Rocking Your World 2020: Week 22

Well today I am trying out the new Blogger interface to see if there are any improvements. If not I shall return to the Classic version.

Here we are at Friday again. We have been in phase 2 of the relaxing of lock-down this week, but I can't say it has made much difference to us.  Apart from a trip to the road at the front of the village to pick up some dog food, we haven't left home.

It has been quite hot most days and I have had my first dip in the pool, which was lovely.

I was happy to get several loads of washing dry and put away, including the blankets we wrap up in on chilly evening through the winter. They won't be wanted again for a while so I like to put them away clean so they are ready for next autumn.

I only have a few photos this week. I had to show my lovely yellow hibiscus. It is getting a bit thin and straggly as they really don't like being confined to a pot, even if it is a large one, but it still gave me a lovely show of flowers this week.

This one fascinates me because when it rains, the red centre mixes with the yellow petals, and the whole flower turns orange! But this is how it should look. I love that long stamen, and the bees love it too.

For a couple of years I have had some lavender growing in a pot by the back railings. Again being in a pot limits its life and as they had gone past their best. I pulled them out intending to replace them this spring, but of course that hasn't happened; not yet anyway. Yesterday I noticed that a weed seedling had appeared in the pot and was growing fast. I thought I'd leave it to see what it was, but today most of it had been eaten away. I lifted the leaves to look for the culprit and this wee fellow jumped out. Isn't he cute. Even for those who don't like spiders, you must admit that a vivid yellow miniature one is something special. This is from the family of crab spiders, and they turn up in a variety of colours. It was only about half a centimetre across, but I managed to get a picture, just because it was such an amazing colour.

It was nice to have the local herd of goats back visiting in the green zone this morning. I heard their bells and went to look for them. They were over the other side but I could see they had quite a few young kids with them.

I made a cake today. The Spanish folk rarely use Self-Raising flour, which those of us who are British bakers, are used to.  They mainly have what we call plain flour and they just call flour! (All purpose flour to my American friends I think). I tend to still buy SR at the English shop, but I haven't been able to find any at all locally until this week. I found a small bag of flour that I translated as being for making cakes. It said you do not need to add levadura (generally meaning baking powder here though they tend to use the same word for yeast which can be a bit confusing), and when I read the ingredients it said with 'gasification' which I would expect to mean bicarb soda. Are you still with me? Well on the side of the packet there was a recipe for a plain cake and I decided I could understand it enough to have a go. It needed a pot of natural yoghurt, and then used the yoghurt pot to measure everything else! It told you what heat to set the oven to, but not the time - "Leave in the oven until golden. It is important not to open the oven door until it is cooked completely". All a bit vague to me, but I still had a go and to my surprise it turned out really well, even and golden brown. I had to have a little taste from the end, and it is very nice. I shall add a bit of buttercream or something before we eat it I expect.

It has been a bit windy for sitting outside in the afternoons, so I have spent some time down in my craft room and was pleased to finish a set of sixteen Christmas cards, in time to enter them in a card challenge on line that I try to take part in each month. They are all very similar but with small difference in the embellishments. You can find out more about them on my craft blog HERE.

I have also been continuing to crochet of course. I though I would show you the yarn I am using. It is an interesting colour combination. I bought it for another project but when it arrived I felt it wasn't suitable, but it was too expensive to waste, so now I have put it to good use. I will show what I have made when it is finished in a few weeks I hope. 

On Wednesday, a minute's silence marked the start of an official ten days of mourning throughout Spain, for the thousands who have lost their lives during the Corona virus pandemic. Flags will remain at half mast for the ten days. I haven't managed to get a photo of the ones on our own Town Hall yet, but this is a typical picture from the internet.

I have reverted to Classic Blogger because the new one wouldn't let me add photos. (It is supposed to be easier for those using smart phones). I think I need to do something about syncing with Google docs. I will get my techie man on to it later. He is busy sunbathing right now!

And so it is time to link with Annie's Friday Smiles and Rocking Your World, and I will leave you with this which made me chuckle.

It has been a bit like that for all of us these passed few weeks, but hopefully we will soon all be back on track.

