Friday Smiles 2022; Week 21

I find myself wondering whether we actually has a Spring here. There was an exceptionally warm March and an unprecidented amount of rain in April, but we seem to have jumped out of Winter straight into Summer. This week has been really hot, and I had to do a quick turnaround of my wardrobe, hiding all the trousers and warm jumpers, and digging out summer tops and dresses. The duvet has been discarded at night and even with just a sheet on the bed, we have needed the ceiling fan on for a while to help us sleep.

On Tuesday the temperature rose to the upper thirties and I couldn't motivate myself to do anything, so I layed on the bed all afternoon reading. That is something I haven't done for a very long time but it made a nice change.

However we have been quite busy this week. working on the garden. I had a morning off on Wednesday to go to my sewing group. I went last week for the first time in almost two years. It was lovely to see everyone again, and catch up on the news. The group is smaller than it used to be, but still going strong. When I got home at lunch time I suggested to Chris that we go out for some lunch as I had not prepared anything. This week is Los Gallardos Tapas week, when any bar in the area can chose to be involved. They have to create two tapas on a given theme, then we are invited to do a citcuit of all the bars and try at least one of their creations. We get our card stamped to say we have tried one, and at the end of the week, anyone who has a stamp from each bar can vote for their favourite and post their card at the Town Hall, where it will be entered into a draw for a prize. I believe the bar which made the winning tapa also gets a prize.

Some of the participating bars only do the tapas on Friday - Sunday, or only in the evenings, but we found three that we could go to on Wednesday lunch time, and got our first three stamps on our cards. Most years the bars have been asked to make one traditional tapa and one 'inventive' one, but this year it was one savoury tapa and one 'dessert'. This is very interesting as the Spanish on the whole do not make a fuss about dessert, and often only offer fruit, rice pudding, creme caramel or icecream, and it is not seen as an important part of the meal. But they have pulled out the stops for the 'Ruta de Tapas', and I had a slice of a very nice red berry cheescake, and a really delicious piece of chocolate cake. (Not good for my inches or my diabetes, but once in a while it is nice to have a treat). Many of the savoury tapas are based on fish, and I am not much of a fish eater, but I did try one. This is bacaloa (cod) with a topping of alioli, grated apple and honey, with a few slices of fried potatoes. And it was quite nice. You can see our cards by my plate which we have to get stamped, and it tells us which bars are participating, and what they are offering, which saves too many unfortunate surprises.

I hope we get to try a few more tonight and Saturday.

Meanwhile, Chris has painted most of the walls in the garden. The end wall is now a nice clean white, and the long wall that we stripped a few weeks ago, is now a buttery yellow. The pump house, where the motor is that keeps the pool working, has a new coat of green, and the door is yellow so our yellow and green ceramic lantern looks good back in its usual place.

Our first delivery was a set of rattan furniture. This came with plain, off/white cushions, which aren't practical for us at all. So my week has been spent trying to make well fitting covers for them from some material I had in my stash. It is at least 14 years old because I bought it to make cushions for the cane furniture in the conservatory at our last house in UK, but never got around to doing it! It is good, tough cotton, and perfect for the job, but there was only just enough of it for the four cushions, so I couldn't afford to make any mistakes. Sewing does not come naturally to me so there was a lot of muttering, and unpicking before I was happy with the result. I was somewhat hampered by my helper who jumped in every time I turned my back!

I still have to make four covers for the back cushions, but these will not need the depth band around the sides, so I can make pillow/slip type covers which should be a lot easier. They will be in different material, but they will go together well I think. When they are all done I will take a picture of them but here is the furniture sans cushions for now.

Next we took delivery of a small bird-bath/fountain. I really wanted this for the corner where the shed used to be. At first we set it up with a small solar fountain, but it was too sentive to the slightest cover of the solar plate, and as the corner is shaded for quite a lot of the time, it didn't function as I had hoped. But we did at least see it working.

However the fountain did come with a powered pump so we have now connected it up. It took a lot of trial and error to find tubing and fittings so we could attach the fountain head to the outlet, but we got it done in the end. We still need to lower it a bit so that the water isn't all blown away from the bowl by the wind, or we will be filling it up every hour or two, but I am really hoping that some little birds will come down for a shower in it one day.

Along with the fountain we took delivery of three very heavy stone planters which will go on either side of the fountain, and eight bags of compost to fill them with. (Incidently I noticed the bags only have 70lts in them now instead of the 80lts they used to have!!). We had to wait for a new trolly (sack butt) to arrive before we could move them into place as they were too heavy for both of us together to lift. However they are now in place, as you can see here.

So yesterday morning we returned to the garden centre to choose some plants to go in them. Our aim for this year was simply to fill the corner with colour. Later we will think more about the architecture of them, and maybe add some perennials and some taller plants at the back, but here is the first selection.

