Rocking Your World 2021: Week 15

 We woke up to rain again today. We have had quite a lot off and on this week, and though I know the ground is gratefully sucking it up, I am happier when the clouds part and we get an hour or two of sunshine and blue skies. The forecast is for more of the same  next week too, so we will grab our chances to sit outside when we can, and keep busy in the house the rest of the time.

But last weekend the days did start sunny so on Saturday I went for a walk around the village. As I walk out of the top left side of the village there is a stretch of campo before the main road around is reached and it looked so pretty. Every inch was covered in wild flowers of all colours and sizes.

Although many folk would call them weeds, I love all the trumpet flowers on the various forms of bindweed. This one has opened up everywhere. It is the ground bindweed, and it spreads over rough ground and up railings with its pretty little pink flowers.

On Easter Sunday morning, as I opened the window in the sitting room, I saw our first rose bud opening. Hopefully it is the first of many, but it was so perfect I had to take a photo.

Also our Easter Lily had a flower on the right day for once. These are water plants so in a pot they require a lot of attention and I have nearly lost this several times. It really needs to move to a bigger pot now. You can just see the last of the blue squills lost under its leaves. I guess they should have their own pot too.

The pot of pinks are starting to flower too. They grew from a small stem cutting I took a few years ago, and every year they come back and flower for months. So pretty. One of my succulents that has long stems of trailing yellow daisies is photo-bombing this picture too.

As I have not yet returned to our church, I watched the service from my son's church in Sydenham. I do watch it online most weeks, but this week they planned a service in the church grounds and they were so lucky. The sun shone for them and it was not too cold. They had to spread out and observe social distancing, but because they were outside, they were able to sing some of the lovely traditional Easter hymns and I sang along with them. The churchyard is full of tall trees and the birds joined in the singing too.

Yesterday started rainy like today and when I let the dogs through the gate to the back for their food, I got a shower from the pink bougainvillea which is looking amazing again now. When I looked at it, I found the pink bracts seem to hold on to the water droplets that would just roll off most plants, so again I fetched my camera to catch a picture. They look lovely.

The week has passed quickly despite not doing very much. I am working on a craft project for later in the year so I have made the most of the chance to get on with that. 

On Sunday I enjoyed a chat with all five of our sons together using jit-si. I've not used it before but Jim sent me a link so I just had to log in, It was clear pictures, and fun  to chat to them all together. Mike had his daughter and grandsons with him and they had built a water slide in the garden and were having lots of fun. Ben relaxed in the garden and was getting quite pink in the sun. The next day they sent me videos of a snow blizzard! I don't know what is happening to the weather. It all seems very confused. 

I can't resist adding one more photo of our newest grand-daughter, having a cuddle with her 'besotted' daddy. Her name is Asiling Rose, which is very pretty and reflects our Irish heritage. They are learning the delights of sleepless nights at the minute but she will settle down soon I am sure. It doesn't seem any time since he was that size!

And on that note I will link up with Annie's Friday Smiles and Rocking Your World. See you all next week.

 

Rocking Your World 2021:Week 14

I have a big smile on my face this week and here's why. You may remember that exactly two years ago on Good Friday, I posted a picture of the rainbow cotton baby blanket I had just finished. 

I made it in the hope it would one day be needed. And my hope was not in vain. Here it is wrapped snugly around our new Grand-daughter, just three hours after she was born at 5.30 last night. Her mum had a bit of a tough time, but she is here now and both are doing fine.

She will help to address the balance in our very male-oriented family -- five sons, six grandsons and two step grandsons, two great grandsons, and just one other grand-daughter! (And three lovely daughters-in-law).

I have been waiting for this news all week, and the rest of the time has passed at home, doing a bit of crafting, cooking, local shopping and sitting on the porch relaxing. For what is usually a very big week here in Spain, the village is very quiet. There will be a special mass at the village church today and on Easter Sunday, but none of the usual processions can take place.

Yesterday I had a busy day in the kitchen. Our little tree is heavy with lemons and I really want to use some of them so I made some lemon curd. It is so nice, but it has a very short shelf life so I cut the ingredients right down and just made two little jars of it, which hopefully we can use before it goes off. It is actually very easy to do so I can more at any time.

While I was making that, my dough was rising ready to make hot-cross buns. I do these every year because we really like them, and they are very yummy!

I was a bit disappointed in my Tarta de Santiago last week so I found another recipe and decided to have another go. The ingredients were similar but in different proportions and the method was different. This time I am really pleased with it. It is light and tasty, and looks how it should.

Finally I mixed up a container of muesli. Occasionally I treat myself to a rather expensive box of 'really nutty' muesli which I love, but not only is it expensive, but also I doubt whether I will even get it again as it is imported from UK. (Most shops that sell 'English' style food seem to be importing from Ireland since Brexit).

So I have an old recipe for muesli which I like and I added chopped dates in place of sultanas, and quite a generous amount of sunflower seeds and mixed, chopped nuts. So that's my breakfast sorted for a while. Sometimes I add a few blueberries or raspberries if I have them, and a natural yoghurt, and it sets me up well for the day.

So that was a good day well spent.

At this time of year I need to water the citrus trees quite often and start to fertilize them, and I noticed that our little orange tree is covered with blossom. Much of this will be blown away in the high winds we always get in April, but the tree couldn't carry that much fruit anyway. It is a late orange, usually ready around March the next year, and it is a large very well flavoured fruit, so we are pleased if it manages to keep about a dozen right through the summer and autumn. Here's hoping...

When I go out at night to call the cats in, the air is full of the scent of orange blossom.

I went out to look for Tolly one day and found him up on top of a high storage cupboard outside the kitchen, and he was sitting across Tango. They looked so cute together and they both seemed quite relaxed, but needless to say it didn't last.

And now I will link up with Annie's Friday Smiles and 

Rocking Your World. 

Wishing you all every blessing for Easter, and leaving you with this little Easter Bunny. Isn't nature wonderful!