Rocking Your World 2020; Week 21

Well here we are at Friday again already, and time to look back over the week and focus on the happy moments. I am a bit late writing as I braved the small supermarket in Turre this morning. Chris drove me there and collected me and my shopping at the store front, and we came straight back home, but even so it took up a lot of time, but I'm starting by going back to Sunday morning.

I hadn't slept very well that night so I got up early and decided to go for a walk before too many other folk were about. The first thing I came to was, as usual at this time of a year, the slip road at the front of the village lined with jacaranda trees in full bloom. I know I show then every year, but I just love them.

The flowers come before the leaves so they can be seen in all their glory. Today as we drove past I noticed the floor under each one is covered in a carpet of pale lilac flowers, and already more leaves can be seen on the trees. I am glad I didn't miss them.

I crossed the main road and walked down into the urbanization known as Huerta Nueva (New Orchard). It is a part of Los Gallardos but quite separate from the village, and it has a much larger English population than up by us. 

Now you can follow me on my walk, and as I had so many photos I have grouped them.

Firstly the snails! As soon as the warmer weather comes, they crawl onto anything they can find, from abandoned metal to chain link fences, and anything that grows above ground level. They seal themselves on, often in several layers, and stay there until the first rains of Autumn.

Of course I love all the wild flowers, and there were quite a few still blooming although it is now getting too hot for many of them. The big purple thistles were gorgeous, and I like the yellow daisies. The timid chickory is such a pretty colour.

I walked as far as the small lake in the centre of the urbanization, where there is a small area semi cultivated a while ago by some of the residents. It is a bit overgrown now but there were still some good flowers to see. The one a bit like red-hot-poker is a type of aloe vera, the vivid pink daisy is know locally as claw because it claws its way over stones and gravel and gives an amazing show of colour, and the pink bindweed had become entangled with a darker pink bougainvillea.

Along the path leading to the lake there was a band of these - a member of the mallow family I think. They remind me of hollyhocks though they are much smaller.

The ducks and geese were happily gliding across the water - I love the reflection of the trees - and scratching in the gravel and scrub around the lake. I was disappointed not to see any young ones but maybe I was too late for them.

As I was walking around the lake my left foot started to hurt. I have no idea what I did to it, but literally between one step and the next, it started, and I had trouble putting any weight on it, but I didn't want to phone Chris to come and collect me, so I determinedly set off for home, taking my mind off the pain by looking at all the nice gardens. On the verge outside one I saw this beautiful white cactus in flower. Cacti have such exotic flowers on them, even without the bright colours that some show.

As I was walking up an alley between two houses I stopped to take this photo, because I was struck by the three shades of purple all growing together. The top one is of course, jacaranda. The darker one on the right is a potato bush, and the very pale one front left is plumbago. They looked so lovely together.

And in another house this miniature rose was smothering a gatepost. It had so many flowers on it and I thought it was just beautiful.

Apologies to the squeamish, but just as I was leaving Huerta Nueva to cross the road back to the village I saw this poor creature. It is a horseshoe whipsnake which is not venemous, and it is fairly common over here, though we don't get many near us. Sadly they have got used to the roads being fairly traffic free. He was probably busy chasing a lizard or similar. I know a lot of folk don't like snakes, but they are amazing creatures and belong here out on the campo just as much as we do, if not more.

And further to the saga of my foot, I still have no idea what I did to it. I could barely stand on it on Sunday but through the week it has gradually eased and now just feels like a dull bruise. Slowly a small bruise appeared at the front of my heel, and crept along the inside of my instep up to the ball of my foot, but that too is fading. I must wear tougher shoes next time I get inspired to go walking!

On safer ground, back in my garden, I have enjoyed eating breakfast out at the back of the house where it is still a bit shaded early one, listening to the birds and using my phone app to try to identify them by their song. This week it picked out a green finch, and a few minutes later, there it was, sitting in a little tree not far from me.

When I showed the brown speckled wood butterfly last week, I said that we rarely see butterflies here, so I was surprised when another one turned up on the wall. This time it was a small tortoiseshell, but although I took loads of photos, I didn't catch it with it wings fully spread.

For months I have been watching another praying mantis nest on the oleander, so I was really disappointed when I missed the babies hatching out. I knew they had, because there was a fine silk line coming from the nest with tiny shed skins on it. But yesterday I spotted one of the babies sitting on a coil of wire netting. it had already grown quite a bit but was still very small as you can see in the second picture near my little finger nail.

