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.