Rocking Your World 2021; Week 9

Good morning everyone. I am starting today with a great quote I came across, that seemed very relevant to this post, as Rocking Your World is aimed at looking at those things that have made us feel grateful this week, and Annie wants to see what has made us smile. And even in these difficult times, we can all find something to smile about.

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we

have into enough, and more. It turns denial into

acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It

can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a

stranger into a friend." Author Unknown.

So here are the highlights of my week. I had a lovely messenger chat with my grand-daughter and she sent me these pictures of their latest family member,  a gorgeous little cockerpoo called Lady.

It is her husband who has always wanted a dog, but the boys are obviously thrilled with her.

Isaac and Alfie had to return to school, but after just two days, Isaac is again isolating at home because someone in his 'school bubble' is positive! The upside for him is that he is now responsible for looking after Lady so that his dad who is working from home, can get on with what he has to do. He looks quite happy with that arrangement.

It has been another quiet week. Unfortunately we are one of only eight municipalities in Almeria that is still under lock-down. Everywhere else has a rate below 500 per 100,000 so they can now leave their homes to travel to other towns nearby, albeit under quite strict conditions. Our rate in the village is coming down. We are currently at 732, which is a lot better than the 1,330 we were at, so because we are below 1,000 now, non-essential shops plus bars and restaurants, can open for limited hours. That doesn't make a big difference to us, but we are hoping to get below the magic number of 500 by next week, so we can go to the bigger supermarkets beyond our village, and travel elsewhere if we want to.

We are getting a small market each Tuesday, so I went there this week and it was lovely to see the new season's fruit and veg in plentiful supply. I was able to replenish the chill compartment of my fridge which was looking a bit empty, and as a treat we bought a spit-roasted chicken and chips to bring home for lunch. It is a simple meal, but a treat all the same as I didn't have come up with an idea of what to cook, and it was very tasty.

Out here, when we reach a certain age we are entitles to what is called a sesentacinco card (65 card). Chris has his, but I have never bothered to apply for one. It does give us discounts on some things like travel, and shops, but I have not really needed one. 

But now we want to apply for something else which does require me having one so I downloaded the form to fill in and found I needed to send an up to date passport size photo. There was no ruling about not smiling, taking off glasses etc, so I decided to go for another selfie and after about ten discarded attempts, I settled on this one. I hope it is acceptable. I am not sure how long I will keep long hair for, though I am quite happy with it for now, but I have a feeling it won't last as long as my 65 card will!

We have something to look forward to as we have both ordered ourselves a new office chair. We had our current ones at much the same time, and they get a lot of use. Mine to scoot between my computer desk and craft space, and Chris for the many hours he spend on his computer. We have ordered them online which is a risk, but it could be quite a while before we can go anyone to 'try them before we buy them'. They are to be delivered on Monday.

I had a walk around the garden this morning. It is a lot colder again this week, with grey skies most days, but once Spring begins to show signs of coming, you can't really stop it. I was delighted to find my first freesias in flower, and there are still a few pansies smiling out at me from Chris' office window box. There is lots of new life on the hydrangeas. It is almost time to cut off the dead heads from last year. I read somewhere that you should leave them for the winter as they offer some protection to the new shoots in the cold.

I also found some buds on the squill. I didn't think I was getting any this year, but when they start to appear, they grow very quickly. In a few weeks I hope there will be some nice cones of blue flowers. They are one of the few really true blue flowers that I know. The bottom part of this photo is from a few years ago to show what they will be like soon.

I mentioned I was recycling some Christmas cards last week and some folk were quite interested so here are some I made. They are now posted on my blog challenge so you can read more about how I made them HERE.

And that's about it for this week. I shall link up with Rocking Your World and Annie's Friday Smiles. We would love you to join us and share your happy moments too.

Rocking Your World 2021: Week 8

Hello my friends. I'm a bit late posting today as I needed to finish a card this morning to get to our Post Office at lunch time. It is only open 1.00 - 2.00, so I have to time it right. Mail is taking an age to reach UK right now so I wanted it to start its journey before the weekend.

Once again we have had a mixed week weather wise. On Saturday it was like a Summer Day; really quite hot early afternoon, and the sky was a clear blue all day. On Sunday the Cabrera mountains huddled under a thick mist, making them almost invisible. Here they are on the two days, as seen from the back of our house.

One morning there was a lot of noise coming from across the road, and I spotted this line of starlings all chattering, probably discussing the weather just like us! (Sorry about the wobble. My hands aren't steady enough to take long zoom photos without a tripod!)

The last couple of weeks we have noticed a lot of activity around our purple flowering shrub. (Polygala myrtifolia for those who like to know. Also sometimes called the sweet pea bush). It turned out the carpenter bees were back and busy visiting the flowers. They love this bush and always come to it, though we don't often see them anywhere else in the garden. I love these bees. They are the largest that I know of out here, sometimes as much as 2cm along their body, black with beautiful iridescent blue wings that shine in the sun. They make a lot of noise flying by you, and sometimes crash around a bit, but they are totally non-aggressive. They don't live in hives, but are solitary creatures, boring holes up to an inch in diameter in any wood, to lay their eggs. Hence the name Carpenters. The shrub, or tree as it is now, had loads of them flying in and out of the flowers, but they wouldn't sit still enough for me to get a picture of them this time. In this picture you can just see one hovering out in the space alongside the tree, but there are loads more in the flowers that you can't see.

