Friday Smiles 2022: Week 49

It has been a quiet week here with two Bank Holidays on Tuesday and Thursday. The first was a secular holiday for Día de Constitucíon, and the second was a religious one for Immaculate Conception. So shops were shut and many people had what is called a Bridge holiday taking Wednesday off as well. A few even had Monday off bridging to the weekend so they had a six day holiday.

But I filled my time by getting all my decorations up. I don't know many English folk out here who still decorate like this, and very few put up a tree, but I just love it. It seemed very strange on Tuesday when I was unpacking tinsel and boxes of tree decorations with the door wide open and sun streaming in on it all.

Sadly that was our last day of full sun and the rest of the week has been more cloudy, with some heavy rain - mercifully most at night, and noticibly lower temperatures. None of which deterred my on my decorating mission. The decorations are stored in crates in the garage, and as I open each one it is a walk down memory lane. Most of the things I hang on my tree have a story behind them, some made by my boys, some made by me; some bought on holidays in exotic places, some bought because they relate to our interests and hobbies, so I just love seeing them all again. Here is a collage of my main decorations in the sitting room.

Of course the tree is the 'main event, then moving round I come to my Danish corner with items sent to me by my son who lives out there, and some I bought when I visited him one Christmas.

My lovely 'Willow Tree' Nativity set is on the mantle piece, and above that is a large picture of an angel in Cross-stitch which I made many years ago. And finally a string that used to be used to hang cards, now carries numbers and folk art people depicting the song 'Twelve days of Christmas'. I made this a few years ago when the pandemic meant we received far fewer cards than we used to, and now, with postage costs and all the strikes, the situation is not likely to change.

But I was pleased to hear that two of my cards that were in the parcel I sent to my sister for her to post on, have arrived. So the system hasn't collapsed altogether.

On the other wall we have our TV screen surrounded by candles, more paper cuts, and my two new snowball globes. I re-made the nativity one in a round shpere like the deer one, without a constructed base, partly because I just like things to match, and partly because it now fits on the TV stand. Also it allows the light to shine through better.

The village is looking nice too with the lights across the street shining out at night. A wire frame of a tree and a large snowman covered in lights, are on the plaza and the angels are shining out on the telegraph poles down our road. Ours looked like this for a couple of days but last night it didn't come on, so maybe the rain has got to it. I will pop into the Town Hall to let them know and they will send someone down to fix it.

Most evenings, once I settle down with my crochet or just to watch TV, Tango appears and sits on my lap all evening. He is lovely and warm and is not bothered by whatever I am doing. But I had a surprise on Tuesday when Luna came in instead. She is almost thirteen now and semi-feral, so she has never been a house-cat but sometimes in the winter she would curl up with Paco. But now she only comes in the house for food. They have regular feed times and she has a very good internal clock and is always there on time. But when she has finished eating she runs out again, and she panics when I try to pet her or pick her up. So it was a big surprise when she appeared in the sitting room and even jumped onto my lap and let me stroke her. What's more, she stayed there nearly all evening. I have hardly seen her again since then!

I only have one sky picture this week. Despite the clouds we have had some pinkish sunsets and this one was so pretty.

Now I will link up with Annie's Smiles as I am a bit late this week. Then I will try and change my header to the picture of my nativity set for the holiday season.