Rocking Your World 2017: Week 9

Hi everyone. Sorry I am a day late posting this week. My reason - I was busy yesterday and I simply forgot it was Friday!! Unlike those of you who still have to earn a living, when you are retired, Friday loses some of its significance, so it becomes just another day. As we were going to bed last night, Chris said "Have you done your blog?" and I thought 'Oh my goodness it is Friday again already, and, no I haven't!' How fast the weeks fly by.

So here is something that made me smile. I think it was mum who liked the Mabel Lucie Attwell illustrations of chubby, rosy faced children. They were certainly a part of my childhood, and recently they have started appearing again. My daughter-in-law, Jo,  had three babies with round, rosy cheeks and I used to tell her they reminded me of Lucie Attwell children, but she didn't know what I was talking about, so I started sending little pictures to her when I saw one. This week I happened to glance at my phone and saw this picture. Jo is a knitter too, so I thought "I must send that to Jo when I get to the computer", (I am not very good at doing anything with my phone except reading stuff, and making calls of course). So when I got to my computer I looked for it and found that it was Jo who had sent it to me. Great minds think alike etc..  That really did make me smile.

Anyway, this week was a special one in our region, because 28th of February is Día de Andalucía, so it fell on Tuesday this week. As it happened, Carnival Day was also on Tuesday. They don't often coincide, and our village folk prefer it when they get two days to have fun, but they made the most of it anyway.

The day always starts in the big marquee left standing in the car park since Christmas especially for this celebration. It is day all about tradition and follows the same lines each year. The same lovely pictures of the autonomous regions in Andalucía form the backdrop to the stage, and the green and white stripped bunting stretches across the roof. The proceedings started with the village band marching down to the plaza, and then one of the dancing schools in the village did a display.

There were some really young children in this group, and they were so cute, trying really  hard to remember the moves, and follow the older ones.

Next the village choir sang some rousing songs, and during some of them, the two older girls who run the dancing school, did some dancing themselves and they were very accomplished.

The crowd love it when they start stamping, and on the hollow wooden stage floor it does sound pretty impressive.

Then it was the turn of the other local dancing school.These were a bit older children so they have several years experience, and again they did an excellent display.

The final act was a girl who danced while a small group of musicians played and sang to accompany her. This is a very popular form of entertainment and every one enjoyed watching them.

After the concert there is a fiesta meal provided, of meats and cheeses, breads and salads, all laid out on long trestle tables at the back of the marquee. We don't normally stay for this so we went home for a rest before going back over at 5.00 for the carnival. Because I am late writing this, and have several other pressing things to do today, I am going to keep my photos of the carnival to show you next week.

Fortunately it was a lovely sunny day - many of the carnival costumes are a bit skimpy and some years the participants look frozen! This year it stayed quite pleasant, so after we had watched the parade, we went for a quick drink in a local bar and then went home to enjoy some pancakes. So two Spanish traditions and then an English one, all in the same day  , not bad eh!

Once again the sun has brought the flowers out. I bought a little pot of narcissi in Lidl a few week ago and they all flowered together this week. One was a single flower and the others were doubles and they smell so lovely too.

I also bought three little primrose plants to brighten up a tired trough that hangs on the railings outside my craft room window. It had dried out completely and I decided it was time to tip it out and start again with fresh compost and plants. It is just in front of the row of seats I showed last week, and it is nice to have something pretty to look at when we are sitting there. It is a very sunny spot and I know the primroses won't last there for long, but I have put several cutting of succulents around them to take over when the flowers die.

And finally, my osteospermums have all flowered. I put four colours in the pot last year and was fairly sure the more common white one would survive, but I thought the others might die off at the end of the season. But in fact, all four have flowered again, and they look so lovely all together. I love daisy-type flowers.

Apart from the excitement of Tuesday, it has been a fairly quiet week, so I have been able to relax on a lounger in the porch and do some crochet on sunny afternoons, and we've even managed to eat lunch out there on several days. I have also spent time in my craft room and I have completed seven more pages of my Ireland holiday scrapbook. I will post just two of them here. They were made as a pair to go opposite one another in my album.

I also spent some time in the kitchen. Last week I made a big batch of piccalilli, which I have already sold a lot of, but several people have asked me for my Hot chili and ginger jam, which I make less often, as it is slower to sell. But as I had people asking for it, I decided to get making. It involves peeling and chopping rather a lot of fresh root ginger and garlic, but the next part is a lot easier now I have my big, super-fast processor. I also have to cut and de-seed a huge catering size can of tomatoes, so it is an all-day job. But I got it done and now my kitchen will smell of it for a week or more! But I will have some happy customers so it is worth it.

Last night we had a bit of a shock weather-wise. It was the end of a lovely day, but with no warning, (it wasn't forecast), and within the space of half an hour, dark black clouds rolled in, there were some heavy squalls of rain, and the wind whistled round the house. Chris and I battled together to tie up the parasol, shut all the windows and shutters, and pull in the loungers under the shelter of the porch. We were too late for some of it, and a plastic chair from the yard ended up right round the other side of the house!, and we had to fish a cushion out of the swimming pool. Today it is still cold, grey and windy, though not quite as bad as last night, but it is forecast to be bright and sunny next week, so that is good. It is all a part of the fun of living in Spain!

Now I have three pretty sunset skies to end with and then I must go and do some baking. It is my turn to do church teas tomorrow with my friend Ann, and we always like to take them some cake.

Aren't those clouds lovely? Now I will link up with Rocking Your World, and Annie's Friday Smiles, and I will try to post again on Friday next week.