Rocking Your World 2020; Week 31

We all like to get parcels don't we, even when we know what is inside them, and I especially like my squishy parcels. Two arrived on the same day this week, from two different couriers. They were both ordered from UK companies on the same day, so parcel post does seem to be getting back to normal -- for now anyway. One was another 'parcel of joy'. like one I showed a few weeks ago. Inside was some mid-blue 4ply acrylic yarn, and two new crochet hooks, making my range across the sizes in the 'comfort grip' hooks, just about complete.

The second one, from my favourite yarn supplier who has just started shipping outside of UK again, had yarn for two projects in it. First there were these three balls of very pretty quick-colour-change wools. Instead of the one I am using right now, where the colour changes very gradually throughout the big ball, these are constantly changing in quite a subtle way. They will be used alongside the plain blue from the other parcel. (I only ordered it from a different company because it was on sale for a few days and saved me quite a bit of expense).

Secondly in this parcel, there were some smaller balls of a grey beige and denim blue yarn called Mighty, which is a mix of cotton and 32% jute. It is to make another bag, a more simple beach/openwork shopping bag. The Mighty yarn was recommended for it and I thought the jute might make it more hard-wearing. I was afraid it may feel a bit rough to work with, but it feels quite soft, so I will see how I get on with it. I have to finish my current project first anyway.

We have spent every evening this week, out in the fly-free porch. Some nights I have had to resort to using my big industrial strength fan. Chris thinks it is a bit noisy, so when I can, I manage with my neck fan, which has certainly earned its keep this year. The thermometer has shown above 30º right up to bed time, and when I had a late night dip, just before midnight, the water was still 28º. The forecasters have threatened us with 42-44º tomorrow, but hopefully the highest temperatures will be further inland. We are 10 minutes drive from the coast, but we do get the benefit of a little sea breeze to cool us a bit.

One evening we had two of our little visitors again. These two cicadas sat on the outside of the fly net for ages, just resting, before suddenly taking off again.

A short while later we heard some loud fluttering and we saw one of them had trapped itself between the roof of the fly-free and the overhanging roof of the house, a gap of about six inches, and it was fluttering and crashing around. Perhaps because it was now dark, and they usually are silent and presumably sleeping then, it didn't seem able to crawl out to where it could fly off again, and the animals couldn't take there eyes off it. Tango was sitting on the little table next to me so I got his photo and as you can see, he was mesmerized by it. Foxy was the same, but Kim slept through all the excitement!

Because we have no gutters on our houses out here, when there is heavy rain we get a fair amount of debris washed off the roof onto the fly screen, and as it dries it mostly blows away, and every now and then, Chris uses the power washer to clear the rest. But sitting out there, and looking at the last of the evening birds, making a final swoop around for supper before settling down, I couldn't help but see these three little bits of leaf or twig making a simple smiley face in the corner where the net panels join. I felt someone up there was happy to have our company.

Another evening I happened to glance up just as the sky darkened enough to see the moon clearly and I was struck by it's unusual appearance. It was dark around the curved edge and paler inside, and had one completely straight edge. It looked just like a slice of lemon. I said to Chris "Look. Someone has cut the moon in half tonight". He assured me it was like it two nights every month at the first and third quarters. This was the first quarter I think, and of course I had to capture it on camera.

And now for my real happy post. I have delayed publishing this as I was waiting for a very special delivery this morning. And just now it arrived. Let me introduce my new furry friend, ten week old Bartholomew.

He is a Ragdoll cat, from a breeder in Valencia, and he arrived in a little cat-carrier, by courier. Chris bought him as a special lock-down gift for me. I have cared for many, many  rescue cats, and dogs, over the years, so this time I have a pure bred, and he is gorgeous. I have wanted a Ragdoll ever since I watched Blue Peter with my boys some thirty plus years ago, and they replaced the BP cat when it died, with two Ragdolls. He is a bit scared after his long journey so he is not really ready for a photo shoot yet, but hopefully I will have better ones soon. And 'Well done' to Elizabeth, who knew my parcel last week was a cat litter tray. No-one else was anywhere near close.

