Friday Smiles 2023; Week 4

A very quick post today as my son is here with his wife and little girl so I don't want to spend too long down here on my computer. But I have a few photos to share. My little grand-daughter is used to animals and has a big staffie at home, so she wasn't phased by Kim's size, and he is so gentle anyway. But she has really fallen in love with Tango. He is so laid back that he will tolerate a lot of cuddles and stroking, and when he has  had enough, he just takes himself off to hide for a while. A. Hasn't taken any notice of the other cats; just Tango.

Unfortunately their first day with us was rather wet. We did manage to walk around the market, but then the rain started and stayed all day, which doesn't often happen here. So we were happy to see the sun shining and a blue sky the next day but they were a bit surprised at how cold it was, although I had warned them. So on Wednesday it was even colder then usual, and looking from our back railing, we could see snow on the higher slopes of the Cabreras. 

We have only seen snow this far down a couple of times. It was unusual enough for Facebook to be flooded with photos of it, so here is one from a friend who lives  higher  up the mountain. Certainly a novelty for the locals.

The snow has gone now and we have a slightly windy but sunny day. I was up quite early, just in time to catch a lovely sunrise.

Our son Jonathan used to be a tree surgeon, and one of the reasons for his visit, (discounting the obvious family reasons), was to help Chris in the garden. Between our porch and the back railing there is a tiny square of soil where we had a very pretty tree, and also a shrub that I grew from a small cutting when my friend moved back to UK. It took almost too well and grew much too tall, so it towered above the tree. But this year the tree died and Jonathan has cut it down, along with the shrub which we are hoping will now grown more bushy, and not so high. Then between them they chipped the huge pile of debris so we could bag it us and put it in the street bin.

It has made a big difference to the light in our bedroom and in the porch fly-free area. The little path that runs behind this square of earth is where the hedgehog was hiding in a big pile of dead leaves. It looks so much better now it is all cleared up.

I enjoyed some Grandma cuddle time while we watched Grandad and Daddy working outside.

Tonight we are going out together for a while, and tomorrow Jonathan is driving me to Alicante to collect my little Leo (Maine coon kitten), which is very exciting, so that is all I have time for this week. I will link up with Annie's Friday Smiles and I am sure there will be photos to show you next week.

Friday Smiles 2023: Week 3

My son has been sending me beautiful photos of his garden and local countryside, all with a blanket of snow, and although I love seeing them, I am very gald to be here in the sunshine, even if it does feel a tad chilly to us. But we have not been completely spared some bad weather. On Tuesday and Wednesday it was blowing a hooley here, enough to overturn our large cactus tree in its big heavy pot, to move the garden furniture around and to fill up the pool with leaves and debris. Hopefully it will have settled down enough to have a bit of a tidy up tomorrow. The animals have been quite disturbed and I am not surprised as the wind whistling round the corners is quite an eerie sound.

I walked over to the market on Tuesday to buy fruit and veggies, and most stalls were battling to keep their goods on show. I took this photo of the clouds being whipped up into a wave. (Pity there wasn't something more attractive in the foreground!)

Despite the wind, Kim still prefers to lay on his bed which is tucked into a corner of the porch, behind our chairs to give him some protection, rather than inside on his comfy bed by the fire! We encourage him to stay quiet in the evenings so as not to disturb the neighbours, so when he started barking excitedly on Tuesday evening, and wouldn't stop, we knew he had found something interesting. He was in a dark little corner between a thick shrub and the back railings, so using the torch on my phone, I went to investigate and sure enough, he had found a hedgehog. These are rarely seen in the village; in fact this is only the second one we have seen in the fifteen years we have been here. It was curled up tight and I think it had hibernated and was disturbed when the wind moved the roll of wire fencing that was on the leaves. It looked like there had been a nest of sorts under the leaves. Kim wouldn't be distracted so in the end we carefully moved the hedgehog over the railings to where there is a deep pile of old vegetation, and hopefully he settled down in there. There was no sign of him by the morning. I managed to get quite a good photo of him using the flash feature.

I have some more beautiful roses. The first one lasted almost all week, so I rescued these ones before they were destroyed by the wind. The red one is like velvet and the whole room smells of its perfume when I go in each morning.

The work in the bathroom is progressing, albeit rather slowly. We are hoping it will be finished by tonight. It has been a bit unsettling having the workmen in all week, and there has been so much cardboard packaging blocking the corridor, so I have tended to stay in one place as much as possible. On Tuesday I hid in my craft room all day. I actually managed to make a birthday card for my son ready for the end of February. That is forward planning for you! 

I also decided to try my hand at something new. Many years ago I did a little basic macrame, and as I showed in an earlier post, this year I made three little Christmas trees from a kit. That sort of got me interested in it again, and it seems to be having a new lease of popularity, so I was able to find quite a few tutorial videos and e-books online to help me get started. In the end I decided to tackle a wall hanging. It is a fairly ambitious piece for a first effort, but following a very helpful video, I am making some progress. The next part is more complicated but I am ready to try it. I needed it to hang on the wall while I worked so Chris put two hooks on the inside of the wardrobe door in my craft room and it is hanging from there. This is the work so far. I will show it again, if or when it is finished!

My son Tom, who lives in Denmark, phoned us from Lisbon this week. Apparently he was there for a work conference, so he gave us a guided tour of the city. It looked really interesting.

And finally I have a picture of a lovely heart shaped sunset.

And with that I will link up with Annie's Friday Smiles. Take care on the ice and stay safe and warm everyone.