Rocking Your World 2020: Week 26

How time does fly by, and here's a real reminder of that for me .

0-49 in the blink of an eye!

Yes it only seems like a few years since my first son made his appearance and today he is celebrating almost a half-century. He and his wife are very happy with their move to Sydenham at the end of last year and enjoy being just a short ride away from the city. He is celebrating today with lunch from his favourite takeaway - the famous beigle shop in Brick Lane.

Our week started on Sunday, with what could have been a disaster as the Cabrera mountains were the site of a wild fire. Sitting on our porch we could see a small plume of smoke, that rapidly increased and caused a grey swirl to stretch all along the coast. We soon realised it was getting out of control when we heard the drone of helicopters and other small aircraft that scoop water from nearby reservoirs and drop it on the fire. The sirens of fire engines could be heard in the distance and as darkness fell the flames could be seen from our house. There was one heart stopping moment as it seemed to be dying down and then the flames flared up again, and ran straight down the side of the valley and back up the other side. According to the media, there were 50 firemen and twenty auxiliaries, plus twelve aircraft, all bravely battling against the wind, to get it under control. Military were drafted in with their vehicles to surround Turre in case the wind changed during the night and drove the fire down towards the town. I am filled with admiration for these men working in such scarey conditions. They did a fantastic job and by the early hours of Monday morning they had it all in control. Well done those men - and women of course!

We had exceptional rainfall earlier this year so everything grew very fast as summer approached, and now it is all tinder dry, so some fires are almost inevitable. The local authorities have brought in heavy machinery to clear all debris from the open plots within the villages, as a fire prevention measure.

Here are a few photos taken from our house.

The positive from this is that no-one from the public nor the workers was injured, and it proves what a well trained and hard-working team we have taking care of our community.

I am keen to start taking a short walk each day as I am getting used to sitting around at home and really need some exercise. So I got up a little earlier one morning and walked up through the village and back round on the perimeter road. Sadly my foot, which completely gave out on my previous walk, started to hurt again, and although it is not painful like it was the first time, I am very aware of it every time I stand up, so I won't be walking very much just yet.

While I was out I saw my favourite wild flower out in bloom. Every year this creeper covers the railings that fence off the rambla at the top of the village, and I don't see them anywhere else. They looked so lovely.

They look very pink here but they are actually more mauve. Unlike the white bindweed, these have leaves a bit like the very blue cultivated Morning Glory, that bloomed across the road from us until the fence was taken down and the land built on. I have tried to get them to grow on our back railings, but so far I have had no success. But I have collected a couple of seed heads so I can try again this year.

Next door's garden is getting a bit untidy. The owner has not been able to travel to make her usual Spring visit. She always calls in the workers while she is here, and has it all cleared. Some men did come in and clear part of it, and deepen the trenches around the fruit trees to help with watering them, but left unattended, it soon grows over again. On the area they cleared there is a ground cover weed that has spread very quickly and it too is covered in trumpet flowers, but these are much smaller, and they do have leaves like bind week. I guess they would be considered to be weeds, but I think they look really pretty bobbing around in the breeze, and the bees and other insects love them.

The other thing I noticed on my walk was all the fruit setting on the wild fig trees. It looks as though there will be a good harvest later.

My 'memory' on Facebook from a year ago, showed me the big potted palm we have in the front garden with a new crown of fronds growing from the centre. I wasn't really aware that this is an annual occurrence, but sure enough, there is exactly the same thing this year. The new fronds are soft to touch, but before long they will be hard and very prickly like the rest of the plant. I always try to water it from a distance because if I get too close, the leaf ends stab me through whatever I am wearing!

Our weather has been lovely most days, though it is a bit hotter than I would chose some afternoons, but there had been no rain forecast so I was surprised to wake up one morning to gray skies. I went out the front of the house to look around and on the horizon the sky was a hazy yellow where the sun was trying to burn through, and above that was a layer of grey cloud, and between the two you could see heavy rain falling not too far away.

As I stood there I caught the very edge of it as big warm drops of rain fell, so infrequently you could measure the distance on the ground between where they fell. It never came to anything more, and before long the sun was out.

