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.