Rocking Your World 2020: Week 5

Well here we are and its time to look back at the week and find the things that made us smile, and made us feel grateful. It has been a difficult week for some people, especially those in UK who have strong feelings either way about today's Brexit. Here, we have all sorts of questions, to which no-one really has answers. We feel there is nothing we can do to change things now, so we may as well get on with our lives, and just see how things pan out in the coming months and years, so this has been a pretty 'normal' week for us, whatever that means.

We got off to a good start on Sunday evening when we sang at a concert to celebrate the Spanish Day of Peace.  The main concert was music played by the Cariatiz orchestra, which is the only amateur orchestra in the whole of the Almeria area. But the first half was ended by two big choral pieces sung by both my choirs - Incognito singers, and Vera Voces - singing together with the orchestra accompanying us. The first piece was classical - Mascagne's Easter Hymn, (this is the style of Vera Voces), and the second was a medley of songs from MGM films (the style of Incognito singers). It was fun for some choir members to tackle pieces 'outside their comfort zone', but of course, about eight of us sing in both choirs. We were asked to wear our own choir's official stage wear, and those of us in both choirs chose to wear the blue tabards of Vera Voces. I haven't seen any official photos yet but here is one that Chris took. You can see the two colours of clothing in the line up of singers, and just behind us is the orchestra, with the MD at the front trying to hold everyone together.

It has been a better week here than last week, with most days seeing some sunshine, and higher daytime temperatures, though the cold soon comes back at sun-down. Because there has been a light cloud cover most afternoons, we have had some stunning sunsets, so here is a few of the photos I have taken during the week.

Surprisingly these were taken over two or three days, though they could have all been taken on one day.

We were promised some sun all week but sometimes it took a while to arrive. On Wednesday I was driving to Turre for my sewing group and I just had to pull over to take a picture of the Cabrebra mountains. The mist was low and had not cleared in all the valleys. Plus we are in the short season when bonfires are allowed and the agricultural centres burn off their Winter debris before starting the new Spring planting, so their smoke was adding to the mist, and with no wind to disperse it, it too hung in the air.

These mountains display many different atmospheres. Some nights, as the sun sinks low and glows behind them, the layers of mountains remind me of the Mountains of Doom described so clearly in my favourite set of books, "Lord of the Rings". They can look really sinister, though on other days they are clear as a bell.

While I was standing taking a few shots of them, I turned to my left where there is a large area of newly cleared land. Last year the owner decided to change from his salad crop, and instead he planted it with orange trees. I was just struck by how green it looked. They are surrounded by 'real grass', a novel sight for us, and a testament to the change in our weather patterns, and the recent heavy rains.

Yesterday we went to do some necessary shopping. Chris came to help lift the big bags of animal biscuits that I buy for both dogs and cats. It is cheaper to buy in bulk, and it will last at least a month for the dogs, and two or three months for the cats. After the pet supply store, we went on to Lidls and I bought a few little spring plants to make a nice bright spot on our front porch. I love Helibores and had several in my garden in UK. I am hoping this one will do well outside here too, and the primulars are just so pretty. I shall get them planted in a big pot over the weekend.

I surprised myself this morning with a green smoothie for my breakfast that tasted so much nicer than I expected. I used a little, over-ripe pear, a kiwi fruit, a very small avocado, a stick of fennel and  a few sugar snap peas, with a natural yoghurt as a base. It looks pretty disgusting to be honest, but was actually very pleasant.

I hope to make these more often and try to be a bit more adventurous as to what I put in them. I also have a proper juicer now which came as an added attachment with my new food processor. I haven't tried it yet, but it is something else for me to play with soon.

And that is just about it for this week. I have one more set of sky photos to end with. These were all taken last night. I am amazed at how fast the colours and shapes change, so again I took four photos just a few minutes apart, and made them into this collage.

So beautiful!

A Spanish man who lives along the road from us, came to our house this week to bring me two big bags of bitter oranges! He knows I make marmalade with them, but he has never given me any before. I have, of course, already made most of my marmalade for this year, but I do want to do one more batch, and then one or two lots of a darker one with thicker peel. It doesn't sell so well, but I have one or two customers who ask for it.

We are currently at home waiting for a new dishwasher to be delivered. My old one has been on the way out for a while, and this week it died completely, so we went to the local electrics shop and ordered a new one. He has phoned to say he will deliver it today. So while I wait, I will start cutting up some oranges.

But first I will link up with Annie's Friday Smiles and Rocking Your World, and pop over to them to see what has made them happy this week.