The next morning it was grey again, and this time I was out the back of the house. We did have a very short shower, just enough to lay the dust, before the sun made it through again. The grey skies didn't deter the little birds though. There were plenty of them around. I think they all have babies in need of regular feeding whatever the weather.

My boys are frequently changing their profile picture on social media but I am very lazy about it so yesterday I decided to change mine and take one with my 'lock-down hair'. Selfies are not something I take very often but I had a go and managed one that I thought I could use. Just then Tango walked passed so I picked him up, but I soon found that taking a selfie while holding a cat was not going to be easy. So I called for backup and Chris came and took one for me. And that is the one I used for my profile.

I am soldiering on with my crochet project but for a little light relief I stopped and made this pair of coasters. I like the Celtic knot pattern and they were quick and easy to do, though a bit fiddly for the finishing off. I have a third one half made that I will go to when I need another break.

And finally I have been shocked by some of the photos on the news and social  media this week, of the careless and anti-social behaviour by a few folk, since lock-down in UK has relaxed. I am very aware that the majority of people are taking the situation seriously and proceeding with caution, but I really hope the reckless few do not ruin things for everyone else.

Throughout the pandemic we have had much stricter rules in Spain and we are expected to abide by them. This 'Royal Decree' was issued this week, and makes it clear that we will not be back to normal until a vaccine is found.

I have to say the masks are not pleasant to wear, especially as temperatures are rising, but with notices like this, you don't risk breaking the rules! And woe betide any visitors who try to as well.

And on that note I will link up with Annie's Friday Smiles and Rocking Your World, and say Good-bye until next week.

Rocking Your World 2020: Week 25

Hi all. Today I am finally using the new Blogger for my post, having spent this week doing several trial runs (later deleted), to ensure I was inserting photos, videos and links correctly, and also resizing and positioning photos as I want them. It was obviously going to be possible but it took me a while and a few failures, to sort it all out.

I actually like the cleaner view as I am typing, so hopefully I will not have any more problems with it.

I have very few photos this week as I have had a 'computer week', which doesn't make for very exciting photos.  As well as working with Blogger, I have tried to master Open Office as a replacement for Publisher. It is nearly time for me to upgrade my computer as I still work in Windows 7 and it does not recommend upgrading to 10. When I do, Chris would like me to use open source programs but I have not been able to manipulate Adobe templates for scrapbooking in Gimp as we had hoped to, so I will probably end up paying for Photoshop on a monthly contract. (Chris will not have any Apple items in the house, so that is not an option). But it has been good trying all these things.

Having settled on keeping Adobe, I also joined a Design cuts group which offered free Photoshop tutorials all this week, and they have been very helpful. So, a lot of hours have been spent sitting here.

However I have had some time out in the sunshine too. Early this week we had two visitors in the garden. This little mouse was swimming frantically round and round the pool, seemingly unable to climb out. I didn't know mice were such good swimmers. Anyway Chris fished him out with the pool net and set him in a sunny spot in the green zone.

When I went back to see if he had gone, which he had, I spotted this little fellow on a branch of the oleander. I thought at first it was a lizard, but closer inspection, plus advice from my Wildlife Facebook page, I think it was a Moorish gecko. It has a longer tail and slimmer body than the usual geckos, but you can just about see the suckers on its feet that it uses to shoot up vertical walls. Lizards have more claw-like toes.

I have also spent a lot of time watching the birds. Every morning and evening the swifts and house martins have a feeding frenzy over the green zone. It was difficult to capture the real feel of their aerial show on my phone, but I had several attempts. I  spent another morning trying to edit something worthwhile out of one of them. Again Chris was able to find an open source video editor that was free, and after a lot of trial and errors, I got this one, and as I have mastered getting them to Blogger without uploading them to the internet first, I will add it here.

The house next door is a sparrow hotel, with loads of pairs bringing up their young in the tiny ventilation holes under the tiles. So the house martins nest in the eaves of another tall house just up the road from us. You can see the parents constantly flying in with food for their young and going off again for more. I stood and watched them for a while but they are too quick, and the nests are too dark to get really good photos. But these were my best two. You can just see the adult bird with its head in the nest in the first one.

