Friday Smiles 2023: Week 14

This will be a fairly short post as I am suffering a bad attack of sciatica (I think), so I cannot sit for long, nor lean over my computer keyboard. Sadly, sitting in a chair does not improve it and it is almost impossible to stand up again. But I am lucky enough to have a recliner chair that also tips up to help me stand, and this is the first time I have really needed to use it. It does help!

However, it will pass I am sure, so let's look at the highlights of my week. Sunday, as you may be aware, was Palm Sunday. We have a lovely service at church on this day when we are each given a small cross woven from palm leaves, and we take them outside while the priest reads the story of Jesus entry into Jerusalem, and then he blesses the crosses. Then we all process back into the church while singing the lovely old hymn "All Glory Lord and Honour...". 

In our village Palm Sunday wasn't celebrated until the evening so we walked up to the little church for that too. The church was full, and more and more families were arriving, so we stood at the back, but we were still handed a 'plastic' palm branch to wave during the procession. You can see several folk holding tham in the photo, though many were laid on the ground during the mass, for safety sake as much as anything.

The village band was waiting on the plaza outside to play the National Anthem as the people left the service.

This celebration features the younger members of the congregation, many of whom were wearing brown robes and orange head-dresses.  After the service they led the procession out along with the priest and his little helper. There was a child-size statue of Jesus on a 'trono' , similar to the huge and very heavy ones carried by adults through the main Easter processions. The children took their role very seriously, and anxious parents walked along side them to steady the trono whenever it tilted.

The rest of the congregation followed, carrying their palms, and we processed through the streets of the village. We stopped frequently so that other children could take their turn at being a trono bearer. Even the tiny ones got a hand on it, while the lady in charge tried to match the heights of the children at each change.

The procession ended back at the church and the trono was taken back inside and then the crowd dispersed.

You may remember that when our son was over here in January he cut down a tree for us, and we wanted to replace it, so on Tuesday we went to a garden centre. We decided to buy a nice little grapefruit tree. My back was already causing issues by then, so Chris did the planting of it and as you can see, it looks very happy in its new home. It has lots of flowers which I thought might drop with the move, but they have stayed on for now. The citrus trees always produce copious blooms and at least half of them will fall off in the April winds. But hopefully a few will hang on and we will get at least one grapefruit next year. It is not a very mature tree yet so it may not hold fruit for another year or two, but it will be nice if it does. They are pink grapefruit too, which I love.

Also you may remember that we bought a new large succulent at the end of last year that sent up several tall flower stems. I was looking forward to seeing how they developed when a windy storm cut all the heads off. Well this spring it has produce a lot more, and although the individual flowers are not very significant, they are a deep pink and the whole plant has a pink crown now. There are also new branches coming off the main plant. If they grow much more I shall try cutting them off and planting them in new pots.

 

I visited my doctor on Monday and I was quite relieved that she studied the results of my blood sugar and did not suggest insulin as I had feared. But she did say I must avoid all 'carbs from flour' for a while. That is a challenge for me as I love the local bread sticks that we buy still hot from our local baker.  But I have been researching other alternatives and there are some non-grain flours that I am experimenting with. I can't say I am impressed by anything yet, but everything I have read about it says it will be trial and error unitl you find the particular mix that suits you. I also avoid adding any refined sugar to my food, and I don't like any artificial sweetners, so I use Stevia, a natural sweetner made for the plant leaf. So far I have used the white powdered form but this has another natural extract added so I decided to try the 100% Stevia which is the leaves ground to fine powder and it is a deep green. I used it in a loaf that I made. It was a cross between a bread and a cake and it turned out to be an awful khaki green colour. I have to say it tasted much better than it looked, but I may have to try something different next time.

And on that note I will prepare this to publish tomorrow morning and link up with Annie's Friday Smiles.