Friday, July 6, 2018

Rocking Your World 2018; Week 27

Whew! It is hot! Summer is now in full swing, and of course we are moaning about the heat! It is actually lovely to wake up to blue skies every day, and know it will almost certainly stay that way all day. It has been windy again this week, which is not so usual for July, but apart from all the dust and garden debris that gets blown into the pool, the wind is not a problem, and 'moving air' is much more cooling than when everything is static.
Our week got off to a good start with a big party on
Saturday. It was my friend Eileen's 75th birthday, and her and her husband's thirtieth wedding anniversary. They decided to have a pool party. They have plenty of space around their pool for tables and sunshades, and a lovely little 'kitchen area' in the pool house, which served as a bar.


To start with we sat around chatting over a glass of our favourite tipple, and then several of us got changed and had fun in the pool. It was lovely and cooling, and we stood in the water dancing around to an excellent singer they had hired for the afternoon.


Of course there was masses of delicious food to choose from, and we all had a lovely afternoon. By early evening, some of the guests had gone, but we sat on, enjoying fun with all their children who had come over for the celebrations. One of them had bought strings of LED lights that were attached to a rubber bottle cork, that had a switch on it. So as the wine bottles were emptied, they added lights to them, and they looked so pretty on the tables. It was a clever idea.


Despite the heat, we have managed to keep busy in a laid-back kind of way. Chris undertook to clean the windows! We have fairly old-fashioned slatted blinds on our windows, which are a godsend when the sun is shining in, but over the year, they collect dust and bugs and can be pretty aweful the first time we unroll them each summer. They hang from hooks in the window frame, outside of the fly nets, so he took them all down and hung them along the fence to hose them down.
Then he managed to get the hose inside for most rooms, and sprayed through the fly nets to get rid of several months of red dust and sand. When they were all back in place, he gave the actual windows a good clean, so everywhere is sparkling now and it looks so nice. I am very grateful to have someone to  do this task!

Meanwhile I went to the market and bought bags of cherries and peaches. Don't they look wonderful?!
We ate a lot of them, but one morning I stood at the sink and pitted over a kilo of them, and packed them into preserving jars, I covered them with brandy and added a minimal amount of sugar, and then sealed them. I skinned, sliced and lightly poached the peaches, and packed them in sweetened brandy too, in some larger jars. I gave them a gentle shake each time I passed, until I was sure all the sugar had dissolved, and now they are packed away at the back of the fridge, to possibly be used at Christmas.

I have had plenty of craft time this week, and I have now made all the birthday cards I need until mid-September, when most of our visitors will have gone, and I will have time to make some more. Now I need to make two Christmas cards for the Rudolph Day Challenge on 25th of July and August, and I will be all done! I can't show the cards until all the birthdays have passed, but Eileen was very happy with the felt and the paper hearts I showed last week, which I gave her at her party.
Last week I showed a photo of my grandson, who had been selected as a finalist in the Wolverhampton Young Citizen of 2018. It was the presentation at the big Rotary club last night, so he was there along with some of his family. Sadly he didn't win, but it was an amazing experience for him to be a part of it all, and huge kudos to him for making into the final eight. We are all very proud of him.

And finally a couple of photos of flowers. Many of the little annual flowers in the garden have succumbed to the heat, but the 'weeds' still thrive. One day I noticed that, because our neighbour had returned for a while in June, and given her land some TLC, including lots of water, the wild flowers had sprung up all around each of her fruit trees. Much of the ground is covered with these little white trumpets, a smaller version of the bindweed that can be so invasive and is a big nuisance to gardeners in UK. Here it flowers for a short season and then disappears again. It looked so pretty with the flower heads bouncing around in the breeze, and white butterflies were flitting around them. You may be able to see one on a flower, in the bottom right corner of my photo.
Over on the edge of her land, there were several of these. I wonder if you know what they are?
Well, they are the caper plant. They are  a low spreading, ground-cover plant and they grow profusely on any waste land. The flower buds are picked when they are still tightly closed and are pickled - that's the capers that are often used in cooking. Then when they die, the seed pods are picked on stems and also pickled. I have had these served in an 'ensalada mixta' when eating out. I think the flowers are so pretty, and I am glad many are left to bloom undisturbed.

