Rocking Your World 2015; Week 38

Yes it's week 38 already. It has been one of those weeks when I have not done anything everso exciting, but every day I have achieved something, so that is a good positive thought to start on. I have not got a funny photo or a joke for you this week, but you all know how I love to watch the sky, especially at sunrise and sunset, so here is my smile for tonight.

I took these four photos from my kitchen doorway this evening, at five minute intervals, between 8.05 and 8.20. We don't really have the time that in England we call dusk. One minute it is still light, and suddenly it is dark, so you really have to be on the ball to catch the sun set. But I think it is beautiful and worth the quarter of an hour that I had to stand guard!

It is not true to say I have not had any special times this week, but the main one was really last week on Friday night. You may remember that I posted earlier than usual because I was going out. The event was a barbecue with music, to raise funds for our church. We are a fairly small community church, working with our sister church in Mojacar, and together we need to continually raise funds so that we can be self-supporting. We met at my friends Chris and Phil´s house. They have a lovely big covered patio along the front and side of their 'L-shaped' villa and when we arrived it was beautifully laid out with tables and seating for the 50+ guests, with the corner set up for the musicians.

Our branch of the church has been running for nine months and these social events are a good opportunity for us to get to know the members from the other branch, so to start with, we mingled and just chatted.

The lady on the far left of the second photo is our vicar. She is lovely and we are enjoying helping her to grow our little group. As you can see, there is a bar in the background, and Phil and Mike did a sterling job of manning the bar and cooking the food.

Before we ate, we all found a seat and worked with those sitting near us to fill in a music quiz. (A quiz designed for us oldies who enjoyed music back in the 60's and 70' as well as some more up to date stuff). 

We look as though we are all taking it very seriously don´t we! While we did this, and throughout the rest of the evening, we were entertained by our lovely friend and pianist Sue, and her friend Andy on clarinet and saxophone. They paired up last year to build a repertoire of music, and now they are looking for bookings at restaurants etc. They played a lovely range of songs from the shows, popular music and some more classical pieces, and we really enjoyed listening to them.

So, what other positives have there been this week. 

Well, I got back into the jam making routine, using a bag of plums I bought at the market, simply because they were only 50 cents a kilo, which is really cheap, even by our standards. His supplier must have had a glut of them, probably picking them quick because of all the rain, because they were all perfect and they made some lovely jam. I chop my fruit because although I like plenty of it, I don't like too huge chunks in my jam, and this means I can leave their skins on which makes the jam a lovely rich pink colour. I made fourteen jars from my mix, so some of that will be sold at church and my sewing group, and I'll keep a few back for the Christmas markets. Of course we had to try it first!

Here is something else I bought in the market this week. I wonder whether you know what they are.

Well, they are dates, fresh from a palm tree. You don't see many of them in the supermarkets, but they are available in the street markets for just a few weeks. They are fairly expensive, but I treat myself to one lot each year. I leave them out on the table top and they ripen, gradually turning a greeny colour and then brown. You can see one is turning on these. The trick is to catch them just as they go fully brown when they are ripe, sticky and delicious. I don´t like them if they are not fully ripe, and once they are, they soon deteriorate, so I check mine every day. The 'turning' one has now been eaten, and two more are on the turn. Some always go bad before they ripen but I am quite hopeful that this bunch will do well.

I have had two long skype chats with my youngest son who has now booked his tickets to come and visit us next month;  Yippee! He is coming at the same time as our grandson and his girlfriend. Although Ben is Marcus' uncle, they are only eight years apart and they grew up together. They share a love of music, piano-playing , singing and pantomime acting, so they are good friends. Marcus' girlfriend Elli is also in the pantomime with them so it should be a fun week, and it will be nice to have some young folk around again.

Today I have completed a much needed task - I have emptied the fridge, cleaned everything, and stacked it back tidily. I had to turn the temperature down a couple of degrees during the summer, because every time the door is opened, another blast of hot air goes in, but the poor thing can only just cope with that, and the self-defroster gets carried away, causing water to leak out onto the floor. Now it is a little less crammed full, and the air is a few degrees cooler, it can get back to normal functioning, I hope. Tomorrow I tackle the larder. That's a much bigger task and not one I relish.

What a difference a drop of rain makes. As I drove to Turre today I noticed how much greener everything is, and there are little lines of grass along the verges of the roads. In my sunset photos at the top, there are two long branches silhouetted in each one. This is a week or so of growth on the bougainvillea. I only cut it back a couple of weeks ago, and this week it has gone mad again. 

About eighteen months ago I bought a little 'potato tree' and stood it in a smallish pot by our front door, but it hasn't flourished. It became very spindly and this year it had much fewer flowers on it and hardly any leaves. We were considering giving up on it, and buying something else to go there, but a couple of week ago I moved it into a larger pot, and then the storms came and it had a good soaking, and suddenly it is lush and green, with loads of new leaves and lots of flowers.

 

On Monday, Chris and I drove to Lorca to put the car through its ITV (MOT in UK), and I'm happy to say it passed. Here we drive it through the test area ourselves while the inspector tells us when to rev, brake, try the lights etc. It seemed very strange the first time we did it, but we are used to it now.

Wednesday evening is choir practice time, and it went really well this week. Last week was hot and humid and we all struggled to find our voices, but this week it was much better, and we covered a lot of songs. We are beginning to look for venues for our first proper performance now, which is quite exciting.

We went out again yesterday to do some shopping. We didn´t find what we were looking for but it was nice to just be out together for a while.

Now I will say good-night and leave you with one more sky photo that I took earlier this week. Nothing too dramatic, but I liked the cloud formation. It's a bit like a big white dove swooping down over us.

Now it's time to link up with Annie's Friday Smiles, and Rocking your World at Celtic House. See you all next week.