Rocking Your World 2020: Week 51

Well this year Week 52 will actually fall on Christmas Day so I doubt I will be posting again at least until New Year's Day.  But there is time to still share a few smiles with you this week.

And first up is that little amaryllis I bought at Lidls a few weeks ago. It is now in full bloom and absolutely beautiful. The first stem has four flowers on it.

And when I turn it round, you can see that the second stem has also grown up tall and has another set of buds ready to burst any day now.

Chris has made the most of the nicer weather this week to tidy up the garden. There was a lot of cleaning up to do after last week's high winds. There is still plenty of colour in the front yard including the red geranium I bought back in October. It should really be hibernating by now, but it still has lots of flowers on it. I also spotted these roses as I opened the window one morning. They grow so high we almost miss them, but the flowers are on a level with the sitting room windows. They looked so pretty against a deep blue sky.

The post man has just been here with a lovely set of cards from friends in UK and elsewhere. But understandably there are far fewer being sent because of higher postage, and inability to get to shops and Post Offices everywhere, so I knew not all my usual card strings would be filled. So when I saw these cutting files by Carina Gardner, in the Silhouette store, I bought the set and decided to make them into a banner to fill one of my empty strings.

They were fun to cut out, and some pieces were really tiny and a fiddle to assemble, (I think there are 20 separate pieces in 'eight maids a milking') but the banner is fun and it was nice to make something other than cards for a change. My Silhouette Cameo cooperated for once, and everything cut well first time, and all the card was pieces from my stash.

One good thing that happened this week is that our restrictions were slightly relaxed. They haven't moved far yet but the one that mattered for us is that we can now leave the village and move around Almeria Province. That meant we could do a major shopping session at the bigger supermarkets and I was able to get everything on my list I had been compiling over the past few weeks. They were all things I had been unable to buy in the village shops. So now the larder and freezer are full and I will only need to pop out for bread, milk and fresh vegetables until Next Year!!

As you probably all remember from previous years, I have a reputation fro making good mince pies, with the result that I am asked to make them to order by several friends, and I also donate several dozen to church meetings, carol service refreshments and Christmas markets. So every year I struggle to find enough mincemeat in our shops. (It is one thing I decided a long time ago, is not worth the hassle of making myself). Usually I end up with a dozen or so small jars, and if I am lucky a larger tub. So it was ironic that this year, when I only needed to make a couple of dozen pies for own use, the only mincemeat I could get was in a giant tub, the like of which I have never seen in our shops before.

However, with nothing else available, I bought it and yesterday the kitchen was filled with a warm spicy smell, as I made just one batch of my special pastry and around three dozen mince pies. I will reseal the mincemeat well once I am sure I have finished with it, and it will keep well until next year,

The weather has been changeable again but with more sunshine and less wind this week. There has been some clouds so of course the evening skies have been interesting. I had so many photos I couldn't choose just a couple to show, so here is a collage I made of just some of the sunsets over the past couple of weeks.

And that is probably it for this week but I thought I'd just share these pictures my sons posted during some  banter on our family WhatsApp group. You all know how important the Nativity is to me at Christmas and I make sure if features in my cards and decorations, so I hope no-one is offended by these Nativity 'smiles'. They certainly made us chuckle.

It was followed by this one, apparently carved entirely from cheese!

Another son added this one.

And here is a slightly 'nutty' one I spotted somewhere.

Thank you to my regular visitors and commenters. I have enjoyed your company during this troubled year. Wishing you all a Peaceful  and hopefully a Happy Christmas. May you all find things to make you Smile through any sadness you may have. Family and Friends will all be there to greet us next year, so make the most of what you have, and here's to a much better 2021.

Linking up with Rocking Your World, and Annie's Friday Smiles.

