Rocking Your World 2014; Week 5

Hello again. Friday is here already, so I am thinking about what has made me smile this week.

Well this certainly has. Our outside thermometer is

showing 20 degrees, which is a lovely comfortable warmth  for sitting outside. We have had strong winds this week, but yesterday was calm, so I sat out in the afternoon and did some of my cross-stitching. It has been on hold over Christmas, but I really want to make some progress on it now. The pattern was very small, so I scanned and enlarged it on to four A4 sheets of paper. Yesterday I finished the first sheet, so I guess that is progress!

Our dog Miki was enjoying the sun too. She took her nap 'belly-up' like she does in the summer. Can you sort her out from this jumble of fur?

She heard the camera click and sat up. She looks better upright, but she will always be a soppy, shaggy dog. She is not the brightest in the bunch, but she is docile and loveable, so I wouldn't have her any other way.

Yesterday morning we finally got around to hanging the painted roof tile that we bought at the Three Kings market. We moved around the plates that were already hanging on the porch wall and added two more hooks. One for the tile, and one for the clock we bought back in the autumn. Initially we hung it on the window grill but it looks better against the plain wall.

And I have not been idle on the colder days when I have stayed indoors. I have made around sixty jars of Seville orange marmalade so far, and sold most of it! I have been given more oranges though, so I shall be at it again this week. It is a bit intensive, but the oranges are only around for a month or two,and once picked they don't keep very long, and I don't want to waste them. I must make sure I get a year's supply put away in our store cupboard from the next lot!

What else has cheered me this week?

Our choir Cantante started rehearsals again this week, and we have some lovely songs on our summer programme.

On Monday I drove over to Albox to go to the little craft store there, and to the lady who has a 'wool shop' in her garden. Two of my favourite places to go.

This week I will leave you with a card I made ready

for the arrival of a new great-nephew due this week. As my niece knows she is having a boy, I thought I would get it ready to post for once, but I will be doing a proper post about how I made it, on my other blog, once the card has been posted.

Have you had some happy moments this week that you would like to share? Why not pop over to Annie's Friday Smiles, and Virginia's blog Celtic House, and join in. I am sure you can find something positive from this week, and it's a great way to approach the weekend, and another new week.
Post Script:-
Since I wrote this, (I did not have time to publish it or link it up), I have been to Almeria city. It's not somewhere we go very often, but every six months, hubby has to go to the hospital there to see his rheumatoid arthritis specialist. As he is not supposed to drive for a few weeks after his cataract operation, I was the driver today. It was a rather dull day when we set off but it gradually improved. This hospital has always been very efficient for us, and we are never kept waiting long, so we were out again by lunchtime, and as it was a new 'house-keeping' day for me, I persuaded Chris to come to the big city supermarket with me, to do my monthly shop. I like going somewhere different for a change, and this shop carries a much wider range of stock than my local. While we were in there we treated ourselves to these.

Don't they look luscious? It is early in the season for them, but they were today's special offer, and this 2 kg box cost the same as half that quantity in the market last week. Most of the strawberries we buy come from an area called Huelva, which is only a few kilometres from here. I shall be trying out the ice-cream making technique with my new blender, and other things as well, but these beauties will not be ending up in jam!

It was getting late by the time the shopping was stowed in the boot, so we drove down to the sea front for a coffee before we came home. (Almeria is a fascinating city, because the shops run straight down to the beach. It really took us by surprise the first time we went there.). Sadly our usual chiringuita, beach café, was closed. As Chris pointed out - it is January, and not even the weekend. As you can see, there were not a lot of folk around. In fact I just had a pigeon for company. We sat on the seawall in the sun for a while, and then just drove home, and had a nice mug of tea when we got in.