So now it is time to link up with Annie's Friday Smiles, and Rocking Your World, and I'll see you all next week.

Rocking Your World 2020: Week 30

It has been a very quiet week, partly because the days are hotting up, and when it gets this hot I only have the energy to do what is really necessary. So as very little is necessary right now, I have done very little!!

These little fellows have been reminding us that every day is above 30º, which is apparently the temperature at which they start calling for a mate. And they sure are noisy! In case you don't know, this is a cicada, a creature synonymous with Mediterranean summers. When they all shout together, the sound is like a really bad electric fault in the cables above us. But if you walk passed one, it can switch off like a light switch. They merge in with their background and are incredibly hard to see unless, like this one, it stops for a brief rest on our fly screen. 

As soon as the sun goes down and the temperature drops a few degrees, they go quiet, and straight away the night crickets start chirruping instead. It is a much gentler sound and I like to hear them.

I have two photos this week to keep you guessing. Yesterday the 'man with a van' left me one of these brown boxes with a smile on them. I think we all like getting one of those. I have lifted the top flap (bottom one actually!) but that is all I am going to show you for now.

I wonder what that is all about?

And secondly, although it stays so warm all evening, and we have spent most evenings sitting out on the porch, sometimes resorting to using my big industrial strength fan out there to get some movement in the air, I have managed to do a little bit of crochet most days. So now I am working with that big ball of yarn I showed you a while ago. This is my progress so far, but I won't be showing it any more until I have reached the dark yarn at the end of the ball, so you will have to decide what I am making, or wait patiently for me to finish it!

With a bit of extra time on my hands, I wanted to do something different so I raided my box of 'old' photos; i.e. the ones that were taken before digital cameras were the norm. I selected a few and scanned them into the computer so I could give them a face-lift. Then I worked in Adobe Photoshop to make this layout for my son Mike's 47th birthday which is today. I enjoyed doing that, so I hope he likes it too.

Apart from a long chat with my sister, and one that lasted four hours(!) with my youngest son, that's about it for this week. So I will now link up with Rocking Your World, and Annie's Friday Smiles.

Rocking Your World 2020: Week 29

I am starting my blog this week with a photo of my Grandson, who last week heard he had graduated from Aberystwyth  University with a 2.1 in Accounting and Finance. Clever lad, and we are very proud of him. It was not the end of year he had hoped for, with little chance to say 'Goodbye' to all his friends, and no graduation ceremony. But he also won an award for his contribution to university life, both playing for and also as chair of the Uni football team, and playing in the first team for the chess club. I hope the future holds something good for him now.

Our week has been a mixture of sad and happy, at least for our Spanish neighbours, because yesterday was our Fiesta Patronal, i.e. the Fiesta de la Virgen Maira del Carmen. Here she is on her plinth at the entrance to the village church.

Normally, as regular followers of my ramblings will know, this means four days of 24 hour celebrations, with music and dancing, a fairground, lots of market stalls, extra bars on the plazas and of course food, food and more food! However, with the pandemic still very much in evidence, none of this was possible. It is a very important event for the local people, and for some of them it represents their only holiday.

But our new Mayor, voted in at last year's elections, is very good, and he has done all he can to make it a special few days, particularly yesterday which was the actual Saint's day. He made sure the Town Hall was looking festive and encouraged everyone to decorate their porches,windows and verandas.

Above is the Town Hall and this is a small selection of the decorated houses.

The highlight of the fiesta is the mass for the Virgen del Carmen and they decided to go ahead with that as it was possible to control the crowding. We were warned it was soon to start by the usual volley of rockets that make a very large noise and sound like a set of guns being fired. You can hear a whoosh as they shoot up, then you see a flare followed by a boom, and then little puffs of white smoke. The dogs in the village all start barking when they go off. Kim doesn't seem too bothered by them but we let Foxy in to hide behind the settee before we went out.

