Rocking Your World 2020: Week 39

What a pleasant week we have had with warm days, and a drop of rain some nights. We continue to have visitors to our pool, most of which should take swimming lessons before they come. This week it was black beetles.

I am fairly certain they are what are called rain beetles. They appear after a heavy rainstorm such as we had the previous night, and they have a very short life. Here are a few details about them taken from Google.

"The rain beetles are a group of beetles found in the far west of North America and Europe They spend most of their lives underground, emerging in response to rain or snow, thus the common name. The larvae live underground, feeding on roots in the soil, and may take up to 13 years to mature. The adults surface when the ground is soaked. You'll never see adult beetles eat because they don't. They have no mouthparts or digestive tracts. They rely on the fat stored from their larval stage. It is thought that on average, males of some rain beetles have only enough energy stored as fat to give them about two hours of air time and live only a few days. The more sedentary females require less energy and may live for months after fall and winter storms."

What fascinating creatures. Well on Tuesday they seem to have run out of energy and dive-bombed our pool. When we lifted the lid of our skimmer basket there were around six of them floating around in it, and a further eight or more were doing laps of the pool before being sucked in to join the others.

My biggest smile this week is the arrival of my new chair. Although anyone is free to sit anywhere, we do tend to always gravitate to the same chair, me especially as I have all my crochet paraphernalia around it! I am a bit of a shortie so a big chair is uncomfortable because my feet don't reach the floor, and for the past few years I have had a small manual recliner. But unfortunately the recliner part was wearing out and not always holding its position, so I have been on the look out for a new one. I wanted an electric one and as I am in favour of anything that makes life a bit easier, we agreed that if we were buying one we may as well go for one that will help me stand, i.e. one that tips me out! It is not something I need now, and hopefully won't do so for a while, but useful to have all the same. It turned out to be quite hard to find one out here at a remotely sensible price, so I was very pleased when we spotted a second-hand one, that had only been used for a few months. We knew the seller so we knew the home it came from and Chris said we would buy it. Last weekend, our friend's husband brought it round for me and it is really comfortable. It is the right size for me and the motor is smooth, and not too abrupt. In honesty I would not have chosen a dark brown one, but one of my colourful crochet blankets thrown onto it, soon fixed that.

(I am very frustrated that the new blogger does not allow me to slide a 'portrait' orientation photos up along the side of my paragraph, like I used to be able to do, and today the legacy version no longer seems to be available, so it will have to sit in the middle taking up more space than it needs).

We managed to get to a garden centre this week, which was nice as we have not been out at all for a while. I got the bags of compost I needed and I chose a gorgeous orange hibiscus. I should have taken a photo straight away as the flowers only last for a day or two, and by the next day it was starting to fade, but I took my picture anyway. And there will soon be lots more of them I am sure.

I also bought a dozen assorted winter pansies and violas, to put some winter colour into the front yard pots.

The front porch flower stand has had nothing in it since last Christmas' poinsettias died so I bought three Sweet William plants which smell lovely as we go out the door. They won't last very long I don't suppose, but then it is only a couple of months before we see poinsettias everywhere again!

You may remember that back in the Spring, Chris planted out my baby silk tree down by the front gate. It is a tiny little strip of earth between our garage driveway and the main path, and up 'til now it has only housed a few cacti. When the "rabbits' ears" cactus got too big so it caught in the dogs' fur and our clothes, we cut it off and threw it over the back railings, where it continues to grow and thrive.  When I water the pots all around the yard I didn't use to bother with that strip as it seemed to do OK without watering, but since the tree was planted at the end of it, I always include it and make sure the tree has plenty to drink. So all of a sudden the cacti have started to grow too, and now another one is almost as high as the tree.

If it gets much taller it will either get top-heavy and keel over, or we will have to cut it off and let the next piece grow up in its place. The big prickly round one, (sometimes know as Grandma's naughty cushion), has also grown a lot, so apparently they do appreciate the water after all.

Yesterday was sort of a sad day but not entirely. In the morning I was able to 'attend' my sister's funeral via a live link. I am so grateful for the technology that made this possible for me, my sisters and Eve's children and grandchildren who live too far away to attend in person. Only 30 family members were allowed anyway, and her family is much bigger than that. Also they chose two of my favourite hymns, "How great Thou art" and "Thine be the Glory", and although those attending were not allowed to sing along with the recordings they used, I was able to at home, and I did.

