Rocking Your World 2016: Week 18

Hi folks. I have no special smile this week, just a few happy occasions that had me smiling. It was a relatively quiet, and therefore relaxing week, which made a nice change. For us it started on Saturday when we attended one of the events put on by our Town Hall, for a cultural weekend. The other events were drama and visiting speakers which we didn't feel our Spanish was quite up to appreciating, but on Saturday it was Flamenco music and dancing which we really enjoy.

It took place on the plaza which was a bonus. I always love outdoor entertainment, and it was a warm evening so we could sit and watch in comfort. There was a large wooden stage which resounded nicely to the stamping feet of the dancer, but first there were four men who played and sang.

(The stage lighting has added an extra layer of colour to most of these pictures.)

The men were joined by this lady who started dancing. It is always so dramatic with tapping feet and tossing head, and arms flung out to emphasize her emotions. And the anguished facial expressions just add to it. I just love that red dress!

Later she danced again, this time in a black dress, and one of the men joined her.

There was a good turn out of village folk. They all enjoy the Flamenco style of singing and dancing.

But there was something else happening at the same time. On the same stage, over to the right, there were two large boards set up on easels, and as soon as the music began, a man started to paint the boards with long vertical patches of blue in several shades.

Mostly it was spray paint which he spread with a broad brush. He worked steadily but unhurriedly and we  were wondering what he was there for, as there was no sign of any shapes being formed with his paint. Towards the end of the show he covered each board with a sheet of clear plastic that was hanging behind them, and then he started to spray white paint over them.

With absolutely perfect timing, on the final beats of the music he finished his spraying and lifted off the plastic sheets, and there were revealed two superb paintings of a Flamenco dancer and a singer.

See the lace on the dancers sleeves, and all the detail in the second picture. I couldn't believe he had got such a result from a flimsy plastic stencil. Here are the stencils, once more hanging behind the boards.

Everyone was amazed by the end result, and his timing couldn't have been better.

The show had lasted about an hour, so although it had started quite late, there was still time to visit a couple of bars on our way home for a night-cap or two!

Other little things that have made me smile - 

The news that our Royal Birthday Party last week raised over 500€ for our church funds.

A successful outcome to negotiations between Cati for Asadis and a local group of woman bowlers, with me as their liaison, resulting in us buying a special light pad for the children in the special needs class of the village school, to be paid for by the bowlers. Two parts have arrived and I hope to have the last part by Tuesday so we can arrange for a presentation at the school very soon.

We spent Monday morning working in the garden, and all the flowers we bought last week, are now in pots and containers around the yard. And very pretty they all look too.

My lovely ginger cat had his stitches out on Monday and remains apparently oblivious to all we have done for him. He tore a claw on his front paw a couple of months ago, but despite two courses of anti-biotics, it refused to heal, so last week the vet removed the claw and nail bed, and he had two stitches in it. He is such a laid back boy, and although he was limping a bit, he never fussed with it, he didn't attempt to chew at his stitches, and he took his tablets without batting an eye. Now he has a slightly odd looking toe, but apart from that, he seems none the worse for the experience.

On Thursday Chris took me out for lunch at a nearby cafe and we had an lovely meal as we always do there. Then we popped into 'the brothers', a company run by twin brothers where you can buy all sorts of building supplies, gardening supplies and some pet items, and we bought a small cat flap for our kitchen door. At the moment we have to leave the door open all the time for the cats to come in and out, and we have a chain link curtain to keep out the flies. But it is not really very efficient and I am always getting tangled up in it when I go out to feed the dogs, or hang washing on the line. So Chris sat down and removed a small section of the metal railing and replaced it with the cat flap. Now the rest of the door can be covered with clear perspex or similar for the bottom section, and proper fly screen for the rest. Then I can have the inner door open all summer and not worry about the bugs. Now all we have do is teach three cats how to get through it. At the minute they can just walk around it but whenever I can I make them go through the flap. Hopefully very soon the rest will be done, and then they will have to come in that way if they want to be fed, so I expect they will soon get used to it.

Here is Chris doing the hard bit - making it fit the space. I wish I could still sit on the floor cross-legged like that!

Apart from that I have spent some time sitting here at the computer. Yesterday I made some booklets for church, for the order of service we use for the Eucharist celebration. Our numbers are growing and we ran out of books last week. They weren't easy to do as they have laminated covers and it is hard work folding a fairly heavyweight piece of card that has been laminated, but I got them done in the end. 

Today I revisited a piece of software that I haven't used for a long time, and designed a template for a scrapbook page, inspired by one I saw on pinterest.

I have finished this fortnight's part of my crochet-along with several days to spare, so I have also finished the squares for the tote bag, and added one more round to my Sophie blanket.

I even managed to make half a dozen greetings cards too. So all in all it has been a very productive week.

It is warming up even though there has not been so much clear sunshine this week, and last weekend I replaced our winter duvet with the summer-weight one. I find it much more comfortable and I sleep better with it. But my goodness, there has been some shocking weather for our friends and family back in UK. I hope the snow is on its way out again now.

I have just one sky photo to show you. As I said, there hasn't been a lot of sunshine, but I did catch this one sunset which I rather like, because it has the black storm clouds on the top left, that balance out the dark landscape on the right.

They have promised more rain tonight and tomorrow, but on the bright side, that is one less time for me to hose all the pots of plants, which is a very time-consuming occupation.

So now I'm off to link up with Annie's Friday Smiles, and Rocking your World at Virginia's blog.