I have had several video chats via Skype and Messenger this week, to my sister Jean, and three of our sons. It is lovely to be able to see them while we talk.

When our son Ben gets home from his holidays, the first thing he always does, is play his piano. And last week was no exception. Within a couple of hours of getting home, he had put two new songs on Facebook. They are not his, so he was singing to backing tracks, but I really liked both of them. They are both from a little known musical called Dear Evan Hansen. They were new to me, and I particularly liked the one called 'Forever'. Unfortunately he only put them on Facebook so I am not sure I can share them, but if you are a Facebook user, you could try this link. I'd be interested to know whether this works for any of you.

And now, as usual I am rushing off to choir practice. There is only one more week before we stop for the summer, so I am hoping I can remember all those words this week. I will link up with Rocking Your World, and Annie's Friday Smiles, and I'll be back later to see everyone else's happy moments.

6 comments:

Annie said...

I really enjoyed Bens videos....I did see them on Facebook but I clicked your link on here and it worked for me so I was able to enjoy it again. The cherries and peaches sound really yummy....how do you serve them? You well deserve to feel proud of your grandson.....what an achievement.
Hugs,
Annie x

Jean said...

Hi Kate

Your link to ben's song worked fine for me, that is such a lovely song.

Congratulations to Amias, I'm sure he will go far.

The celebration party last weekend sounds like a lot of fun,so nice to be able to party outside.

The fruit and flower photos are lovely. I have been buying some lovely Spanish cherries in the supermarket lately. The caper flowers look really pretty and I like the little white trumpet flowers too.

Thanks for your message this afternoon.

Jean x

Lisca said...

Pool parties are lovely. Sadly I don’t know anyone with a pool. Not many people have a pool here. It sounds like you had a really good time.
Well done Chris for cleaning the blinds. That is an awful job.
And well done Amias for getting in the final 8 of the Young Citizen’s Award. He’ll go far.
I enjoyed Ben’s songs as you know. Those songs were new to me and they are really beautiful.
We are also enjoying the glut of lovely fruit at the moment.
And yes, I knew that flower was capers, as we used to go out with the ladies of the neighborhood to pick them. The flowers are really pretty aren’t they.
Have a great weekend,
Lisca

Bleubeard and Elizabeth said...

Your link to Forever worked fine, although I'm not on Facebook. Surprised me that it actually played for me.

What a love time your friend must have had on her birthday and their anniversary. Seems like they had a lot to celebrate, too.

Boy can I relate to those blinds. I need a brush and must scrub mine with soap and water before dousing them with the hose (outside, of course).

Those cherries look fabulous and I suspect the fruit in brandy will make great Christmas gifts.

Sorry I was late visiting. Hope your weekend is going well and you are still smilling.

kiwimeskreations said...

Sounds as though you have been consistently busy Kate - how wonderful to have Chris clean the blinds and windows :-) Your fruit looks amazing... I have a very soft spot for cherries ... The party you went to looks like a wonderful occasion - I enjoyed Ben's song - a catchy tune and haunting words.
Do hope your choir practise went well
Blessings
Maxine

Virginia said...

I do not know what is happening with my weeks at the moment, I read this on my tablet the other day and thought I must go and comment and then realised it was Friday again!

The 75th birthday and 30th wedding anniversary celebrations look fantatic, how lovely to have a pool party to enjoy. I love love love the lights in the bottles (my solar lights in the back garden are in full swing at the moment with all the day light they are getting).

Your Grandson did amazing, I hope he had a brilliant evening.

Loving the fact you got all your windows cleaned, I know how lovely that is once its done, we managed to get the cars cleaned last weekend for similar reasons (dust, dust and a bit more dust).

Crafting sounds like bliss I've managed some 3D flowers but no actual personal crafting recently, I really need to remedy that!