When we arrived up at the church we found the patio beside it was set out with neatly spaced rows of seats. We were directed to the local police who were spraying everyone's hands with sanitiser, and asked to take a seat.  I walked around the corner for a better view because this plaza has sections set off at each side, and all sections were similarly laid out, with a shaded place in the centre where an altar was set up. The statue of Maria del Carmen was to the side of it, and the choir was in the back left corner and the band on the right. It was fairly early so there were still plenty of seats.

I went back round to sit near Chris, and before long all the seats were filled, and there were police officers to make sure no-one was loitering by a wall. A few late-comers were allowed to stand at the back barrier, well spaced out of course. Everyone except the priest and choir had masks on. These are now compulsory in all public spaces, both indoors and outside.

After the mass, Chris and I walked to a local bar. We didn't feel confident to go inside, but as there was an empty table outside, we stopped for one drink before going home. I had my first Tinto de verano of the year (summer wine, basically red wine with lemonade, and sometimes fruit juice) which was lovely. While we sat there, there were some more explosions and a shower of coloured stars lit up the now dark sky. It is very unusual to see proper coloured fireworks here. They were fairly basic ones, but it was a nice way to end the fiesta day.

I have a 'ta-da' moment to share with you as I finished my latest crochet project using the grey and green yarn I showed a few weeks ago. As you can see it is a shoulder bag, with an embossed crochet design on it. The pattern was called Meadow  bag.

It was quite difficult as I have never done anything using this technique before, but you know me; I like a challenge. It was awkward to hold with my not very efficient hands, and it certainly isn't perfect, but I am glad I finished it and have something fit for use. The twisted chord handle was a real challenge and I had to undo it several times before I suddenly got the idea. Then it was just a bit of a chore to need such a long piece of it. But I rather like the result.

Of course, for me, the biggest challenge was then lining it and adding a zip. Sewing does not come naturally to me, and I incurred a few injuries along the way, including this bruise on my middle finger! I have so little feeling in my fingers that holding a thread is hard, let alone trying to get it through the eye of a needle. It is a good thing I have a stubborn streak or it might have gone out the window!

While my machine was out, I decided to tackle a few other sewing jobs that have been waiting for me to get inspired. Here I am trying to use the material from two identical, very cheap dresses from the Todo shop, to make one new dress using one of my favourite sun dresses as a pattern. I bet Annie could have done it in half a day, but this is my third day and it still isn't finished. As you can see I am an untidy worker, and let's say I am easily distracted. But I will get it done, maybe tomorrow!

I have also spent some time in my craft room this week. Since I lost Arwen, Tango has started to wander down here and spend time with me. Arwen never made visitors feel welcome! I had lifted a big box of papers out of one of my units, and Tango spotted the gap and was straight in there. Since then he has been here quite often and he always goes straight for the gap, so I haven't had the heart to put the box of papers back yet. When he is not in there, he lays out on the base of my floor fan. I think he likes the vibrations.

And finally, here are a couple of sky photos taken earlier this week. We had a one or two  overcast days so there was a bit of cloud around at nightfall. I saw this circular formation through the kitchen window and went out for a better look.

At first I thought it was like hands forming a circle with the fingers, but as it started to move I clearly saw an animal face, with eyes and a pointy nose, and two flying back ears. Can you see him? 

I am always seeing faces in clouds, rock formations and food, in fact almost anywhere. Often the people I am with can't see them at all. I am sure they think I am mad! So I was very interested to read an article this week that said it is a normal condition that has a name. It is Pareidolia. It means 'seeing patterns, often faces, in randomness!' Apparently it used to be considered a form of psychosis, but now they know that many people do it, and it is a way for the brain to make sense in a mass of random stimuli, by linking them to something familiar. So I am not so mad after all. That's nice to know!

