Rocking my world Friday

I have been blessed with another lovely week, which started with a wedding on Sunday. It wasn't exactly a conventional wedding as the couple were actually married, in their own country of Romania, some years ago. But since being baptised in June, and regularly attending our church, they decided they wanted to take their vows again in church. They scrape an existence working in the plastic greenhouses where half of Europe's salad is grown, so we wanted to make it a very special day for them. You can read all about it and see the card I made for all the congregation to sign, in another post, by clicking HERE. But here are a few photos taken on the day.

The groom said his vows in English, and the bride in Spanish. A friend did the reading in Romanian, and two Scotsmen  ceremonially brought in the cake.

It was quite an international occasion.

We all contributed to a 'shared lunch'.

The little bridesmaid had a good time collecting the rose petals that were strewn on the path.

They did not know we doing all this, as well as providing flower arrangements, taking photos for an album, all chipping in for a gift, signing the card etc. They were quite overcome by it all and I am sure they will remember their special day for many years to come. Florentina is expecting her baby in December, a sister for the little one in white, so we are looking forward to another celebration soon.

I got home from this, late in the afternoon, and immediately I had to get ready to go out again, this time to our friends' Ruby Wedding Anniversary. I did make a card for them as well, but I haven't had time to post about it yet. We had a lovely evening with them, and many friends, at bar El Naranjo in our village. 

After a lovely buffet we did some dancing. My son and I were playing with the disco lights, and I caught him with a neon green hand!

We have had some lovely hot days this week which Tom has made the most of. I was very impressed the day he cycled to the top of our mountains, and took the photos to prove it! It is the highest climb he has ever attempted so well done to him! I have never been right up there, and I'm not likely to try, but I bet the views were amazing.

After our choir practice on Tuesday I met Tom down on Mojacar Playa. We had a swim in the sea but we were glad to go up to the shady bar for lunch to give us a break from the sun.

Of course, Tom has also made good use of our little pool. The water has dropped to around 24º now, so it is a bit cool getting in, but once are you in, it is lovely still. One day, Tom was dithering around on the edge, trying to decide whether to take the plunge, so dad came along and gave him a helping hand. He got well splashed for his efforts!

I missed my usual Wednesday blog hop (on my other blog) because Tom (our son) and I went to Granada for the day. Husband Chris is not a city person so he opted to stay home with the animals which meant we were not restricted to time, so we made a long day of it. It is just over a two hour drive from here but is well worth the journey. I will just show the iconic pomegranate fountain here. The Spanish word for pomegranate is granada, hence it's link with the city of that name. If you would like to see more of the lovely photos I took there, please see my next post.

I was delighted to come home from my holiday and find my 'Stepelia gigantica' was covered in buds. These rapidly fattened and this week several of the flowers have opened. 

They measure some six inches across, and although they are not the most beautiful flower in the garden, they are very unusual, and quite eye-catching. They are designed to resemble  raw meat and are very attractive to flies, so they are quite useful to have growing near where you want to sit, as it attracts them away from you!

Another surprise find in the garden was fruit on one of our new trees. We chose it because when we bought it, it had very pretty pink and red leaves. These mostly dropped in the winter, though some held on, but the new growth in spring was pale green. It did have some inconspicuous blossom but I hadn't realised this had set into fruit until this week, when I spotted some bright red between the leaves. They are an unusual shaped berry, and after much internet searching I have found that it is called Eugenia uniflora, or Surnam cherry, and/or Pedana or Pitanga. Take your pick! Apparently the fruit are sweet and nuitricious, and the leaves turn pink or red depending on how cold the winter gets.

And finally this little fellow paid us a visit this week.

He is much bigger than the red and blue dragonflies that normally hover around our pool. Unfortunately he had a damaged wing and had fallen into the water and was in danger of drowning, but we rescued him. I set him up on a high, sunny branch to dry off and he disappeared so I think he may still have been able to fly. I hope so. There was no debris to suggest the dogs or cats had got him anyway!

Now I will link this up to Celtic House, and then I will get on with my post about Granada.