Rocking my World 2016: Week 23

I am sorry I was absent last week, but now I am back on home ground, so I'll do a quick catch-up on the last fortnight.

My smile this week is the next motif for my Frida's Flowers CAL. This pattern was released on Tuesday, so, of course, I had to get one made so I could see what it was like. It is called the 'Heart Rose', and I think it is the best one so far.

Because I am joining up as I go, this is already attached to the previous motifs. Now I am doing the other three as a production line, and I am up to the outer flower ring already, so they will soon be done, and I will have time to work on my other projects before the next part is published on 14th June.

Before I left for UK we had a little drama here. I had been clearing my larder out, and had a bundle of empty plastic bottles for recycling, so I walked down the road to the bin with them, and on the way back I noticed a small plume of smoke rising from the green zone behind our house. Once home we had a look over the back railings, and as we couldn't see anyone, nor hear any voices, Chris walked round and found an old armchair had been set alight, but there was no-one around keeping an eye on it. I am always worried about fire down there because the area is full of dead trees, plus broken pallets and other rubbish, and it is all so dry that even a small fire could soon take over. Then we heard the crackling of flames so I decided to phone the bomberos. I will always have a go at speaking to people in Spanish now, but on the phone it is much more difficult, but I managed to make myself understood, and before long a small fire truck arrived and the fire was extinguished.

I was so grateful that I was home at the time, and caught sight of it before it had time to spread and do any real damage.

The reason I had an unplanned visit to UK, was so that I could attend the funeral of my brother. He was approaching his 87th birthday, but I was grateful to hear that, although he was suffering from cancer, he passed away peacefully in his sleep, having spent his final few weeks in a lovely nursing home, where he was well cared for.

Of course funerals are not the happiest of occasions, but as so often is the case, this was an opportunity to meet up with family members, many of whom I had never met before. My brother was a frequent visitor to my house back when our mum was living with us, as were my other brothers and sisters, but he lived too far away for us to see him often after that, and his family were grown up and had moved to various corners of the country. So it was a real pleasure to meet his five children, in the photo below, along with his many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Although the names of his children were well known to us, it was only his eldest daughter Margaret that I had really spent much time with before.

It was especially nice to meet up with his second daughter, Kathleen Jean, who was named after my sister and I. I was twelve when she was born and I remember being so 'chuffed' that he had chosen to give her my name! She remains Kathleen Sargent, which was my name before I was married.

As well as two brothers, I also had five sisters, but as Jean and I were the only two born after the war, the rest are now all in their eighties, so it was quite an achievement that the five remaining sisters all made it to the funeral too. Here we are, enjoying a chat together.

Because it had proved very difficult to get flights at the right time to the right place, I ended up flying to Jean in Bournemouth, and we travelled to the funeral in Slough by train. My youngest son, Ben, was free that day so he came down from Birmingham by train and met up with us there, which was an added bonus.

Jean and I got back home by early evening, and I was just in time to take a photo of the sun setting at the front of her house.

Such a lovely peachy pink colour in the sky.

Once again I seem to have taken a bit of Spanish sunshine over in my case, because the weather was lovely all through my visit. I had the choice of flying back home at "silly o'clock" the next morning but that seemed a bit too much of a rush, and the next flight wasn't until Monday, so I had a few days with Jean which was nice. We fitted in a visit to our sister who lives a short distance from her, some clothes shopping and a trip to Hobbycraft, but I had to be very careful what I bought as I only had hand luggage to pack it in to. I must say I found the big supermarket near her house rather frightening! I couldn't get over the range of choices for just about everything. I have obviously forgotten what it is like but I don't think it was quite so mad when I moved away some eight years ago. Now I am used to our small supermarkets where there are only a couple of alternatives for most things, and no choice at all for others. I found it restrictive at first, but now it is actually liberating, and makes shopping much more straightforward.

On Sunday I asked Jean if there was time to walk across the common that starts right across the road from her house. It was another lovely morning and we had such a nice walk. The common, Bourne Valley, is huge, with everything from leafy paths through a wonderful mix of trees, to wide open fields and fishing ponds. I loved the variety of flowers that were in bloom, from the yellow buttercups and flag irises, to the pink campion and the mauve rhododendrons that grow like weeds across Dorset. We are so used to brown earth all year around, and only stunted shrubs and a few pine trees, so it was wonderful to see the green everywhere and I had to stop every few minutes to record some thing else. Here are just a few of the photos I took.