So now I will link up with Annie's Friday Smiles, and Rocking Your World. Stay safe everyone. We are seeing a worrying number of new, small outbreaks of the virus in Spain, mainly to the north of the country, and I know the government are keeping a close eye on the situation, and warned they will not hesitate to lock us down again if it get worse, and UK seems to be going the same way.

Rocking Your World 2020: Week 28

Well here we go again, looking for those little things that have made us feel happy and grateful this week. I think some people are finding the continuing state of virus alarm quite difficult, and they struggle to find those 'happy moments' as each day drags on much the same as the one before, but I am amazed that I still manage to ramble on week after week! So dig deep folks. There is always something to make you smile, and you will feel better for finding it.

My main 'smile' this week is one that may have some of you running the other way, but, as you know, I love all things pertaining to Wildlife in Spain so I was delighted when we got a knock on our door one morning, and a very pleasant young man informed us that a very long snake was hiding behind a pot on our front porch. It was nice of him to tell us, but I think he expected me to scream or throw my hands up in horror! Instead, as I didn't want it to cross the threshold into the house,  I gently moved the pot an inch and as this beauty shot out, I shot indoors to fetch my camera. They move at lightening speed so I was too late to get a good motion shot. It went along the front wall and proceeded to tie itself in knots in the space behind another empty pot. The young man offered to remove it for me and seemed surprised when I said "No thank you. It's fine". Snakes are only aggressive if you attack them and I knew it wanted to find its own escape route. Sure enough, he did come half way out for a good look around, and then went back in and down into an agricultural water drain. These are the best photos I managed, and from them I was able to identify it as a Horseshoe Whip Snake, which is quite harmless and only bites when really annoyed. So left in peace he slithered away and we haven't seen him again.

We heard some workmen outside our house one day, and when we looked we found that our street lamps were being replaced. We have excellent lighting in the village and it stays on all night so it feels very safe to walk about after dark. The lamps were upgraded a few years ago and we had an 'old-fashioned' designed that I rather liked. (Left  hand photo). Unfortunately the glass panels in each side were constantly being broken, and the bulbs seemed to need replacing rather often. So now we have these much more modern ones (Right hand photo), which have no glass to break, and possibly LED lights as no lamp bulbs are visible. They make the actual street and pavements surprisingly bright, with no wasted light going up into the sky, so they seem like a real improvement. Unfortunately, after two nights of a well lit street, all the lamps on our side of the road have stopped working. I expected one of the Spanish residents to report the fault straight away, and usually they are quick to deal with any reported problems, so if they are still not working by Monday I will go up to the town hall and report it myself.

Last week I showed a baby photo for my eldest son along with a recent one taken on his forty-ninth birthday. His wife commented that she loved that in the baby photo he was still surrounded in crochet work. Most of that was done by my mother. She died twenty-six years ago, but I still have some of her blankets in constant use.

Well, once in every decade our son shaves off his long hair for a charitable cause, and although he wasn't due his next crop for a year or two, he decided there was a great need in his area right now, so this week his wife 'did the honours'. She made a collage of the process. He is very shy of social media, but as he allowed this to go on Facebook I am sure he won't object to my small group of blog friends seeing it too.

I love the last one where he is holding his pony tail. Now it is all tidied up it actually looks quite good and he is hoping he will raise a good sum for a local project supplying food parcels and other much needed items to poor families in his parish.

At least he knows it is not permanent and will soon grow again.

Now I am going to share a few photos that are not mine. The first is from a local news group and shows the very popular tourist destination of Benedorm, where the beach was prepared and ready for the first influx of foreign holiday makers. They certainly laid out how it should be, but I doubt whether the social distancing was very closely adhered to. They do regularly patrol the beaches and disperse any large groups. Last weekend, several beaches were closed again because people were not keeping to the rules. I hope they continue to be as strict so that everyone understands that they mean business.

There have been a few small new outbreaks of the virus this week, but they have been instantly contained and kept under control, so we are hoping that opening the borders won't be the cause of too many more.

