Rocking my World 2016: Week 19

Right. So hopefully you are all smiling now! Just a little gem I spotted on Facebook this week, and it made me smile, partly because I knew who had posted it.

And now for one, also from facebook, that will at least make you all say Aaa..hh! Isn't it just so cute?

And now for those happy moments from my week which got off to a really good start on Sunday with a special service at church. A very good friend of ours, William, was licensed as a new worship leader, and our lovely vicar Rev. Pauline took the service.

And what better reason, (if we needed one) to go out for a celebratory lunch with William and his wife Sylvia. We were a party of twenty and they had laid up a long table for us so we could all sit together. We were lucky to get a booking as it was Mother's Day in Spain, so lots of families were eating out together, but despite being busy, the service was good and the food excellent.

We went to a place called La Castilla, up on a hill at the back of Arboleas. I was uncertain about going because I have only been there once before and I was not impressed with the food. But I didn't want to miss out on William's special day, so we went along anyway, and I need not have worried because this time the food was among the best meals we have had out here.  We sat and chatted while we waited for our starters to arrive, but once the food had arrived, everyone was too busy eating to stop and smile for the camera!

I was looking forward to Tuesday because it was the day for the third part of my Crochet-along to be published. It goes online around 9.30 but I am out at my house group on Tuesday mornings so I have to wait until later to download mine. But once I was home and we had eaten a late lunch, I printed out the pattern, gathered my bag of wool and some hooks, and took myself out to sit on the porch and work on it. It look complicated, but it was not as difficult as I had expected to follow the pattern, and an hour or so later my first "Bird of paradise" motif was made.

I really like it. I have made another one and I need just two more before part 4 is released a week next Tuesday. We don't really need a fortnight to make these in, but the pattern parts are getting progressively harder, so we may need the time for the later ones. And of course, many of the participants are running a busy home and family, or are at work all day, and it must be difficult for them to get it done. The little pins in mine are marking the six corners which makes the joining up easier, and it will look tidier when I have blocked it, but I am waiting until the end to do that, or they may all curl up again.

It was lovely this week to see the jacaranda trees coming into bloom. They are such a lovely colour. We have a long row of them in the slip road that runs along the front of our village.

They hold on to the big brown seed pods from last year, and flower first. As the flowers die, they sprout green fern-like leaves, and continue to look pretty through the summer.

As I was walking to my 'intercambio' group on Tuesday evening, I stopped to watch some little house martins, busily catching the bugs that swarm around late afternoon, to feed their very demanding babies. We get a lot of house martins in the village and they make their neat little nests in the eaves of all the houses, where they are sheltered from the wind and direct sun. They were diving in and out of the row of nests and every now and then I glimpsed a little head and open beak popping out of the entrance holes. I lost count of how many there were, but it was fun to watch them for a while, and I had to admire their industry.

We have had a rather unsettled week weather-wise. Not at all what we expect by the beginning of May, but there has been plenty of sunshine between the showers. Most evenings the sky has been too empty of clouds for a good sunset, or else it has been too cloudy for any sun to break through, but one evening the wind was breaking up the clouds and they were continually changing shape. Every time I looked they were different, but every time I could see another face in them - and not always a pleasant one either. I wonder whether you can see them too.

We ended the week on a good note too when we went to a concert last night, to listen to a visiting Welsh choir. They are from the same village in Wales as a man who has lived out here for some years now, and every couple of years or so they come over to help Robert at one of his charity fund raisers. Sadly Robert passed away early this year, but they kept to their commitment to come, and supported his wife and family at a memorial concert in the Mojacar church. The church was full and the singing was lovely. It was mostly in English but they did sing a couple in Welsh too, and the highlight was a solo performance of Oh Danny Boy, which I love. They were asked to sing Canon Lan a second time as an encore, and our vicar, who is also from that part of S. Wales, got up and joined in.

The church is quite small and is just the one room with a small vestry at the side, but they had said there would be a buffet supper, so they set up a long table outside and various church members had contributed with plates of food, and the table was laden down. A second smaller table housed an urn and a cool box, so there was a choice of drinks available too. The choir mingled with the crowd and we had a good chat with them, and even though it was getting late by then, it was warm enough, (and dry enough) for us to stand around for quite  while.

When I saw the table I never thought we could eat everything, but I have to say, we did our best. There seems to be quite a big Welsh contingent at the Mojacar church, and there were plates of Welsh cakes, and Bara Brith, as well as lots of other lovely things. We didn't quite 'clear the decks' but there wasn't much left, and for sure, no one went home feeling hungry!

Having eaten well, and talked my head off, I rested by the wall and watched the sun slowly sinking behind the hills and into the sea. What a calm and beautiful way to end a lovely evening.

Now it is time to pop over to Annie's blog - A Stitch in Time, and Virginia's blog - Celtic House , and find out what has lifted you this week.