Rocking Your World 2014; Week 41

Week 41 already. Blink twice and the year will be gone!

I'm starting this week with a photo of a little visitor who came to my craft room this week.

These little geckos don't make a sound; not one that I can hear anyway. I only knew he was there because Arwen suddenly got very agitated and try to climb the walls - he was right up by the ceiling. He is a welcome visitor as he eats a lot of the tiny flies that are still plaguing us. They can run like 'grease lightening', but occasionally the cats do catch them, and it looks as though this little fellow has had one encounter, as he has lost the end of his tail. If you try to catch one and only get their tail, it drops off straight away but goes on curling and uncurling in your hand which is a very strange sensation! And by the time you have realised what happened, the gecko is long gone. But after a few weeks he will have grown a new tail. I think he's cute so he made me smile.

We have had a fairly uneventful week as we are having the complete outside of the house painted. My friend Mario is doing it, and as he works alone, we try not to leave him on his own for too long, just in case he falls off the ladder or something! So apart from us both going to choir practice on Tuesday, and a brief shopping trip today, one or other of us has stayed around at home. Everywhere is in a muddle until it is done. The dogs were not impressed to find what was in their 'dining area'.

Kim and Foxy were happy to have their food in a clearer area, but Miki wouldn't eat properly. She likes her routine. But I am sure she will eat when she is hungry enough, and the work is almost finished, so in a few more days everything can go back where it belongs.

It lifted my spirits to see the early morning sun picking up all the shades of green in the trees down in the zone at the back of us. As the sun rises higher it is too bright to appreciate all the tones, but first thing in the morning it is lovely. The photo doesn't really do it justice.

I was also pleased to see the climbing plant next door is out in flower now. It used to grow right up the side of the house and for a few weeks it looked stunning. Then the groundsmen, who care for her orange trees in her absence, cut it right down, almost to the ground. This year it has reached back up to the veranda and it looks lovely.

I am happy to say that the sun is back again this week and we have had some lovely days. It has helped the painter to get on with his work, that's for sure. But last week we really had a lot of rain, and within days the ground was covered in new shoots of grass and other little plants. It amazes me that the seeds can just lie under the top soil all through the baking hot summer, and just a few days of rain wakes them up.

I have had some lovely long chats with my sons Tom and Ben this week, on skype. It is always good to catch up on their news.

Even better news was that our second son, Michael, was taken into hospital on Tuesday for his much needed spinal operation, and this time it all went as planned. (After a failed attempt last Thursday, he was initially re-scheduled for 1st November, so they must have had a cancellation and given the slot to him).

I was pleased when I went for my monthly blood test this week, to find my sugar count was still down at 115. (That's about 6.5 on the UK scale for my friends who thought 115 sounded mighty high!). So I am still just below the level for registering as diabetic, 120 out here, though now I am on the register I can never be taken off it! I have been as high as 170, so I seem to have got the balance right in my diet, for now anyway, and I do still take tablets each day to keep me stable.

We popped out this morning briefly to pick up something from a shop near Vera, and we parked at the top of road we have never been down before. So instead of turning round to get back out, we drove down, and eventually, after winding round some little roads, we did get back to the way we wanted to go. But at the bottom of the road we stopped for a few minutes just to look around. We were down to the sea, but it wasn't really a beach, more of a mud flat. There was then an expanse of water with a sand bar before the actual sea. And the mud at the top was covered in birds. I thought they must be seagulls, but as we got closer I could see they were ducks!

I have never seen so many ducks that close to the sea before. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me, so I took this on my husband's phone, and I couldn't zoom in on them, but it will give you an idea of the wide open space.

And strutting around on the edge of the 'lake' was this white bird that may have been a heron. It could have been a crane but it was much larger than the ones we usually get around here. 

I wish I could have got nearer and then I would be more sure of what it was.

I am very happy that my lovely husband has ordered my new computer this week, my joint birthday and Christmas present. It will have several features that I don't have at the minute, and with a better keyboard, and a much bigger monitor, I should be able to manage it much better than I do now. I can't wait to get it, but this week I am frantically trying to tidy up all my files on here, and sift out the old ones that can be deleted, so I don't carry across too much 'rubbish' onto the new one.

I do, of course have a couple of sky photos for you. After all, it is not every night that a giant gold-fish swims across the horizon!

He was swimming after this fellow. It is probably just me, and my funny way of looking at things, but once again I can see a face in this cloud. And I'm not sure it is a very friendly one! (I can actually see two faces but I don't want to stretch your credibility too far!)

This last one is a bit different. I was in the sitting room  this evening, which faces the front of the house, and I saw a pink reflection in the sky. So I grabbed my camera and went out to the back, where there was indeed a lovely sunset, but right down low in the sky, there was also a line of very dark, broken clouds, which sailed along between us and the sunset, making an attractive contrast. So this is my closing photo for this week.

Now I must fly over to Annie's Friday Smiles and Rocking Your World at Celtic House, and I might just get to bed on the right side of midnight for a change!