Rocking Your World 2020: Week 5

Well here we are and its time to look back at the week and find the things that made us smile, and made us feel grateful. It has been a difficult week for some people, especially those in UK who have strong feelings either way about today's Brexit. Here, we have all sorts of questions, to which no-one really has answers. We feel there is nothing we can do to change things now, so we may as well get on with our lives, and just see how things pan out in the coming months and years, so this has been a pretty 'normal' week for us, whatever that means.

We got off to a good start on Sunday evening when we sang at a concert to celebrate the Spanish Day of Peace.  The main concert was music played by the Cariatiz orchestra, which is the only amateur orchestra in the whole of the Almeria area. But the first half was ended by two big choral pieces sung by both my choirs - Incognito singers, and Vera Voces - singing together with the orchestra accompanying us. The first piece was classical - Mascagne's Easter Hymn, (this is the style of Vera Voces), and the second was a medley of songs from MGM films (the style of Incognito singers). It was fun for some choir members to tackle pieces 'outside their comfort zone', but of course, about eight of us sing in both choirs. We were asked to wear our own choir's official stage wear, and those of us in both choirs chose to wear the blue tabards of Vera Voces. I haven't seen any official photos yet but here is one that Chris took. You can see the two colours of clothing in the line up of singers, and just behind us is the orchestra, with the MD at the front trying to hold everyone together.

It has been a better week here than last week, with most days seeing some sunshine, and higher daytime temperatures, though the cold soon comes back at sun-down. Because there has been a light cloud cover most afternoons, we have had some stunning sunsets, so here is a few of the photos I have taken during the week.

Surprisingly these were taken over two or three days, though they could have all been taken on one day.

We were promised some sun all week but sometimes it took a while to arrive. On Wednesday I was driving to Turre for my sewing group and I just had to pull over to take a picture of the Cabrebra mountains. The mist was low and had not cleared in all the valleys. Plus we are in the short season when bonfires are allowed and the agricultural centres burn off their Winter debris before starting the new Spring planting, so their smoke was adding to the mist, and with no wind to disperse it, it too hung in the air.

These mountains display many different atmospheres. Some nights, as the sun sinks low and glows behind them, the layers of mountains remind me of the Mountains of Doom described so clearly in my favourite set of books, "Lord of the Rings". They can look really sinister, though on other days they are clear as a bell.

While I was standing taking a few shots of them, I turned to my left where there is a large area of newly cleared land. Last year the owner decided to change from his salad crop, and instead he planted it with orange trees. I was just struck by how green it looked. They are surrounded by 'real grass', a novel sight for us, and a testament to the change in our weather patterns, and the recent heavy rains.

Yesterday we went to do some necessary shopping. Chris came to help lift the big bags of animal biscuits that I buy for both dogs and cats. It is cheaper to buy in bulk, and it will last at least a month for the dogs, and two or three months for the cats. After the pet supply store, we went on to Lidls and I bought a few little spring plants to make a nice bright spot on our front porch. I love Helibores and had several in my garden in UK. I am hoping this one will do well outside here too, and the primulars are just so pretty. I shall get them planted in a big pot over the weekend.

I surprised myself this morning with a green smoothie for my breakfast that tasted so much nicer than I expected. I used a little, over-ripe pear, a kiwi fruit, a very small avocado, a stick of fennel and  a few sugar snap peas, with a natural yoghurt as a base. It looks pretty disgusting to be honest, but was actually very pleasant.

I hope to make these more often and try to be a bit more adventurous as to what I put in them. I also have a proper juicer now which came as an added attachment with my new food processor. I haven't tried it yet, but it is something else for me to play with soon.

And that is just about it for this week. I have one more set of sky photos to end with. These were all taken last night. I am amazed at how fast the colours and shapes change, so again I took four photos just a few minutes apart, and made them into this collage.

So beautiful!

A Spanish man who lives along the road from us, came to our house this week to bring me two big bags of bitter oranges! He knows I make marmalade with them, but he has never given me any before. I have, of course, already made most of my marmalade for this year, but I do want to do one more batch, and then one or two lots of a darker one with thicker peel. It doesn't sell so well, but I have one or two customers who ask for it.

We are currently at home waiting for a new dishwasher to be delivered. My old one has been on the way out for a while, and this week it died completely, so we went to the local electrics shop and ordered a new one. He has phoned to say he will deliver it today. So while I wait, I will start cutting up some oranges.

But first I will link up with Annie's Friday Smiles and Rocking Your World, and pop over to them to see what has made them happy this week.