And that is another week gone. It will be October next time I post. So without more ado I will link up with Annie's Friday Smiles and Rocking Your World.

Rocking Your World 2020: Week 38

Here we are again and for once I am smiling in the rain. We had been promised a big tropical storm over much of Spain, but luckily we seem to be right on the edge. We woke up around 6.00am to the sound of steady rainfall - enough to actually soak into the ground, not just run off, so it is doing some good, without being heavy enough to cause local flooding. This morning you could smell damp earth, and everything felt fresh and renewed. It has now settled into a steady drizzle which is fine. I am sure the agricultural workers around here are all doing a happy dance! And it has stayed comfortably warm so I am still in a light summer dress for now.

The insects seem to be affected by the cooler weather and have started looking for a winter home. Others only live for a season. Someone on the wild-life in Southern Spain page that I follow said that the large grasshoppers seem to be committing kamikaze in their pool, and sure enough, the next day Chris fished one out of our pool. It had been there all night so it was too late to save it, but then he fished out two more visitors who did live to see another day. 

This is the first one. Not the prettiest of bugs but it is quite harmless. I wonder if you know what it is.

Well it is in fact a common field cricket. I had no idea. It is not at all how I pictured a cricket would look. Just at nightfall, the cicadas stop singing and the crickets start. They have a much gentler sound and I like to hear them.

Next to arrive in the net was this pretty one.

I had to look it up on google but soon had it identified as a tiger moth. Isn't it lovely? We had another one the next day, (or else the same one came back for another go at swimming!).

I haven't done a lot of baking during the hot weather, but I saw a recipe this week that I wanted to try. Chris enjoys a fruit cake and I have made boiled fruit cakes many times, but never one that starts with a can of crushed pineapple. Crushed pineapple isn't something we usually see in the shops out here, but I had some pineapple slices so I 'crushed' them in the food processor. I only used half of all the ingredients as we don't eat a lot of cake, but it did turn out really well. You can't taste the pineapple, but it made a lovely moist cake. As you can see, we had to try it out.

Young Tolly continues to thrive. He is almost as big as our ten year old campo cat Luna. He eats well, plays hard, and then just keels over and sleeps. Often he sleeps at full stretch. Just look at that long body and long legs.

On Tuesday evening Chris suggested having a late evening stroll with the dogs. We knew it would be pretty quiet on a Tuesday night, and the dogs were excited to get an unexpected walk. When we had been around the houses a bit, we stopped at a bar that had several empty tables outside. Chris went in to order drinks and I sat outside with the dogs. When the girl brought our drinks out, she made a fuss of the dogs which Kim enjoys and Foxy puts up with so as not to feel left out, and then she fetched them a container of water which they made short work of. After that they laid down and behaved really well, even though a couple further away had a small lap dog with them, which would usually have got them very excited.

And now for the big reveal. I can show you what the neutral yarn and all those beads were for. I joined in with the current craze for making pocket scarves. This is the Boho Beaded pocket scarf by Tracy Collins. I love all the different textures and stitches, and it is aran weight wool so it will be lovely and warm around my shoulders, when I am on my computer this winter. My computer desk is next to an ill-fitting and draughty window! It is only just long enough, and if I ever made another, I would start with a longer chain or work it the other way so I could decide the length as I went along. But it was something different for me to make and I am pleased with it.

And finally I have been doing some bird-watching. These first two are not good photos as I took them through the fly-screen. If I had gone out they would have all flown away. From where I was sitting I could see an old almond tree and it was absolutely heaving with sparrows. I am sure you can see quite a few of them, despite the netting.

The tree is in a gap between our shed and the house next door, and the birds were constantly flying from the tree to the roof top and back.

Under many of those upturned roof tiles there is a small ventilation hole, and all summer the sparrows nest in them. We sit and watch them feeding their young, and listen to them calling for more. But I think most of the babies have gone now.

This morning we went out of the front door so see the effects of last night's rain, and just above us there is a criss-cross of telegraph and electricity cables. Today they were lined in  every direction with young swallows.

I went out for a better look and they stretched as far as the eye could see.

More were joining them all the time. I enlarged a fragment from the cropped edge of this one, and you can just see the next flock arriving.

Perhaps they were meeting up to discuss their travel plans! Very soon now they will be off to S.Africa for the Winter. A sure sign that summer has ended.

And on that note I will link up with Annie's Friday Smiles and Rocking Your World. Have a good week everyone.