Rocking Your World 2021: Week 38

It has been another quiet week as once again I pulled a muscle in my back (The previous injury from a month ago was almost repaired!) so I have spent much of this week laying down flat, or sitting for far too long in my recliner chair or out on the porch. It is actually reasonably OK while I am sitting but trying to stand up is a different matter. However, it has been a nice quiet week, and Chris helps me when I need it.

I have another little nature picture to show you, though maybe not quite such a nice one as last week's hummingbird moth. This is an Egyptian grasshopper. They are quite common here and can grow to around 4-6 cms long. They can give you a scare if you disturb one and it flies off, but otherwise they are not agressive at all. 

Normally we only see them one at a time. This one did have a mate a few stems away, but he/she was silhouetted against the sky so the photo is not good. Occasionally they come as a small swarm and then they are known as locusts, and they can strip all the foliage off a plant very quickly. 

We do get the little grasshoppers here too, like the ones we used to see in UK, but these are much more impressive.

I am fascinated by the back garden next door. The house owner spends most of her time with her sons in Murcia but this visit she has stayed for much longer. The house is on the market, though I think she is asking too much for it to attract many viewers, but she obviously wants to keep an eye on it for a while. There is a large area of open land behind the house which is mostly planted with orange and some other fruit trees. A couple of men come in periodically to spray the trees, redig the irriogation ditches around each one, etc. But as soon as the rain comes, little seedlings appear all over the ground around them. Then the men come in and rotavate them and it is back to bare mud again. As soon as Angela (the owner) came this time, she called the men in and the ground was cleared. Then we had a few showers, and sure enough, it is again covered in grass and weeds. What amuses me is that every time it is cleared, something different pops up. One year it was a mass of acid yellow oxalis. Last year it was tall, strong grass with sticky flowers thet get glued into the cats fur and are an aweful nuisance. This week we have had a few showers and yesterday morning, while waiting for the dogs to finish their breakfast, I noticed that much of the ground is covered with rather pretty grey hairy, fern-like leaves, and tiny yellow flowers were dotted among them. They were so small they would almost go unnoticed, but I took a few `photos through the wire fence. They seem to flourish on any fairly arid land and just spread over any rocks and dead grass that lay in its path. I put a photo into an App I have, and it identified the plant as Tribulus Terrestris, a grand name for a little flower, but of course it has other common names including, Devil's eyelashes, Cat's head, Caltrop, Bindii, Tackweed, and as it is known in this region, Puncture Vine.

This name comes from the fact that after the flower, it forms seedheads that carry deadly thorns, strong enough to puncture a cycle tyre or  the rubber sole of a shoe. The seed heads fall apart into five pieces and their shape gives it its other common name Goat's head. Apparently it is very invasive and is considered to be a nuisance by gardeners. (Seed head photo from Google). So I had a little nature lesson yesterday and I hope you don't mind me sharing it with you.

We had a rather sad Good-bye in the village this week, as the lovely priest from the little catholic church here in Los Gallardos, has been promoted by the Bishop, and has now gone to a much larger parish along the coast. Everyone loved him, even those who never entered the church. As well as our village, he also served Mojacar, Alfaix and Bedar, so there are a lot of communities who will miss him. When we first met Don Miguel, he only spoke a very little English, but he worked hard to improve on it, and he always spoke to us if we saw him around, and made us feel welcome when we went up to one of the special masses at the church. There was a mass to say good-bye to him on Sunday. I haven't met the new man yet, but I am sure we will get to know him soon.

I have had some nice video calls this week, firstly with our son Tom who lives in Denmark. We don't link up as often as we should, so it was good to have a proper catch-up. I also spent one afternoon chatting to my sister. We both have husbands who like to watch sport on TV, so we pick a time when they are both occupied, and have a good old natter. And lastly I spent a good couple of hours talking to my lovely friend Chris who recently returned to UK. She has been in hospital for a very serious operation, which was the main reason for her returning home, but she is making a good recovery, and if all has gone to plan, she is now back at the home of her husband's sister, for what could be a long recuperation. It was lovely to have a really good chat with her and it did us both good.

And now I actually have a few sky photos for you. I noticed on Wednesday that there were lots of little clouds late afternoon, so I was hoping for a good sunset. 

But gradually they joined forces to make one black cloud which failed to pick up the rays of the sinking sun.

When I kooked behind me, I found the wind blowing down from the Cabreras had whipped the clouds into different shpes and these picked up a little colour. They made me think of a school of dolphins diving through the waves.

Very quickly it became dark, and just the last rays of the sun shone up from the hills, and then it was gone. Maybe next time...

But that is all there is for this time, so I will link up with Rocking Your World and Annie's Friday Smiles.