And, of course, I am continuing with my crochet project. It is definitely a challenge but I am persevering with it.

It is a change for me to be working with cotton-based yarns, but I know I will return to my favourite acrylic DK as soon as it is cool enough to handle it. I stick with the same make as it has a wide range of colours, over 50 now I think, and is usually easily available online from UK. They are not posting internationally right now but I am sure they will again soon.

Recently they added five new colours to their range, and as I try to keep one ball of each colour in my stash, I wanted to buy one of each of these, but they sold out very fast. People have been asking for the purple for so long, so I think they all rushed out to buy them. And the orange and yellow are more gentle tones than their other very bright ones. So when I saw a different company had them back in stock I ordered one of each, plus one of the navy that I used up on my previous blanket project, and they came this week.

Chris took the parcel in and handed it to me with a gruff "Feels like more wool!", and of course he was right. But what tickled me most was its wrapping. As is usual, the wool was tightly packed in an organza drawstring bag, and this was inside a tough plastic posting bag. These are often grey but this one was bright yellow, and printed into the design were several of these signs.

How right they are. And it made me smile.

The wool is lovely too of course. I shan't be using it yet so it has joined the rest out in the garage, but I am glad to have brought my stash up to date again.

And now it is time to link up with Annie's Friday Smiles, and Rocking your World over at Celtic House.

P.S. Just a quick update on my neck fan which raised some interest when I showed it. It is very good, light-weight and comfortable to wear, and gives a gentle cooling stream of air. The heads can be rotated through 360º, and there are three speeds though I have so far only used the slowest one, plus various coloured lights, and the possibility to add drops of essential oils to them if you want to. I think they were a good buy. There are several makes available in Amazon and other sites I am sure.

Rocking Your World 2020: Week 24

I saw this  the other day. It is just one of many that are around right now, but point number 8 is the reason we are here each Friday, to share the happy moments and things that have made us smile this week.

So here are my happy moments. I think 'Bright and Breezy' best describes our days this week. There has been enough wind to keep the temperature at a comfortable level, though for a couple of afternoons it has got a bit too windy for sitting outside. We even had two days of intermittent rain, but that made me smile too as I didn't need to get the hose out for all my pots of flowers.

They are loving the weather and the front yard is looking good. That hydrangea I showed you in bud a few weeks back is now in full flower.

.. and so are the pinks.

One of the roses decided to flower again and I counted a dozen buds on it, most of which have now opened. The stems can hardly hold them up. It looks much more beautiful in real life.

I saw this wasp on my Crown of thorns. It isn't the annoying common wasp. This one is a good pollinator and not aggressive.

The silk tree we planted out a couple of weeks ago, is much happier in its new home than it was in a pot. It only took a couple of days to settle in, and of course, the rain had helped. It soon had bigger leaves and more of them, though sadly it shows no sign of flowering yet. It has a rather thin stem/trunk right now so we used a sturdy pole to support it, and within a week there were new shoots emerging all the way up it, which are now 
doing well. 

When I bought our Bird of Paradise tree I inquired about a silk tree, and the dealer told me he didn't stock them because they are too expensive, and he couldn't sell them. So I was very grateful when a friend, moving back to UK, dug up this self-seeded baby from their garden for me. It was a tiny little thing then so I am pleased at the way it is growing now.

Back last May, when we were driving our son and his wife back to Almeria airport, we stopped off in Nijar to visit the cactus garden. We bought a few plants there, and one was this desert rose. It had two flowers on it at the time, but once they died, it looked a bit sad, and I wasn't sure it would survive. I have tried moving it to various locations to offer it more sun, and have ensured it has sufficient, but not too much, water. This May it was still not showing much sign of flowering though there were a few new leaves growing, but now it has one lovely flower and several buds ready to open. So I am really happy to see that.

But enough of the garden. I have done some card-making in the afternoons, but my evenings are still spent mostly crocheting, while watching TV or sitting out on the porch with some background music on. This is my current project. It is proving too be very 'challenging', so I won't show you more until I prove to myself that I can do it!

