Rocking Your World 2016: Week 18

Hi folks. I have no special smile this week, just a few happy occasions that had me smiling. It was a relatively quiet, and therefore relaxing week, which made a nice change. For us it started on Saturday when we attended one of the events put on by our Town Hall, for a cultural weekend. The other events were drama and visiting speakers which we didn't feel our Spanish was quite up to appreciating, but on Saturday it was Flamenco music and dancing which we really enjoy.

It took place on the plaza which was a bonus. I always love outdoor entertainment, and it was a warm evening so we could sit and watch in comfort. There was a large wooden stage which resounded nicely to the stamping feet of the dancer, but first there were four men who played and sang.

(The stage lighting has added an extra layer of colour to most of these pictures.)

The men were joined by this lady who started dancing. It is always so dramatic with tapping feet and tossing head, and arms flung out to emphasize her emotions. And the anguished facial expressions just add to it. I just love that red dress!

Later she danced again, this time in a black dress, and one of the men joined her.

There was a good turn out of village folk. They all enjoy the Flamenco style of singing and dancing.

But there was something else happening at the same time. On the same stage, over to the right, there were two large boards set up on easels, and as soon as the music began, a man started to paint the boards with long vertical patches of blue in several shades.

Mostly it was spray paint which he spread with a broad brush. He worked steadily but unhurriedly and we  were wondering what he was there for, as there was no sign of any shapes being formed with his paint. Towards the end of the show he covered each board with a sheet of clear plastic that was hanging behind them, and then he started to spray white paint over them.

With absolutely perfect timing, on the final beats of the music he finished his spraying and lifted off the plastic sheets, and there were revealed two superb paintings of a Flamenco dancer and a singer.

See the lace on the dancers sleeves, and all the detail in the second picture. I couldn't believe he had got such a result from a flimsy plastic stencil. Here are the stencils, once more hanging behind the boards.

Everyone was amazed by the end result, and his timing couldn't have been better.

The show had lasted about an hour, so although it had started quite late, there was still time to visit a couple of bars on our way home for a night-cap or two!

Other little things that have made me smile - 

The news that our Royal Birthday Party last week raised over 500€ for our church funds.

A successful outcome to negotiations between Cati for Asadis and a local group of woman bowlers, with me as their liaison, resulting in us buying a special light pad for the children in the special needs class of the village school, to be paid for by the bowlers. Two parts have arrived and I hope to have the last part by Tuesday so we can arrange for a presentation at the school very soon.

We spent Monday morning working in the garden, and all the flowers we bought last week, are now in pots and containers around the yard. And very pretty they all look too.

My lovely ginger cat had his stitches out on Monday and remains apparently oblivious to all we have done for him. He tore a claw on his front paw a couple of months ago, but despite two courses of anti-biotics, it refused to heal, so last week the vet removed the claw and nail bed, and he had two stitches in it. He is such a laid back boy, and although he was limping a bit, he never fussed with it, he didn't attempt to chew at his stitches, and he took his tablets without batting an eye. Now he has a slightly odd looking toe, but apart from that, he seems none the worse for the experience.

On Thursday Chris took me out for lunch at a nearby cafe and we had an lovely meal as we always do there. Then we popped into 'the brothers', a company run by twin brothers where you can buy all sorts of building supplies, gardening supplies and some pet items, and we bought a small cat flap for our kitchen door. At the moment we have to leave the door open all the time for the cats to come in and out, and we have a chain link curtain to keep out the flies. But it is not really very efficient and I am always getting tangled up in it when I go out to feed the dogs, or hang washing on the line. So Chris sat down and removed a small section of the metal railing and replaced it with the cat flap. Now the rest of the door can be covered with clear perspex or similar for the bottom section, and proper fly screen for the rest. Then I can have the inner door open all summer and not worry about the bugs. Now all we have do is teach three cats how to get through it. At the minute they can just walk around it but whenever I can I make them go through the flap. Hopefully very soon the rest will be done, and then they will have to come in that way if they want to be fed, so I expect they will soon get used to it.

