Rocking Your World 2020: Week 46

Another week has flown by with little to report. There has been some progress in the bathroom, albeit slow. There was another setback when the shower tray was unpacked and they found it had been damaged in transit, so we are still waiting for a replacement to arrive. But such a pleasant young man has been in each day and he has done an excellent job tiling the walls and floor. Yesterday he grouted the walls but he can't do any more until the shower tray is in place. I was hoping they would start building the other units today but so far no-one has come. They have probably been working on another job all week and want to get that finished first. 

We are pleased with the tiles, and this is the border that runs round at waist height. It is subtle but offers the opportunity to add both blue and pink accessories. I will be ordering new towels, and bath mats once I know what shape and space the floor is after everything is installed.  

The weather has been a bit hit and miss this week, with some rain, but still some pleasantly warm sunshine too. The first lot of rain we had was so dirty. It left a thick layer of red sand on everything. You couldn't even see the colour of our outside table, and I had to call Chris to help me clean the car before I could see out of the window to drive to the shops.

So I have been keeping busy indoors. Yesterday morning was spent in the kitchen. I started by mixing up some dough for a loaf. I made some quite successful rolls last week with a new recipe, and I wanted to try making the same recipe into a loaf so I could toast some. Sufficient to say it grew, but it made a good loaf which we made a start on for our tea.

(I wonder whether any of you sharp-eyed folk noticed the little oval tin in the background. There wasn't a lot of money to spare for nice things when we were children, and Mum always put the needs of Dad and us eight children before her own, so it gave her a lot of pleasure when we young ones would club together to buy her something special at Christmas. The thing she loved getting the most was a bar of Yardley's lavender soap. It came in this little oval tin, and instead of using it, she kept it in her clothes drawer to make everything smell nice. I guess when a new one came she used the old one, but I don't remember that. Anyway I rescued this tin when her things were being cleared (she passed away 25 years ago, and had lived with us for the last eight of them). It now has pins in it. I am not sure what they were doing on my kitchen table but the tin jumped out at me when I saw this photo).

While the bread was rising I made one of my all time favourites - date and walnut tea-loaf. It is a recipe from an old Jimmy Young cookbook. I doubled everything and used my largest loaf tin, so I cut a generous piece of the end to freeze for later. The rest will not last long I am sure. I have already enjoyed a couple of slices.

And finally I made another favourite - Viennese whirls. Chris isn't so keen on the dates, but he loves these. The mixture should be piped into nice neat rosettes but my hands couldn't manage the piping bag, so I just spooned it in and marked it with a fork. So they are a bit untidy and misshapen - I used a mixture of round and square silicone cups to bake them -  and they taste just as good even if I wouldn't get many marks for presentation.

And along side all of these I managed to put together chicken curry for our midday dinner, so all in all it was a good day.

The place we used to go every week for a fish and chip dinner on Fridays has this week started offering this as a takeaway meal. It is a good way to boost their trade as they can only have a very limited number of seated diners during the corona virus, and much of their trade came for the evening meals which are not allowed now we have a 6.00 curfew for bars and restaurants. So we have ordered a takeaway today and Chris will be collecting it very soon. So today my kitchen, and I, are having a rest.

I have been slowing working on my crochet, usually just doing a couple of rows a night as the damper weather is not doing my arthritis any favours. I will aclimatize to it soon, but I always notice it at the change of season. However I have now finished my second pocket scarf. It is very pretty and feels so soft. It will be lovely to wrap up in on chilly evenings.

It is much wider than the first one, so it can go right down to my waist at the back, and longer too, which makes the pockets more accessible. I didn't use a pattern this time, and instead just chose a couple of textured stitches from the internet, to make it more interesting to work on than a plain one.

I have of course, just ordered more yarn for my next big project. This time it is going to be a blanket made from a dozen 18 inch squares, which are a good size for me to work with. In the meantime I am working on a little Christmas project I started a while ago.

Other than that the days have somehow passed. I have enjoyed long video calls with my son, and with my sister. I have missed all of them visiting us this year, so it is good to chat.

I have downloaded some new books to my Kindle, and if I am enjoying one, I can happily read all day, and am always amazed at how much time has passed.

