Rocking Your World 2021; Week 24.

My highlights of the week: those moments I am grateful for and that have made me smile. I had so many plans for this week, so many things I hoped to achieve, but there have been a series of sidelines that have altered my course, so I am not sure I achieved very much at all.

We have had a couple of technical hitches but they are all sorted now, and we are happy with our new fibre internet. Chris decided to keep his current provider for his mobile so I wanted to change to the same one as him, as my signal is very hit and miss around the house and our village, whereas his is very good. But this needed a visit to their shop and the first time it was closed. The next time we filled in everything but one small detail was missing so the transfer was refused. We went back today and the sign on the shop door said "Closed today for bank Holiday", but no-one else seemed to know about it! So tomorrow we will return and hopefully it will be fourth time lucky.

When we left the shop on Tuesday we decided to stop for a coffee, and a tostada (typical Spanish snack of a half baguette toasted and spread with chopped tomato and olive oil, then topped with tuna or cheese etc). It was nice to sit somewhere different from our usual haunts. We were  on a pleasant shaded patio and looking out at this rather splendid palm tree with a misty mountain behind it.

Today, when we again found the shop closed we decided it would do us good to walk for a while so we drove just around the corner and down to Vera Laguna. They have re-layed the board-walk around the laguna so we walked around there. I didn't take many pictures because I have taken a lot there before. But I did spy a big bird across the lake from us, that seemed to stay apart from the other ducks, geese and moorhens, and sea-gulls of course. He looked very aloof and I thought it was probably a cormorant, so I put my phone camera on full zoom and took this picture, and now I can see I was right.

From the laguna we carried on down the beach and walked right along with our feet just in the water. It was hard work as the sand and gravel were soft and we kept sinking into them. I stood for ages trying to catch a wave as it broke over my feet. They kept rolling in and stopping just short of where I was, but eventually one broke just far enough in and I got the picture I wanted. I turned away to speak to Chris and of course a big wave came straight in so I then had a wet dress for the rest of my walk. But fortunately the sun was warm and I soon dried.

It was funny looking along the beach as it is a wide stretch of sand with some rough grass and scrubby plants growing near the top, and then there is quite a slope down to the sea and most people choose to sit along the ridge. So all we could see was a row of colourful umbrellas stretching into the distance. There were more people sitting there than we have seen before but it was still a long way from being crowded!

When we reached the far end there was another board-walk up to the promenade. They are a great help as already the sand is too hot to walk on with bare feet. We went up to the top, washed the sand off our feet and walked back along a quiet, well paved prom and stopped at the end for the nicest tinto verano I have had this year, and of course, another tostada!

One thing I did manage this week was to clear out a lot of kitchen equipment that never gets used. I am well known in the family for my love of kitchen gadgets. I think I inherited that from my mum, though now there are a lot more to choose from! I had accumulated quite a selection but my hands are just not strong enough to use many of them, so I went through all my cupboards and the garage storage and Chris and I took a huge collection down to the Lions Club charity shop. I am happy to support them as they do so much good for both the Spanish and English families in our area. Now I just have some electrical machines that between them do everything I am likely to need, so I must refrain from buying any more!

I also planned to shorten two dresses this week. The ones I buy online are always either way too short or nearly down to my ankles. I am not very motivated to do sewing but they needed to be done. I have managed to get as far as cutting them down and turning up and tacking hems, but so far the machine hasn't made it out onto the table. I am busy now until at least next Wednesday but maybe then...

I did also mange to finish a small crochet project but I won't show that until I know they have arrived at their destination.

I went shopping for some basics such as bread and milk, and just slipped into the garden centre as I passed! I wanted a couple of small annuals to brighten up the window boxes but they mostly had much bigger plants. Then just as I was leaving I saw some pots of mixed plants so I bought two of those. It turned out there were six plants in each pot, but they were very root bound and I had trouble separating them. But I managed in the end and I put some round in a trough that hangs from the back railings just outside by craft-room window, and some in the window boxes outside Chris' room. They looked a bit sad for a few days,  I must have damaged them a bit breaking them apart, but I have watered them regularly and now they look fine.  They had some very pretty little flowers in them that at first I couldn't identify, but with a bit of help from google I found they are Surfinias. I should have remembered that as I used to have them in the garden in UK. They are a type of petunia with many small flowers. I have not seen the double variety before though. Each pot had at least three surfinias as well as a small verbena and one or two large petunias, so they were actually a very good buy. Here is an untidy collage of them.

There were two very dark purplish petunias that can get a bit lost I think, so I planted them with the bright yellow surfinia and they look lovely together.

And just in the corner of the front yard we have a succulent shrub - well almost a tree now. It was there when we moved in and we have paid little attention to it. It has grown a little over the years. It was planted in an old half barrel, and last year the ring around it broke and the barrel split open, but the roots of the plant stayed as they were. I just went on watering it like that for a while, but a few months ago we finally got around to moving it into a new, slightly larger pot, and it has just rewarded us with a mass of tiny pink flowers. I have only seen flowers on it once before in the twelve years we have been here. The bees absolutely love it, there were at least a dozen buzzing round when I took these pictures though I don't seem to have caught any of them on camera.

I have written this on Thursday evening as tomorrow we will be off to try the phone shop again, then to Mojacar to post my parcel to UK and the photo shop to have passport-style photos taken for our TIE cards. They are a new ID card to replace our old residencia papers, and we will need them to show we live here if we ever travel out of Spain. We have appointments in Ameria to complete our applications next week. On Saturday I have to go to Huercal Overa for a Covid test. I got a message about it this afternoon. I have no idea why, but can only assume it is because I have an appointment with the ENT specialist at the hospital on Monday. So I will be back there again on Monday to see the doctor and this time I have decided to take a translator with me. I am fairly confident speaking to the doctors in Spanish, and can tell them anything I need to, but I still cannot understand when they speak to me. So when it is something medical I think it is important to understand everything properly so I have a lady coming with me. I have not used her services before but she has been with Chris a couple of times during lockdown when I have not been allowed to go with him.

So next week is going to be a fun week too, but hopefully I will be make it out the other end and have several things to be grateful for. In the meantime I will link up with Rocking Your World and Annie's Friday Smiles.