They are cannibalistic and will eat one another if they don't find enough food quickly, but I am happy to have them in the garden gobbling up aphids, mosquitoes and other less welcome bugs.

Earlier in the week Chris helped me plant out my silk tee near the front gate. It was one of the few places where he could dig a deep enough hole to take it. My friends gave it to me as a tiny 'twig' in a little pot, when they moved back to UK a few years ago. I moved it into a big pot and it has done quite well, but it had started to drop its leaves and was looking a bit sad, so I wanted to plant it where its roots could go down for water. It was probably not the best time of year to move it, but it is surviving so far and I am hopeful it will pick up again now.

Yesterday Chris did some more work outside, again cutting back the bougainvillea that grows along the fence at the side of the house, outside my kitchen window. It only seems like a few weeks since he cut it back hard to just a bare trunk, but it grows at an alarming rate. It takes the light from the kitchen, and it is a big job cutting it back maybe twice a year, so after the last hard pruning we decided to try and cut it regularly in the hope that it will thicken into a nice hedge and be easier to keep control of. It is looking nice and neat again now, and it still has a lot of its flowers.

Just one bit of crochet to show this week. I wanted a fun piece to do after the blanket and shawl, so I made The Bluebird of Happiness. Heidi Bears has designed several animal patterns that all use the motif known as African Flower. You may remember that years ago I made Happypotamus and Fatty Lumpkin, and then two years ago I added Max the Bulldog.

So when I saw she has released the Bluebird of Happiness pattern I just had to give it a go. It turned out bigger than I had expected, but it is still cute and I like it.

And now I had better get linked up with Annie's Friday Smiles and Rocking Your World. And I will leave you with this picture. I think we can all agree that the weather has been unusual to say the least this year. Summer has finally arrived for us and it is at least 30º outside this afternoon, and only dropped to 24º around midnight last night. But just a few kilometers from us, near Almeria city, they had a major storm yesterday and this is just one of the hail stones that came down. The video was quite something to see, but I can't show that on here. It probably didn't last for long, but hail stones like that can do a lot of damage in a very little time! I'm glad it didn't get as far as us!

Rocking Your World 2020; Week 20

I am glad to say there are still things to make us smile in these strange times, so here are a few of mine.

My timing may not have been the best, but as I have been at home all the time, I had managed to accumulate a small savings account, so I went ahead and ordered a much needed colour printer. I wanted something similar to my old one, capable of photo copying, scanning, and printing up to a 12" square scrapbook page. These are hard to find, but eventually, with help from Chris, we tracked one down in Amazon.es. My order went through but the machine did not arrive on the designated date. Then we got a message to say it was delayed, and then one to say if it did not come the next day I could request my money back. I didn't want to do that as I had projects on hold until I could print again, so we contacted Amazon and they apologised and said the courier had either lost it or sent it to the wrong destination and they would send out a replacement straight away. Sure enough, the next day this arrived.

We let it stand as recommended, and the next day we opened it all and together we managed to hoist it up onto the shelf Chris made me for my last one. The printer is a bit of a beast, much larger than the previous one. My A4 black and white laser printer below it looks really small by comparison. There is even space for my cutting machine next to it.

I am pleased with the service from Amazon who have always done well by us, and I am quite pleased with the printer. The scanner, is amazing; so fast and almost silent, but I am not too impressed by the colour printing, though it is the best I am going to get with all the other features I wanted. So now I can get back to my paper-crafting.

In the meantime I revisited a crochet project started over a year ago. It is made in 4ply cotton, not a yarn I use much, so to keep it separate I put all the yarn and the worked piece in one of my organza bags. Unfortunately, one of the cats decided to do a wee on it, so it all had to be washed! I spent ages winding all the balls of yarn into skeins, washed them and hung them out to dry. By then I had lost interest and put it all away. So last week I found it again, and the first thing I had to do was to wind all the skeins back into balls! Then I got stuck in, and soon had it finished. Last night I added the final touch, i.e. the fringe around the lower edge. So here it is, my Gipsy Queen shawl.

It is a good size, and fairly heavy, and may be useful on a chilly evening. What next I wonder?

