Rocking Your World 2017:Week 11

Let's start this week with two gorgeous smiley faces. These are my two lovely great-grandsons, Isaac and Alfie. They just love one another so much, and looking at them together, you just have to smile.

We have had another week that has been dominated by the weather. I seem to go on about the weather a lot, and I do appreciate that many of my readers have more than their share of rotten weather all the time, but out here we just don't expect it to deviate so far from the norm. And this year it seems to have forgotten the plot altogether. Here's an example of what I mean. These photos belong to a friend and they were taken at a place called Velos Rubio, just a few kilometers inland, and higher up, from us. The first was taken last Saturday.

The almond blossom looks so pretty against a blue, blue sky. The second one was taken in exactly the same place, just two days later, on Monday. Some difference!

Well we are not high enough above sea level to see the snow, but we got rain instead. It started Sunday night and just kept going, and the temperature dropped too. On Monday afternoon I thought I'd go for a little look around as we had been indoors all day. The rain on my face was like icicles hitting me and it really hurt! So I didn't stay out long but I did just grab a picture of our usually dry and dusty ramble with a small stream in it.

Then I walked across it by the bridge that runs alongside the main road passed our village, and I saw this water fall. The large volume of water shooting out of the lower tunnel is coming from the flood drains installed below ground when our road was completely restructured a few years ago, which at least shows the system is working well, as there was no flooding in the village at all. The higher waterfall is from the gulleys along the road that take the surface rain away from the carriageways.They are also working well.

Other places are not as well protected as us, and there was bad flooding along the coast at Alicante, and other resorts. It continued to rain for much of the next night and into Tuesday and many roads were closed off for a while until it had subsided a bit, but the motorway was clear so we were able to keep an appointment with a friend who we were meeting at a hotel just off the main road.

We had little damage at our house but we did nearly lose our beautiful jasmine. The weight of water made it hang down from the wall and snapped the wire that holds it. So on Wednesday, Chris and I man-handled it back up and put temporary strings across to hold it there. When it has finished flowering for this year, we will prune it back hard and put a new trellis on the wall ready for next year. At least it is still alive, and still filling our house with its lovely perfume.

Of course it is not all bad, and the agricultural workers must be happy to start the Summer season with the reservoirs full.

Today we drove a little way to Vera, and we saw there is still a lot of water covering the fields and in the ramblas, but the sun has been trying to shine for the latter part of the week, and once the water has gone, everything is going to grow 'a mile a minute'. It is not just green now, it is positively lush, something we are not used to seeing and it makes a nice change. I am hoping it warms up again soon though as we have two lots of visitors coming in April, who will want to see and feel the sun.

I had a little accident with the car on Sunday in the church car-park, when I reversed out of my parking space and bumped a friends car. Sadly I dented her door so it needed an insurance claim to repair it. However I managed to fill out the claim form all in Spanish which was quite an achievement, and I am grateful to my friend for taking it all so well, and to my husband who hasn't complained at all, and I know he won't keep throwing it at me every time I want to drive anywhere, like some men would. It was entirely my fault, but I am glad we are on the way to putting it right again, and thankfully no-one was hurt.

We had a session at the vets this week - not really to see the vet, but to visit the groomer who has a room in the surgery. We had our big boy Kim trimmed and bathed. I do brush him regularly, but only as far as his haunches. Any further and he warns me off in no uncertain terms, so he needed his back end trimmed. Because of his size they muzzled him, which he doesn't like at all, but I warned them he may need it. Even so it took two of them to get him trimmed. Then the girl bathed him but when they tried to dry him, he got so stressed that they rang us to ask us to take him home still wet. He is such a softie, and new things always upset him. Anyway we fetched him home and he looked lovely. His coat is much tidier, but right then he was all fluffy and cuddly. Luckily the sun decided to show its face, so he soon dried.

We also took Arwen with us for her twice a year shave. She is beautiful, but like most Persian cats, her fur mats very close to her skin, and she is not very friendly so I can only give her a quick brush when she is almost asleep, and she soon starts hissing and scratching. It is kinder to her and to me, to let the vet put her to sleep for a while so the groomer can go all over her quickly. I always ask her to try and leave some fur on her face, tail and feet, so here is my little puss in boots. I think that look is her just daring me to laugh at her!

I actually think she looks rather cute, and she is much happier without her woolly coat. Her fur is as soft as silk, but when it mats the clumps are quite hard and must be uncomfortable for her to lie on. She slept most of yesterday, but today she wanted to go out on the windowsill and soak up the sun.

So having been house-bound for much of the week, I have been working on a few bits for my craft table at the end of the month. I made a paper sculpture picture for the frames that my sister sent me, and also down-sized the cutting file to make a matching card. You can read more about how they were made on my other blog HERE.

I also did some crochet to make these little drawer scenters. They each have a small bar of soap in them. I found working with fine cotton on these small projects quite difficult. My fingers are not as nimble as they used to be, but I am hoping to get some more done in the next week or two.

So at least I used my time more productively than I would have done if the sun had been out every day.

And now I will just link up with Annie's Friday Smiles, and Rocking Your World, and then it is time to go and feed the zoo.