Rocking Your World 2020: Week 39

What a pleasant week we have had with warm days, and a drop of rain some nights. We continue to have visitors to our pool, most of which should take swimming lessons before they come. This week it was black beetles.

I am fairly certain they are what are called rain beetles. They appear after a heavy rainstorm such as we had the previous night, and they have a very short life. Here are a few details about them taken from Google.

"The rain beetles are a group of beetles found in the far west of North America and Europe They spend most of their lives underground, emerging in response to rain or snow, thus the common name. The larvae live underground, feeding on roots in the soil, and may take up to 13 years to mature. The adults surface when the ground is soaked. You'll never see adult beetles eat because they don't. They have no mouthparts or digestive tracts. They rely on the fat stored from their larval stage. It is thought that on average, males of some rain beetles have only enough energy stored as fat to give them about two hours of air time and live only a few days. The more sedentary females require less energy and may live for months after fall and winter storms."

What fascinating creatures. Well on Tuesday they seem to have run out of energy and dive-bombed our pool. When we lifted the lid of our skimmer basket there were around six of them floating around in it, and a further eight or more were doing laps of the pool before being sucked in to join the others.

My biggest smile this week is the arrival of my new chair. Although anyone is free to sit anywhere, we do tend to always gravitate to the same chair, me especially as I have all my crochet paraphernalia around it! I am a bit of a shortie so a big chair is uncomfortable because my feet don't reach the floor, and for the past few years I have had a small manual recliner. But unfortunately the recliner part was wearing out and not always holding its position, so I have been on the look out for a new one. I wanted an electric one and as I am in favour of anything that makes life a bit easier, we agreed that if we were buying one we may as well go for one that will help me stand, i.e. one that tips me out! It is not something I need now, and hopefully won't do so for a while, but useful to have all the same. It turned out to be quite hard to find one out here at a remotely sensible price, so I was very pleased when we spotted a second-hand one, that had only been used for a few months. We knew the seller so we knew the home it came from and Chris said we would buy it. Last weekend, our friend's husband brought it round for me and it is really comfortable. It is the right size for me and the motor is smooth, and not too abrupt. In honesty I would not have chosen a dark brown one, but one of my colourful crochet blankets thrown onto it, soon fixed that.

(I am very frustrated that the new blogger does not allow me to slide a 'portrait' orientation photos up along the side of my paragraph, like I used to be able to do, and today the legacy version no longer seems to be available, so it will have to sit in the middle taking up more space than it needs).

We managed to get to a garden centre this week, which was nice as we have not been out at all for a while. I got the bags of compost I needed and I chose a gorgeous orange hibiscus. I should have taken a photo straight away as the flowers only last for a day or two, and by the next day it was starting to fade, but I took my picture anyway. And there will soon be lots more of them I am sure.

I also bought a dozen assorted winter pansies and violas, to put some winter colour into the front yard pots.

The front porch flower stand has had nothing in it since last Christmas' poinsettias died so I bought three Sweet William plants which smell lovely as we go out the door. They won't last very long I don't suppose, but then it is only a couple of months before we see poinsettias everywhere again!

You may remember that back in the Spring, Chris planted out my baby silk tree down by the front gate. It is a tiny little strip of earth between our garage driveway and the main path, and up 'til now it has only housed a few cacti. When the "rabbits' ears" cactus got too big so it caught in the dogs' fur and our clothes, we cut it off and threw it over the back railings, where it continues to grow and thrive.  When I water the pots all around the yard I didn't use to bother with that strip as it seemed to do OK without watering, but since the tree was planted at the end of it, I always include it and make sure the tree has plenty to drink. So all of a sudden the cacti have started to grow too, and now another one is almost as high as the tree.

If it gets much taller it will either get top-heavy and keel over, or we will have to cut it off and let the next piece grow up in its place. The big prickly round one, (sometimes know as Grandma's naughty cushion), has also grown a lot, so apparently they do appreciate the water after all.

Yesterday was sort of a sad day but not entirely. In the morning I was able to 'attend' my sister's funeral via a live link. I am so grateful for the technology that made this possible for me, my sisters and Eve's children and grandchildren who live too far away to attend in person. Only 30 family members were allowed anyway, and her family is much bigger than that. Also they chose two of my favourite hymns, "How great Thou art" and "Thine be the Glory", and although those attending were not allowed to sing along with the recordings they used, I was able to at home, and I did.

