Friday Smiles 2023; Week 6

I don't have a lot to write about this week. It has been cold and grey, and even wet somedays, and quite warm and sunny on others, and I have mostly kept busy at home. Of course my new little fluff ball has kept me entertained.

Leo is settling in well, and is getting used to having the dog and other cats around. He has risked bumping noses with them a couple of times, but mostly keeps his distance. They in return, are very wary of him and tend to move away if they see him coming, but they are learning to at least be in the same room.

Tango has even started coming back on my lap some evenings, probably because it is warmer than anywhere else! One evening he was deeply asleep on me and little Leo jumped up onto the recliner part of my chair and promptly started to have a good grooming session.

He looked kind of astonished when he turned around and saw who he was sharing me with!

Of course he sleeps quite a lot, so when he has had his dinner, if I am going to be in my craft room all afternoon, I bring him down here with me. When he has had a little look around I put him on my 'spare' office chair and tell him to stay there, and he just curls up in a little ball there and sleeps until I go to feed all the others their tea. Not one to miss out on any opportunity for food, he soon follows me!

Early in the week I made some picalili, and when it was all sealed away he came to inspect it and gave it his seal of approval. (The cake in the foreground is an old favourite called Prune cake. It has black treacle in it as well as prunes, and once cold I topped it with the delicious black treacle butter icing. Yum!)

I took the picalili to my sewing group on Wednesday and sold all of it in the first quarter of an hour. I donate most of the ingredients and the money will go to the food bank supported by my church.

Tuesday was chilly and when I walked down our road, the mountains were crowned with very attractive billowing clouds, though they got greyer as the gathering storm drew closer. I can see the head of a huge bear in them, and even Chris could see it too.

Yesterday was very grey and we had a few showers, but finally the sun broke through just as it was time for it to set behind the hills, giving me this lovely fiery burst of light.

Chris has just come down to my room as I was typing this and asked if I had heard the 'noise' outside. I hadn't but we went outside and every tree and shrub in the green zone out at the back of the house, had a flock of birds in it. 

I was pretty sure they were starlings but I recorded their chatter with my bird-identification app and it came back with Spotless starlings and Eurasion starlings. I took a few photos and this one clearly shows the two types of birds - a spotless starling at the top and several eurasian starlings further down. (I was pleased with the photo taken on my phone at almost full zoom. They were all quite a distance from us). 

Here are a couple more of my photos.

While I was out there I saw something to make me smile. The first almond blossom was out, so that is a sign that spring is on its way.

The little lemon tree outside the kitchen door is also doing well. Despite being pruned well last year, it has a lot of nice looking lemons on it. I will be picking them next week as I have been promised some bitter oranges by a friend at church, who will bring them in on Sunday, and another friend has said she will give me some grapefruit. It is quite late to be making marmalade so I hope it will set, but I shall definitely be doing my best next week, and I use the lemons as a setting agent.

A couple of you commented last week that I never said whether my bathroom renovation was finished. I am glad to say it was. The men were very good and worked their weekends to make sure all was done and cleared away just  one day before my visitors arrived. Of course, they enjoyed 'christening' it for us. It is a small space so not easy to take a photo of, but here is one to give you an idea of what it is like.

So I look forward to a kitchen smelling of citrus fruits next week. But for now I will link up with Annie's Friday Smiles, and I'll see you all over there tomorrow morning.