Rocking Your World 2018; Week 36

Those of you who are my friends on Facebook will not be surprised to see my Smile this week, as I posted it on there yesterday. But it did make me smile so here we go. 

You may remember that back at the start of December last year I was lucky enough to watch a praying mantis laying her eggs in a nest of protective foam. 

I have kept an eye on it ever since, though I had more or less given up on it. But it has withstood some pretty heavy downpours, some ferocious winds, and the relentless heat of a Spanish Summer, and yesterday, exactly nine months after it was formed, some babies emerged! I was so excited to see them. There is one baby just visible in front of the nest. Others were running around on the branch, and I am sure more had already dispersed around the garden. They started off a dark tan/brown, but soon they will become bright green, and hopefully they will eat some of the nuisance bugs on my plants, before they themselves get eaten, either by their siblings (yes, they are cannibalistic when there is a lack of other food available), or by birds etc.

We has a lovely service at church this week, when the subject of the sermon was the meaning of marriage, and the changes that have taken place to that meaning through history. And we ended with a Blessing for a lovely couple who were celebrating their Emerald wedding anniversary - that is 55 years they have been together. Certainly something worth celebrating!

After the service we all shared a lovely cake washed down with a glass of cava.

We have had our son Tom here for a few more days since my last post, so on Saturday we decided to have a day in Almeria city. Dad is not a fan of cities so he stayed at home, but I was keen to go, as it is the main city in our province, and so far we have only visited it for the airport, or for some legal paperwork etc. It is a lovely city, small by UK's standards, but big enough to have plenty to keep us busy. There is a main road running from the motor way into the city centre which goes by the grand name of Avenida de Federica Garcia Lorca. He was a Spanish playwright and poet who was executed by the Nationalists in 1936 at the start of the Spanish civil war. And the Avenue is a rather lovely tribute to him. It is long and straight, and right through the centre of it there is a line of water features, with the sea just visible at the end.

This fountain around a very high pillar, was our landmark to ensure we could locate the car again at the end of the day!

Our first stop was at a large, fairly new indoor market, and it was quite a sight. It was on two levels and the lower level was all stalls selling fish! Neither of us are great fans of seafood, so we didn't linger long in that bit, but what ugly brutes some of them are!

Up stairs it was a different matter altogether. One side was lined with butcher's stalls, and you could buy almost any meat there, but Tom soon gravitated to the back of the hall where there was an endless choice of cheeses and local cured meats, including of course, the traditional Serrano hams.

Personally I preferred all the centre rows of stalls where they were selling freshly baked bread and cakes, and an amazing array of fresh fruit and vegetables. Isn't this a lovely display?

The only goods on this stall that were not produced locally are the bananas which are imported from the Canary Islands and Columbia.

Some people took their displays a step further. I wonder what time the holder of this stall started in the morning to make sure their display was so perfect.

There are three different types of tomatoes there, and although they are not my favourite vegetable to eat, the shiny aubergines do look gorgeous.

As we were walking around for most of the day and didn't want heavy bags to carry, we didn't buy anything at the market, and sadly it had closed by the time we passed it again on our way home, but I would like to go there to shop another day.

After the market, we braved the main streets as Tom wanted to buy clothes for work. Everything is so expensive in Denmark where he lives, so he likes to take the opportunity to revamp his wardrobe when he is with us. Despite it being such a hot day, it was quite pleasant to walk along the streets. The paths were broken up by huge planters with palm trees in them. I'd love one of those pots to put a tree in at home.

The main road itself had a light sunshade stretched across it so it was like being in a cool tunnel. Isn't that a good idea. This was taken just before the shops closed for siesta so there is not much traffic, but it is a very busy road during the week.

With Tom's shopping done, we headed for the ancient Moorish fortress called the Alcabazar, which sits on a hill above the city. It was a bit of a climb through narrow streets so it was good to sit on the top step and enjoy the view while we got our breath back.

When we were up on the ramparts, we had a panoramic view of the old city. We have taken most of our visitors there over the years, but this was a first visit for Tom, so it was good to see the view through fresh eyes. As you can see, there are very few high-rise buildings in the old town, just a higgledy-piggeldy  jumble of flat roof gardens and narrow streets, though there are some tower blocks of apartments when you look out towards the sea front.

From the highest tower we had a good view of the section that was added on by the Christians when they gained rule over the city. We were able to enter its courtyard through a gate by the centre tower, but many of the areas inside were cordoned off, because they were preparing to do some filming there.

Looking in the opposite direction, we could see out over the harbour. We watched a little tug boat guide in a ferry to one of the berths. This is like the ship that Tom arrived here on, after his week's holiday touring across Morocco from Marrakesh. It was strange to collect him from the harbour port instead of the airport.

Our next stop was for some lunch. We found a street bar that sold Mexican food and I had a lovely salad of green leaves, chargrilled chicken, avocado and jalapeno peppers. It was yummy.

Then we wandered back to the car, along deserted streets, as most folk had also gone for a siesta. We still had about a forty-five minute drive home. It was a good day out and we both enjoyed it.

All too soon it was time for Tom to leave. He flew back direct to Denmark on Tuesday morning. So there was just time for one more photo, on the front porch.

And that's it for this week. So I will link up with Rocking Your World and Annie's Friday Smiles. I am sorry if I didn't get to visit you last week, but everything is settling down now, and I will be able to visit everyone this time I hope.