And that is another week gone. It will be October next time I post. So without more ado I will link up with Annie's Friday Smiles and Rocking Your World.

Rocking Your World 2020: Week 38

Here we are again and for once I am smiling in the rain. We had been promised a big tropical storm over much of Spain, but luckily we seem to be right on the edge. We woke up around 6.00am to the sound of steady rainfall - enough to actually soak into the ground, not just run off, so it is doing some good, without being heavy enough to cause local flooding. This morning you could smell damp earth, and everything felt fresh and renewed. It has now settled into a steady drizzle which is fine. I am sure the agricultural workers around here are all doing a happy dance! And it has stayed comfortably warm so I am still in a light summer dress for now.

The insects seem to be affected by the cooler weather and have started looking for a winter home. Others only live for a season. Someone on the wild-life in Southern Spain page that I follow said that the large grasshoppers seem to be committing kamikaze in their pool, and sure enough, the next day Chris fished one out of our pool. It had been there all night so it was too late to save it, but then he fished out two more visitors who did live to see another day. 

This is the first one. Not the prettiest of bugs but it is quite harmless. I wonder if you know what it is.

Well it is in fact a common field cricket. I had no idea. It is not at all how I pictured a cricket would look. Just at nightfall, the cicadas stop singing and the crickets start. They have a much gentler sound and I like to hear them.

Next to arrive in the net was this pretty one.

I had to look it up on google but soon had it identified as a tiger moth. Isn't it lovely? We had another one the next day, (or else the same one came back for another go at swimming!).

I haven't done a lot of baking during the hot weather, but I saw a recipe this week that I wanted to try. Chris enjoys a fruit cake and I have made boiled fruit cakes many times, but never one that starts with a can of crushed pineapple. Crushed pineapple isn't something we usually see in the shops out here, but I had some pineapple slices so I 'crushed' them in the food processor. I only used half of all the ingredients as we don't eat a lot of cake, but it did turn out really well. You can't taste the pineapple, but it made a lovely moist cake. As you can see, we had to try it out.

Young Tolly continues to thrive. He is almost as big as our ten year old campo cat Luna. He eats well, plays hard, and then just keels over and sleeps. Often he sleeps at full stretch. Just look at that long body and long legs.

On Tuesday evening Chris suggested having a late evening stroll with the dogs. We knew it would be pretty quiet on a Tuesday night, and the dogs were excited to get an unexpected walk. When we had been around the houses a bit, we stopped at a bar that had several empty tables outside. Chris went in to order drinks and I sat outside with the dogs. When the girl brought our drinks out, she made a fuss of the dogs which Kim enjoys and Foxy puts up with so as not to feel left out, and then she fetched them a container of water which they made short work of. After that they laid down and behaved really well, even though a couple further away had a small lap dog with them, which would usually have got them very excited.

And now for the big reveal. I can show you what the neutral yarn and all those beads were for. I joined in with the current craze for making pocket scarves. This is the Boho Beaded pocket scarf by Tracy Collins. I love all the different textures and stitches, and it is aran weight wool so it will be lovely and warm around my shoulders, when I am on my computer this winter. My computer desk is next to an ill-fitting and draughty window! It is only just long enough, and if I ever made another, I would start with a longer chain or work it the other way so I could decide the length as I went along. But it was something different for me to make and I am pleased with it.

And finally I have been doing some bird-watching. These first two are not good photos as I took them through the fly-screen. If I had gone out they would have all flown away. From where I was sitting I could see an old almond tree and it was absolutely heaving with sparrows. I am sure you can see quite a few of them, despite the netting.

The tree is in a gap between our shed and the house next door, and the birds were constantly flying from the tree to the roof top and back.

Under many of those upturned roof tiles there is a small ventilation hole, and all summer the sparrows nest in them. We sit and watch them feeding their young, and listen to them calling for more. But I think most of the babies have gone now.

This morning we went out of the front door so see the effects of last night's rain, and just above us there is a criss-cross of telegraph and electricity cables. Today they were lined in  every direction with young swallows.

I went out for a better look and they stretched as far as the eye could see.

More were joining them all the time. I enlarged a fragment from the cropped edge of this one, and you can just see the next flock arriving.

Perhaps they were meeting up to discuss their travel plans! Very soon now they will be off to S.Africa for the Winter. A sure sign that summer has ended.

And on that note I will link up with Annie's Friday Smiles and Rocking Your World. Have a good week everyone.