Sorry if that was a bit of a photo overload, but I was enjoying it so much, and just wanted to share it.

As we came off the common, we walked down to the end of the road where there is a small weir, built as part of a flood relief system. The water was rushing down at great speed, but as it levelled off, there was a calmer pool formed by the stones, and a mass of fish were sun-bathing in its shallow water. They had to fight to hold their place as the current was trying to wash them under the bridge and into the shadier water on the other side of the road.

That night I was too late to catch the sun setting in front of Jean's house, but I did get the pretty sky before the light was gone.

I was grateful to Jean and her husband Ron, for getting me to the airport at 4.30 am on Monday morning! We had all only had about three hours sleep, so I hope they got a bit more when they got back home. I am not very keen on flying, especially on my own, but it was quite a good flight and I passed some time trying to take photos out of the window, with my phone. It was quite clear, and rather lovely as we flew over the snow-capped mountains.

It was lovely to step out of Arrivals and find Chris waiting for me, and of course, I also had a very noisy and warm welcome from the dogs when we got home. Chris then took me down the road for a quick meal and I managed to get a few hours sleep before we were off out again to Albox. My choir had the honour of being asked to perform on the opening night of the Albox week of music. We were singing in a big church that was a very strange mix of traditional and modern. Seats were reserved for us at the side of the altar, but the rest of the church was full. Here we are sitting chatting while we waited for things to get started. Things move at a leisurely pace here, so you have to have patience! 

This photo shows our little group of altos and also some of the men. I included it because this one that Chris took of us during our performance, makes it look as though we are nearly all women, when we actually have a very strong men's section too.

We are all looking a bit dazed because this was our first proper public performance, and we were given a standing ovation. Very gratifying!

(There are some very modern angels in the fresco behind us aren't there?).

The whole concert was a great success and we had lots of very positive feedback afterwards.

When it was over, the concert organiser, and the town mayor, invited us to the pensioners club across the road for a drink, so most of us trouped across. I was debating whether or not to go straight home as my early morning start was catching up on me, but I was so glad we stayed. When we got in there we found a long table set up with plates and glasses, that ran the whole length of the room. We all sat down, the choir, our partners and friends, the town dignitaries etc, and soon the bar staff came out with bottles of water, jugs of beer and jugs of a very nice sangria. (My nice husband said he would drive home so I was able to enjoy the sangria!! Another little extra grateful). Then the food started to arrive, plates of salad first, followed by meat in sauce, fish in sauce, baked potatoes, calamaries, tuna pastries, bread and allioli, and much more. We couldn't believe it as another and yet another dish arrived, and there was more than enough of each one for everyone to try. The chatter was lively up and down the table. It was so unexpected and a really good way to end a lovely evening.

I am glad to say the rest of the week has been fairly routine, so the washing has all been done, the larder restocked, and my new flowers crocheted!

So now I will close with two more little things that make me happy. This is my first motif for another crochet project. I just love the colours.

I wanted to take something to do in the evenings at Jean's, so I was really happy when the wool for this project arrived the day before I went. I had, had the pattern for a few weeks but had only just ordered the wool, and it came really quickly. The pattern is for a blanket called Persian Tiles, and I want to make it twice as big as the pattern says, so it will cover our orange bed settee in the spare room. I made this one while I was at Jean's, and on the last evening I started another one. But when I got it out at home, I thought it was a bit 'wavy' and when I counted, I had made nine repeats of the pattern instead of eight, so I have some unpicking to do!!

I loved the motif when I saw it on the internet and the colours reminded me of our tiles which are on the risers of the all the outside steps. Moroccan influence rather than Persian, but the colours are right.

The other thing I have been doing that I am quite pleased with, is a little bit of photo editing. Our other brother, John, sadly passed away back in 1995, and I have very few photos of him, but while I was at my sister Dorothy's house, I saw this photo in a frame. I only had my phone with me but I took a few shots of it, none of which were very good because of the light reflecting off the glass, and my shadow on it, but I spent some time on it using my graphics program, and I am quite pleased with the result. I know Dorothy reads my blog, and I wanted her see how well it had turned out.

