Friday Smiles 2022: Week 38

Here we are at the end of another week, so it is time to look back at those things that have made us smile.

On Saturday we took the bags of plastic, cardboard and paper, and glass, to the recycling bins on the edge of the village.  As we drove along the slip road to the bins, I saw that all the jacaranda trees were again in bloom. They are so pretty. I love their colour and their fern-like leaves. Sadly they don't last long, and yesterday's high winds probably blew many of the flowers away. Fortunately after the recycling, I walked back to the slip road and took these pictures.

The house opposite to us had a large extension built on a few years ago, and it is now run as an airbnb, so there is a constant stream of visitors each week. It is large and can sleep up to a dozen people, so sometimes there are two families staying there, and sometimes it is just a couple. We really only know they are there by the number of cars outside, and occasionally we hear them going out, or playing in the pool at the back of the house, but they don't disturb us at all. This weekend there was a whole gang of young ladies we think celebrating a 'hen night' for one of them. They were a bit noisier than most but in a very good-natured way. We saw them congregating at their gate one morning just as we were going out, and they all waved and called out greetings to us. I think they really had a good weekend together.

On Sunday I actually made it to church where we had a special service to commemorate the life of Queen Elizabeth. We finished with the national anthem and it was really strange to change the words to 'King, he, his' etc, but no doubt we will get used to it. It was lovely to see my old friends again.

I expect most of you spent at least part of Monday glued to the TV and we did the same. Whatever your feelings are about our monarchy, you have to admit that we do state ceremonies very well.

It has been a week of planning and one thing we decided to do was to have a complete makeover of our second bathroom. This is in the 'living' half of the house. The main bathroom is in the 'sleeping' part. It is smaller than the main one but I use it throughout the day, and it is also used by any visitors who come to stay with us, so it will be good to have it overhauled. We went to the company who did our main bathroom and the kitchen but the people we wanted weren't there so we left our details and are waiting for them to get back to us.

The second thing we did was to get rid of the too large settee that has been taking up a lot of space in the living room. We have hung on to it up 'til now as both Kim and Foxy have spent many hours on it, but now we only have Kim, and his arthritus means he struggles to get onto it. Yesterday was one of the 'big' throw out days when we can leave anything next to the bin and the council workers will take it away. It can be hard to get rid of items like furniture so we decided to leave it there. Fortunately the bin is only outside the house next door so we didn't have far to take it. We put it out in good time, while it was still daylight, and as expected, someone had taken it away before the council came. We expected it to go and are happy if someone now has more comfortable seating than they had before!

With the extra space this made we have been able to bring in our two new Poang chairs from the porch so they are not damaged by the winter weather, and the old ones that we repaired enough to make them useable, are back on the porch for us to use on the nicer afternoons. We have also ordered a big memory foam bed for Kim which is just a few inches off the floor and hopefully he will be comfortable in that this winter.

I was really pleased to finish the last of my crocheted celtic tiles, but when I started to join them, I found I had made a fundemental mistake right at the beginning of three of them. It is the same mistake on each one, and though Chris couldn't see it and said to leave it, I know it will glare at me every time I look at it, so I have undone those three tiles and am now remaking them. I am never comfortable with leaving work I know has a mistake in it.

I am very wary of ordering items from UK since Brexit as we are now charged, sometimes very heavy, import duties, as we are from other non-European countries too. I guess because of trade agreements with them, we do not pay duties on items from China, so reluctantly I find myself ordering more from there. Just lately their service has been excellent and things arrive well before the estimated date. One thing I have seen advertised on Facebook (I do not order direct from these adverts but they do give me ideas!), is a three tier fruit bowl. I looked for it on Amazon.es and on there it was ridiculously expensive - I'm talking about over a hundred euros, and in one case over a thousand. I then realised these were a frame made from oak with porcelain bowls. In the end I went for the cheap Chinese version which has a bamboo frame and plastic bowls, and I have to say I really like it. 

I bet you all know that feeling when you see something black run across the bedroom ceiling just as you are about to turn out the lights, and then you can't sleep until the 'spider' has been removed. Well I felt it on Tuesday night but when I looked again I saw it wasn't a spider; it was a smallish gecko. (The ceiling is white but I took this when it was fully dark outside and only two bedside lights were on). I toyed with trying to move it, but didn't want to end up with just a wriggling tail in my hand - which is what usually happens if you corner a gecko - and in the end I reminded myself that he would spend the night catching flies and other bugs and was therefore welcome to stay. I soon fell asleep and the next morning he was sitting on the fly net at the window and I haven't seen him since, so he probably found his own way out.

We have had some cloudy days, and yesterday was very, windy. We even had a few showers but the yellow storm warning we were given did not materialise into anything significant. As I drove out on Wednesday morning there was a lot of grey cloud over the Cabrera mountains and I think it was raining higher up, but again the clouds broke up and the sun came out.

But the storms did come and some were very near here. Vera playa is the next beach along from Mojacar after Garrucha, and is only a short drive from us, and they had a fierce storm. We didn't go there, but a local man who runs an estate agents in our village, is also a keen photographer, and he has a lovely camera, and he went to Vera playa after the storm had abated,  so I have taken a few of his pictures - which is why they have his trade watermark on them. I cannot claim any credit for them. The waves were strong and they tore up parasols and beach furniture, and swept away the boardwalks down to the sea.

This area is where the Luguna is that we sometimes visit to walk around. The boundary between lake and beach has gone, and so have all the water birds who presumeably are seeking shelter further inland.

I  just thought this was such a beautiful photo so I had to include it. Well done to Paul for capturing it.

And there is a smile in there too as the storm did not come as far as us to cause any damage.

After today's visit to the clinic I now only have a small plaster on my hand and the ulcer is much better. The skin is still very fragile and it is sore to touch so I have to take care not to knock it, and I will be straight back to the surgery if I think it has the slightest sign of the infection returning, but it is moving in the right direction so that is also a smile.

So now I will smile my way over to link up with Annie at a stitch  in time. Hope to see you there.