Rocking Your World 2015; Week 40

This is going to be a fairly quick post but I have lots of photos and it has taken a while to get them sorted. My husband has gone to the airport to collect our friend. Although I would normally go with him so we can each drive one way, he knew I wanted the time to write my blog. Wasn't that kind of him!

So to start with my smiles, and for today I am taking you around our little garden. It is very small, with hardly any planting space, so most things are in pots, but right now it is looking lovely. So here goes.

I have just realised how tiny the writing looks under each photo. I hope you are able to click on the photos to enlarge them, and be able to read what it says.

On Monday I had the privilege of helping Cati out for ASADIS again. A group of women who are called Dames in Turre, meet each month for fellowship and fund-raising. They have speakers, arrange outings together, and have a monthly raffle for charity. They decided to make a donation to the children of ASADIS, and someone gave them my name as a contact, so they asked me to take Cati to their next meeting to receive a cheque. Unfortunately Cati works with her little group of special needs children, in our village school, so she was not able to go to the meeting, and it was agreed that I would go to represent her. I have never been to a Dames meeting, and I was surprised how many ladies were there. They met in a large bar at a local hostal, and there was a buzz of conversation when I arrived, with one table selling raffle tickets, another taking booking for an outing, and another drumming up help for their Christmas fair.

I was introduced to a few people and then the room was called to order, and after some general notices, one of the committee members presented me with a generous cheque. I am not very keen on addressing a crowd, especially with a microphone, but I was asked to say a few words, so I could hardly refuse.

The next day Cati invited me to go to the school and see some of the children. This is not something I would normally be allowed to do, so I was pleased to go and see where they spend their day. I met a lovely young lady who works with the children, with Cati as her assistant. Here are a couple of photos of their room. I can only show the two children whose parents have previously given their permission for me to photograph them.

I was also able to give the cheque to Cati. She uses the money to pay for a physiotherapist and a speech therapist for the children, as there is no government provision for this.

Just a short drive from us, there is a new Lidl store which I have visited a couple of times. This week I noticed a small shelf unit as one of their special sales, and I bought one. At the back of my craft desk I had a narrow shelf that I inherited with the house, and it was very rickety and not a lot of use, but it was always cluttered with an odd assortment of bits and pieces. I thought the new one would replace it and be a lot tidier. I was rather pleased with myself when I managed to assemble it on my own (it took a couple of tries before I got it right!), and then Chris came with his drill to wall mount it for me. This was my table with the old shelf. What a mess!

And here is the new one with all the the same things on it, well most of them anyway, and it looks a lot tidier.

And the best bit, is all the extra space I have on my craft desk to work in.

I was pleased that I didn't need to move my mirror which hangs above the new shelf, but to the left of it I have a large pin board where I display a few bits that I have made, but mainly cards and tags that I have received from friends. That needed to be turned around to make it narrower, but it still fitted into the space, above an old spice rack that I use to display some mini-books.

I am aware that I have more craft stash than I can ever use in my lifetime, so I am trying to be very careful about buying any more, but every now and then I see something that I just know will be used over and over again. So last week I did send for two small(ish) orders and they arrived together on Wednesday. So I have some lovely new stamps and dies to try out. They are mainly Christmas related, so that should give me the incentive to get the rest of my Christmas cards made.

And craft stash isn't all I have new this week, because we decided that we needed one more chair for our sitting room, and yesterday Chris bought a lovely little reclining chair. We have each got a big recliner, that take up a lot of space, and I really don't like the feel of their leather when I am wearing a strappy dress in the summer. Plus, I am only quite short, and I find them comfy to sit in, but hard to get in and out of, so I really wanted a smaller chair, but I still need to have my feet up in the evenings, so the new one is just right for me.

I have a couple of pretty bugs for you this week. We had one very unwelcome visitor earlier in the week, when I found a giant centipede in the utility area. I have a sneaky feeling one of the cats brought it in as a present! They are nasty creatures and give you a serious bite (nip, sting?) that requires medical attention, so I didn't wait to find a camera and take a photo of it. I just dispatched it with haste! But other bugs are more welcome. Chris was mopping the front porch this morning when he called me to see a moth. It was a bit dozy because it was bright sunlight, so it was resting, but it was so pretty. Later I will look on the internet to identify it, but I haven't had time yet.

Also this week, I again went to the medical centre with my friend Eileen to help her with her Spanish when she spoke with the doctor, and while we were waiting our turn we sat on a bench outside. We spotted such a pretty butterfly flitting among the wild stocks on the campo. I was disappointed not to find more exotic butterflies out here, but I guess it is too hot and dry for them. But this one was a lovely sight.