Here is Chris doing the hard bit - making it fit the space. I wish I could still sit on the floor cross-legged like that!

Apart from that I have spent some time sitting here at the computer. Yesterday I made some booklets for church, for the order of service we use for the Eucharist celebration. Our numbers are growing and we ran out of books last week. They weren't easy to do as they have laminated covers and it is hard work folding a fairly heavyweight piece of card that has been laminated, but I got them done in the end. 

Today I revisited a piece of software that I haven't used for a long time, and designed a template for a scrapbook page, inspired by one I saw on pinterest.

I have finished this fortnight's part of my crochet-along with several days to spare, so I have also finished the squares for the tote bag, and added one more round to my Sophie blanket.

I even managed to make half a dozen greetings cards too. So all in all it has been a very productive week.

It is warming up even though there has not been so much clear sunshine this week, and last weekend I replaced our winter duvet with the summer-weight one. I find it much more comfortable and I sleep better with it. But my goodness, there has been some shocking weather for our friends and family back in UK. I hope the snow is on its way out again now.

I have just one sky photo to show you. As I said, there hasn't been a lot of sunshine, but I did catch this one sunset which I rather like, because it has the black storm clouds on the top left, that balance out the dark landscape on the right.

They have promised more rain tonight and tomorrow, but on the bright side, that is one less time for me to hose all the pots of plants, which is a very time-consuming occupation.

So now I'm off to link up with Annie's Friday Smiles, and Rocking your World at Virginia's blog.

Rocking Your World: Week 17

Hi everyone. These Fridays sure come round quickly don't they, but Friday is when we think of the good things that have happened this week, so here goes.

I am starting this week with a link to a video of our youngest son. He recently went to see the London stage show 'Book of Mormons', and although he said 'Don't go there mum. You'd hate it!', he thought it was the best comedy he has ever seen, and he loved the music from it. He is a musician who writes, sings and plays his own songs, but also does covers of other people, and he wanted to do one of the songs from the show. Unfortunately it needed two people, so he dug out an old wig and pair of glasses and doubled up himself. He'd never done that sort of video editing so I think he did a good job. But it makes me smile because I just love to see him having such fun  with his music. I shared his video on Facebook with the caption, "My son Ben and my son Ben, having fun together". If you are interested you can see his video on youtube, by clicking here. (apologies Annie. I know you saw it on facebook).

But there have been plenty of other things to rock my world, and make me grateful this week too.

Chris has had his stitches out. His wound is healing nicely and he is beginning to feel more comfortable.

I went to the doctor for myself,  with some trepidation, knowing she is not very easy to talk to and expecting to have to fight for a referral, but I did my homework so I could speak to her all in Spanish, and before I got to ask for it, she gave me the form to apply for a hospital appointment. It's nothing too serious, but I am happy that it is going to be investigated.

On Wednesday it was our 37th wedding annivesary. It passed quietly. We have never made a big 'thing' of anniversaries, though we did make a couple of significant ones quite special, and we are thinking we may do something special again when it gets to forty years!

I spent a very pleasant afternoon yesterday, at a friends house, enjoying a Royal Tea Party. It was done as a church fund-raiser to replace our usual St George's day dinner that was cancelled through the ill health of the hosts. Anyway, sixty guests came to our tea, and those of us on the Fund raising committee all helped with the preparation of food. I have never seen such an array of sandwiches, scones and cakes. Fortunately it was the one day all week we had full sunshine, so we were able to spread around the garden. We had set up tables for eight on every space available, and while folk were still arriving, we worked in teams of four to complete a quiz on the Queen. I have to admit I didn't know many of the answers, but as a team we did OK. 

It was suggested we try to wear red, white and blue, and most people had at least one of those. One or two took it a bit further and wore their 'patriotic hats' as well.

While we took round plates of food, our church organist and her husband, entertained us with traditional English folk songs. Then, when everyone had eaten all they could, Ron did a couple of funny recitations which were well received.