Rocking Your World 2020: Week 37

Here we are at Friday again. In some ways this has been a nicer week for me, because temperatures have hovered between the high 20s and low 30s . It is only a few degrees cooler but that is enough to make it feel much pleasanter and more comfortable. So I have spent more afternoons, and most evening out on the porch, reading, crocheting, listening to music, and planning what we could do in the garden. We haven't actually done any of it yet, but at least we have thought about it! There doesn't seem to be any rush to do anything these days, but it will all get done eventually.

Today is a special day for our Grandson Finlay as it is his 14th birthday. His dad says he is proof that something good happened on 9/11, though of course he wasn't born until five years after the twin towers tragedy.  Finlay shares his time between his mum and dad who separated some years ago. Mike now has a new (not that new now!) partner, Lucy, whose arrival increased this week's celebrations in their house, as not only was it her son's birthday on Wednesday, but her other son has his birthday on Sunday, and they have two dogs who are sixteen years old today!

Dave and Ally are brother and sister and it is hard to believe they are 16. Dave is beginning to slow down but Ally is still very active. This year Lucy took them with her for the 6 mile Offa's Dyke hike, and although Dave needed to be carried up some steeper hills, Ally did it all. They are a remarkable pair.

Although I have spent a lot of time outside this week, I do try to achieve something indoors too and this week I had some kitchen time. I love the fruits that are around at this time, especially plums. I miss the wonderful Victoria plums that I used to buy in UK, and eat raw. Out here they are all round ones and come in a variety of colours. So at the market I bought some purple ones that are not wonderful eaten raw, but cook well and make tasty pies and crumbles, and some of the hard yellow peaches that are almost at the end of their season. As an after thought I also bought a few golden plums. I stoned and cut them and gently simmered them until they were soft. 

The plum skins gradually leak their colour and make a lovely pink juice. The peaches hold their shape but soften and you would be hard pressed to tell the difference between them and the tinned cling peaches you can buy. 

Then I prepared the yellow plums. These were actually very nice raw and ate the ripest ones but made sure to keep enough to cook for one dessert. 

Now they are all portioned out into boxes and my fruit drawer of the freezer is full again ready for some tasty winter puddings.

We had an exciting day on Tuesday - well it excited me. I don't know if everyone would feel the same way. Some days when my arthritis is bad, I struggle to step over the side of the bath to use our shower. So for some time we have talked about getting rid of the bath, which we rarely use, and replacing it with a walk-in shower tray, and on Tuesday we went to the showroom to look at our options. We ended up with a list of showers, sink units, toilets and cupboards that we liked! The next day the man came to measure up so his wife could draw up an accurate plan, and now we are waiting impatiently (that's me; Chris is a patient man), for the estimates and plans so we can decide what we can afford and what will fit in comfortably. It would be lovely to have the whole room done out, but even if we end up with just the shower it will be a win win situation for me.

I did a little crafting this week and managed to make five cards, all the same but in different colours, to send to my sister's five children. I wasn't setting out to make 'Sympathy cards' as I thought 'Thinking of You' might be more appropriate, but they ended up a cross between the two. They are now on their way to UK and hopefully will arrive nice and quickly.

And finally I had one of those parcels this week. You know the ones I mean with a smile on them! Inside was another aid for me in the form of some metal tube squeezers to help with some of the difficult tasks, and this bag of beads. They are to use in my current crochet project so I was pleased when they came a day earlier than I had expected. They even came with a handy little tool to help with threading them. They are intended to use in fancy hair styles, but I needed beads of this size with a big hole through them so these fitted the bill. I hope by next week I'll be able to show how I used them.

And that's it my friends. I hope you all enjoyed a pleasant and peaceful week too. I will now link up with Rocking Your World on Celtic House, and Annie's Friday Smiles.

There is always something to smile about, so why not look back at your week and find the happy moments, and add a post to one of these sites.

Rocking Your World 2020: Week 36

I sat down to write this post this morning and then a good friend video called me, and we spent over an hour putting the world to rights, which was lovely. So here I am, in the middle of the afternoon and just getting started.

And of course, having enjoyed seeing so many happy faces of children getting back to their schools this week, I have to start with a picture of my own. This is my two gorgeous great-grandsons, all ready to start in Years 1 and 5. It doesn't seem possible. Their mummy is a teaching assistant, and works at the same school, so will understand any  strange new rules and ways of doing things that they have to get accustomed to. 

