Rocking Your World 2021: Week 21

Well I wonder what has made you smile this week. For me, what better way to start my post than with a beautiful baby; my Grand-daughter Aisling sleeping peacefully on her daddy's hairy knees!

And this little monkey is really a baby still too. Tolly is now one year old. I have read that ragdolls are not fully grown until 18mths -two years, so he still has some growing to do. He is already bigger and much heavier than my other cats but he is very light on his feet and very flexible, as you can see in this picture of him enjoying an afternoon siesta.

It doesn't look very comfortable to me, but he didn't move for hours.

At the weekend Chris and I did a short shopping trip to a local house and garden shop and then a garden centre. We went to look for something to make our front wall a little bit higher and chose some green panels, really designed for edging flower beds, but they were the most suitable thing they had. So during the next couple of days, Chris fixed them to existing metal rods and wires that used to hold a band of plastic netting. He only had to cut one panel for the end piece, to accommodate the slightly higher stone post. It took more than we had estimated so he had to pop back and buy another pack of panels! 

But it now looks fine from both our garden side, and out on the road and it gives us more privacy when we use the pool and then shower. Before, a tall person could see over the wall, but now even they would have to stand on tip-toes and make a point of looking in.

It was finished on the hottest day we have had so far, so we both decided to jump in the pool. The water was on the chilly side to get into but it was fine once we got used to it. We each took a photo of the other and then I photo-shopped them together to make this one!

                                        

After shopping for the fencing we went on to the garden centre so that I could look for some geraniums to go in our three-pot stand on the front porch. I did find three lovely ones, all a bit different from each other, and we also chose a blue hydrangea, and a very pretty pink alstromeria. They sat in a box on our porch for a day but then I did get them potted up, and they are looking lovely.

Last week I shared a little yellow daisy that had beaten all odds and bloomed on an arid piece of paved path. Well, while I was gardening I found another little surprise. Its little face was looking up at me and I just had to smile. I guess it was again 'planted' by a bird, or just fell from the rubbish when we cleared away the winter pansies and violas. How sweet is that?

I hadn't really been paying much attention to this plant which is one of the more exotic ones in the garden, but I suddenly noticed it had three flowers opening. It is strelizia nicolai, a member of the bird of paradise flower family. Though not as beautiful perhaps as the more common orange and purple bird of paradise flower, it is non the less very striking. The flowers are large with a black/purple lower petal, white inside petals and a pretty pale blue tongue. They are distantly related to the banana tree and the leaves are very similar to that.

On Wednesday we had a lovely day. We visited some very good friends, Chris and Phil. We haven't been able to see them for nearly a year. They made us a lovely lunch and we were able to sit outside to eat it. I took over a lemon meringue pie made with lemons from our tree. After lunch Chris and Phil did their usual disappearing act off to the bar for a few beers, leaving Chris and I to chat to our hearts content, and generally put the world to right! We were so busy chatting that I forgot to taken even one photo. Sadly they are hoping to return to UK by the end of the year, as Chris has major health problems and need to see consultants that speak the same language as her!

I shall really miss them when they go.

Yesterday I went to Turre for some quick shopping. It was a strange day, hot and sunny but quite windy with a chilly bite in the wind. As usual I took what we refer to as 'the back road' to Turre. It is less heavy traffic-wise, and much more scenic than the main road. I noticed that the campo is covered with clouds of yellow, which have replaced the pink and purple flowers that are often seen at this time of year. The yellow is wild broom, and it flourishes in this rather dry soil. Most of this is the common variety with small, not very significant flowers, but there are so many of them that it just looks like a sea of yellow. Occasionally there is a shrub with the larger flowers often seen in gardens back in the UK. I used to have one myself. I stopped to take a few photos because they looked lovely waving gently in the breeze. I don't think the photos do them justice but here are a few.

There was a small plant centre near to where I parked the car in Turre, and I stopped to buy this pretty hanging basket of petunias. Their colours really shone out from a display of mainly pink and purple ones. I have removed the plastic hangers because I find it is mostly too windy for hanging baskets around us. But I like petunias. As long as you dead-head them regularly they will flower for a long time, and these ones were unusual and eye-catching.

And before we leave the garden I was surprised to see a little yellow daisy flower on top of my 'pin-cushion' cactus. This has the fiercest spines on it and I can't touch it even to remove dead leaves that blow onto it. It flowered for the first time last year, but I am sure it was much later than this. It is on a little strip of land between our front yard and the garage forecourt, and we planted the silk tree at the end of it, so it has been watered regularly all year. Maybe that is why it has started flowering.  They are only quite small flowers, which was a bit disappointing as some cacti have very impressive blooms, and they close up as soon as the sun moves off them. But it does look as though there may more to come this week.

I don't often post funnies but these seemed particularly pertinent. The first one because I have known people refer to me as the cat woman!

                                   

And by now you all know I love all the creepy crawlies in the garden, and I think my favourite is the preying mantis. So I am sure at some time I have mentioned that they are very useful in the garden for eating unwanted pests, but they are also cannibalistic, and after mating the female will bite off the head of her mate, and often eat him. Which explains why these two really made me chuckle!

And now I think it is time to link up with Rocking Your World and Annie's Friday Smiles.  You are welcome to join us and share what has made you feel happy and grateful this week.