During the summer months I am working mainly with 4ply yarn which is lighter than my usual DK, and mostly with cotton, or cotton mix yarns. Fortunately I can buy this at a local shop, as my favourite online yarn store is still not sending out of UK. This bag has what I need for two other projects. I have the patterns for them, but goodness knows when - if ever - I get around to making them.

This lot I did send for just before lockdown. It will be my 'go-to' project when I am not in the mood for anything more complicated. It requires a lot (over 100) of small motifs which are relatively simple to make, so I can pick it up and make a few more whenever I want something quick and easy to do.

And as if that wasn't enough to have going on, I had some happy mail this week with this big ball of cotton and pattern book. It was from a company that I know takes their time with deliveries, but there was no rush for it, so I took the chance, and actually it arrived sooner than I expected. So that was a nice surprise. I had to buy a big book of patterns just to get the one I wanted, but actually there are several items in it that I might have a go at one day!

The Christmas before last I was visiting my son in Manchester just at the right time for the big Christmas market there, and one of the things I bought was a metal spinner. It is made up of lots of concentric metal rings in blue changing to gold further into the centre, with a gold sun in the middle, and the centre piece is a big colourless crystal. Other crystals hang in a metal spiral under it, and as the wind blows it round there is a lovely effect of circles moving outwards and changing colour. Unfortunately, where I was able to hang it, in the archway of the porch, it is too sheltered to spin very well, so I managed to buy a small motor for it. This week Chris suddenly realised he could realign one of the porch lights so that it shines onto the spinner, so with that and the motor running, I had a beautiful light show. It is quite mesmerising to watch. I took a video of it and tried to collect a few stills from it. I made a strip to try to show the effect. It is not very good but it's the best I can do. I am sure you get the idea.

Time now to link up with Rocking Your World, and Annie's Friday Smiles.

And that, lovely people, is it for this week. Take care everyone, and I'll see you next week.

(P.S. A message for Virginia on Celtic House. I cannot get my comments to publish even though I do send one every week. I think the problem may be in your settings as others can see my comments. Is there any other way I can contact you? Via WhatApp etc, so you can cut and paste it in yourself. I understand your desire for privacy so the lack of contact details on your page, but I don't know how else to do it.)

Rocking Your World 2020: Week 23

Well it is week 23 so we are almost half way through the year. It is day 85 since our lock-down began, and Spain is slowly returning to some sort of normality, though we have a way to go yet. There are certainly more people on the streets and beaches, but most are being sensible and keeping their distance from others, wearing face masks where appropriate etc. 

One thing that I am grateful for is a big improvement on postal services. I have just been interrupted by our postman, (he sounds his car horn and shouts from the gate these days) and he had not one, but four packets waiting for me. They were mostly small internet orders, but some were dispatched a month ago, and I was beginning to wonder where they were. One was the new SIM card for my phone because I changed provider to one called Lobster, which is specifically for English speaking people living in Spain. I have just activated it but, because I want to keep the same number, I may have to wait for 24 hours before  can use it for calls.

Last week I showed you the yarn I was using and several of you have showed an interest, so here is what I made as I posted it on Facebook earlier in the week.

It is a really warm shawl/wrap, that I will enjoy using next Winter. The design is called Lost in Time by Johanna Lindahl. It was a 12 row repeat pattern and I did eight repeats. I finished it with just yards of wool to spare. On my post I said I was waiting for some special yarn to arrive and if I liked it, I would add the border. It wasn't essential but does give it a nice finish. Well the next day the purple wool arrived, and the following day I also got the rust lurex yarn, so I did add the border and I am happy with that.

So what to make next? well I have the yarn ready for not one, but four smallish projects. They are all using cotton yarn, which should be easier to handle in the Summer. I am not sure which I will do first, but knowing me I will be dabbling in all of them, and see which I enjoy. There is no point in doing it if I am not enjoying it which explains why I have two other projects on the back burner because I was finding them dull to work on.