On Tuesday our street market opened for the first time, with only six stalls (25% of the normal number). It was well policed with a one out, one in, policy and police at the entrance to the car park handing out masks and spraying hands with sanitizer. There was only one fruit and veg stall and that is where the main queue was, so I had to be patient, and the range was limited - with few of the current seasonal fruits such as strawberries and apricots, though I did buy a bag of fat cherries that we are enjoying. It wasn't like our usual market at all.

Yesterday I ventured out to the supermarket in Turre. It is relatively small, and independent of all the big chains, but it has a fairly comprehensive range of food items, and I managed to get all the things missing from the village shops. They even had two small boxes of strawberries, so I asked if I could buy them both, and she was pleased. I felt a bit mean taking them all, but they were quite ripe so maybe she just didn't want them left at the end of the day. 

I wanted them to make a small run of jam. It is the only thing I make that Chris really likes, so I always have a jar on the go for him. (I like it too and I love the marmalade, but as a diabetic, I have to ration it more than he does!).  Anyway, I weighed them out today, and I was able to make half my usual mix, and still set aside just enough fruit to make the strawberry cheesecake I had promised Chris for the weekend. I made eight jars of jam, which will be fine for us until next year's crop, but it won't leave me with any to sell, but I have lost so many opportunities to sell over the past months, so I will be focusing on selling marmalade when we get back together.

As you can see I also made some bread rolls. I have been unable to buy yeast in the village, though there is sufficient flour available, but I found some cubes of fresh yeast in Turre, so I thought we might as well have fresh bread to try out the jam on!

With a mixed week of sunshine and showers, and a fair amount of cloud, I have been seizing any opportunity to wander around the garden. One day I noticed that the lovely chumba (prickly pear cactus), was coming into flower. It runs all down the bank to the green zone behind our neighbours' house. I can't get a very good angle on it for a photo but I managed this one. 

The flowers are so pretty, starting a deep pink and gradually changing to orange and yellow. They only last for a day but there are always many more to come.

In my own garden I am so pleased at the way my hydrangea is progressing. It will look beautiful soon when all those flowers open.   The pinks are doing well too. They are very old plants so they are a bit straggly, but see how many buds are on them.

This one is called Crown of thorns, and with good reason. The stems are covered in spines making it very hard to keep clear of dead flowers etc. I was given this by a friend when she moved back to UK several years ago, but it hasn't looked as good as this for a long time.

Again it is worth having a closer look at the flowers, dotted with fresh raindrops this morning

My Bird of Paradise tree is in full bloom too. Such unusual and exotic flowers!

And finally the elephant foot palm I showed in bud has had its week of small, rather insignificant white flowers, and now it is covered in dark red seed pods. After this it will die and so will the leaves around it. Normally when that happens a new baby plant pops out of the trunk, but there is no sign of one yet. I hope it does though.

And that's it for this week. I am late posting but as you can see I have been busy elsewhere today. So I will quickly link up with Rocking Your World and Annie's Friday Smiles, and I'll see you all next week.

Rocking Your Wold 2020: Week 19

So here we are on day 57 of lock-down. There has been a little easing of the restrictions but nothing very noticeable in the village.  Bars will be opening for very limited numbers next week, but I don't get the feeling that many folk are ready to rush back out and sit in public places yet. We are waiting to see whether there is any resurgence of infections before we venture any further than we need to.

But this week we have had sunshine every day, and that puts a whole new perspective on our days. We have eaten lunch out on the porch several times, and last night we sat out on the porch listening to music and keeping busy, Chris on his laptop and me with my crochet hook, until gone midnight and it stayed plenty warm enough to be comfortable. Chris has cleaned out the pool and pressure washed all the fly netting,and the terraces, so we are ready for Summer to come. I actually prefer these days when it is hot, but not too hot, so we stay comfortable all day. And it is lovely to see blue skies again.

While sitting out and watching the birds at the back of the house, this little butterfly landed quite close to me. It actually settled and opened its wings for me.

I believe it is a Speckled Wood Butterfly. We don't get many butterflies down here, so it was nice to see this one.

I did manage to finish my blanket this week so here it is, washed, and ready to go to its new home. 

When I put it on Facebook my son Mike put his name on it, which was good as that is where I was hoping it would go. It is a bit bright and busy, but I think his boys will like the colours, and will snuggle up under it come next winter. It is thick and heavy so will be very warm too. I will have to wait until things are resolved a bit more before I send it to him, but there is no rush for it right now.

