Friday Smiles 2025 # Week 12

Hooray, today the sun is shining. There is still more rain forecast but it was lovely to sit out on the porch after lunch and do a couple of strands of my sewing before coming in to prepare this. 

It has been another very busy week with most of my time being taken sorting and packing. The stack of full and sealed boxes is growing, and I am keeping a careful list of what is in each one. When they are all done I will type up a tidy list for the removal men to show customs at the border.

Yesterday I took the morning off packing to attend my sewing group, but when we pulled up outside the hall, everyone was standing outside on the street. It seemed the metal grill that is the safety cover for the entrance, had stuck, and couldn't be unlocked, so they were waiting for a locksmith to come and sort it out. So our leader contacted the bar where some members go after each week's meeting for a drink and light lunch, and he agreed to set up some tables for us there. So we all trouped off; the bar is only a few minutes drive from the hall. We were made welcome, and soon we had put several tables together and all sat around to do our sewing, knitting etc. We ordered a complicated list of coffees and teas, which he coped with well considering there were twenty or so of us. 

One lady was celebrating her birthday and usually we give birthday members a card, but these were all locked up inside the hall, but we sang Happy Birthday to her anyway. A few minutes later the same music blared out of the overhead system and the bar owner came with a cupcake for Linda with a candle on it. Such a nice gesture. (She said "They couldn't find an eight candle or they were too polite to put it on!).

Halfway through the morning we got a message that the doors had been unlocked, but we decided to stay where we were. Back to the hall next week.

I had a lovely long video chat with Ben last night. We hadn't managed to call for a while so we had plenty to talk about.

Other than that, my main problem has been trying to fill big boxes without making them too heavy. I wouldn't want to lift any of them, but the removal man promised there wasn't much he can't handle with his set of wheels, so I hope that is so. I am good at puzzles so I can usually fit things in to fit closely and not move about, and we have bought a variety of boxes to accommodate most things, but one item has been a major headache, and that is my laser cutter/engraver. It doesn't look very big but it has taken us two full days trawling through Amazon to find a box that it will fit in. I think we finally have one but it is not arriving until the end of next week, so I am getting on with other things while I wait.

We have continued to have rain most days, but fortunately we don't get snow down here like poor Lisca had in her village. Most days the sun does try to put in an appearance by the evening and one day I caught this rather lovely scene which shows both the blue sky on the right and the storm clouds rolling in on the left, with the sun going down between them. 

And that's it for this week so I will go and link this up with Annie's Friday Smiles ready for tomorrow.

Friday Smiles 2025 # Week 11

Yes I am still smiling, but maybe not quite as much, because Yes, it is still raining! It is on and off showers now with some of them quite heavy. Twice I have had to dry my washing indoors, which is a shame because I love to see it blowing on the line outside. But it was so windy on Tuesday that half of it lost some pegs, and was twisted round and round the line, srangling anything that had managed to hang on, so once again I moved indoors. Fortunately I now have a good size drying rack, and with it still being cold enough to light the fire in evenings, everything soon dries.

Between the showers we have had some lovely sunshine, and in places out of the wind, it has been warmer too. The wild flowers are loving the rain and sun, and are blooming everywhere. The oxalis is now a carpet of sharp yellow over the ground next door,and sometimes we pass whole fields of it, that shine out amid the campo's drab colours.

Next door it is covered in flowers, which close up at night but open up as soon as the sun touches them in the morning. Peeping out between the flowers are little pink stars of Erodium.

Also  we are now  seeing Echium plantagineum which  has flowers that start deep pink and slowly change through pale pink, mauve, purple and then deep blue. Because it flowers continuously for weeks and they are all at different stages, you often see all the colours on one plant and it is so pretty. But it is a 'touch-me-not plant as the leaves and stems carry hairs that are extremely irritating to our skin.

This week has been mainly taken up with a few official appointments with solicitors, attornys, removal men and estate agents. And between those I have been busy packing boxes while Chris handles all the administration, plus any heavy lifting. (We make a good team).  It all looks a bit chaotic right now, but I am actually fairly organised so it will all make sense soon.

We have now agreed that our boxes etc will be collected on May 1st, and will be delivered to a container site in Shropshire on 5th. Our son Mike will be there to supervise the unloading. As we are not taking the furniture with us, we will be able to remain in the house for a few days, and maybe go to hotel for a couple of nights, and we will travel to UK the following week when everythng is signed off. 

By the evening I am ready to sit and relax so some nights I do a bit more of my cross stitch picture. I can only do two or three threads before my sight gets blurred, but it is coming along quite nicely.

And that's really all my news this week, so I will get ready to post this tomorrow and link up with Annie's Friday Smiles.