Rocking Your World 2020: Week 50

So here we are at week 50, with just two more to go in this troubled year.  This week it is all about preparing for Christmas. So of course I am starting with my tree. I love the tree, and although this one is considerably smaller than our usual, it was much easier for me to handle and to dress. And I still managed to put plenty of decorations on it. I smile when I see some of my friends modern trees with colour co-ordinated bows and baubles. Mine is a mish-mash of colour, shape and size, and almost everything that hangs on it holds a special meaning for me. From the silver wreath brought back from a holiday in Ireland, to the scratched and worn red treble-clef added when Ben first started to show his musical talent, I love them all, and the same serene angel has sat at the top for more than twenty years.

Some of my favourite decorations are the hand-made ones. Many were made by myself like these angels that I made so many of for a church project last year, and the beautiful glass 'egg', coated inside with paint and glitter which I made at a workshop long before we left UK.

Some were made by other people, and that makes them extra special. My sister decorated a whole set of wooden pieces for me like this snow scene, and the stable was made by my very talented nephew who makes them from slices of the previous year's trees.

My little red girl and her friend make an appearance each year, ever since I bought them from our dear friend Annie. The bell was made several years ago by one of my older sisters who celebrated her 90th birthday this week.

And although I made the folded fabric wreath, it was again my sister Jean who made all the cross-stitch frames.

Here are some more things I have made. The crocheted mandala was added to my collection last year, and the bauble wreath was made a few years before that. The quilted tree was a little project we all made together at my Wednesday sewing group, and the large Mary and Joseph figures I made many, many years ago after a watching a lady making (way more elaborate) figurines at a craft show in Birmingham NEC. They are moulded on wine bottles, and have survived being packed away each year, quite remarkably well.

Probably my oldest 'home-make' is my nativity scene made from a Woman's Weekly magazine pattern when my oldest boys were toddlers, so some 45 years ago. They are decidedly worn but somehow I can't bring myself to throw them away, so every year they sit on the shelf again.

Another little piece of nostalgia is my collection of pieces I bought when I visited my son in Denmark. I was rather dismayed to find absolutely no decorations depicting any aspect of the Nativity story, but everywhere you looked there were gnomes. This year all my on-line crafting friends are using them on cards, in garlands, and crocheting them, so my Danish ones shouldn't be feeling too homesick.

During this time of lock-down, our Town Hall has frequently encouraged us to use the local shops so this week we visited a 'garage shop' which opens temporarily every year to sell poinsettias. We chose two lovely plants to go with the one we already had, and now all three are making a lovely splash of colour on our front porch. We don't usually have one indoors as their sap is an irritant and can be poisonous to the animals.

The street is also looking quite festive. We watched the men going up in their bucket crane to fix a light to the telegraph pole outside our house. We have had an angel for the past two years but this year it is either a snowy mountain or blue tree , we are not quite sure which, and last night they were switched on for the first time. There is one on each post down the street. We are the last house to get one, and after us there are bands of lights stretching across the road, all the way up to the centre of the village. They are not as grand as the lights in the big towns, but for a little village we do quite well.

And leaving Christmas behind now, here are some of the pansies and violas that I bought several weeks ago. They are still looking lovely despite the very fierce, cold winds we have had all week.

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned how Tango has started to sleep in the little house half way up the climbing tower we bought. It was bought with Tolly in mind, but I hoped the others would use it too, and they would play together on it. Well Tolly had made that little house his own, and he was not keen to see an interloper, so one night he just climbed in on top of Tango. There really isn't space for them both, but they stayed there together for quite a while.

I would expect Tango to move first, but that night he stuck to his guns and in the end it was Tolly who moved out, and up onto the top platform, but he doesn't look very impressed to have been pushed out.

All this week we have a lot of cloud which has been broken up by very high winds - the sort of wind that blows the patio furniture around, and fills the pool with leaves and debris. But the sun has also tried to shine so we have been treated to some lovely sunsets. So I am going to post some of the best, each beautiful in its own way. I should add that the dark plume that looks like smoke, is in fact a storm cloud being whipped up from the N.West, and not smoke at all.