I am currently trying to finish one or two other projects that have been lying around for ages, so I will have to be very strict with myself and try not to get distracted by some of the other lovely patterns that I keep seeing. I have got my eye on one smaller item I would like to make, so we will see!!

Last week I showed some pictures of my lovely roses. They really benefited from the hard pruning Chris gave them earlier, and are looking fabulous now. I took a few more pictures this week as others opened up and yesterday I put together two scrapbook layouts featuring the best ones. I used a template purchased from AnnieCDigitals, which I reversed for the second page. (I think its being a Libra; I like everything to be balanced). One page features the red/pink roses and the other the more orange/yellow ones. The backing paper and extra elements come from a range of digi-scrapbook kits that I have on my computer, and the script is my own typing. I am waiting for delivery of a new flat-bed colour printer so these can be printed as 12"x12" pages to go in my 'miscellaneous' album.

This week there has been a full moon and it was shining so brightly as we sat outside that I just had to get the camera again. These two shots were taken seconds apart, just at dusk, and without changing the camera setting, just tilting it to a slightly different angle, I got two very distinct images.

As Annie is a 'sewer', I thought she might appreciate this little piece that a friend in Ireland posted on our sewing group Facebook page. It made me smile, so hopefully she, and everyone else, will too.

And with that I will link up with Annie's Friday Smiles, and Rocking Your World.

Rocking Your World 2020; Week 18

So let's start with something that is sure to make you smile. After all, who doesn't like roses? Our weather has improved  a lot, and the sun has opened up all our roses. They are so varied and beautiful.

Lovely though it is to see the sun, I can't sit out in it for long, and tend to chose the start of the day, when it is cooler and so very quiet. The only noise during lock-down is the birds singing, and with the green zone being truly lush and green right now, there are plenty of birds around. I tried to take some pictures one morning, but they sense any movement and soon fly off, or hide between the foliage. I did manage to get some sparrows.

I follow a wild-life group on Facebook and they have just suggested an app. which identifies the different bird calls. It seems to be pretty accurate too. Even now, in the heat of the mid-day sun, it found sparrows, starlings, serins, and common swifts, all of which I know are there, but I have no skills to recognise their calls. So I am looking forward to trying it earlier in the day, when I can hear more variety.

We have had some wild-life visitors in the garden this week. Sadly this one was dead when I found it. It had lost one of its back legs so probably it had a run in with one of the cats.  To the best of my knowledge it is a slant-faced grasshopper. I haven't seen one quite like it before. I love the eyes.

We also had our first 'darters' on the side of the pool this week. That's a sure sign that summer is on the way. They come every year, sometimes with a blue one too, but they are so small and delicate. Her shadow is clearer than she is!

You all know I love the natural world, so I was  happy when a friend sent this poem, and I thought I would share it. I hope you like it too. (I don't know the author)

Nature’s Promise

“Who will pick our flowers to make a daisy chain?

We’ll hold-on” said the daisies, ”till the children play again.

We are under the same sky so united we will stand,

And the flora and the fauna will hold the human hand.”

 “Who will use our branches to shelter from the rain?

 We’ll stand tall”, said the oak tree, “till the lovers walk again”.

“It’s quiet”, said the robin, ”I do not like it so;

“Then sing louder!” said the blackbird, “and let the people know

 that the flora and the fauna will hold the human hand

 until the darkness and the fear is lifted from our land.

The blossoms will be brighter, and the bird song sweeter still,

 when we all can walk together – and I promise that we will.”

One evening I dug out my little point and shoot camera as I had been trying unsuccessfully to take a photo of the new moon with Venus shining brightly just of to the side, using my phone camera. It took a few attempts, but I did get this one in the end.

Last night I finally made the last join of the blocks for my blanket. It is big and heavy, but I still need to get a simple border made as quickly as I can, before it gets to warm for me to have it on my lap. I am hoping to wash it when it is done as it has had several animals on it along the way, but I am not sure whether my machine will cope. Hopefully next week the finish blanket will be displayed!

