Rocking Your World 2021: Week 22

It has been a quiet week here with rather less sunshine, lots of clouds and some rain. Sunday did its best to be nice, but despite being warm, it was too windy for our usual dinner outside.

Monday was the worst day of the week with steady, quite heavy rainfall all day and most of Sunday and Monday nights. It was still fairly warm but felt colder because of the rain and the animals were not impressed at all. They all looked out of the door and changed their minds. I liked this picture of Tolly looking so fed up, curled up on the telephone seat with his chin propped on a little paw. "I just want to go out and play, but I don't like all that wet stuff!".

But one thing that did like it was the flowers. My hibiscus are all out in flower and these two, one bright orange and one yellow, made a lovely splash of colour despite being covered in raindrops.

Tuesday was better so I managed to do some tidying up outside and potted up the flowers I had bought last week, and also some lovely sturdy geranium cuttings that my friend Chris gave me when we visited last week.

Chris also gave me a rather nice heavy metal climbing tower for roses or similar, so yesterday I suggested we visited another garden centre to look for a climbing rose. I found the one I wanted with lots of tiny red flowers on it, and we also bought a white flowering vine to put on the other side of the tower. I knew this as a Diplodenia, but apparently it is now called a Mandevilla flower. It is a tropical exotic and likes the sun, but it could be a challenge to keep it happy along with the rose. I am not sure how either will do in a large pot rather than in the ground but we will soon find out. It started to rain again just as we got home, so we will get them planted out later today or tomorrow.

A few weeks ago I was happy to see some flower buds forming on my little silk tree. I have watched them daily but they have taken a long time to develop. But today they are just beginning to open, showing a brighter red than I expected as the flowers on the parent tree were lilac, but maybe by next week they will be fully open and I will see their true colour.

I am going to risk showing a little poppet I made this week. No need to guess who it is for if you are a regular follower. It hasn't been posted yet but I am pretty sure neither of the parents see this blog. I wonder who recognises it. It is of course, Miffy, a cute little rabbit immortalised in children's books by Dick Brauna. He is Dutch so I know Lisca will have recognised him straight away. 

The books have a very simple text on each page and they were a favourite with my own children when they first started to read, and also with my little ones at nursery. I will have a couple of the books sent directly to their home once the parcel has arrived, so hopefully Miffy will be enjoyed by another generation of 'our tribe'.

The clouds parted around tea-time on Wednesday and when I went out to take my rubbish to the bin, I noticed an almost full moon rising through the still-blue sky. So I fetched my phone and took the opportunity to try out my new tripod and I was quite pleased with this picture that I took.

The garden centre that we went to yesterday is right on Mojacar Playa. Once again it was windy but not very sunny, but still quite warm. I had another go at taking video of the lovely lively sea, and this time I did a bit better, so I will try to add it on here. You can hear the wind whistling around the phone.

I find these sort of seas quite mesmerising and I could stand and watch them for ages. Chris had other ideas, so when I suggested a quick drink at one of our favourite cafés just across the road, he said we might as well stop and have lunch there which saved me cooking so it seemed like a good idea! I like this café because if I ask for 'té ingles' I get a pretty teapot of hot water, a jug of cold milk (that is a bonus as they often bring hot milk!), a pot of tea-bags including, black, red, and green teas, Early Grey, and their own choice of mint or chamomile, but I also get my own pot of PG tips! There is usually enough to get two cups of tea out of it, and we also get a small glass of fresh orange-juice, Chris gets a glass of water with his coffee, and a plate with two mini savoury cheese and ham rolls, two sweet dough balls, and a little bowl of nuts and seeds. That is standard with anything you order so it is always a good place to stop.

For lunch Chris had his usual of Tortilla francesca in a big baguette with salad and chips, and I had a 'Sandwich Mojacar' which turned out to be a triple layer of toast filled with ham, tuna, lettuce and tomato, and a fried egg, plus chips. All of that was fresh-cooked and cost a total of 10€ and we were well filled so it was a bargain.

As I said earlier, it was raining once we got home so I was busy in my craft room when I heard the doorbell. It was a surprise parcel, a large brown box that I soon found held my new mixer, which I wasn't expecting until next Monday - Wednesday. I have owned a Bamix, stick food mixer for many years and it was finally showing its age. The latest model is very similar to the original, except that it is red, not white like my old one, but the stand is much more compact and will take up less space on my table. It is an excellent mixer for many things, and very easy for me to use, but the best bit for me is the Slicy, an attachment that slices, chops and grates far more efficiently than anything else I have tried. It also handles small quantities which is usually what I want , and I find my larger food processor does not. It is a high end of the market appliance but if it works for me as well as the old one has done over the years, it will be money well spent.

And that is about it for me today so I will link up with Rocking Your World and Annie's Friday Smiles, before I ramble on any more.