Now I will link up to Annie's Friday Smiles and Rocking Your World, and hopefully I will see you all again next week.

Rocking Your World 2016; Week 21

Hello my friends. Here I am smiling at you along with a bunch of my friends who are also smiling, so I hope you are smiling back.

This was taken at one of our 'Intercambio' sessions. There are four English people in this photo and five Spanish, but there were a few more of both at the other end of the table, and as you can see, we really enjoy our evenings together. The idea is that we speak in Spanish and our Spanish friends speak in English, but we are all on a learning curve so we help one another out. It is an excellent way to improve language skills and one I would highly recommend. Living in a mainly retired community, it is nice to have some younger people to chat with, and they bring in a youthful enthusiasm and fresh ideas.

(N:B: Several of the photos I have used this week, the one above, and some of the fiesta, are not mine. They were taken by friends and the Town Hall photographer).

The above group meet on a Tuesday evening, but we had an event in the village before that, because Saturday was San Isidro day. San Isidro is the patron Saint of agricultural workers, and is the second most important Saint for our village. The day starts with a mass in the church, and then everyone comes out to watch the statue of the saint being placed on a cart. He is surrounded by sheaves of grasses and baskets of fruit and other produce. 

Everyone then starts out on a Romeria - literally a country walk - usually ending with a picnic. For this fiesta it is simply a walk out of the village and across the rambla, to the sports centre and designated picnic area along side it. It is  not far, but can seem quite a way for little legs on a hot morning, so some of the children hitch a ride on the back of the cart.

Some of them dress up in traditional peasant/field workers clothes, of flowery skirts, embroidered blouses, pinafores and headscarves. Isn't this one a little cutie? When we first lived here, the cart was pulled by an old, very stubborn mule, and in later years a small tractor was used. This year it was a more modern white 4X4, but it got it up hill alright so that was all that mattered. 

We went ahead and waited at the picnic site, and soon the little procession came along the road below us - the cart followed by the village band, and then a long line of villagers.       The cart was parked in its usual spot, and everyone joined up with other family members who had also gone ahead to grab a table, or get a barbecue going.

Many of the children went to the football pitch for some 'children's olympic' style races, and they all looked to be having a whale of a time.

We took some chairs up, my days of perching on a brick wall are over! Soon we spotted some friends who came to join us, and our photo was taken by the official Town hall photographer for their Facebook page.

Apart from the seven of us we did not see any other non-Spanish people. It is very much a Spanish fiesta, but I think it is a shame that those who have chosen to live in this country, do not make more effort to join in with the local customs. (Our party is four English, two Welsh and one S.African!).

While everyone was busy chatting, catching up with family and friends, up beyond the sports centre, a small group of workers were preparing a Grand Paella. When I first went to look, it was simply a huge vat of rice, water and yellow spices, bubbling away over a fire.

But the next time I saw it, it had become this most traditional of all Spanish foods, a Paella, and it was so beautifully decorated to represent the flowers and produce of the land.

It was due to be served at 2.00, and they were ready almost on time, so at about that time a long line of people formed a queue. I joined the end of it, and it went down quite fast.

This is a free meal provided by the Town Hall, and is the best one of all the fiestas. There seemed to be a huge crowd waiting for some, but there was more than enough for everyone to have a generous portion. This lady had probably got one for herself and one for her husband, like I did. Men aren't so keen to do the queuing! I had to include her photo because she was wearing such a fabulous dress.

Here is my portion. Just look at that lucious gamba! It was huge.

By tea time we all drifted home for a late siesta before venturing out again at night. A stage is built at the top of our road, and from around midnight until the next morning, there is music, singing and dancing. We wandered up to see who was around, and then went home to bed.

With the warmer weather I am not very interested in food, and would happily not bother with meals some days, but I need to cook for Chris, and I know it is better for my diabetes to eat regularly, so when I have a day like yesterday, when cooking is just too much effort, I raid the freezer and find a complete meal for Chris, and I had a bowl of home-made pumpkin soup. Then we both tucked into this bowl of fruit salad. It was made from ten fruits all bought fresh from the market. Now that's my idea of a good meal! The remains (yes there were some, because I do have to limit my intake of fruit, even when I haven't had anything else sweet that day!), made a delicious smoothie for our tea tonight.