Aren't they lovely? Hopefully I will get them all planted up over the weekend. The diplodenia (or mandevillia as they are now known), is to stand in front of the fountain between the planters, and the little lotus creeper will sit on the edge of the bowl, but the rest will be spaced out in the planters and hopefully will keep producing colour for some time.

So this sort of shows how it will all come together, and next week I should be able to show it all completed.

And that is how we have kept ourselves busy, so now I will link up with Annie's Friday Smiles. Hope to see you there.

Friday Smiles 2022: Week 20

So I will start with the sad bit to get that out of the way. As many of you will have already seen on Facebook, yesterday we said Goodbye to our lovely Foxy. She has been with us for thirteen happy years, and it was our last act of kindness to her, to let her go. I know this post is about the happy times from this week, but my blog started as a diary for my family to keep in touch with us when we moved over here, so sometimes it includes some slightly less happy news. But Foxy had a good life, and we are happy that she is no longer struggling, and every time I see this picture of her, I will be smiling.

And so to the rest of our week. On Saturday it was an important day in the village as it was the fiesta of San Isidro. He is the second most important saint for the people here, second only to Virgen de la Carmen, who's fiesta we celebrate in July, and he is the patron saint of agricultural workers and fishermen. The fiesta always starts with the band marching around the streets playing thier rousing tunes, followed by a Mass at the church. Then a float carrying a statue of the Saint leads a parade out of the village, and up to the sports centre. (This is known as a Romeria or country walk). Here families sit around the picnic area under the shade of the trees, or by the stadium bar, singing and eating, and generally enjoying family time together.

This year the aim was to make it special as it has been cancelled for the last two years, so as well as the traditional cart carrying the Saint, there was a competition for the best float in the parade, decorated within the theme of the fiesta.

We waited until near the end of the parade to make our way up to the sports centre and we got caught behind a lot of horses and riders. These are from the 'gypsy community' who keep their horses in the rambla at the side of the village. They love their horses and keep them looking so good, and they ride very errect and proudly. We followed them through the tunnel that goes under the motorway, and on up the hill.

There we saw the floats in the competition. Here is just one of them, decorated quite simply with flowers, sun hats (an essential for those who work in the fields all day), fans and bread and vegetables.

I liked this one, with its scene of a little family of field workers, and the older girl riding on her little pony.

Up at the stadium we came to the main cart carring the statue of Saint Isidro. This used to be a simple open cart pulled by a donkey, and only decorated with a few palm fronds and a loaf of bread, but this year it was much more elaborate.There were sculptures of a pair of oxen, as well as other items around his feet, plus flags and lanterns, and this year it was again pulled by a big mule, and not the tractor that has been used in recent years.

Up on the top triangle we saw some prizes being given to the winning floats. This one was a big family affair. I love the little girls in their flowery skirts and head scarves

As is usual at this fiesta there was a big paella in the making, ready to be served to all comers much later. We did not stay for it this year as it was very hot for sitting around, and we did not want to leave the dogs alone for too long.

On our way up to the stadium we saw this patch of bright yellow so I stopped to take a photo. It is broom, and there are bushes of it all over the campo. Also it is fighting for supremecy with the pink and white oleanders all along the central reservation of the motorway. It is a gorgeous splash of colour.

The garden is continuing to do well too. We have lots of tiny red roses opening on the climbing tower, and our two hydrangeas are covered in heads of pink flowers.

And another little surrprise this week was finding this amarylis out by the back sink. I went out with some washing, and spotted it there. It is the bulb that flowers so well two Christmasses ago. I have a habit of just putting potted bulbs that have finished flowering, out by the sink and just leaving them there, not expecting them to do anything again. But all our rain through March and April, and the warmer weather, had woken this one up and it has even produced two flowers. It is now indoors and being tended with care!

We have had a busy week in the garden. Chris has been painting walls, and we took delivery of a set of ratten furniture, plus three large planters, a fountain/bird bath, and a big parasol. It is all a work in progress right now so I will save photos for next week.

One evening we went over to the ferrateria to buy more painting supplies and then continued down to Mojacar sea front and stopped for a drink at one of our favourite places. I have not been to Dolce Vita for a long time, and new people are now running it. It has been tidied up, and the patios that were almost washed away by the storm in 2012, have been rebuilt and widened. It was very pleasant to sit there with a cool drink, and just listen to gentle waves breaking on the gravelly beach below.

As you can see, it is the season to trim all the palms and work men are busy doing so all along the sea front. They are very skilled and agile, and shin up the tallest palm trees to cut off the dead fronds, as well as tidying these smaller ones.

And I will leave you today with a picture of Tango being very cute as usual. He has decided that as we have not yet put anything on the lower shelf of the new TV table, then he will comandeer it for his bed. The face is grumpy as ever, but he is purring contentedly all the same.

And with that I will link up with Annie's Friday Smiles.