Rocking Your World 2015: Week 39

When I was a young girl, I was sometimes reluctant to spend my Sunday at church with the family, but the one service I would never want to miss was the Harvest festival. Even back then, I loved the colours, the smell, and the arrangement of fruit and vegetables. Jean and I usually had a parcel of produce that dad had grown as our contribution and we carried it down the aisle with pride. Sadly the church I have attended since I came to Spain, chose not to celebrate this festival, even though several of us asked for it every year. But the new church that I moved to at the start of this year follows the Anglican order, so last Sunday was our Harvest festival, and this is my smile for this week.

A group of folk went up on Saturday morning to decorate the church with fresh produce, so there were flowers, and fruit and vegetables displayed.

My friend Pat had even made a traditional harvest loaf, of a sheaf of corn complete with a harvest mouse. She is very clever. These are tricky things to make, to get the shape just right before the dough rises too much. It was propped up on the altar during the service. 

Those who came to the service were asked to bring non-perishable food to be distributed later, and this made the centre display. As we are only a small group, averaging about forty in the congregation each week, we managed a wonderful collection.

We sang the traditional harvest hymns which took me back to my childhood again, and I am sure our Spanish neighbours could hear us singing them.

After the service we had a 'Bring and Share' lunch. it always amazes me how well these work. No-one confers, but somehow we all manage to bring something different, and there is more than enough for everyone to eat. There were two more laden tables beside this one.

Of course it makes it extra nice that we can sit out in the sun to eat it. It was a lovely day without being too hot, so we had plenty of space and time to move around and chat together.

On Monday, a group of people from the church loaded the food into their cars and took it up to the Town Hall in Zurgena. Although we are a ten minute drive from this village, Zurgena Town Hall actually own the church and they allow us to use it rent free, so it is nice to be able to give something back. The staff there made up nineteen food parcels for the families at the top of their 'In crisis' list.

As I said I would last week, I did tackle my larder this week, and the first thing was to empty half of it into the kitchen. So this what my kitchen looked like!

I couldn't move without knocking something over. This is where it all came from. When it was empty I was able to clean the floor, walls and shelves, and then I put it all away again, but now it looks tidy, and I know where everything is.

The other half was easier to do as that is where all my baking goods are stored. I put everything into new containers, all square ones this time so they stack better. Because I have a very small kitchen with few cupboards in it, all my big casseroles, baking tins, and bowls also live in the larder. I still need to make some new labels for the boxes, but I put a quick hand written sticker on them for now.

I had a bit of a shock this week when I counted up the Christmas cards I have made so far and found there were only forty-five. If I had managed my intended dozen each month I would have twice that many, so I have spent a fair bit of time in my craft room and have made over two dozen more. So that has cheered me up, and spurred me on to keep going.

I was happy to be able to help out my friend who needed to visit the medical centre this week. I am not a good enough Spanish speaker to act as a proper translator, but she speaks very little so I went along to help her out. Yesterday we went but the doctor didn't turn up, so we went back today. It was a good thing I was there, as it was a temporary doctor who was lovely, but she spoke hardly any English, so Eileen would have struggled. But between us we managed and the doctor was very helpful.

Last week I made a special card for the Butterfly challenge and when the results went up, my card had been picked for its 'wow' factor, which was nice. I shall have a voucher to spend in a digi store by next week. You can see my card HERE.

That's another week tied up. My how they fly. I will post two sky photos before I end. I just liked the way the rays of the sun are crossing the darker clouds in the first one, and the second one is there because...yes you guessed it...I can see a face up there again!

I apologise to all my lovely followers, that I didn't get back to you last week. It was a busy week and somehow life got in the way. I shall make up for it this week I promise. And Thank you to those who visited and left me comments anyway. I do appreciate it.

Now I will ink up with Annie's Friday Smiles, and Rocking your World at Celtic House, and I'll see you all again next week.