In the meantime, I needed a break from using dark navy yarn every evening so I made these crocheted hearts. Each one is about 22 cms wide. The pattern was called "Love Yourself Mandala", and the designer, Louisa Sheward, said that this heart is neither symmetrical nor perfect, just like us, so when we look at it we should remember that we are each unique and beautiful in our own way, and we should be kind to ourselves and take a few moments to 'love ourself'. I started off making one, but I liked it so I made two more which are even now on their way to special people in UK. The original pattern was plain brown, but I made them in rainbow colours which was a great way to use up some of those oddments left from other projects.

Another crafting project I wanted to have a go at this week required just a few materials. Here they are.

I also needed some cutting files which I downloaded from the designer's blog (Jennifer Maker), and my Silhouette cameo cutting machine. I knew it would be fiddly to do but had no idea how many problems it would give me. I had to have many attempts to cut the white parts, and was forced to use a lighter weight of paper than I wanted to. Then it came to the brown sheet and again I had to go down to a lighter weight, but eventually I did get some reasonable results. Then I spent all yesterday afternoon putting it together , so here it is - my apple tree.

As you can see, mine is a little bit on the 'wonky' side, and in fact it is struggling to hold its head up. This is of course, because of the light weight paper used for the tree trunk. I have now received a new blade for my machine (thanks to a speedy delivery by Amazon.es), so I am going to try again with the thicker brown card, and hope it is willing to cut this time. The white blossoms are a very delicate, intricate cut, so having finally got some reasonable ones, I shall try to reuse them, but that project is on hold for now.

We got another parcel this week containing a new drinking fountain for the cats which we ordered many weeks ago, and had almost forgotten about. It works well, but the cats haven't taken to it very well yet. They have another fountain which they love, but it is very old, and the surface is now rough and grows green algae on it very quickly, so we are hoping they will soon get used to this one. They drink a lot of water, and like it to be moving.

I am very pleased to say that Paco's wound is healing well, and there is just a small area left. I was surprised this week when this photo came up on my memories on Facebook, from eleven years ago. We had only just moved into this house and we went to visit a lady who had a litter of tiny kittens abandoned and hung in a plastic bag on her gate. They hadn't even opened their eyes. She dropper fed them until they moved onto a bottle, and once they were eating solid food she managed to find homes for them all. We picked Paco out on our visit (the little tabby with a white tummy, on the blanket), but it was another five weeks before we could bring him home. The lady had a big cat who showed no interest in the babies at all, but her old dog took them under her wing and mothered them, keeping them clean, retrieving them if they escaped from her bed, and let them snuggle up to her to keep warm (it was February). She did a grand job and it explains why Paco was never afraid of our dogs, though none of them let him get that close to them.

And finally I know this is a positive blog when we look at things that have rocked our world, and I have to say that over the years Arwen has rocked mine!  Hence this post.

She was a malnourished, scraggy little rat when we rescused her ten years ago, and had been kept in a cage on a verandah and used solely for breeding. But she turned into a beautiful princess. She was feisty and unpredictable, sometimes sitting on my mouse-mat as I used my computer, and gently tapping me with her paw when she wanted attention, and other times, hissing and growling and striking out with teeth and claws for no apparent reason. She stayed in my craft room though she was not a prisoner, occasionally venturing as far as the kitchen, but she turned tail and scooted back to her safe place whenever any person or animal came near her. Sadly this week we had to say "Good-bye". We think she was around 14 years old. I did venture out of the village on Wednesday to take her to the vet, and she couldn't believe that she was showing no sign of pain or distress, despite the fact that her organs were all failing, and there was nothing more to be done for her. I could have brought her home for a few more weeks but it seemed kinder to let her go, but I really miss her, when I come down to my room and there is no-one to say 'Hello' to. We gave her ten good years of comfort, good food and a safe place to live, so we did our best for her. RIP Princess Arwen. Here is collection of just a few of the photos I have taken of her over the years.

Now it is time to link up with Rocking Your World, and Annie's Friday Smiles. A few of our restrictions will be lifted this week, and from tomorrow we can walk out together but have to stay within a radius of one kilometer of our home, and it is advised that we wear a mask though they are very hot, so I am not sure everyone will stick to that advice. In larger towns there are different time slots for different age groups, but because we have a population of less than 5,000, we can go at any time between 7am and 11pm, so maybe next week I will have some different things to show you.