Rocking Your World Friday

This is where anyone can join in and share their positive thoughts from the week we have just had.

Mine will have to be a quickie today as it is getting late and we have promised ourselves an early night tonight - which really means we might make it to bed on the right side of midnight for once.

I have had a good though busy week. This photo tells the main story.

Yes, the mince pie marathon has begun. So far I have made twenty one dozen, and sold over half of them, so I will be baking a few more batches next week. I use my marble work surface to roll out on as it is nice and cold for pastry, and a better height to work at than my kitchen table which is much too low. Even so, by the time I have used up two batches of dough - seven dozen pies, my back is saying "OK That's enough for today!" Then I wash up and make the next two batches of pastry so it can rest in the fridge overnight.

On Tuesday we had our choir practice in the venue of our first proper concert tomorrow night. It used to be the chapel of a convent and has high decorated ceiling arches, and a lovely painted backdrop. Acoustically it is good, but because of the height and space, we really have to sing out to be heard. I am looking forward to the concert now.

From This Thursday until Sunday morning, it is the Gallarte expo in our village, where artists and crafters can display their work, and hopefully sell some. It is a low key affair as we are a fairly small, self-contained village.  Last night we had a good few visitors for the opening, but it will be fairly quiet from now on. I have put my two crocheted animals on my table, along with some Christmas decorations and sweet novelties for the children, plus some jam and pickles, and mince-pies. The Spanish folk are not familar with mince-pies. I have seen them take the lids off and eat them first, and once I saw a lady put cheese inside hers! But I put a plate of them on the refreshment table so they can try before they buy, and I do sell quite a few. 

There are some good items on display...

My friend Cati with her sewn bread bags and hand made jewelry....

 Eileen's lovely knitting...

Some excellent art work...

And, of course, my stall.

Today I got to try out my new toy. It is actually my Christmas present, but as we could not order it direct, it was delivered to my courier friend's lock up in Exeter, and he brought it back for us. So it had already been a few weeks since delivery when we got it, and we felt it should be opened and checked. There was actually a small piece missing so it is a good thing we looked. I telephoned them on Monday, and they have already sent the missing item to my son's house, so he can bring it out when he comes on 20th. So having opened it, it seemed silly not to have a go! It is a high powered blender, that is capable of doing some very clever things. The friction creates enough heat to make hot soup from a few whole raw vegetables. It can also turn frozen fruit and yohurt or milk into ice-cream, and much more besides. 

Today I just made a fruit juice.

There is little preparation needed. I did peel two oranges, to remove the pith, but then I just halved them and put them in the jug with one apple cut in half with the pips removed, but there was no need to peel it, and I added a handful of grapes. Within seconds we each had a lovely thick and very tasty glass of juice. (I could have added water for a thinner drink, but we like the fruit pulp in ours). I can't wait to have another go. You can put whole carrots, cucumbers, spinach, in fact almost any fruit and vegetables in it and make a juice, or run it longer to turn it into soup. You don't lose any of the nutrients that mostly lie just under the skin, because you don't peel anything except citrus fruit and bananas, and you also retain all the fibre that is lost with a conventional juicer. Won't we be a healthy pair?!

Well that just about rounds this week up. I have just started decorating the Christmas tree and putting up some other bits and pieces, and I love the house when it is all Christmassy. This year it is reminding me that there are only a couple of weeks before our son Ben and his partner are here. Happy days!

So I'll just go and link this up with Virginia at Celtic House, and see what needs to be tidied away before bed. See you all next week. Hasta luego.

Rocking my world Friday.

My how the weeks are rushing by! I seem to be busy every day trying to finish one project or another. But I did manage to finish one this week, and that was the making of Fatty Lumpkin.

He is made from crocheted African flower motifs, which are then crocheted together. You may remember that a few months back I also made a hippopotamus in the same way. They are firm friends now. Here they are chatting together in the garden like two old folk on a park bench!

It almost seems a shame to separate them, but they will go in my Gallarte sale next week, and I doubt they will both end up with the same owner. (I have already shown these pictures on my craft blog, but I make no apologies for showing them again, as this blog tends to have a different readership).

I finished making the pony sitting out in the garden earlier this week, in a lovely sunny sheltered spot, and it was really warm. But winter has suddenly come with a vengeance since then, with heavy rain and a big drop in temperatures. I have even had my fire on in here, and I only did that about twice last year! But the rain is something most folk around here are truly grateful for. This is an agricultural area, and the water was badly needed.

What else has rocked my world this week? Well last Saturday our choir made their first public appearance of the season. We were invited to attend the British Legion Christmas fair, and we sang about half of our concert programme which was very warmly received. The fair was in this somewhat unpromising building.

It is in the village of Alfoquia and is a part of the old railway buildings. The wide open space to the left was the track, most of which is still there, and over the other side of that is the station building. There was a good crowd at the fair all looking very festive. 

There were a variety of hand-made products on sale, from jewelry to jams, and fudge to flower arrangements. We bought some lovely baked goods which kept our tea-plates filled for a few days. We have five more concerts to fit in between now and Christmas, as well as one early in January.

When the sun was still shining earlier this week, Chris decided it was time to cut the roses hard back for the winter. Before he did, he rescued three beautiful flowers for me, and two of them are still looking good today.

Late roses give me a real moment of nostalgia. Mum

used to save little quotations she saw and pin them to picture frames or stick them to the fridge. And the one that I have never forgotten said "God gave us our memories that we might have roses in December". We hardly need our memories for that now as many of the modern roses go on blooming late into the year, but seeing my vase of flowers there, brings Mum straight back to me. As does the calendar you can see hanging behind the flowers. It is an Apples of Gold calendar, so named from a verse in Proverbs that reads " Words aptly spoken are like apples of gold on settings of silver". Basically it is a picture, (which always used to be a basket of apples, but they no longer adhere to that), with a block attached that gives a verse of scripture for every day of the year. Mum had a very good friend whom she kept in touch with all through their lives, and every year this friend would send mum an Apples of Gold calendar. When my sister and I were small, we would fight over whose turn it was to pull the page off each day. And Mum's motto being "Never take a day until the Lord has given it to you", woe betide us if, in our enthusiasm, we tore two off. It would be put back on until the next day came. So that calendar has been a part of my life as far back as I can remember. When we all left home, mum started to send us our own calendar every year. She passed away in her ninetieth year, some twenty years ago, and then one of my sisters continued the tradition, and she now sends our calendar every year. If a verse particularly struck mum as being apt at the time, she would pin that up along with her other quotations, and I do just the same! So that little picture behind my roses is very special, as it keeps alive one of my memories or my 'roses in December'. Family rocks my world.

Well that is enough sentimentality for today, so I'll end with this photo that rather tickled me. I was out shopping this morning and I went to a supermarket that is difficult to park right outside, so I usually park in a lay-by and walk up to it. This involves walking across a wide strip of rough land, I suppose it is an empty building plot really, but it is covered in rough scrub and wild flowers. If you cross it on a hot day you are surrounded by a cloud of grass-hoppers. I have never seen a small area so densely populated with them. But as I crossed it today I was amused to see this white bird wandering around ahead of me.

I don't know what it was. it had a long neck and looked more like a young goose than anything else. I couldn't get close enough to have a proper look, but I did just get this quick shot on my phone. It is mostly a very built-up area, with lots of housing and a school right by, so I have no idea where it came from, but it seemed to know where it was going!

And now I am off to link up with Virginia's blog at Celtic House. See you all next week.