One other order that arrived this week is a personal space - neck fan. I have to say this is more efficient than I had expected, and it will be really useful for me. I am a bit of a 'hot-bod', and often want the fan on when Chris is still in a jumper. I particularly get a hot face, so this will be perfect when it is just me overheating!

We had an unknown visitor this week. I was sitting on the porch and when I looked up this was on the outside of the fly net.

It was quite big but I had no idea what it was so I went out to get a closer look. (Not too close I might add. It looked quite fierce). So I took another photo from the front and posted it on the Wildlife in S.Spain Facebook group that I belong to.

I was soon told that it was a robber fly, more commonly known as an assassin fly! I am not sure why it has that name as it is relatively harmless, at least to humans. I google it and apparently it is very fast and can catch insects in flight. It does not have a sting, but it can give a nasty bite 'when seriously provoked'. I wasn't about to provoke it; I just left it alone and after a short rest it flew off. I am grateful to the people on that site who have identified various beasties for me, and occasionally I have helped them too. I do like to know who or what I am sharing my space with. This one eats a lot of garden pests so he is a welcome visitor as long as he keeps his distance from me!

I had another welcome visitor this week, and it was a truly magical moment. Since showing you the elusive Hoopoe bird a few weeks ago, I have discovered that there is a nesting pair somewhere nearby. My bird app. has picked up their call on several occasions, but I had never seen one again, until this week. I was in my craft room using my computer, which is near the window, and I saw a bird fly past quite close. I looked up and there he was, sitting on our back rail, just a few feet away from me. I said 'hello' to him and he sat looking straight at me for a minute, but I couldn't move to reach for my camera, so sadly there is no photo. Since then I have been on Youtube and found a recording of its call. I went out the back and played it and sure enough I got an answering call. Twice it flew past but much too quickly to photograph it. Very soon they will be moving on to their summer home, but I am hoping they will return to nest again next year.

This week the sunshine has brought our oleander out in bloom. It is a more ornamental one than the common one that abounds everywhere. It has variegated leaves and a double flower, and it is so pretty. They are almost like little roses. Fortunately it grows behind the back railings so I can keep cutting it back as it is poisonous to animals, and the sap irritates human skin, so I try not to let it invade the garden. It has grown quite tall, and towers above other plants so we get to see it without needing to touch it.

Just below these is the railing that we are training the bright pink bougainvillea along. There is a small gate that divides the back and side yards from the main  one, and we keep it closed to keep the dogs safe. This bougainvillea is not such a robust grower as the more common purple-pink one, but every now and then it send out a long shoot which we usually cut off if we can't weave it along the railings, just to keep the gateway clear. But one reached across the small opening with the gate and got as far as our bedroom window, so I attached it there, just high enough to duck under if we need to. It is now even longer so I am going to try to train it up over the top of the window railings rather than across the bottom as I don't want to shut out the light, and we do need to raise and lower the fly screen and blinds each day throughout the summer.

And finally to some sky scenes. We haven't had any of those for a while, but last night, after a lovely day, clouds started to gather and I said to Chris that if we were lucky we might get a nice sunset. I started off looking more to the East, where the clouds were coming from, and they were picking up some reflected colour from the West.

Then suddenly they parted a little and I saw the full moon rising.

The clouds were moving back and to across it and soon it disappeared, not reappearing until well after dark.

Meanwhile, behind me, the sun was slowly sinking behind the hills, giving us a beautiful golden sky which soon turned fiery and then disappeared. 

I've included this last photo because if you look very closely you might be able to see at least eight little birds having a final feeding frenzy before going back to their roosts for the night.

A few minutes earlier they had been swooping and diving in the green zone. The insects are busy in the evening and it is a feast for the  house martins and swifts - the acrobats of the sky. They are amazing to watch. I am very grateful for where I live, and the moments of joy that I get watching the wild life all around our house.

So now I will link up with Annie's Friday Smiles and Rocking Your World.

There were several comments on the new blogger last week. Chris went on to their page and it was just one complaint after another about the problems of adding photos, so I am hopeful they will resolve the problem before we are compelled to use it. Otherwise I will have to investigate Word Press, but I would rather not change if they can make it more user friendly.