Friday Smiles 2023; Week 27

Well, here I am, still surviving ...just. The temperatures have been in the upper thirties all week and I am slowly melting away. Next week they are forecasting a heat wave, with thermometers showing 44-45 in inland places and possibly 40 down here near the coast. If that is the case, I shall be sitting under a fan or in the pool and doing as little as possible!

But it is fiesta time in the village. Our patronal fiesta actually starts next Thursday through to Sunday, but the bumper cars always come a week or two before that. So the big lorries rolled in to the land across the green zone from the back of our house, last weekend, but they didn't seem to be in any hurry to get it all set up this year.

 However it is up now and last night the lights were on and a few youngsters were enjoying rides. But they have kept the music fairly low level and so far have not used the very loud horn that indicates the end of each ride. I am sure it will all be there for the fiesta, but it is nice to have a more gentle intro this year. The rest of the rides will be arriving this weekend, and then the side stalls will set up.

We have a ceiling fan in our bedroom that we have on all night and mostly I sleep quite well despite the fact it stays warm all night, but I do tend to wake up earlier. Yesterday I woke to a deep orange glow in the room and going to the window I saw a very orange sunrise, caused partly by the early mist and dust in the air. But I slipped on a housecoat and went out to take a photo.  As it rose higher the skies soon cleared and became  blue.

It was quiet outside and I sat to watch the swifts darting around to collect their morning feast of insects. They are aptly named the acrobats of the sky, and 'swifts' suits them well. They dive around yet never bump into walls or one another, and they are so fast that I have trouble catching them on camera. However by continuous shooting, sometimes they cross my path more by luck than judgement. Here are just few of them.

I have been so very grateful for the pool this week. It is not big enough to swim in properly, but we are lucky to have one in the village, and it is fine for cooling down a bit after a session in my craft room. Yesterday the thermometer at the surface of the pool said the water was 31º, and and the one at the bottom, at the deepest point showed 27º, so it is a bit like a warm bath, but is still very refreshing.

The fruit trees are doing quite well considering how little rain we have had. Only two fruit remain on the grapefruit tree after the 'June drop', but it is a very baby tree so we weren't sure it would have any fruit this year. The orange tree is in a huge pot which is now disintergrating, making it difficult to water. But we have been faithfully hosing it and this year it has several oranges that look like they may survive. The lemon tree is doing well again, and although it has fewer fruit than last year, the ones that are there are growing well and look good.

Yesterday our little great-grandson Reuben had his first birthday. This is the picture his mum sent of him.

In a week that we have struggled a bit I was happy to spot a little picture that made me smile, so I will share it with you here and then go over to link up with Annie's Friday Smiles.