And finally I will link up with Rocking Your World, and Annie's Friday Smiles, and leave you with this image that I spotted this morning. It seems very pertinent as we put up decorations and try to make our Christmas the best we can at this difficult time.

Rocking Your World 2020: Week 49

Here we go again, with a few things that have lifted my spirits this week. My new, smaller Christmas tree actually arrived a few days early and is now up and decorated, but I didn't take a photo in time to use this week. I still have other things to put up so I will leave the decorations until next week to show.

And while on the subject of parcel deliveries, this story will make you either laugh or cry. To fill in the background, there is a well known company in UK, based in the Lake District, which supplies very good quality and interesting kitchenware, cleaning materials, and baking supplies such as spices and herbs. I always loved browsing in their shops when I lived in UK and when I visit my sister we still spend a morning at her local branch. Since living out here I have placed a big online order with them at least once a year.

So I recently spotted a small electrical item that I wanted on their web site, and I added it to my order. I was disappointed to receive an email to say it was out of stock, but was expected to be back in on Friday 27th November. Not wanting to miss out again, I placed my repeat order on the Thursday (my mistake!) and added a note asking them to hold my order until the stock became available. Sadly a further message informed that they were unable to hold the order, and to try again when it showed as 'in stock' on their web page! I wasn't very pleased about this as it did immediately become available again, but checking my bank account, I discovered that they had deducted the postage, although they couldn't deliver the item! Then I got a message from DHL to say I had a parcel from the said company, which was on its way. I checked my account on the website, and sure enough it showed my order as 'dispatched' though I was surprised that the money for it had not been deducted from my bank, but I felt fairly confident that my item was on its way.  - Are you still with me? - Well, yesterday, sure enough my parcel arrived, a smallish box which was so light I knew it had very little inside it. Just in case, Chris videoed me opening it, and you've guessed, it was an Empty Box! Well, not quite empty as it contained a dispatch note saying my item was not available, and large roll of screwed up packing paper. So not only did they go to the trouble of sending an empty box all the way to Spain, but they charged me the flat rate postage of £7.50 to send it! As I said at the beginning, I either had to cry at the disappointment of not getting what I wanted, or laugh at the absurdity of it. 

With a mixture of these emotions, I wrote a not very happy message to the company and waited to see how they would respond. Part of me felt I would never trade with this company again, while at the same time, research had shown me that the only other company stocking the item was Amazon.co.uk and they were unable to ship it to Spain, plus I can't forget the many, many very satisfactory dealings I have had with them in the past. 

There is a happy ending as this morning I received an apology from them and the postage fee was refunded into my account. As it happened, a previous order had contained a voucher giving £10 off my next order if it was placed between 1st and 23rd of December, so I used this and re-ordered, and this time my order has gone through, at a lower price than I would have paid a week ago! So all is well that ends well.

The offending box was abandoned on the floor for a while, and that evening it was taken over by Tolly. Most evenings he climbs into the little enclosed, furry house on his climbing tower and sleeps there, but last night he was not impressed to find Tango had got there before him. (I thought I had a photo of this, but apparently it didn't take properly). At  first he climbed  in on top of poor Tango, but there is not space for both of them, and Tango was not giving in, so in the end Tolly got down and I spotted him curled up in the box. 'I fits so I sits', or in this case sleeps.

I spent one morning in the kitchen this week and made another big loaf. 

Then I made caramel iced muffins, and a sticky date and apricot loaf. That's what it was meant to be anyway, but I had used all my dates in my previous baking session so I used dried prunes instead and it was fine.

I am pleased to say that all our work has been finished now. The men took quite a time to refill the trench and lay tiles over it, and they did such a good job. It is quite a big patch but it doesn't look too bad at all. They managed to find plain tiles that matched one of the colours in the originals. They had to cut them all to fit around the curve of the end of the pool, so it was not easy, but we are very happy with it, especially as there is no longer a leak under it.