I had to take Tolly to the vet because he had a cold and it caused very sore looking eyes, and lots of sneezing. So he has been on a course of antibiotics which finished today, and he had some eye ointment which he didn't appreciate at all. But I am glad to see he is fully recovered now. We have started letting him go outside now and he is getting more adventurous each day. He has mastered the cat flap in the back door and the dog flap in the porch, but he doesn't go too far, and usually comes when we call him. 

Now I shall link up with Annie's Friday Smiles and Rocking Your World, and go and enjoy my lunch. Then I will come and visit you all and see what has made you smile this week.

Rocking YOUR World 2020; Week 45

So, has this week had some golden moments for you? I do hope so. If it has, why not follow me to share them on Annie's Friday Smiles or Rocking Your World on Virginia's blog.

I think the highlight of my week was being told I could now share some exciting news. Our fourth son, Jonathan and his wife Ella, are expecting their first baby in April. It is not the best world to be bringing a new life into, but they are so excited and so am I. I have known for a while, but I promised not to say anything until they had had their next scan. That happened last week and they were told the baby is fine, Ella is healthy, and it is a low-risk pregnancy, so now they are sharing the news with their friends, and have said I can talk about it too.Let's hope we are in a better place by next April. Her next scan is on 20th of this month and then we should know whether it is a girl or boy.

On Wednesday we knew rain was forecast for late evening, so we weren't surprised to be woken up in the early hours by thunder and lightening, and heavy rain. It continued on and off all day though only as intermittent light showers. It is the first proper rain we have had for months so we are expecting the green zone to suddenly become green again. It was very much needed.

It was not perhaps the weather we would have chosen as yesterday the men arrived to start on our bathroom. This is a picture I took the day before when I had stripped it of all but essentials.

It was impossible to take one of the whole room from the doorway, so this is the corner in the front left of the one above, showing the bit that I couldn't see from the doorway.
The first thing the men did was remove most of the 'furniture' and strip the tiles from the walls and floors. Apparently when they work in newer houses, the tiles almost 'jump off the walls'. Well ours weren't jumping at all, and it took a lot of work with hammers and drills to get this far. Sufficient to say we had a very noisy day.

I took this one when they went off for some lunch. By the end of the day they had just about cleared the walls and floor, and removed the patches of cement, so today they are filling the floor holes from the new plumbing, replacing some badly worn pipes, and putting in the shower tray, and tomorrow morning they are coming back to tile the walls. I admire the Spanish work ethic. When they start a job they crack on and only stop for a short coffee, and then a lunch break. The tilers are two Spanish men who work for the English company contracted for the whole job. It is run by a lovely couple we have got to know quite well. The wife, and her father draw the plans and work out the estimates, her husband does all the plumbing, and a second English man does any building, assembles cabinets etc. They must be a good team for three of them to mange to work together in our fairly small bathroom. It is good to see it getting done.

My only other photos are from the garden, taken on a greyish day, but before the rain came. I just happened to notice that the bright pink bougainvillea that we cut back quite hard a few weeks ago, is now growing again, and has some lovely new flowers on it. Rather like the rhododendrons in UK, the one with mauve flowers is the common one and grows like a weed all over the place. This is the one we have finally got under control, outside my kitchen window. But I always wanted one of the bright pink ones, and one day I saw a sad little cutting in the corner of the garden centre. It was really only a bare stick, with a couple of leaves on it and I think we paid 1€ for it. I took it home and gave it lots of TLC, and when I was fairly sure it would survive, Chris planted it just beyond our back railings so I could encourage it to grow up a fence there, and along the railings, which it has now done. And for most of the year it now has flowers on, and is a riotous patch of colour even on the grey days.

I am happy to say the number of active virus cases in the village has almost halved, so hopefully the outbreak is now under control. Of course we are still taking great care. And our province , along with major cities, have closed their borders, so I thought I would show you how this is enforced!

Of course this is only possible because we have far fewer main roads leading in and out of our towns and cities than you do, and it is an extreme measure,only used in the worst affected areas. Usually a policeman waving you down to check on the reason for your journey is sufficient.

And to end on a happy note, here a picture that caught my eye when  a friend posted it on Facebook. Those who know me well will understand why I like it. I wouldn't want to make it, but I understand it was a joint effort. I don't know the location. I believe I saw it, or something similar, last year, but I just had to have a second look.

So I will link this up now, (links at top of post), and see you all next week.