Sadly my week was not all smiles as yesterday I received the news that my eldest sister had passed away peacefully in her nursing home. This was not altogether unexpected as the family have been called in on three or four occasions in the last couple of months thinking it was the end, but that doesn't make it any easier when the time comes. Evelyn was 92 years old, and was married for 68 happy years. Her husband passed away two years ago. They had five children, 27 grandchildren, and I have lost track and lost count of the great-grandchildren. So she had a long and happy life, but in her last years she suffered from lung cancer, and I am happy for her that she is no longer in pain. Our family of eight, of which I am the youngest, is now down to four. This is the last photo I have of us five sisters together. It was taken at John's funeral in 2018. Evelyn is the one front right. She was a wonderful support to me when I was going through a divorce with two small children to care for, and also when our mum died, 26 years ago. Although I haven't seen her much in the last few years, I shall miss knowing she is there. R.I.P.Evelyn. (Not a very good photo but the background was very busy so I have partially edited it out; not very well as I can't spend any more time on it!).

When my new kitchen was installed a few years ago I asked for a waste-disposal unit in the sink. They are not generally fitted out here, but I think it is perfect for this climate, as I have almost no organic waste now. (I have no plantable land so there is no point in my setting up a compost-box). I also have three big bins in the back yard for recycling plastic and cans, paper and cardboard, and glass. I take these to special bins on the edge of the village whenever they get so full I cannot close their lids. That leaves me very little for the kitchen bin, so I only take it out to the big basura on the street once a week. This is emptied every day in the early hours of the morning, except for Sundays, but our rubbish has to be in a plastic sack and I won't waste one by taking it out more often. This week, when I moved the bin to take its sack out I found a tiny little gheko trapped under it. It got under there so it should have been able to get out, but sadly I couldn't revive it. It was only a baby, no more than 2cm long, and so thin it was almost transparent. He may have been chased there by a cat in the night as the end of his tail was missing, (it would have grown again), and his legs were a bit damaged. But just look at those cute little hands and fingers with suckers on each one to enable it to run up a vertical wall. We have quite a lot around here, inside and outside the house and they are welcome visitors as they eat the bugs.

Tolly continues to drive us mad and then be so cute you forgive him anything. I try to keep him occupied so he doesn't annoy the other animals for too long at a time, and this toy has proved quite successful. But his favourite is a little pink rubber ball and he runs around with it in his mouth like a little puppy.

Kim is getting increasingly tolerant of him and he allows him to jump up onto "his sofa" and sleep with him.

Each evening I continue to do my crochet out on the porch as I am no good at sitting doing nothing, and I can only cope with so much screen time before I start to see double.

My current project is a study in textures, so there have been a few new stitches for me to try out. I love the way they are turning out and they are enhanced by being worked in aran weight yarn. This is thicker than I am used to working with, but the pattern called for it, and I happened to have a big bag of this very neutral colour that I bought a few years back, intending to knit a jacket for myself. But as knitting became increasingly difficult for me, I knew I would not handle the heavier pieces of work, so it got put to the back of the cupboard. So I am happy to be using some of it now. Here is a little bit to show you the pattern. The project should be finished in another two or three weeks so I will show it again then.

At the other end of the scale, I have a second project on the go for when my hands are not so good and I need something really light to hold. This is made from 4ply cotton, and involves making 90 of these little motifs, six each in fifteen different colours.

Each one is quick and easy to make, but making 90 all the same is a bit boring, so I just keep it by my chair and do the odd one or two when I want a change of eyesight. But 'the odd one or two' soon add up, and I was surprised when I sorted them out today, to see how many I had done. This is my collection so far.

When they are all done I have a further sixty motifs to make all in the same colour but in four different shapes, so I will be working on this one for a while yet.

We have had slightly cooler days this week, only by a couple of degrees, but it makes it so much more comfortable. They forecast rain which never came, but we sometimes wake up to a light cloud cover which soon disappears, and in the evenings, small fluffy clouds start to form, which have given us some pretty skies. Here are a few of my best photos.

And to finish with, here is something I saw today which made me smile. You need to be familiar with story books that we read to our little ones, to understand these. I used them when I was running my nursery/preschool in UK. I hope they make you smile too.

2020 editions of familiar children's story books.

And my nursery children's favourite.

Ans with that I will link up with Annie's Friday Smiles and Rocking Your World. Stay safe everyone!