Rocking Your World 2021: Week 46

I have a short post this week (short for me anyway!), as it has been a very quiet one. We have been out a couple of times. Once was to go to the bank to complete some required paper work. Sometimes this can involve a long wait but we were lucky this week. We had no wait, and a very helpful lady did the paperwork with us, so that is a good job done. 

On Monday we went to the vet with Kim. She confirmed what we had already suspected, that he is starting to get arthritis in his hips - a common complaint with German Shepherd dogs - with some inflamation causing the swelling I had found at the top of his back leg. So he is now on anti-imflamatory drugs for a month with some others tablets to help build up the damaged muscle, and he also has anti-biotic drops for an ear infection! But he is his usual gentle self and still spend a lot of time sleeping on our settee, or out on the porch with us when it is sunny enough. I had to laugh when I took my morning cuppa out yesterday. Kim was asleep, 'overflowing' Foxy's little bed, while a much more alert Foxy was sitting on Kim's bed. 

It must have been Kim's choice because he would have soon shifted Foxy if he had wanted his own bed back.

On Tuesday we had to take the car to our mechanic friend who puts it through its I.T.V., (same as M.O.T. in UK) for us. So we drove over to Huerta Nueva - the urbanisation across the main road from us which is a part of Los Gallardos, left the car at his house, and although Andy was willing to drive us back home, we opted to walk. It was a lovely morning with blue skies, but cool enough to make walking comfortable. I actually hit my target of 5,000steps in a day, which hasn't happened for a long while! Huerta Nueva is built on a big area of campo, and although there is now some building going on to expand it, there is still a lot of open ground. So I stopped to try another panoramic photo, as my last one was very distorted, and I have read up about how to do it better. As you can see, there is very little distortion in this one. Chris looks fine, and in the distance behind him you can see the Cabrera mountains, but only just, as we were in a bit of a dip where I took it.

As we walked back I saw this lovely patch of flowers in a roadside bed under a palm tree. It is bright pink bougainvillea and pale almost blue plumbago. They looked so pretty together.

I am happy to say that the car passed its test with nothing needing to be done, and Andy returned it to us by lunch time. So we are grateful for that.

I went out the back one night and was struck by how bright the little sliver of moon was, and there was one bright, lonely star visible as well. I wanted to take a picture of them but couldn't get a sharp one because my camera could pick up the feint full moon not visible to my eyes. So this was the best I could do.

I am still managing to do a couple of rows to my big blanket most days. I have around twenty five balls of wool in a row at the minute and after each row I sort them all out so the tangles don't get out of hand. We have had a couple of wet evening this week so the cats have chosen to stay in with us and I had a bit more help than I really needed. Fortunately they took it in turns to sit on me. I couldn't have managed both of them as well as the blanket and the box of wool! Tango is showing his age now (around 12 we think), and he just wants to be warm and comfortable, so he sleeps on me, regardless of what I am doing, and rest his chin on my strands of wool.

Tolly on the other hand, thinks anything that moves is worth playing with, and he fishes the balls out of the box and steals the pen I cross off my pattern with! So not much gets done when he jumps on me. He looks sleepy here, but don't be fooled!

On Wednesday I took a couple of cloud photos. Earlier I saw this funnel of cloud, going down behind the houses. 

Later I saw this one. It looks like a bird swooping down on us.

And that's about it for this week. I did have a long video chat with my sister one afternoon, but son Ben is on holiday this week so we didn't have our usual session.

So I will link up with Annie's Friday Smiles and hopefully some of you will join in with what has made you happy/grateful this week.

Rocking Your World 2021: Week 45

Today's post is mostly about the sky. It has been an uneventful week, but the skies have been majestic so here is what has lifted my spirits and made me smile this week. (Apologies to my Facebook friends who  may have seen this before!)

First up is something I saw in the sky.  I was hanging my washing out on the line when I glanced up and saw a huge number of birds very high up, wheeling arund in the clouds, (probably enjoying the thermals up there). I knew they were not the birds we usually see here, and presumed they were some kind of raptor,  so I posted on my Facebook Wildlife page and was soon informed that these were griffon vultures.

They would be pretty huge down low, as I could see them despite their height. I zoomed in as far as I could to try and see their outline shape better. I reckon that there were between fifty and a hundred of them, in two groups. One circling and the others in a file. While I watched them, the file started to move off, and then the others joined them, also forming a file, and off they went towards the sea. I am thinking they were resting in the thermal air currents on their migration journey.

I felt very priviledged to have seen them and realised that had I hung out my washing ten minutes earlier or later, then I would have missed them.

The other thing that has filled me with delight this week is the sunsets. I have the 'condition' known as Face Pereidolia, which means I see faces in every day objects. This week it was the sky I saw them in, and here are a collection of some of the photos I took. You may, or may not be able to see the faces, but either way you can't help but be inspired by the majestic skies.

Having posted these on facebook, I was surprised to go out the next night and see another face; quite a friendly one with a feint friendly smile.

Then the next day this one appeared! Not such a friendly one. The clouds are constantly moving in the wind, so these faces are only there for minutes, even seconds sometimes, so it is just luck if my camera is at hand at the right moment.

And of course, not all sunsets bring hidden faces so here are a couple of sky photos that I liked for their own sake. You may even spot pictures in them. Every one's perseption is a little different. My family often say I am 'making it up' because they can't see what I can, even when it is really clear to me.

This one is a reflection of a sunset in the clouds looking towards the east.

And this one is a sunrise. One of the few days when I was up early enough to see it!

But now I will leave the sky and look more down to earth at the garden. I said last week that our roses were trying to have a second flowering and this week they are lovely. These are all on one plant.

Behind them is this pink rose which grows a bit taller every year. We think it is also stronger this year and has some lovely flowers at the top.

This is another plant that I really love. It's most common name is simply Pink Trumpet Vine, but its botanical name is Podranea Ricasoliana, and it has several other names too including, Canpis Radicans, Port St.John's Creeper, Queen of Shebe Vine, Cow Itch Vine, and Hummingbird Vine. I think the Pink Trumpet is as good a name as any. It has the odd flower almost all year but it comes into its own in this season.

This one is growing in next door's garden, and her groundsmen cut it back quite hard last time they came, which seems to have done it good. As well as growing all along her front railings, it also hangs over our side fence. We too have to cut it right back when it gets too invasive, but right now we are just enjoying its lovely flowers.

And that's about it for this week. I haven't really been out far except to do the essential food shopping. I have had lovely long chats with my son and my sister, and put the world to rights with them. I have made my last few Christmas cards as I need to post the UK ones by the end of the month, and of course I have added a couple more rows to my crochet project each evening. I was a bit optomistic when I said I had done a quarter of it last week, as I found I was only on row 30 out of 160, but I am now on row 40 so I guess I am a quarter done now. Not that there is any rush. It was always meant to be a long-term project.

And finally I will leave you with my absolutely favourite photo that I have taken over the last few weeks. I hope you think it is beautiful too.

And with that I will link up with Annie's Friday Smiles and enjoy reading about what every one else has been doing.