Next, I stand corrected. I couldn't believe it, when the day after I posted that bananas don't grow over here, a friend posted this picture of the banana tree in their neighbour's garden! From the comments, some others were surprised too, while others said they also had one. I still don't think they are grown commercially here on the mainland, as any I buy are either from Colombia or the Canary Islands. It has a very impressive flower doesn't it?

And finally, my Spanish friend Cati is a keen photographer and says she "loves clouds". Every day she posts at least one photo on her facebook and I thought this one was so beautiful, I just had to share it. It is taken in the early evening from the railings at the top of the village.

The new Blogger was so uncooperative today that in the end I reverted to the legacy version. It is also being a bit troublesome but I think I am winning with it for now. So I shall link this up with Annie's Friday Smiles and Rocking Your World, and get it published before anything else goes wrong.
I don't often add 'funnies' to my posts as they are long enough anyway! But this week I saw a list of puns which always make me smile, so I saves a few of them to share with you below. If puns are your thing, do read and enjoy.

1. Two antennas met on a roof, fell in love and got married. The Ceremony wasn’t much, but the reception was excellent.

2. A man walks into a bar with a slab of asphalt under his arm and says: “A beer please, and one for the road.”

3. Two cannibals are eating a clown. One says to the other: “Does this taste funny to you?”

4. A dyslexic man walks into a bra.

5. Two cows are standing next to each other in a field. Daisy says to Dolly, “I was artificially inseminated this morning.” “I don’t believe you,” says Dolly. “It’s true, no bull!” exclaims Daisy.

6. An invisible man marries an invisible woman. The kids were nothing to look at either

7. “Doc, I can’t stop singing ‘The Green, Green Grass of Home.'” “That sounds like Tom Jones Syndrome.” “Is it common?” Well, “It’s Not Unusual.”

8. I went to a seafood disco last week… and pulled a mussel.

9. I went to buy some camouflage trousers the other day but I couldn’t find any.

10. Deja Moo: The feeling that you’ve heard this bull before.

11. Mahatma Gandhi, as you know, walked barefoot most of the time, which produced an impressive set of calluses on his feet. He also ate very little, which made him rather frail and with his odd diet, he suffered from bad breath. This made him. (Oh, man, this is so bad, it’s good…) A super calloused fragile mystic hexed by halitosis.

12. A group of chess enthusiasts checked into a hotel and were standing in the lobby discussing their recent tournament victories. After about an hour, the manager came out of the office and asked them to disperse. “But why,” they asked, as they moved off. “Because,” he said, “I can’t stand chess-nuts boasting in an open foyer.”

Rocking Your World 2020:Week 27

Well we have hit the mid-point of this strange year, and are now counting back down to Christmas! I have two friends who regularly post on Facebook, how many weeks, Mondays, etc are left before Christmas. It can either be annoying or funny, but I do know that my son's birthday last Friday is the middle day between one Christmas day and the next, so we are certainly on the slippery slope downwards now! And what a year it has been so far. Probably not the one we might have predicted back in January.

Here summer has hit us like an oven door opening in our face. This was the thermometer on our Farmacía yesterday afternoon. (approx. 100ºF)

We never take its reading as gospel as we don't know how much protection there is around the sensor, but the thermometer on our porch which is always in the shade, has shown 35º some days, and by anyone's standards that is HOT!

So we are very grateful for our little pool which Chris keeps lovely and clean so it is always an inviting way to cool down. And one night this week I had my first after-dark dip of the season.

The water remains warm, around 27º this week, even at midnight, so it is easy to slip into. There is a bright light just under the surface of the water, which casts shadows from the ripples on the surface, and the street light behind Chris as he took this one, casts his shadow on the water, so it is quite strange.

After my swim I threw on an old kaftan that I bought in Thailand back in 2008, and relaxed on the porch with the dogs at my feet, as I sipped my favourite nightcap - a dark rum and coke. Who wouldn't be grateful for such a life!

Kim looks pretty relaxed there, but he is struggling with the heat. He does have an exceptionally thick coat, which makes him a very handsome fellow, but also makes him too hot in the summer. He sheds hair all the time but it never seems to get any thinner!