Rocking Your World 2020; Week 4

I am sure many of you have seen pictures on the TV of the problems Storm Gloria has caused in Spain this week. We are fortunate that we live on the edge of the affected region, but it has still been bad enough for us to 'hibernate' for most of the week, so I don't have too much news today.

Monday was just cold but on Tuesday we needed to venture out for a doctor's appointment and a little bit of food shopping, so we ended up at the big Lidls near Garrucha. We decided to drive home along the coast road as far as Mojacar, and we soon discovered that the wind was already getting up and there were some big waves. I love what I call a 'lively sea', so I persuaded Chris to park up while I tried to take some photos. Trying to catch a good wave at just the right moment is always difficult, especially as I now only use the camera on my phone, but here are are few of what I managed to take. I love the way the wind catches the top of the waves and blows them back like spray.

It was a very cold wind so we didn't stay long and were happy to get home to enjoy the warming casserole I had prepared in my Instant Pot.

It all went a bit downhill from there, and that night the promised rain started and fell fairly persistently all night.

The next morning we were greeted with some distant thunder and soon we were directly in the path of a series of electric storms, with brilliant flashes of lightening and almost instant crashes of thunder that rattled the doors and windows, and killed our internet and TV for most of the day. The rain was torrential and as we have no gutters on most of the older houses here, there were water spouts from every corner which just added to the noise. Then the sound changed and when we looked outside we found it was heavy hail stones that drifted and layed on the ground like snow in the all the corners of the yard, and round the pool.

We have never seen our yard looking like this before.

We stood on the covered part of our porch and watched as the hail slid off the roof onto the fly-free netting, leaving a heap of ice under the corner, and a pattern of little 'v' shaped under the edge of each tile. It took until yesterday afternoon for this to melt, and it has left behind horrid piles of dirt and debris that came down with it, so Chris will need to get the pressure washer out to clean it all off once we are sure the weather has cleared.

So we spent all day Tuesday and most of Wednesday sitting in front of the fire, surrounded by the dogs and cats, who also didn't fancy going out in it.

But as I say, we were the lucky ones, as some parts of Spain were much more badly affected. High winds and waves caused a lot of damage along some sea-fronts, heavy rain caused flooding in towns just down the road from here, and traffic was brought to a standstill on roads that have not had snow on them in some folks living memories. We certainly don't expect to see it down on the coast but this photo was taken just a short way east of here. There is something very odd about palm trees dusted with snow, and a layer of white covering the sand.

So I just count our blessings that we have a house we can warm up in, enough food and clothes to cope when the unexpected hits us, and nothing urgent that means we have to go out in it. But I feel so sorry for the many homeless people who live on the streets in places that are totally unprepared to cater for them, though I am sure many organisations and individuals did provide temporary shelter and food for many. Sadly the death count is 13 for Storm Gloria so far, but it is now moving towards France and losing its intensity, so hopefully that won't rise any further.

I am sure some of you are thinking that this is nothing like as bad as you experience in UK most Winters, but I think we are feeling it so much because it is a very rare occurrence here. Our houses are not designed for it, and our roads do not get cleared as fast, the mountains around us send down more water than the drainage in some villages can cope with so there is flooding, and it takes us all by surprise. But of course, as suddenly as it comes, so it also goes, and I am sure the sun will be as bright as ever quite soon. 

Of course, further inland, and higher up, some snow is expected each year. I am sure Lisca will be telling us about her area where it is quite normal to see the white stuff, and I am sure she got out and enjoyed it.

Chris and I are not lovers of the cold, and one of our reasons for moving to Spain was to escape from the British weather, and we both have arthritic joints which react to cold and wet somewhat negatively, so Spain suits us better.

On a happier note, the sky is clearing and there is a watery sunshine. As I walked across the village to get my hair cut yesterday, I spotted the first almond blossom, and that really lifted my spirit. It is the first sign that Spring is on the way.

One advantage of forced hibernation is that I got a few things done. My friend gave me another big bag of bitter oranges so yesterday I made a further 35 jars of marmalade, I completed a set of eight Christmas cards made from recycled elements saved from cards I received this year, (these are for a blog challenge tomorrow so I can't post a picture here), and I have also done some more of my crochet. My hands are getting worse, so I can only do an hour or so at a time, but I am no good at just sitting idle so I find myself reaching for hook and yarn quite frequently. I have made good progress and here is my latest project so far.

The design is based on the idea of a rose window in a church, and I chose the colours to represent the Aurora Borealis. I love how they are working out. There are a few more rounds to do and then it has square corners added and a further design worked across the lower edge. I think it will just about be a single bed size when it is done.

And that is it for this week, so I will now link up with Annie's Friday Smiles and Rocking Your World.