Next they re-tiled the shower over the leak repair they did behind the taps. Again the tiles aren't a perfect match, but it is quite usual to see a variety of shades of blue in the pool area, and again the main thing is that it no longer leaks. They also repaired the wall on either side of it, and the tiles around the hose tap, so it is all looking much better. We didn't have the wall repainted as in the new year, the same men are going to paint all the outside of the house and maybe the walls as well. We can decide that when the time comes.

Finally they went round to the other side of the house where they disconnected and removed a big blue water deposito, (plastic tank). These were common when the house was built as it was quite usual to have water cuts through the summer. But we have not had a cut since we have been living here, and the water in the deposito doesn't stay clean, even though it was sealed, so we wouldn't have wanted to use it. So really it was just taking up a lot of space, and it cost a lot each time we had it emptied, cleaned and refilled. Once it was out of the way, they moved the pump and water softener into that corner and built a brick housing around it to protect the electrics from rain water. They had managed to salvage enough of the patio tiles intact to make a roof on it, giving us a good flat surface to keep the hose reel on. So that was another good job done.

I must say it is nice not needing to listen to the tile cutter and constant banging around any more. It also means we can stay in bed for an extra hour most days! Spanish workmen like to start by 8.00 so we had to get up early to feed the animals and clean the yard before they arrived each morning.

The good thing about that is that I had a nice long morning for achieving any work I wanted to do. It also meant I got to see some rather lovely sunrises. I have to go out onto the front doorstep to get a photo of the sunrise, and there is a criss-cross of overhead cables getting in the way out there, but here are three days when the colours were so lovely, I thought the cables could be overlooked to catch them on camera.

I also had one evening when the sun set with some lovely colours too. I liked the way the clouds weave in and out of the rays, making an interesting picture. A bit like a wild wolf head to me!

A couple of weeks ago I took two big parcels to the post office to send to UK. The postage was a bit of an 'ouch', but it was clear that no-one could get here to take things back for me, so I bit the bullet and sent them. One contained a big blanket that I finished back at the start of the year, and I had promised it to my son Mike. It is big enough for him and his partner to curl up under on a chilly evening, and they could probably squeeze the two boys, dogs and cats in too. Anyway he sent me this photo to say it had arrived and he loved it. That makes it all worth while.

I haven't heard that the second parcel has arrived yet but I expect I will soon. It is going to a different area of UK and the post seems to vary from place to place right now.

When Tolly has had his evening doze, he tends to have a 'silly half hour' when he careers around the room like a mad animal, and then he sometimes comes to me for a cuddle before I shut him in his room for the night. So I will finish with this lovely picture of him, looking so content and innocent. he was sitting on my lap and actually leaving my wool and crochet hook alone while I worked on it. He is as big as all the other cats now. He has a beautiful tail, and his colouration is settling down too. I have to remind myself that he is still only a baby, just six months old, so he has more growing to do yet.

And on that note I will link up with Rocking Your World and Annie's Friday Smiles, and get on with decorating the house for Christmas.

ll

Rocking Your World 2020: Week 48

I expect, like me, most of you have very little to write about, yet we can still find little things to make us smile. In fact it is more important than ever to focus on these happy moments, so here are mine.

First of all, our bathroom is finally finished. They came back this morning to fit the last piece (It was missing from the original package). We are delighted with it, especially the walk-in shower which makes life a lot easier for both of us. The room is fairly small and a difficult shape for taking photos so, as I can't show it off to anyone right now, here is a 22 second video tour.

[I have not added a video this way before, so am not sure whether it will work]

Now that is done, we have asked the same men to do some repair work on our outside plumbing. We did ask a plumber to look at this before and he installed a temporary valve so we could turn it off when we didn't need it, as waste water is very expensive out here, and we knew there was a leak somewhere in the outdoor system. It was a bit inconvenient having to turn it on for the shower every time we used the pool this summer, or to water the plants in all my pots, but we managed. However he is a very busy man, and we had given up hope of him returning to do a proper repair. So when we asked Dave (the bathroom plumber) to look at it, and he said 'Yes', he had the builders on his books to do the digging etc, so he could access the pipes, we asked him to do it.

