Rocking Your World 2019; Week 51

Well this may well be my last post for 2019, as I don't know what I will be doing by next Friday, but maybe I will have time to write a blog.

This has been a slightly less busy week, as so much happened last week, but we ended it up on Friday night, with our concert in the Convento of Vera, with my 'other' choir, Vera Voces, (or voices of Vera - a neighbouring town where we meet each week to practice). It is a very different choir from my original one where we mainly sing popular songs, and light medleys from stage and screen. Vera Voces was formed to bring more classical music to the area and on Friday we were singing Part 1 of Handle's Messiah. Back in the summer, for their first concert, (just before I joined them), the singers wore a variety of tee-shirts, but it was decided that we needed to look more uniform and professional, so we all wore a black layer and covered it with a simple royal blue tabard which worked very well. The men had matching cravats and pocket handkerchiefs.

We are lucky to have some truly talented men and ladies within our group to sing all the solos, and a very accomplished pianist/musical director. The rest of the choir sang all the chorus pieces. We had a full audience and it went very well. There will be a DVD of the performance for us to buy in the new year, but I shared a taster on my Facebook page, so if you are a Facebook user you can see it HERE. If not, then here are a couple of 'stills' taken from it. I am on the right at the very end of the second row, behind a tall lady with blonde hair. The front row are all the soloists.

I am looking forward to finding out what we will be working on in the new year.

We had a couple of nice days at the start of the week, followed by two rather wet and dull days, and yesterday it was so windy I was nearly blown off my feet. Fortunately I didn't go out far, and spent most of the day in the kitchen making one last batch of mince pies, a light fruit cake as neither of us really choose the traditional dark Christmas cake, and some shortbreads.

We are having our Christmas dinner on Sunday while our son is here, so I am almost ready for that now.

Sadly all the cats have taken it in turn to catch a cold and have been sneezing a lot, and curling up in the sitting room, reluctant to move even for food. I am happy to say that they seem to be recovering quite quickly and for none of them has it developed into cat-flu. But I feel a bit sorry for them when the house feels chilly in the mornings so I have bought two new cat beds. Usually the cats are happy to lay on a cushion, or a blanket, but I wanted them to have something with sides to keep out the draughts. It has been really funny to watch them - like they are playing musical chairs. As soon as one gets up, another one jumps in, and then they get sat on and wriggle out. I did go into the kitchen and find Paco and Charlie sharing the bigger bed, which is really very unusual. But they seem to be enjoying them. Tango still prefers my lap to any bed, so he is happy when I settle down for the evening. He jumps up on me and doesn't move until bedtime.

We are very lucky at our little church because Zurgena Town Hall, who own the building, allow us to use it rent free. The only way we can really show our appreciation is by collecting food as an unofficial food bank, and every few weeks, taking up bags for some of the needy families on the Town Hall list. We always make an extra effort at this time of year, and try to include some special treats of tinned meats, chocolates etc in each bag. On Wednesday Keith and Peter, who organise this, together with their helper Hazel,  took twenty-five bags and two big boxes up to the Town Hall to give to Jim, our councillor contact, who will distribute them where they are most needed. 

We also asked how many children were in these families and were told five aged five to eight, and five aged eight to sixteen, so we asked the church for donations, and were able to take up boxes of gifts for each child. It is lovely to offer this small service to our community, and help those who desperately need it.

I seem to have found plenty to do each day but it is nice to sit down in the evening and do some crochet while the TV is on in the background. I am continuing to make blocks for my next blanket. It is a mosaic of various sizes of squares and rectangles, which hopefully will all join up to make a perfect rectangle in the end. I am using six bright colours and a very dark navy to tie them all together. There are fifty-three blocks altogether, two each of twenty-six designs and one for the centre. I have made twenty-eight so far so I am about half way. Here are a few of the finished ones.

These relatively small pieces of work are easier for my hands to hold and good for carrying to my sewing group etc, but sometimes I want a change of eyesight. So when I saw a new pattern this week, of another blanket made as a whole, I fell in love with the design, and knew I was going to give it a go. It is yet another new technique, called tapestry crochet which involves using  two colours and carrying one behind the other to make the pattern. I had no idea there were so many new techniques to learn with crochet, but I do enjoy trying something different. I was tempted to send for the colour pack of yarn put together for this design, but I actually chose the more sensible route of trying to make it with yarn already in my stash. So I chose colours I liked together and had a go. As I am getting more used to it, I am not finding it too complicated. It starts off with a circular mandala, which later will become a square, and then it has a deep border across the bottom to turn it into a rectangle. I hope I can still handle the weight of it. This is what I have done so far.

I will update you as the pattern develops.

I won't be doing much of it today as we are going out soon. Our church carol service is tonight at 6.00, followed by mince pies and mulled wine. We have always held this in our little church, but last year around a hundred turned up for it, and it was quite a safety hazard, especially when we all held a lit candle to sing Silent Night. So this year we have moved to a nearby hall. It is a disused railway station which is used for all sorts of functions, and will easily accommodate all who come. I hope this wind and the threat of rain won't put too many folk off. It is always a lovely event. Of course I shall be contributing a big box of my mince pies.

So before I get ready to go, I will quickly link this up with Annie's Friday Smiles and Rocking Your World. 

And then all that is left is for me to thank you for faithfully visiting me week by week, and to wish you all a very Happy Christmas, and a new Year full of love  good health, and lots of Smiles.