Friday Smiles 2024 # Week 30

It has been too hot to do anything exciting this week so I haven't much to write about. Yes, we did reach the promised 40º on Sunday morning! It was not the most pleasant day and we spent much of it indoors with the air-con on.

I have spent some time in my craft room with my fan nearly touching me and whizzing round as fast as it can go. I am not good at sitting doing nothing all day, and I have read several books on my Kindle, so for a change of eyesight I decided to come down here and do a bit of  laser cutting.

I was quite pleased with a set of six hexagonal coasters I cut, each with a different geometrical pattern cut out of them. However, I am not sure how much use coasters are when they are 'full of holes' so I cut plain hexagons from thin mdf board and glued them behind each design. I then sprayed them front and back with a waterproof varnish. 

I was even more pleased with the little box I made to put them in. It was a bought file but I needed to adapt it to take the extra depth caused by the backing layers, without displacing the shaping of  the feet, or the slots and tabs to put it all together. I added a little glue to the joins and then sprayed inside and out with varnish and this was my end result. It will make a nice present for someone one day.

I needed a new canister of spray varnish so I went to the local ferriteria (hardware store) with my son Tom. While there I found some small sheets of 3ply wood and bought some to try. I wanted to try a bigger cut and the wood I buy from Amazon is expensive and size choice is limited, so I thought this might be a cheaper option. Wrong! I soon realised that the wood was very poor quality but I decided to use some as a practice piece anyway. I made two small Christmas decorations to help me sort out the best engrave and cut settings. The engraving was not very good but they cut well, so I brightened them up with some paint and glitter and then varnished them to make sure the glitter stayed in place.

Then I decided to try my bigger project and as you can see here it was not very successful. The right hand side of the wood sheet was better quality and engraved reasonable well, but the left hand didn't engrave well at all. I had similar results when I tried to cut it out, with the right side cutting smoothly but the left hand side needed a lot of help from my craft knife to cut right through. This left rough edges that needed sanding. The cause was probably the glue holding the layers together.

But hey, not every attempt will turn out just right and it is a lesson learned. If I want to make a big project again, I will buy good wood! And I have a quite attractive dragonfly. His front legs came off so I reattached them with paper strips and glue, but he will probably fly across my wall for a while. I can see his imperfections but not everyone will.

My hand continues to do well, but the shoulder wound has not yet healed. The heat is not helping it. But today at the clinic the nurse was pleased and said it looked a lot better, but 'slowly, slowly', so I still have to attend twice a week to have the dressing changed. I shall be so glad when it can be uncovered so I can shower properly again.

And finally for this week, Wednesday was my second son Mike's 51st  birthday, and his daughter posted this lovely smiley photo of him on Facebook, with his youngest grandson on his shoulders. Mike was ten, twelve and thirteen when my three younger sons were born and he adored them all, especially as babies, and went on to be a great 'big-brother' to them as they grew up, and they are all best of friends now. He has had some ups and downs in his life but he has always been a good dad to his children, and now he has the next generation to enjoy. Smiles all round.

And on that happy note I will link up with Annie's Friday Smiles and publish this in the morning.

Friday Smiles 2024 # Week 29

Well we have survived another week, .. just..., but boy has it been a hot week, and a noisy one too. Yes it was fiesta week, starting last Thursday evening and going on until Tuesday evening this week. As it was so hot we did not go over to the plaza every night, but we could see the lights and fairground rides, and hear the music, while sitting on our porch. But we did go over briefly on Friday and again on Saturday night to watch the horses. One road is filled with sand and young men on horses gallop along and try to catch one of the ribbon sashes rolled around a wire across the road. If they suceed they are rewarded with a gift  (and sometimes a kiss) from one of the girls sitting on a raised platform at the side. They are all dressed in pretty flouncy dresses and have elaborate hairdos with flowers and combs in it. One young man was quite sucessful and managed to catch several ribbons and he took his horse back to girls to rear up and bow to them.

The plaza is full of tables and chairs, served by young people from one of the three temporary bars set up around the edge. They sell small beers, and wine and each drink can come with a tapa - a sausage, meat or cheese on a piece of bread. It was facinating to watch this man carefully slicing an Iberian ham into wafer thin strips. It is a real skill and takes many years of training to get it right. He was doing pretty good! (I love the painted chair beside his table).

Tuesday was the actual saint's day for Virgen del Carmen, our village patron saint, so on that day most of the village assembled on the plaza for a special mass. 

Many of them bring floral tributes to lay around the statue of Mary. This year there was a second statue that we think was Jesus holding the hand of a child, but we are not sure.

We sat right at the back behind one of the bars, and during the mass the bar staff were busy cooking the first round of meats for the tapas once the bars started serving.

After the mass the statues are paraded through the streets of the village, and we joined the crowd following them. Aren't the lights pretty?

They finish their parade at the Town hall where the Virgin is showered with rose petals,  and the Mayor shouts out a tribute to which everyone responds "Viva!". Then they process up to the small plaza outside the church where they are greeted by the band playing the national anthem, the bells ringing out in loud peels and then the only proper fireworks we see all year. It is quite a moving spectacle, and eventually the statues are carried into the church to their usual resting places.

Of course we took loads of  photos and videos, and using two of my sons and one of mine, I have merged them into a short video to try and convey some of the atmosphere of the evening. You can see it HERE.

That officially marks the end of the fiesta. There would be music and dancing still going on over on the main plaza, but we were ready for bed so we made our way home down our quiet, empty street. Peace for another year!

I have had enough of temperatures in the upper thirties already and we have weeks of it to go yet, but we have air-con in the main room and our bedroom, and fans everywhere, so we are just about managing. I am not good at sitting doing nothing, but I am so glad that I don't have to do anything, so I can do the bare necessities as and when the mood takes me!

My hand continues to do well but the shoulder wound is not there yet, so I still go to the clinic regularly to have it re-dressed, and hopefully it will settle in the end. As I have to keep it dry it is difficult to shower properly and dips in the pool are out of the question. I am envious of Tom dipping in and out when he gets too hot.

I prefer my fan at shoulder height in my room, but Chris has quite an efficient floor one and Tolly soon found it was the perfect place to lay. He's not very elegant, but at least he is keeping cool the best way he can.

So time now to link up with Annie's Friday Smiles, and publish this in the morning.