Rocking Your World 2018; Week 16

Well we have had a lovely week, with lots of sunshine that not even a cool wind could spoil. As it was a nice day, when I got home from church on Sunday, we drove over to Vera for the Lions Club "Party in the Park". We knew there was a good crowd there because we had to hunt to find a parking space. As we entered the park, we saw the main stage which at that time had some very small school children doing a dance routine.

We walked around the spectators and over to the other side of the park where we found a wide variety of stalls, some market traders, and others local crafts -people eager to sell their wares.

We bought a few cakes and some pickle and headed over to the white wall you can see in the background which was the entrance to the 'Irish' bar.

Here we met up with friends, and sat to listen to live musicians while the men indulged in several glasses of Guinness! 

These two singers were people we know. Derek, on the left, is a friend from our village, whose claim to fame is that he once played his saxophone in a backing group for Ben E King. His co-singer on the right is Clive Sarstedt, older brother of Peter Sarstedt who had a big hit back in the sixties with "Where do you go to my lovely?". They also have another brother, older again, who sang under the name Eden Kane, and he was one of my favourites. I saw him on stage in Bournemouth on several occasions back in my student days! Clive now lives near here so he turns up at various music functions to sing.

After them, there were more musicians who have enjoyed performing through the years and are now retired in 'Sunny Spain', and they are all still good entertainers. 

The last act was  a younger man called Jack Law and he was very good.

With youth on his side, he had more energy and volume to his singing and he did an excellent set.

Fortunately for the performers, they had a small corner stage with a roof so they had some shade from the sun. I think it was the hottest day we have had so far. The audience were all seated or standing around the courtyard, and it did get very warm indeed. The heat took us all by surprise, and few had thought to bring sun cream or a hat with them.

You can see Chris sitting in the centre (in a yellow T-shirt), with our friends Eileen and Tony. His nose and forehead are peeling today! I had moved to the side to sit in the shade by this time, but even so, the cross straps on my dress are now etched into my back!

After Jack's set we wandered back over to the main stage, and we were happy to sit and relax in the shade of the very tall palm trees that give the park its name - El Palmeral Parque.

We left around 6.00 to go home and feed the dogs, but the music went on until 11.00pm. It was a really good event and cleared almost 6,000€ profit for the Lions Club, who do so much to help people in need in the area.

I have been looking out for a hydrangea plant. We had such a pretty one a few years back, but sadly the dogs started to eat it! We don't know why as they generally do not harm any of our plants. Anyway, I popped over to Lidls on Monday and they happened to have some on their plants stall, so I bought two - a pink one like we had lost, and a deep blue one. 

They need to be planted in large, heavy pots. As their name suggests, they are water plants and get very thirsty, so a small pot will dry out too quickly. So yesterday we decided to go to a local garden centre

On the way, we stopped at the big ferreteria and bought some 'dexion-style' shelving for the garage. I am about to tackle the garage which is a general dumping ground for anything that doesn't have a specific home, and need an easier way of storing everything, so that I can make space for the contents of the kitchen until the work is done. They are still flat packed in the hall for now, but on Monday we are going to make a start.

We then moved on to the garden centre and it was ablaze with colour. In front of the 'shop' were rows and rows of bedding plants all in full bloom.

I believe the back row was geraniums, which do very well out here and seem to cope with the hot, dry summer. In front of those were petunias in every colour you can think of.

They look lovely, but the flowers don't last long out here, and as you dead-head them they bloom further and further out on long stems,and can get a bit untidy. They are another plant that needs constant watering. We did buy just a couple of them to go in with the hydrangeas while they are growing, to save the pots looking too empty.

The last row were these amazing succulents, which bloom profusely in the sun, and close up at night. We have one in our front yard that was in the hanging baskets last year. We had to give up on the baskets because it is just too windy here, and they are difficult for me to keep watered. But I left the remains of one resting on a pot under the outside tap, which dripped on it just enough for it to survive the winter. Now it is a mass of red flowers, and looks much better than it ever did hanging up.

The journey was worth while, and we came home with our two big, terracotta pots, and four petunias. Now I have to find the time to get them planted up.

Most days this week I have sat out on the patio to eat my lunch, and then ended up staying there and doing some crochet. One day it was too hot with a woolen blanket bundled on my lap, and I had to abandon it and read a book instead, which made a nice change. But I did get part seven of my blanket finished in plenty of time. The design is based on Navajo symbols, so here are the arrows from part six, and last week's Apache tears that I mentioned in my previous blog. It is not a difficult stitch once you have done the first row and set the stitches, and it can be a bit tedious to do too much of, but I love it and think the result was well worth the work.

I have just downloaded the final part, which is the border. It is fairly plain and simple so as not to distract from the main pattern, so I am hoping that will get done this week. Maybe next week will be the full reveal, or the 'Ta-da' moment as Lucy of Attic 24 calls it.

Now I know I said I would have to put it away for the summer once this was finished, but I have been sorely tempted by a new Crochet-along (CAL) project that had its first part released this week. Every time I saw a photo of it on Facebook, I liked it a bit more,so I gave in and ordered the wool. The first task was to chose a colour palette. I am finding I prefer the ones that have a limited choice of colours in them, so this is what I ended up with.

The CAL is called Cosmic blanket, and this sort of colour way is Harmony. I have used the designers suggestions as a starting point, and just tweaked it a bit. The last two colours are extras that I may use to replace the first two sometimes, if I think it needs a bit of extra colour depth.

As I was waiting for the final part of my Arizona blanket, and I don't like sitting around with nothing to do, I made a start on Cosmic. I keep a stash of one ball in each colour so I didn't have to wait for my order to arrive. I know it is shipped and on its way, so I have squishy parcels to look forward to next week, but in the meanwhile I used what I had in my stash. It is a much more challenging pattern than Arizona, more in line with Sophie that I finished last year, but I like the challenge, and I have already done a couple of new stitches in the little bit I have done.

I think it will be lovely, and I shall keep going with it if I can, but I know it will soon have to be packed away.

I needed a few cards this week, so I have done some paper crafting as well, but I think you can see that my main obsession is yarn at the minute. So when I saw this on the web, I just knew it was meant for me. I bet I am not the only one who can relate to most of these. (STABLE - Not me surely?!)

So ending with a smile, I will now link up with Annie's Friday Smiles, and Rocking your World, and then get ready for choir. 

Our practices start half an hour earlier than they did when they were on Wednesdays, so I am usually home by 9.00. So tonight Chris and I are going round to our local to raise a glass in celebration of 39 years of marriage. How time flies when you are having fun!