots on the water butt lid. Then noticed that the back windows were even dirtier than usual, in fact quite opaque. Of course it was Sahara dust carried down by the heavy rain. I read somewhere that Sahara soil is really quite fertile, so my garden has received a tiny top dressing. I can't go to the Sahara any more, but the Sahara has come to me. 😊

[CDPO16]

It would be nice to think that it did some good.

[sassy59]

Yes we had Sahara dust too Alberta. Hopefully our window cleaner will be along sometime soon. Xxx

[leo60 in reply to sassy59]

Hahaha! My window cleaner came two days before! I now have a month with red dusty rivulets on my windows! xx

[sassy59 in reply to leo60]

Oh no leo! Ours is coming tomorrow thank goodness. Xxx👍🥰

[Alberta56 in reply to leo60]

😒😒😒!

[Damon1864 Volunteer]

Hope it does your garden good. Have a good evening and take care 😊 Bernadette and Jack 🐕 xxxxxx 🌻🌻

[peege]

🤣 I lived fairly close to the Sahara for 6 years. And yes, very fertile. We'd just water our large garden of sand and have a great lawn & one long hedge was all pink roses. The children had a very large sand pit, after a shower of rain in the winter grass would sprout out of it. We also had a massive mulberry tree, massive fig tree and several date palms in the garden. ×××

[Alberta56 in reply to peege]

Your Sahara garden sounds lovely. Aren't roses wonderful- some thrive in hot climates, some in cold windy places. They love my Essex chalky boulder clay. xxx

[peege in reply to Alberta56]

You got me reminiscing, they were lovely carefree days. We lived on an orange farm, the workers just used to shove little tree-lings in to the sand, water them and they'd grow. I used to scrump the Seville oranges for marmalade because they were left on the trees to rot.

[Alberta56 in reply to peege]

Nicer and nicer. i used to like making marmalade when I was fitter. Nobody much ate it, but the smell was wonderful.

[peege in reply to Alberta56]

The fresh bread was marvellous there and was subsidised as was the sugar & flour amongst other things. Husband used to pick up hot bread from the bakers on the way home at lunchtime , if he brought uncooked dough it was pizzas for supper. Libya was colonised by Italy back in the day so hence great bread, pasta & tomatoes 😋. I was slim & young then so no worries about weight (unlike now 🙄)!

I'm in bed with a lousy chest infection 😫, 1st for over two years hence time to reminisce, stops me feeling sorry for myself when I'd rather be in the garden pottering with the 🐕

[Alberta56 in reply to peege]

I hope you're beginning to feel better. xxx

[peege in reply to Alberta56]

Yes! Thank you, up today, scrubbed, clean hair & feel like a different person. LF still negative so it was the little cold I caught from the baby in Cambridgeshire last week that went to the dodgy lungs. .mind you, listening to The World at One is very depressing.

[DeborahBlythe]

It’s great to hear about the benefits of Saharan dust 😂 I am blaming it for a worsening of my asthma this week. I could probably grow a rose garden in my lungs. 🌹😂😂😂😂

[Hidden in reply to DeborahBlythe]

Me too.....but is it Saharan sand or tree pollens? Perhaps a combination of both. There's always something.

[Alberta56 in reply to DeborahBlythe]

It rained heavily here, so presumably most of the dust was taken to the ground. You were unlucky - take care. xxx

[Littleeak]

We used to live in Southern Spain & quite often everything would be covered. We never considered any benefit, just moaned about the mess!

[Alberta56 in reply to Littleeak]

I'm not surprised- the windows are enough to drive one crackers.

[HollyBoyd]

Let's hope your garden benefits, Alberta. On the down side is the cleaning up of windows and such, although hopefully the next rain fall will do the job for you. Take care xxx😋

[Morrison10]

Hi, when in Crete many years ago, Sahara dust put me in bed for several days, had irritated my lungs and because my cilia, little hair like lining of lungs, don’t wave about, dust had really affected me. I was born with PCD, and cilia have very important task, including putting organs into right place, I’m all crossed over! Always thought it surprising that little hairs are so important! Don’t think had dust here, but didn’t risk going outside. Jean xxx

[20WildRose19]

I also noticed red layer on my white window seals. Must be same stuff!

[hillclimber1]

I live in south east Spain. Last week the sky turned an eerie orange colour for two days. When it rained it was just mud. Advice was not to exercise and wear a mask. We had an appointment with the doctor and the two minute journey in the wheelchair left my wife suffering for the next few days.

[Alberta56]

I hope your wife has now recovered. Air quality is so important to we lungies. We were lucky in East Anglia that we only got mucky windows.

[peege]

Article in The Guardian today:""How Saharan dust clouds that turn skies orange also nourish nature

Dust is a precious fertiliser for the Amazon rainforest and feeds Atlantic phytoplankton""

😀

[Littleeak]

I know a couple of other people who moved back to the UK then returned to Spain. It's not as easy post brexit to move to Spain. We returned to the UK nearly four years ago after 14 years in Spain, due to family & finances. Spain is great as long as you don't have to rely on finding employment. My autonomo payment of nearly 300€ a month became unaffordable.

We don't regret moving back even though my husband's health has deteriorated dramatically, maybe it would have done in Spain, who knows.

At least here all his medical consultations are in English, we do speak Spanish but it was difficult at times, we are near to family & I am working.

How long have you been back in the UK?

[peege]

Hi, I dont mind but you've sent me back down memory lane again 😄!

No, we didn't plant any of the trees or roses, they were all planted many many years before we got there. Probably put in when the old villa was built during the Italian occupation (we surmised this because it had a wine cellar, very rare in a 'dry' country). All the date palms were specifically planted in rows at front & back of house, one was a few feet from our bedroom window & about Jan/ Feb 1976 I had something like a paralysing allergy. I woke to the whimpers of my new baby needing a feed & couldn't move a thing to nudge my husband awake. He finally woke when baby properly cried then it was panic stations, he put the baby to the breast, dressed me, threw me in the back of the car followed by a tiny baby plus the toddler, drove like the clappers to a medical station a few miles up the road, he went in to drag the doctor outside who laughed when I couldn't speak or move then say "allergy, wait" she fetched a large needle & slammed it into my bot. Within moments I got movement, feeling and voice back. It was one of the scariest times of my life. It took a couple of years to work out that it could only have been the date blossom causing this catatonic like reaction.

Those date palms were beautiful, really, really tall and well tended by a tiny Egyptian we called Dateman, he'd shin up the trunks with bare feet and only a strap to harvest the dates then later on to prune the palm branches. Oh goodness, I've many crazy stories from those years.

[Alberta56]

So sorry you feel like this. We're not all miseryguts. I hope you will meet a few nice people soon.