Rocking your world 2014; Week 4

Hi everyone. I wonder what sort of week you have had. It can't always be a week of highs, but I believe there is always something positive to focus on, and that is what we try to do with our Friday posts. If you want to find out more, follow the links to Celtic House, and Annie's Friday Smiles, and read all about it.

For me, I don't think there have been any amazing highs, but no real lows either; so how have I spent my time? Well it started off with a good day on Saturday. Our little art group in the village, usually go out for a Christmas meal together after our expo in December, but this year we were all so busy with other things, so we decided to wait until January and have a 'Bring and Share' lunch at our friends John and Eileen's house, (founder members of the Gallarte group). 

As usual on these occasions, there was more than enough food, and we spent a good few hours sitting around chatting, and catching up on everyone's holiday news. I wonder whether there is any significance to the fact that having collected our food, the men sat around the bar area, and the women around the table!

Chris and I have managed to get a few little jobs around the house done this week. It is nice when we find time to do things together. I told you about the fiesta in our village on Three Kings Day, and one of the things we bought there was a large painting for our sitting room wall. We decided to keep it somewhere safe until the Christmas decorations were all down, and then we needed to rearrange other things on the wall to make a big enough space. But this week we finally managed to hang it. It fits well, (we weren't sure when we bought it), and by directing one branch of our three-arm central light onto it, the colours really shine out. You know how I love skies, and rough seas, so I am sure you can see why this painting caught my eye.

We also spent some time together in the garden yesterday. We have very little plantable land, and everything is in pots, but it still soon gets untidy, with drifts of fallen leaves in every corner, and weeds that grow while you watch them! So we had a real good tidy up, clearing all the leaves and dead-heading the flowers, Pansies always make me smile. I love their little faces. I planted a pot of them to go on our front step, back in the Autumn. I actually bought a tray of tiny plants in Lidls and then didn't get around to planting them for a couple of weeks, by which time they had dried out, and some had died. But I nearly drowned the rest, and sorted out the ones that might have a chance of survival. Some went in the pot, and others round the base of our ornamental trees, and although they took a while to get started, they have done themselves proud. Look at these two and tell me you didn't smile.

I am also fascinated by our hibiscus plant which blooms all summer with big yellow flowers with red centres. It is stunning. But at this time or year, it always looks as though the rain has made the colours run together and it has plain orange flowers. Isn't that strange. But it continues to bloom and add a patch of colour to our little front yard.

Last winter we planted some new trees to replace others that had died and they are doing really well. We chose one for its pretty pink leaves, which later fell and fresh little green ones replaced them. It was an added bonus when it had white blossom and later red, edible cherry-like fruit on it. I did some internet research and learned that its leaves change colour as it gets cold. This year they are dark red, showing the cold evenings and nights we have had over the past few weeks.

The kumquat shrub is dripping with fruit which look lovely now they have changed colour. I don't know what I will do with them. I could make jam but it is not a very popular variety, so I may just leave most of them there as they look so nice.

Lastly we weeded our tiny square of soil where the

roses are. A specific weed grows in this patch which our dogs just love to eat! It doesn't appear to do them any harm so I let them come through and graze a bit before I took them all away. The oddly shaped tree in the centre is a self-seeded fig tree. The branches seem to grow in every direction possible. It is only a about three years old and has not had any fruit on it so far, but we are hoping for a few this year.

I put the dogs back through the gate while I took the photos and they are sitting there wondering why! They are not usually allowed in the front, initially because Foxy could get through the railings and escape, but now she is too big for that, but Kim can be a bit scary to passer-by who don't know her. He just wants to be friends and have a bit of fuss, but when he jumps up, he is almost above the railings now which is a bit intimidating. I don't know where Miki had gone when I took this. Back to bed I expect. She is more lazy than nosey!

One other positive this week is that Chris had his cataract operation on Tuesday and it seems to have gone very well. He can now see better with that eye without his glasses on, but he needs them for the other eye! Still, when it has settled down, in about six weeks time, he can be tested for new ones.

Instead of a sky photo this week, I will leave you with another double page from my Project Life. I am still trying to get it completed for last year, and these are the pages for the beginning of December. I didn't have a lot of photos for this week so I used a smaller photo template, and a Christmas scrapbook kit to add extra embellishments around it to herald the approach of Christmas.

Now I will just go and link this up, and then I am off to the kitchen to make some more marmalade.

My lovely husband has just brought me a fresh cup of tea while I am editing this, so another positive to end this on!