Rocking Your World 2014: Week 47

My word! What happened to my Friday morning posts? I´m lucky if I get this done before bedtime these days. Yes life does seem to be rushing by, but it is only for a few weeks. I have another craft fair on 6th December and am busy making things for that. I also need about thirty more Christmas cards, (130 made so far!), and in a week or two I need all the International ones written and posted. Plus, of course, we have six choir concerts in the first two weeks of December, but after that it all goes quite quiet. Christmas is a fairly low key affair out here, and the one time when I really miss having all the family around me. Thank heavens for Skype and mobiles. No-one is ever that far away these days.

But still, another week has gone, so I guess I must have done something worthy of mention in it! It got off to a slow start as I was confined to the house at the weekend with a tummy bug that seems to be doing the rounds. Luckily it only lasted for a couple of days.

We had a long choir practice on Tuesday so that was one day gone with little else achieved. But on Wednesday, at our sewing group, one of the ladies did a workshop to make a bobbin lace Christmas decoration. I have done these before, a couple of years ago, but she had made a new pattern for us, and as it is over a year since I got my pillow and bobbins out, I thought it would be a good refresher course for me. I am glad to say I soon picked it up again, and here is what we made.

Most of the learners only got half-way with theirs, and as it requires a very fine crochet hook, it is not something they could take home to do, but I put the finishing touches to mine last night, so I will be able to help some of the others next week. It is hard for Pam to get around to everyone, so she´ll be glad of another pair of hands.

Today I thought I´d make another one in different colours, so I used a silver bangle and thread, with a fine blue thread for the workers, and white and blue beads. It was a nice warm day even though the sky was not clear blue, so I sat outside in the fly-free porch as the light was so much better than indoors. Note I had a cup of tea to sustain me, and my tablet beside me to provide ´music while you work´. 

Chris came out to see how I was getting on and I asked him to take a couple of photos. He stood on the box behind me to get a close up of the work, and Kim, who was sitting with me, was looking up at him somewhat anxiously, so he took a quick picture of him too. If I sit out there, he is never far away.

This is a very straight-forward piece of work and I finished it by tea-time, all except for the horrible job of sewing all the ends in! I enjoyed getting back into lace making, so after the Christmas crafting is done, I hope to have another go at the somewhat more complicated project that is ready on my other pillow.

This morning we had a nice little trip down to Mojacar. It was the end of the Photo Club Exhibition yesterday, so today we had to retrieve our photos, ready for another exhibition there at the weekend. We then went on to a glazier to order a glass panel for the top of Chris´office table. (He asked me to do this for his Christmas present). I was pleased that I could explain to the lady what I wanted, and even managed to ask for beveled edges, and rounded corners! When we collect it on Monday, we will know whether she really understood me! I went there to have mounts cut for my exhibition photos, so I knew she didn´t speak any English, so I had a quick look in my Spanish dictionary before we went.

After that we drove to Vera to try to find someone to fix our fitted gas fire, but it turned out we were in the wrong place, so we will have to try again on Monday.

By the time we got home it was  quite late for preparing our dinner, (we eat our main meal at lunch time whenever possible), so my lovely husband took me down the road to our local for some food. Fish and Chips is their speciality, and they do it English style´which we like. The Spanish eat a lot of fish, but it is not at all what we are used to and neither of us are really ´fish people´. One of us had chips and beans with their fish, and one of us just had some salad. No prizes for guessing which was mine! It was cooked fresh for us, and we really enjoyed it.

There is a big plot of land near us that was designated for a building project, but for some reason it never happened, and at present it is used for growing salad vegetables. I just love the way they cover huge areas with the neatest rows of ridges and troughs, and they have tractors with narrow wheels, or caterpillar treads that they can drive between the ridges to spray the plants etc.

When I drove passed the other day, the lettuces had just been harvested and they were preparing the ground for the next lot to be planted. As we passed it this morning there was a whole bus load of workers there planting out the seedlings. It must be back-breaking work, but they soon get it done. I had my phone camera ready, and the window wound down, so I could get a photo of them on the way home, but they were all gone except for this one man, finishing his row. They may have been sitting under the nearby trees to eat their packed lunches, because there are still several trays of seedlings on the tractor to be planted. 

There is another field on the other side of the road so maybe they were over there this afternoon. Either way, I just love their neatness and efficiency. In a few weeks the bus will be back with a load of workers to harvest these, ready for your Christmas salad! Most of it goes to the supermarkets in UK.

Yesterday morning I went with a friend to her Spanish doctor. She had asked me to go to translate for her, and I was a bit worried, because although I can usually say what I need to now, I still have difficulty understanding what they say to me. But this was a successful visit and I was able to sort her problems out, and organise the hospital appointment that she needed. It is always nice to be able to help someone else, especially when you get the result you wanted. I am glad it is not my doctor though. The surgery was up in Bédar, the little white village up in the hills behind us, and the streets were hardly wide enough to take a car. It would be a nightmare drive if you were really poorly.

Other things that have made my week good:

A long chat on Skype with my sister Jean. I love the video chat. It is almost like sitting in the room with someone. We had time for a real catch-up so that was nice.

Toasted tea-cakes for our tea tonight! When I was still at school my sister Dorothy sometimes took me out to the cinema, or just into the big town for the shops, and our outing nearly always included a trip to the café in the back of the baker´s, for toasted teacakes, and ever since then, they have been synonymous with a treat. We have them fairly regularly now, and I still love them.

Ordering a new gadget for my craft room - sort of a Christmas present, that needed to be ordered while it was on a very good special offer. I shall be telling more about this and reviewing it, when I it had arrived and I have tried it out.

Finding a couple of evening hours to play with a new cutting die that I particularly liked. In fact I liked it so much that I made a dozen Christmas cards with it. Here are just a few of them.

All twelve were different and you can see the rest of them on my craft blog by clicking HERE.

New slippers that I picked up for a couple of euros at the todo shop in the week. It is really unusual for me to have cold feet. In fact I take a lot of stick from folk because I go all through the winter with just a pair of sandals on, but this year I seem to be feeling the cold in them more. But they are as warm as toast in my nice new slippers.

Well I think that´s enough ramblings from me for today, so I´ll end with my usual sky photos for you. Just four today! Firstly an evening when it was very windy high up, and the clouds were shredded into strands going every which-way!

Secondly one of my much loved silhouette photos. The sky was so pretty, and there is a flash of light like a comet, which is actually a plane´s vapour-trail just catching the sun rays.

I had to include this one because to me it is another face. Can you see those big round eyes? It is either a very frightened or a rather vicious bat swooping down on us!

And last, but not least, a sky on fire again. Love it!!

Is it another face? We won´t go there. You´ll start to think I am obsessed!

I am now off to link up with Virginia at Celtic House. It is nice to see there are another couple of ´rockettes´posting there today, so come on over and enjoy their weekly happy moments too.

There is no specific smile here today, but I shall still link up with Annie´s Friday Smiles. She knows my whole life makes me smile - most of the time anyway. How blessed am I to be able to say that. It´s worth a smile on its own! I hope you are feeling blessed too. See you next week.