Rocking your world 2014; Week 32

I bet at some time you have all asked the question; Why did the chicken cross the road? Well.....

Now you are all smiling I hope, let's see what has made me smile this week.

Well, last Sunday I went to my first meeting of the Vera Photo Club. I met a lovely bunch of friendly folk, learned how to do something on my camera that I couldn't do before, and had a tutorial on the basics of using Lightroom, so it was fun and informative, and I am looking forward to next month's meeting.

Just outside the bar where the club meet, there was a row of date palms. There were fallen fruit everywhere that were like green acorns under our feet. Looking up I was amazed to see this. I have never seen palms with so many boughs of fruit on before.

I think it is going to be a good year for fruit again. When there was a bumper crop of citrus fruit last winter, people put it down to the flood the year before, so with such a dry winter this year, we thought the fruit might suffer. But judging by this tree in my neighbour's garden, there will be no shortage of pomegranates next month.

A friend who lives on the urbanisation just across the road from our village, asked Chris if he could help her set up a new tablet so she could send e-mails etc, so this morning we popped over to see her. She has a lovely arched porch on the front of her house, and up in one corner she had what she called her 'summer visitors'. 

There was a house martin nest, and every few minutes a little head popped out squawking for food. Then another and another appeared. She thinks there are six babies altogether. We stood there watching for ages hoping to catch the mother feeding them, but her visits were so fleeting that I kept missing her. But eventually our patience was rewarded and I did get this shot, just as she was about to take off again.

We left her house and drove on down to Mojacar Playa, as we wanted to visit the big ferreteria down there to buy a second garden storage cupboard, like the one we bought a couple of years ago. This one will store all the bags and crates of dog and cat food, and all my plastic containers, which will hopefully ease the congestion in my utility area. I am constantly trying to make more space, but Spanish houses are always very low on storage space, so it usually means buying another cupboard! This one is all in pieces in a box right now, but hopefully by next week I'll be able to show you it all put together and full!

In another bid for space, I have drawn a plan for reorganising my craft room. Again there is limited space to do anything, and I will have to remove a small bookcase that is bolted to the wall. Then I will need to reshuffle the contents of all my drawers and cupboards to accommodate what was on the shelves. So I won't be showing the end result of that next week, nor anytime very soon, but one day...

On the drive down the hill to the sea this morning, I took another photo of my favourite tree. Yes it is a dead tree, a very dead tree! But I love the interwoven branches

silhouetted against a blue sky. Usually I am driving when I pass it, but today I was the passenger so I took the opportunity to photograph it again. A few years ago I took some pictures of it and eventually managed to turn it into a digi stamp which I used on some ATC's. I think this is a better photo so I will see what I can do with it.

On the way home we stopped at a bar on the edge of our village for tostadas and a drink. That's life in Spain, and I love it!!

As the temperature continues to rise, poor Arwen has been getting very uncomfortable, and most days she lays out on our bathroom floor as it is on the cooler side of the house. So on Monday I took her down to the dog groomer to have her hair cut. Because it was not so matted this time, they didn't shave her quite down to the skin, and they left her with furry boots and tail, and this time she still has quite a 'mane' around her face, so instead of the usual poodle-cat, this time she is a little lion-cat.

As part of my making space campaign, I have been sorting out my kitchen. It is very small anyway, and with a big window on wall one, a larder door central on wall two, the main door and fitted cooker on wall three, and the sink and the door to the outside on wall four, there is very little scope for moving it around. But at least until the end of the summer, I have turned the table around, and completely removed the windows (they are on rising hinges). They have integral shutters that open inwards, so it

was always a hazard to sit at the end of the table! Now I can get to the window and reach to raise and lower the blinds. There is, of course, also a fly screen over them, and metal rejas (bars), so we are quite secure. It makes it a lot lighter in there, and first thing in the morning it is the coolest room, so it is a pleasant place to sit for breakfast. It gets very hot after lunch time, but I have the blinds down by then, and I only do essential cooking in July and August.

Yesterday I popped into Lidl's and bought myself a home yoghurt maker. I did have one years ago, when the boys were small, and I used it all the time, but it fell out of use as they got older, and I believe one of my sons had it when we moved. But now I am making a lot of fruit blends, a plain yoghurt can turn these into a lovely fruit yoghurt drink for breakfast, so I thought this would be useful. It has seven little bottles with lovely bright coloured lids. I tried it out last night, and the yoghurts are now resting in the fridge. I can make all seven pots for the price of buying one, and if I use skimmed milk, the yoghurts are very low fat.

I had another very pleasant lunchtime on Wednesday, when the sewing group cleared away and some of them went down to another bar in Turre for tapas. They do this most weeks, but ususally I have my Life Group in the afternoon so I don't stay with them. However, that stops for the summer months, so for a few weeks I can join them for lunch. We always have a good natter and lots of laughs together.

And finally I have another nature photo to show you, that I am quite pleased with. While it is hot we are deafened all day by the continuous noise of the cicadas. They are hard to spot as they fall silent whenever you approach the tree etc where they are. But today I went outside to sort out some cats that were starting a fight in the green zone, and I spotted these two cicadas mating on a grass stem. I rushed back in for my camera and they were still there when I got back. I took several shots, most of which were rubbish, but I kept this one and I think it turned out really well.

So now I will just link up with Annie's Friday Smiles and Rocking Your World at Virginia's blog.

Thanks for stopping by. I love reading your comments.