Rocking Your World 2020: Week 22

Well today I am trying out the new Blogger interface to see if there are any improvements. If not I shall return to the Classic version.

Here we are at Friday again. We have been in phase 2 of the relaxing of lock-down this week, but I can't say it has made much difference to us.  Apart from a trip to the road at the front of the village to pick up some dog food, we haven't left home.

It has been quite hot most days and I have had my first dip in the pool, which was lovely.

I was happy to get several loads of washing dry and put away, including the blankets we wrap up in on chilly evening through the winter. They won't be wanted again for a while so I like to put them away clean so they are ready for next autumn.

I only have a few photos this week. I had to show my lovely yellow hibiscus. It is getting a bit thin and straggly as they really don't like being confined to a pot, even if it is a large one, but it still gave me a lovely show of flowers this week.

This one fascinates me because when it rains, the red centre mixes with the yellow petals, and the whole flower turns orange! But this is how it should look. I love that long stamen, and the bees love it too.

For a couple of years I have had some lavender growing in a pot by the back railings. Again being in a pot limits its life and as they had gone past their best. I pulled them out intending to replace them this spring, but of course that hasn't happened; not yet anyway. Yesterday I noticed that a weed seedling had appeared in the pot and was growing fast. I thought I'd leave it to see what it was, but today most of it had been eaten away. I lifted the leaves to look for the culprit and this wee fellow jumped out. Isn't he cute. Even for those who don't like spiders, you must admit that a vivid yellow miniature one is something special. This is from the family of crab spiders, and they turn up in a variety of colours. It was only about half a centimetre across, but I managed to get a picture, just because it was such an amazing colour.

It was nice to have the local herd of goats back visiting in the green zone this morning. I heard their bells and went to look for them. They were over the other side but I could see they had quite a few young kids with them.

I made a cake today. The Spanish folk rarely use Self-Raising flour, which those of us who are British bakers, are used to.  They mainly have what we call plain flour and they just call flour! (All purpose flour to my American friends I think). I tend to still buy SR at the English shop, but I haven't been able to find any at all locally until this week. I found a small bag of flour that I translated as being for making cakes. It said you do not need to add levadura (generally meaning baking powder here though they tend to use the same word for yeast which can be a bit confusing), and when I read the ingredients it said with 'gasification' which I would expect to mean bicarb soda. Are you still with me? Well on the side of the packet there was a recipe for a plain cake and I decided I could understand it enough to have a go. It needed a pot of natural yoghurt, and then used the yoghurt pot to measure everything else! It told you what heat to set the oven to, but not the time - "Leave in the oven until golden. It is important not to open the oven door until it is cooked completely". All a bit vague to me, but I still had a go and to my surprise it turned out really well, even and golden brown. I had to have a little taste from the end, and it is very nice. I shall add a bit of buttercream or something before we eat it I expect.

It has been a bit windy for sitting outside in the afternoons, so I have spent some time down in my craft room and was pleased to finish a set of sixteen Christmas cards, in time to enter them in a card challenge on line that I try to take part in each month. They are all very similar but with small difference in the embellishments. You can find out more about them on my craft blog HERE.

I have also been continuing to crochet of course. I though I would show you the yarn I am using. It is an interesting colour combination. I bought it for another project but when it arrived I felt it wasn't suitable, but it was too expensive to waste, so now I have put it to good use. I will show what I have made when it is finished in a few weeks I hope. 

On Wednesday, a minute's silence marked the start of an official ten days of mourning throughout Spain, for the thousands who have lost their lives during the Corona virus pandemic. Flags will remain at half mast for the ten days. I haven't managed to get a photo of the ones on our own Town Hall yet, but this is a typical picture from the internet.

I have reverted to Classic Blogger because the new one wouldn't let me add photos. (It is supposed to be easier for those using smart phones). I think I need to do something about syncing with Google docs. I will get my techie man on to it later. He is busy sunbathing right now!

And so it is time to link with Annie's Friday Smiles and Rocking Your World, and I will leave you with this which made me chuckle.

It has been a bit like that for all of us these passed few weeks, but hopefully we will soon all be back on track.