They arrived early yesterday and worked hard to lift some of the patio tiles at the end of the pool. We knew there was a second leak somewhere near the two skimmer baskets. There was a thick layer of concrete under the tiles so it was no easy task.

They dug a deep trench to get below the skimmers and finally found the problem pipe. It was way too long, (Had it expanded since it was installed some 15+years ago? Who knows?), but it had two tight folds in it, so no wonder the water couldn't flow through it.

They replaced the pipe, and filled in the trench, and intended to return to day to re-tile it. Unfortunately, because the house is fairly old, the tiles are no longer produced, so they are going to patch a neat area with plain ones that are similar in colour to the originals. But last night the heavens opened and we had A LOT of rain. It was still coming down this morning so of course the work cannot be completed yet! Typical! We get about a month of rain each year here, and it has to fall just as we have the garden dug up. But never mind. They will finish when they can, and we are not exactly using the pool right now.

Meanwhile Dave started looking for the leak down the other end of the pool between the pool shower and the temporary tap in the front yard. Fortunately it turned out to be in the actual plumbing of the shower, so he is fitting a new tap and shower head, and then re-tiling it, and it was not necessary to dig up the front yard as we had feared. That job is also on hold because of the weather, but the sky is brightening up so he will be back soon to finish it.

So that was the excitement for this week. Monday was the only sunny day and I caught this lovely pink-orange cloud at sundown, the last bit of sunshine we have seen this week. But of course, the ground desperately needs the rain so we are not bothered that it has inconvenienced us a little this week. We have a warm house and plenty to keep us busy indoors, so there is still lots to be grateful for.

I am happy to say that so far our postal service is still working quite well during lock-down. I have received several little packets this week, mainly small craft items, and some larger ones from couriers. On Tuesday I had some lovely squishy parcels which contained the yarn for my next project, another blanket made from 18 inch squares, which are a nice size for me to handle. Aren't the colours delicious?

These are slow-changing colours. The yarn has three strands and the colours change one strand at a time so you move gradually from one to the next. As you can see I have started work on the first square and it looks as though it is solid yellow, but very soon the orange and pink will be introduced. I am supposed to be able to make three squares from each ball, so we will see how it goes. The third one will start quite dark pink and end up deep blue on the outer rounds. The pattern is sufficiently complex that I shouldn't get bored making it over and over so many times.

This has cropped up on Facebook a few times this week, and it has made me smile. 

But really I am quite sad that many of our usual Christmas carol services, crib services, and other events that make this such a wonderful season, will not take place this year. We are in a tight lock-down until 10th December, but I am hoping we will be able to have some sort of celebratory service after that. But even if there is no 'Nativity' this year, it is still "the reason for the season",  and we will be making it as happy and special an occasion as we can. 

I am looking forward to putting the decorations up very soon. We have used the same artificial Christmas tree since our boys were in primary school and the oldest one is fifty next year. I have kept it going for nostalgic reasons but it is getting a bit sad, and I am also struggling to dress it as it is too big for me now. So we had agreed to buy a bit smaller one this year and we were all set to go to the ferriteria (A general hardware, garden and household items shop) to buy one as soon as the lock-down was relaxed. Unfortunately instead of being relaxed, it was if anything made tighter. Even our workmen were stopped by police when they went that way for some materials, and questioned as to why they weren't using the builders merchant in the village - who doesn't happen to stock what they wanted! So we knew we weren't going to be allowed to go there. So in the end I have ordered one from Amazon, and it is arriving on Tuesday. It was hard to chose without seeing it, and you can't always trust the photos online, so I am hoping it will be thick enough to look good when I have decorated it. Expect some photos next week! 

For now I will link up with Rocking Your World and Annie's Friday Smiles. Keep looking for those positive moments and keep smiling.