Summer has finally arrived here, with less wind, hardly any rain and higher temperatures. It has almost got up to 30º now, and I have removed the duvet from the bed, and started to wear summer dresses again. The flowers are all opening to the sunshine and yesterday I went down into the green zone behind our house to get a better view of some of them. So here is a picture of the back of our house, rarely seen or photographed, and if you ignore the rather tired, dried out almond and olive trees in the foreground, you can see the lovely oleander that grows behind our fence. I would love to encourage more of it to hang over our side, but every part of the plant is very poisonous, so we have to keep it out of the reach of our animals.

The window on the left is my craft room, where I am sitting now, and where I spend most of my time. It gets full sun in the afternoons, so sometimes it is too hot to be here in the summer. But for the rest of the year it is best possible place to work in. I zoomed in on the oleander and got this picture.

As you can see, it is covered in flowers. It is a particularly pretty one with double flowers that are almost like a camellia or a rose. But this still didn't do it justice, so when I got back I took a close-up of a bunch of flowers that is dangling over the top of our fence.

Isn't that just beautiful?

While I was in the green zone I also noticed that the pomegranate trees are full of flowers. They are such a surprising bright orange-red. The trees have been stripped by visiting herds of goats, dried out by the lack of water, and broken by the children who play down there, but still they bloom, and I am sure there will be a good harvest of fruit in the Autumn. You may remember I took my friend down to pick some when she was over in October.

But this is what I had really come round to see. It is a huge patch of Chumba or prickly pear. In this area, most of these plants have been wiped out by a tiny white fly that invaded in droves two summers ago. But for some reason, this one patch seems oblivious to their attack. It is growing down the bank behind our neighbours house, and I cannot get near enough to see it properly from my garden.

The little knot of plant at the top of the bank to the left, is all that remains of a second patch of chumba once the white flies had done their work, so it is amazing that this lot survives. And now it is coming into flower, it is beautiful,

The flowers only last for a day, but as you can see, there are masses of buds, so it will keep flowering for a while yet. Each flower opens from a red bud into a deep pink flower which gradually fades out to a peachy yellow. It is hard to see in my photos, but almost every flower has a bee in it.

Life continues to be busy but I have had time for a little craft work this week so I returned to the scrapbook layout I started a few weeks ago. It was inspired by one I saw on pinterest, so I set about drawing my own, using the graphics program Libre office. 

It took me a while to turn the empty spaces into photomasks, but I got there in the end using a mixture of Corel and Adobe Photoshops. Then I tried it out with a collection of photos from Fitzgerald Park in Cork, from our holiday in Ireland four years ago! And here is my completed layout.

I have also managed a little more crochet. The next motif for my crochet-along was released on Tuesday. This time it is Frida's Rose.

It is very similar to the previous one, with an added dimensional flower in the centre. I need four of these, so I made one, just to see how it will look. I have joined the motifs I have made so far and it looks like this.

Now I am making the other three motifs in a production line. I find that easier when the colours change every round. The three little flowers in the centre are the start of my other motifs.

I had an interesting day today. I have been persuaded, mainly by the intercambio group, to get Whatsapp on my phone, so I let several family members who are on it, know. So today I had a couple of messages from them to say it was a 'good tool' to have. Then one of my sons rang me on Whatsapp. It was a lovely clear line and we had a good chat. Later another son rang me using his home phone and our landline. We had another good chat. Then a third son rang me using the wifi phone on messenger! Another good chat!! All this technology. There really isn't any excuse for not staying in touch is there?!

I think it is time to wind up with this week's sunset photo. Again I took this using my phone as I came out of choir practice on Wednesday. It was beautiful, and I would have loved to stay and watch it sinking away, but I knew I would be happier making it to the motorway before dark, so I set off for home, and watched the remnants of it in my car mirror.

Well done to anyone who is still with me! I am sorry this is a bit of a marathon, but make the most of it as I shall not be posting next week.

I will be UK for my brother's funeral, and I know I will not be in the right place to write a blog. However, even in this sad occasion there is a gentle smile, as I shall be spending a few days with my sister Jean, and will also see many family members who I have not seen for many years, and I am looking forward to that.

I leave on Wednesday and return on Monday, so I will visit as many of you as I can before I go.

Now I'm off to link with Rocking Your World, and Friday Smiles at A Stitch in Time. I'll see you all in a fortnight.