Out and About

When I was living in Cyprus (many moons ago!) I really apreciated the value of friends. There were a group of young mums, six of us, and our husbands all worked the same shifts up at the RAF base, so we spent a lot of time together, sharing advice and generally helping each other through the worries and stresses of bringing up young children so far away from family members, whom we might have turned to if we had been living in UK. Remember this was before the time of mobiles and Skype. If we were lucky we got a slot on skynet when we could exchange a few words with family back home, but there was a several second delay between speaking and the other person hearing, so conversation was not easy.

Out here in Spain it is now so easy to chat to friends and family in UK, or anywhere else in the world for that matter, and very few of us have young children here, but it is still good to know that we have friends that we can share the good and bad times with. So I feel very blessed to have been invited out to friends homes for lunch, both last week and again this week.

Last Thursday Donna and Andy invited us to their house and we were lucky enough to have a beautiful, sunny day. They live in a small hamlet off the road towards Albox. They are quite a bit higher than we are and we did notice the drop in temperature, but we were still able to sit out on their terrace and take in the breath-taking view. These two photos were taken looking towards the east and the west, and in the second you can just about see the snow on the distant mountains. Hence the nip in the air when the wind blows from that direction.

They have only lived in this house for a few months and in that time they have had considerable work done, including the transforming of a donkey stable into a lovely guest suite. Their builders are due to finish the project this week and they are looking forward to clearing away all the building debris, and getting themselves sorted out. Here is a picture of Chris chatting to Donna on the patio. I was having a wander down their garden when I looked back and took it.

Today I went to my usual Wednesday sewing group in the morning. I took half a dozen jars of my marmalade with me and sold them all. Chris took another ten jars down to El Naranjo bar and eight of those sold and they have asked for some more. These are all being sold for Los Gallardos charity, ASADIS so I feel it was worth the couple of mornings I spent making it. Usually we all go on from our group to a bar in Turre for tapas, but today I headed off to the shops before they closed for siesta time. I wanted to drive over to a pet store where I had ordered an extra strong, retractable lead for Chico. I went out with Chris to walk the dogs this week for the first time since my torn hamstring. We also took Chico with us for the first time since his leg was amputated, but we kept him on a lead so that he didn't run over any pot-holes etc. He managed very well but we wanted a longer lead to give him a little more freedom, and now we have one.

Then I decided to go on to a more distant supermarket just to get a change of eyesight. I picked up a pastry for my lunch as I had missed my tapas, and I went down to the beach to eat it. I just had to take this picture - miles and miles of empty sand; just a faint view of Villaricos, or it might even be San Juan, in the distance and nothing else. Looking back at the rows and rows of flats behind me, you'd think there would be one more person who fancied some fresh sea air, but there wasn't even a dog-walker in sight.

It was sunny though a bit breezy, and I was warm enough with just a cardigan on. Going back to the car I noticed how many different wild flowers are already out. There was quite a mixture of colours. On a patch of yellow vetch I spotted this bee who was enjoying all the early flowers. And his mates were all around. I could hear them. It was just like a summer day back in UK.

My little tabby cat Luna went to the vet last week to be sterilised. When I picked her up at teatime she was still asleep. Eventually she started waking up and staggered drunkenly around the room. She felt really cold so I wrapped her up in a blanket but she refused to stay in it, so we laid her on top of it, on the setee next to Chris so he could make sure she didn't fall off. She was very 'groggy' all evening and didn't really eat anything until tea time the next day, but she is right as rain now. There's a bit of a swelling under her scar but the vet thinks it is fine, and she is certainly back to her usual playful self.

For more images of 'creatures great and small', click here, to see my other blog where I have made a card for a challenge on that theme. (I'm showing off because I have just learned how to do a hyperlink!).