Friday Smiles 2022: Week 25

Wow. Week 25. Next week we will be half way through the year. How time does fly.

My main story today is about a little 'happening', (it doesn't seem right to call it a fiesta), that took place last Saturday. It was really an extension of a Roman Catholic celebration for last Thursday known as Corpus Christi. Everyone around here though, seems to celebrate it on or near the closest weekend to that day, and for our village it was Saturday. The road was  signed as closed from 7.30 in the evening, so just after that we wandered up to the church, where we found three ladies very busy, designing a floor pattern from coloured salt, pressed through stencils, and setting up an altar table at the head of it.

It was fascinating to watch, and they were finished just before folk started to arrive for a special mass. All the while they were working, the church bells were pealing and close up they are very loud!

At this mass, the children who had their first communiun service last month, again come in their special clothes. For the girls this is usually a white dress, sometmes with a coloured sash etc, and the boys mostly wear variations along a sailor suit style.  The first Communion is a very special day for these children, almost like a wedding, and many families go off after the service for a big, formal meal at a hotel, though some celebrate at home. A Spanish friend told me that all the guests give generous gifts of money to the child which sets up a bank account for them for when they go to college etc. But Corpus Christi is a second chance for them to 'dress up', and they do look lovely.  

During the afternoon families who regularly attend the church, can chose to set up an altar outside their house, and after the mass the priest visits each altar in turn. Four men take it in turns to hold poles supporting a canopy and they walk with the priest, providing him with shade. (He must have been grateful for this on Saturday as it was a very hot day and he had many layers of heavy robes on). 

The children followed the priest carrying baskets or trays of flower petals, with the priest's assistant keeping a watchful eye on them. At each altar the priest knelt on a pad provided and said some set prayers, which I could not hear well enough to understand, but the local folk following said responses. He then turned and held the Monstrance up high and said  something to the crowd, and the children in the procession threw their flower petals at him. You can see they enjoyed doing this! As I understand it, he is asking for a blessing on the house for the next year, and on the home owners, but I do not know what else is said.

This was the first house we stopped at.

This one gives a clear view of an altar ready for the priest, with a white cushion for him to kneel on. His two assistants have to kneel on the hard road!

It took about half an hour to visit each alter. This one is down near us and it is always one of the most ornate ones.

Finally the procession wound its way back up to the church where a similar blessing took place at the far end of the road decoration.

By the time I had walked back down to lower end of the village to meet Chris, all signs of the altars had been swept away! It is a really special day and I like being a follower on the edge.

While we sat outside the church watching the preparations, I spotted a baby bird on the floor. It was a swift, almost fledged, but I knew they are a bird which cannot 'take-off' from ground level. I tried to launch it into a tree, but it couldn't quite get its wings going enough, so I lifted it onto a shaded window ledge out of the way of passing feet. Later a man managed to throw it onto a roof above where I found it, so hopefully its mother came to feed it.

We had a couple of very hot and 'muggy' days at the start of the week, and on Tuesday it was a relief to hear thunder rolling around. We hoped for some rain to clear the air and lay the dust and that evening we did have a couple of short but very heavy downpours. Chris and I rushed outside to pull the new chairs under the porch shelter, and collect the cushions from the ratten furniture. These I just tossed onto the dining table for convenience and when we came in a few minutes later, Tango had already found his comfy spot for the evening! He was still there when I went to bed too.

Yesterday was much clearer and a good few degrees cooler which was a blessing. It was still very warm but we both felt a bit more comfortable. Late in the afternoon a strong wind blew up but I was sheltered in the porch and sat out there until gone midnight. This morning the garden, and the pool which Chris had just cleaned, were full of dried leaves and flower heads, and other debris, but nothing seems to have been damaged.

For some reason I had the urge to bake something yesterday afternoon, so I quickly mixed up a batch of Welsh cakes, and soon had a production line going. They cook really quickly on the griddle so I have to keep an eye on them. We enjoyed some for our tea, and tonight we will have some more, and a few found their way into the freezer. They do freeze very well! They always make me happy and nostalgic too. It is mum's recipe, given to her by the blacksmith's wife that she and her two youngest pre-war children were evacuated to in Wales. Mum lived with us for the last ten years of her life (aged 80-90 bar a couple of months), and she ate like a bird, but she was always happy to have a few Welsh cakes for Sunday tea.

Today, (Thursday), the wind is still blowing a gale outside. I did a little bit of washing and double pegged each item on the line to stop it blowing away. Half an hour later I brought it all in again bone dry. There is nothing better than wind and solar power to dry the washing.

I had a happy moment this week when thanks to a gift from Chris, I was able to order the new phone I have been saving up for. It is a 'posh' one, but as I so enjoy taking photos, and my arthritus means that I cannot carry a camera everywhere as well as my bag, it is important for me to have a phone with a good camera. Nearly always my 'tech-toys' are my son's cast offs, and I am very grateful for them. Sadly my current phone came to me with a cracked screen and over time it has got worse so the cracks now interfere with what I am trying to do. So this time I have chosen the one I want and I am eagarly awaiting its arrival. I think it is in the Netherlands at the minute, and should be here early next week.

Yesterdays windy weather caused some broken clouds to appear in the evening and they just caught the colour from the sun as it set. They were so pretty.

There are lots of lovely flowers in the garden right now and I know many will fade away as the temperature rises, so I thought I would make an 'Annie-style' collage of them to remind me of how lovely they have been. It seems to be a season of mainly pinks and reds.

I rarely add funnies to my posts as they ramble on for long enough without that, but this caught my eye this morning and really made me chuckle, so I thought I would give you something to smile at too. 

This was captioned 'Dads feeding their babies'.

And with that I will link up with Annie's Friday Smiles ready to publish tomorrow.

It is now Friday morning and I am feeling decidedly groggy. I guess I have whatever Chris has had all week, so I will link up now but won't get around to commenting until tomorrow.