Friday Smiles 2024 # Week 19

It has been a week of ups and downs but as this post is called Friday Smiles we will mostly concentrate on the ups. Knowing how much I love watching the sky, you won't be surprised when  I start with two photos I took on  Monday evening. For a short a while the sky was full of 'flying saucers' that caught the rays of the setting sun. They didn't stay around for long but at least I managed to catch these two on camera and even made one of them my Facebook header. I might manage to put one on here later too.

It hasn't been a very peaceful week as we have had three men here all week, stripping down the old paintwork and then painting the outside all the way around the house. It may not look very different in this photo, but it is all a bright shining white, and even all the railings on the fence and windows now have a new coat of glossy black paint. One man was sitting in the full sun painstakingly painting all the curls on our double gates and I said to him "You drew the short straw when you got that job". He grinned and said "I know, but it is better than sitting around at home". They have done a really good job and have even brought in a high power blower to clear all the dust and debris from behind our cupboards, and the paint dust where they sanded all the flakey paint off the walls. It is lovely to see the house looking so good again.

Today they came inside to paint the recesses around the windows and the insides of all the railings, so Chris went round first and took down all the roller blinds. These are just suspended from two hooks and they were due to come down anyway as they get very dusty over the winter. We always start the year by hanging them over the railings and hosing them all. Some will need to be restrung as well. But I knew that the one in my craft room often has a gecko hiding in it and sure enough as Chris started to move it, the little fellow darted out onto the window recess. I think he was bewildered when he couldn't find his home and he kept running up and down the wall. I took a quick photo of him through the fly screen netting but as I tried to get another one he suddenly slipped round the corner and all I got was his receeding tail.  I hope he found a new shelter for a while.

The cats are also a bit disturbed when there are strangers in 'their house'. So they tended to stay inside with us. Maybe they didn't like the smell of the paint (The black gloss was a bit pungent), as even in the evening when the men had gone home, they stayed in with us. So Tolly was happily curled up on a chair when he spotted that I had kicked my shoes off. He loves shoes and he pounced on one of mine and held on tight, eventually falling asleep while cuddling it. When I tried to retrieve it he got quite frantic and wouldn't let go, at least not until I rattled his food dish  in the kitchen and he had to come and investigate that!

I thought I'd show you my first completed project on my new laser cutter. I made a set of three double-layer coasters. Each one has two layers of different wood, glued together and sprayed lightly with a waterproof varnish. They are not perfect and I can't say whether the slightly unequal cutouts are due to a poor file, which I bought from an etsy store, or from the way I set it up, but I am still quite pleased with the result.

I had a phone call from the hospital in Almeria on Wednesday to say I have a consultation with the dermatology surgeon next Tuesday, to decide what they will do to my hand. I did get a call to go to the day surgery in the more local Huercal-Over hospital a couple of weeks ago and I was hoping they would remove the bad tissue from around the ulcer, but when the surgeon saw it he said he couldn't do it because they only do small cuts under local anaesthetic there, and this was too big. So he said I needed to go to Almeria hospital for a general anaesthetic and they would probably do a skin graft to cover it. Now I have to see whether the man in Almeria agrees so after Tuesday I will at least know what to expect next.

And to add to my fun, as I was eating a soft slice of bread Tuesday tea-time, my bottom denture suddenly snapped in two! I have had it a long time and knew that next time I would probably have to lose my last two teeth and have implants to hold the new plate, but I hadn't planned on doing so just yet. But fate has deemed othewise so now I am starting on a rather long journey of dental treatment, but I guess it will be a good thing when it is done. Urg!

I had intended to prepare this post this afternoon but I ended up chatting to my son Ben for a couple of hours instead. But that was a nice way to spend the afternoon.

And just as I started with two sky photos, so I will close with two as well. I took these tonight. I was sitting here preparing this post for tomorrow and saw the pink glow in the sky. So I grabbed my phone and ran out just in time to see this pretty sky. It rapidly darkened and became more red, and by the time I got back to my computer it had gone. But what  a lovely end to the day.

So now it is time to link up with Annie's Smiles over on her blog. See you there.