Rocking my world Friday

Well I am a bit late posting this week, but if I get this done and dusted within the next hour, then it will still be Friday, so here goes!

We continue to have weather too hot to be doing much, so firstly I am thankful that I don't have too much that has to be done! This week we have had late lunches, lots of siestas, and a few nice outings to break the time up. 

On Monday we went across to Cucador (twenty minutes drive from here) to visit some friends. We spent a pleasant hour on their porch, drinking tea (very English of us!), and putting the world to rights.

Most afternoons I sit out on our porch for a couple of

hours. It is shady there, so I let the dogs into the fly-screened area, and I either do some crocheting or cross-stitch. So I am including this photo for my sister. She bought the kit for me in UK and sent it out, so I thought I'd let her see how I am getting on with it. I expect my hot hands are making it a bit grubby so I will need to give it a wash when it is finished. Not that that will be any time soon. It is a monochrome picture. Talk about 50 shades of grey! I need my eyes to be functioning and my brain to be in gear to work on it! You can just see my blue-eyed friend Foxy peeking over the arm of the settee to see what the camera is out for this time!

After my sewing group on a Wednesday morning, some of the girls go on to a bar for lunch, but normally I go straight home because myLife Group meets in the afternoon. But we are having a short break for the summer, so this week I joined them. This is my lunch. Brie and bacon in a ciabatta roll with quails eggs, and red cabbage coleslaw. Isn't it fun? I think it's looking at me!

Here is a little visitor to my garden this week. It is a baby praying mantis. They are very welcome because they eat the bugs, (as long as my cats don't eat them first!). This little one was jumping around on a terra-cotta pot. She measures less than half a centimetre but she's perfect in every way!

When I had finished my shopping in Turre I decided to drive on a futher few kilometres to Mojacar Pueblo. This is a little white, Moorish village set on top of a hill, overlooking Mojacar Playa. (It took me a while to learn this one, but Mojacar actually sounds like Mo-hacker). I always park in a designated area below the back of the village and walk up, but I was very surprised when I rounded the first corner to see this sign.

It is saying that they are sorry for the disruption  caused while they build an escalator to make the village more accessible. I had read about this project, but in the current financial climate I expected it to remain a pipe dream for a few years yet. But the men were hard at work on it for now. 

It will indeed be a real asset. Normally I climb up a long flight of steep, uneven stone steps where this building site is, and then collapse on the wall at the top to recover! The alternative is quite a long walk round the side of the village, which is, of course, what I had to do today.

I had a little browse around the shops. The village is a tourist destination for coach trips, so many of the shops cater for these visitors, but tucked in between them there are some lovely little independent shops which are a treasure trove of goodies once your eyes have adjusted from the bright sunlight to the dark interiors. 

Then I found myself outside Iglesia de Santa Maria. Dating from 1560, it is an unprepossessing square building, not overly sensitively renovated, but I happened to pass just at midday and the bells started to chime. I stopped to listen and they played 'Ave Maria,, which was lovely.

As I left the village to walk back down to the car, I took a photo of this view. It is looking down from the plaza to the agricultural land around the hill, and on to sea at the Playa.

I have done some craft this week and one thing I am pleased about is that I have successfully done my first piece of vinyl cutting on my Silhouette machine. I talked to a lovely Spanish lady from my village who, with her partner, runs a sign making company, from their home. She gave me some off-cuts of vinyl to experiment with and I took my finished card up to show her. She was not used to seeing work on this scale, as they mainly make signage for cars and vans, and I had fun trying to explain transfer paper to her in my limited Spanish. Nuria speaks no English. But I think we got there! This is the card I made which is for my brother's birthday next week.

On my craft blog this week I showed another double-spread for a week in my Project Life album. Lots of people were interested in it, so, to end with, I'll show a different week here. I have picked one at random from my file and it happens to be the week my grandson was out here in May.

I just have to tidy up the last page I made and then I will be right up to date with it again.

Well I have finished with 15 minutes to spare, so I will rush over to Celtic House and link this up. I hope you have plenty of positive thoughts to rock your world too.

Rocking my World This Week

After the noise and fun of the fiesta last week, this week has been quiet and restful, which in itself is something to be thankful for isn't it?

For July and August life takes on a simple pattern of getting up with the dogs at 7.00, because after 8.00 they are just not interested in walking, breakfast out in the porch, my one piece of housework for the day, cleaning, washing, shopping etc, lunch and a siesta, then either sitting in a shady spot to do some cross stitch, or down in my craft room making cards and 'playing' on the computer, tea, occasionally TV but more usually back to my craft room, a late night swim, and late to bed. That is the pattern and it varies very little. There is no rushing around and no sense of urgency, so we just take stock and rest up ready for the new surge in September.

I have a feeling I will struggle to do a double spread for my Project life album this week!

The temperature is a steady 34º in the shade with

over 40º in the full sun - which I don't go out in unless I have to. Last night the water in the pool was still 29º around midnight. I love just laying in it after dark. It is very relaxing and perfect just before you go to bed.

Sunday was one of the exceptions to our summer schedule because it was the annual Summer lunch for our Gallarte Group (Artists and Crafters from the Los Gallardos area). So I rushed home from church to collect my husband and we drove up to La Cumbre, a restaurant just above the village. We had an excellent meal surrounded by some very good friends. (And I bought a doggy bag back for the girls!).

As we leave the restaurant there is a sharp left turn and a steep drive down to the village. I took this photo from the car which shows our little village nestled down below the beautiful Cabrera mountains. Isn't it a lovely view?

Wednesday was our second son's fortieth birthday. For once I was really pleased with the card I made for him. Here is the front cover and the inside.

 

This was my first attempt at Kirigami. If you want to know more about why I chose the theme, and how it was made, you can read all about it on my craft blog post, Taming the Lion, HERE.

The most exciting thing for me this week is that we have booked our flights to UK for The Big Cut in September. (Part of the same blog post I linked above). We will be spending a few days with our sons in the Midlands and then Chris will fly home to look after the animals. I will be travelling down to Bournemouth to visit my five sisters who all live in the area. I am the baby of the family, and I miss the family get-togethers they share, so this will be a special visit for me. And now my train tickets are also booked so roll on September!

I always enjoy my weekly trip to the market, and in

the summer the fruit is so inviting. Right now it is yellow cling peaches which are in abundance. Some stalls are almost giving them away. I bought a big carrier bag full at 80 cents a kilo! They are not all that exciting to eat raw, though a really ripe one can be quite nice, but usually I slice them up and lightly poach them in lemonade, (that is all the sweetness they need). Then I use them to make crumbles, and to eat chilled with custard. They taste very like tinned ones. They freeze well but if I have too many for the freezer I also purée them as a sauce for icecream.

I'll finish with this photo I took just after sunrise on Tuesday. It was such a pretty sky. The family will tell you I am a bit fanatical about capturing 'skies' on camera, so I had to take this one. It is very unusual for us to see this sort of cloud formation. Our sky is usually cloudless, or else has big black storm clouds, but not often little fluffy white ones. So here they are.

A couple of hours later they had all blown away!

Now I am off to link this to Virginia's blog, Celtic House. She would love you to join us and tell us what has made you smile this week.