When one of my friends drove back to UK for a holiday this summer, she took some more of our knitted items for Africa, and she and her sister delivered them by hand to Brian, co-ordinator of Greenfields Africa, the charity we support. This is what she gave him.

I am so proud of all my friends who work so hard to help me with this project. Already I have several more blankets and jumpers ready for the next load.

Well I had to stop for a while because my visitor arrived, so I think I had better wrap this up for this week. I will end with two sky photos, one taken late afternoon from our garden. The clouds were so pretty. The second one I stopped to take on my way home from the shops yesterday. It was a lovely sunset, and at least it is a different skyline from my usual one.

And now I shall just pop over to A Stitch in Time to link up with Annie's Friday Smiles, and to Celtic House to link with Rocking Your World. And tomorrow I will be back to do some visiting.

I hope you all have something this week that at least makes you smile, and hopefully rocks your world too.

Rocking Your World 2015: Week 39

When I was a young girl, I was sometimes reluctant to spend my Sunday at church with the family, but the one service I would never want to miss was the Harvest festival. Even back then, I loved the colours, the smell, and the arrangement of fruit and vegetables. Jean and I usually had a parcel of produce that dad had grown as our contribution and we carried it down the aisle with pride. Sadly the church I have attended since I came to Spain, chose not to celebrate this festival, even though several of us asked for it every year. But the new church that I moved to at the start of this year follows the Anglican order, so last Sunday was our Harvest festival, and this is my smile for this week.

A group of folk went up on Saturday morning to decorate the church with fresh produce, so there were flowers, and fruit and vegetables displayed.

My friend Pat had even made a traditional harvest loaf, of a sheaf of corn complete with a harvest mouse. She is very clever. These are tricky things to make, to get the shape just right before the dough rises too much. It was propped up on the altar during the service. 

Those who came to the service were asked to bring non-perishable food to be distributed later, and this made the centre display. As we are only a small group, averaging about forty in the congregation each week, we managed a wonderful collection.

We sang the traditional harvest hymns which took me back to my childhood again, and I am sure our Spanish neighbours could hear us singing them.

After the service we had a 'Bring and Share' lunch. it always amazes me how well these work. No-one confers, but somehow we all manage to bring something different, and there is more than enough for everyone to eat. There were two more laden tables beside this one.

Of course it makes it extra nice that we can sit out in the sun to eat it. It was a lovely day without being too hot, so we had plenty of space and time to move around and chat together.

On Monday, a group of people from the church loaded the food into their cars and took it up to the Town Hall in Zurgena. Although we are a ten minute drive from this village, Zurgena Town Hall actually own the church and they allow us to use it rent free, so it is nice to be able to give something back. The staff there made up nineteen food parcels for the families at the top of their 'In crisis' list.

As I said I would last week, I did tackle my larder this week, and the first thing was to empty half of it into the kitchen. So this what my kitchen looked like!

I couldn't move without knocking something over. This is where it all came from. When it was empty I was able to clean the floor, walls and shelves, and then I put it all away again, but now it looks tidy, and I know where everything is.

The other half was easier to do as that is where all my baking goods are stored. I put everything into new containers, all square ones this time so they stack better. Because I have a very small kitchen with few cupboards in it, all my big casseroles, baking tins, and bowls also live in the larder. I still need to make some new labels for the boxes, but I put a quick hand written sticker on them for now.

I had a bit of a shock this week when I counted up the Christmas cards I have made so far and found there were only forty-five. If I had managed my intended dozen each month I would have twice that many, so I have spent a fair bit of time in my craft room and have made over two dozen more. So that has cheered me up, and spurred me on to keep going.

I was happy to be able to help out my friend who needed to visit the medical centre this week. I am not a good enough Spanish speaker to act as a proper translator, but she speaks very little so I went along to help her out. Yesterday we went but the doctor didn't turn up, so we went back today. It was a good thing I was there, as it was a temporary doctor who was lovely, but she spoke hardly any English, so Eileen would have struggled. But between us we managed and the doctor was very helpful.

Last week I made a special card for the Butterfly challenge and when the results went up, my card had been picked for its 'wow' factor, which was nice. I shall have a voucher to spend in a digi store by next week. You can see my card HERE.

That's another week tied up. My how they fly. I will post two sky photos before I end. I just liked the way the rays of the sun are crossing the darker clouds in the first one, and the second one is there because...yes you guessed it...I can see a face up there again!

I apologise to all my lovely followers, that I didn't get back to you last week. It was a busy week and somehow life got in the way. I shall make up for it this week I promise. And Thank you to those who visited and left me comments anyway. I do appreciate it.

Now I will ink up with Annie's Friday Smiles, and Rocking your World at Celtic House, and I'll see you all again next week.