We finished the afternoon with two big birthday cakes and glasses of cava (local name for bubbly). It was a good afternoon, with opportunities to chat with folk we don't sit and talk to very often, and I am sure the final sum raised will make it all worthwhile.

It has been another slightly uncertain week weather wise, with lots of windy days, a fair amount of cloud, and a few showers, but it doesn't get really cold any more which is a blessing. After one fairly grey day, the wind broke up the cloud early evening and I sat around the back of the house watching the sky. You could clearly see where the wind was whipping  up the clouds, and I thought it was really pretty. I think the 'flying sauce' must be a bird flying straight towards me!

On the greyer days I sat indoors to do some crafting in the afternoons, and I finished my bobbin lace bell. It was quite a fiddle to get the filler done but I managed it in the end. It was very small and delicate and would work well as a feature on a Christmas card. But I really wanted a slightly bigger one, so one evening I spent hours trying to enlarge the outer edge of the pattern, without enlarging the filler as that would have made the mesh too big. Eventually I managed it, so I then made it again using red and gold threads. I am quite pleased with it, but I may try another approach some time soon, that could make it a bit simpler to do. Here are my two bells so you can see how they compare in size.

As I mentioned last week, Lisca sent me the pattern, and now she is making it up too, so I am glad we have both managed it.

I have also been busy with my crochet hook. Part two of my Frida's flowers Crochet-along was released on Tuesday. It is another fairly straightforward motif, but I think it is a bit prettier than the first one. I have done two of the new ones, and as recommended, I am joining as I go, so they are each linked along one edge to a purple motif from part one.

The main colour is called petrol and it is a bit dark to work with by artificial light, so last night I made all the central flowers instead. There are six more, two of which will be the centre for two more whole motifs, and four will be on the side of half-motifs. I will easily get these made over the fortnight before part three of the pattern is released, but then we will be working on a much more complex flower motif, so I am not sure whether I will keep up with them. I'm looking forward to it though.

And while on the subject of flowers, after we had been to the medical centre this morning, to have Chris' final dressing removed, we drove to Vera and visited a newly opened garden centre. They had some lovely plants and we came home with two pots, two hanging baskets and this beautiful array of flowers.

That's not quite true as the daisies on the right (osteospermans) were bought up at the Albox market last Saturday. But today we bought a daisy pot to plant them it. (The little one in it now is a filler for the hanging baskets, but it happened to travel home in the car, inside the pot!).

I loved the bright colours of these little beauties. They are a type of Agapanthus lily from S. Africa, and the man promised me that when they have flowered and died down, they will stay dormant until next Spring, and then grow and flower again. I hope so. I guess tomorrow morning will be spent gardening!

One day I had arranged to ring my son Ben using Skype, and it keeps track of your call. It is so good and, when the internet connection holds up, it is just like sitting in the same room with him. We always did chat a lot together, and we suddenly discovered we had been talking for two and a quarter hours. I love Skype!

Another evening this week I sat out the back again just watching the sky, and enjoying the noise and flight of all the little birds looking for a roosting place for the night. It was later and the sky was getting dark, but again there were some interesting clouds.

In this one it looks as though there were some snow-capped mountains in the distance, but it is just the way the light caught the clouds.

I spent ages trying to catch some of the birds on camera, but they are mostly swifts, ducking and diving as they catch the little bugs that always wake up as the sun goes down, and they were just too quick for me. This was my best shot which does show just how fast their wings beat.

And finally, a couple more sky photos taken on an evening when there were still lots of broken clouds, but a slightly stronger sun behind them which lit up the places where it broke through. The first was taken on the same evening as the one higher up in this post, and you can see that the plume of windswept cloud was still there. It looked more dramatic as the sky darkened.

So now I will go and link up at Annie's Friday Smiles and Rocking Your World at Celtic House, and I'll try to visit some of you. I was a bit slow visiting last week because we had all sorts of internet problems, but it may have been the weather conditions, because we seem to be fine now. Thank you for stopping by. I do appreciate your comments.