So we made an appointment for him to go to the groomer in Mojacar yesterday morning. They all find him very difficult to handle, and he had a very bad experience with one, and now hates to be groomed. They quite justifiably insist he wears a muzzle which he spends the whole time trying to get off. He is a gentle giant and never hurts anyone, but they don't know that. He lets me brush his back and sides, but touch the tail or below, and he says 'NO!'. So this was another groomer that was recommended to me and it was a very nice lady who greeted us. She was working in a very confined space which made it difficult with such a big dog, but she seemed to have his measure. I had agreed to get some calming tablets from my vet to give him first thing, as we have used them before. In fact our vet suggested using them after she called us from the groomers in her clinic because he was so worked up, she thought he might have a seizure. So he was not sure what was going on yesterday, and was a bit 'spaced out'. It took her 2½ hours, and by the time he was ready to go home, he was still rather wet because I had warned her he didn't like the hair-drier, and to be honest, he doesn't look a lot different from when we left him there, though she did have a good pile of hair from him. But at least he has had a bath and his rear end tidied up. When we got him home, he gave us a mournful look and crashed out on the settee. When I sent this photo to my son he said "Mum, if his medicines makes him feel like that, you could sell them on the black market"

Of course he is back to his old self today, but the bath has made him so fluffy that he looks even more 'hairy' than usual.

We knew she would be working on Kim for a while, but it was not worth driving home just to come back again, so we had our first coffee since the bars re-opened. The tables on the patio were well-spaced out, it was waiter service only, and we were expected to wear a mask except when we were drinking. But it was shady and pleasant to while away some time. When we called and found she still needed at least another hour, we browsed the local shops and I got a lovely fine cotton sundress and a pair of navy shoes , so it was a win, win for me.

I was impressed with the little lock-up shop where I bought the shoes. They had a box of plastic socks on the counter for anyone wanting to try on shoes, and any clothes that were touched/tried on, and not bought, were hung on a rack and a young girl was continuously steaming each one before it went back into circulation. For such a small place, they were doing really well to keep us safe.

Sadly, despite all the precautions, street cleaning, masks, hand sanitizer everywhere, and a smallish community, we were told this week that the first case of the virus to be positively tested in our village, occurred on Wednesday. We don't know which family is involved but I am sure they are being well contained, and hopefully there will be no more cases.

I have had a few small parcels this week but this is the one that pleases me. I think my eyesight is getting dimmer and I find I need a bright light for any sort of handwork, so I have one uplighter at my shoulder when I am crocheting, and one by my desk for computer and craft work. This one had been very efficient for some years, but recently the weight in its base started to crumble, so it kept falling over on me. So on Wednesday Chris ordered two of these rather stylish ones, one for me and one for his office, and they arrived the next day. It has a choice of cold, warm or neutral light, and a dimmer switch to choose what level of lighting is needed, so I am very happy with it.

(I haven't master how to wrap text around a tall thin photo like this in the new blogger, but I am working on it!)

Last week, Lynn, who links to Annie's Friday Smiles, showed a lovely photo of her market purchases, and it made me think that it is long time since I showed mine, so when I got home from the market on Tuesday, I arranged my lovely fruit and veg. to take this picture before finding it all homes in the fridge etc.

Isn't that just beautiful? We are so lucky to be able to buy such fresh items, many grown locally but a few imported - bananas don't grow around here for example, but as we mainly get them on market day, not from the local shops, I have to buy a week's supply and keep them chilled as they don't last more than a few days in the heat. The big golden peaches are not very interesting to eat raw, but lightly poached they are just like tinned ones, and we have already enjoyed some of those. Yesterday we attacked the pineapple so I think it will be some of those luscious cherries today.

And one more lovely picture - my desert rose as it looks now. Many of the buds have opened and it really is stunning.

So now it is time to link up with Annie's Friday Smiles, and Rocking Your World.