So I am adding this picture, two images from the internet and two of my own from previous years, so you can see them properly. Aren't they the most beautiful creatures?

Something else that has made me really smile this week is our jasmine starting its annual display of blossom. That is a sure sign that the warmer days are here. By next week you won't be able to put a pin between the flowers and their scent will fill the whole house. You can see all the buds covering it now.

We managed to pot up our palm tree in the new container, and Chris has been busy weeding and pruning, so the garden is looking good now.

I have as usual, been busy in my craft room. I have made a set of Christmas cards from the ones I received last year. I always like to add die-cut frames, fancy papers and sentiments so that each one looks quite different from the original. I won't show them here as I will be using them for my monthly Christmas Challenge next week.

I have also done quite a bit of crochet in the evenings though I sometimes have to wait until Tolly has been put to bed. (He sleeps in our small spare room so that he doesn't run out on the road at night. The others have a cat-flap in the back door and are free to come and go as they please). He loves to play with my yarn and crochet hook so I can't do much when he is around. But I have finished another three squares from a whirl ball called Key lime. It is fun watching the colours gradually change so you end up with three very different squares.

The next set will move through purple and pink to red and orange. That will be a bit different. This whirl is called Red velvet sunrise, though I think it is more like a sunset!

I have also made a good start on my cardigan with the green wool I ordered recently. I quite like how it is working up. I am hoping it doesn't get too heavy for me to hold, which is why I am doing the largest piece first.

And apart from lovely long chats with our boys that is about it for this week. So I will link up with Rocking Your World and Annie's Friday Smiles before I come round to visit everyone else.

Rocking Your World 2021: Week 7

 So another week rolls by. I thought I didn't have any photos this week, but I have found quite a few, so here goes.

It has been a mixed week of some sunshine, some very dirty rain that left Sahara red sand on everything, and some very high winds, but most days it has been reasonably warm, and again we have enjoyed sitting on the porch some afternoons, to read, browse phones and doze.

The warm weather at the weekend caused the almond trees at the back of us to suddenly burst into blossom. It is a little bit later than usual, but it certainly approved of the warmth. But a few days later we had really fierce winds that howled around the corners of the house, and the next morning, every bit of blossom on the main tree had disappeared. I hope the bees and other bugs had time to pollinate them. There is one very old almond tree that grows behind our railings, but it is starts right down at the bottom of the green zone, some twenty feet below us, so it is more sheltered, and although it doesn't blossom so freely, it does still have a some flowers on it.

They are so pretty, but very delicate, so it is no wonder they get blown away.

Three weeks ago, my son in UK sent me a parcel, and in just five days it had arrived in Spain. It then took over two weeks to travel from Madrid to me. I realise that every parcel is carefully scrutinised now, and taxes and import duties are added wherever relevant, but it seemed a lot longer than 3 weeks that I was tracking it, and seeing little progress. However, yesterday it turned up and a nice surprise was that I was not charged any extra to receive it. (We have seen some pretty horrendous stories about this, so I was expecting a bill of some sorts). Anyway, I knew what was inside; it was his 'old' mobile, which has a damaged screen but the best camera he has ever had on a phone so he says, and he knew I would like that. The screen is quite damaged but it doesn't affect using it, and the camera is in perfect condition. My old phone (also one of his cast-offs) was failing so I am happy to have this one now. I wanted to try out the camera so here are my first few shots. They are not perfect because the light was failing by the time I got around to it, but see what you think. First, a close up of the pink bougainvillea.

Next a selfie! I don't usually take these, and they always show up my lazy eye that many folk don't normally notice. My grand-daughter spent some time trying to teach me to take better selfies, but I can't hold the phone far enough away, and steady at the same time. This has the feature which mirror images what you take. Selfies automatically mirror images themselves and it doesn't look right to me, but this feature reverses them again so they look more natural.

None of our animals are natural posers and they usually turn and run if they see me holding a camera. But I did manage to get a nice pose of our handsome boy Kim.

This morning I thought I'd try to catch Tolly with his lovely blue eyes, but he wasn't having any of it. But I stood over him and shook his biscuit box and he looked up, and I just managed to get this one before he looked away again.

This morning it has been really sunny and the warmest we have had all week. I think I will even swap my long-sleeved shirt for a short-sleeved one before I take our lunch outside. I stripped the bed as soon as we were both up, and the sheets are now blowing on the line. They will be dry in no time. Then we drove to the bottom of the village, where there is a recently expanded pet food and accessories store. It is a wee bit more expensive than the supermarkets but it is within the zone we are allowed to move in, so needs must etc. We got a couple of sacks of dog food, a big bag of cat biscuits, some of the special dietry food that Tango needs and a bag of kitten food for Tolly. He looks too big now to be on kitten food, but he is only eight months, so when this bag is almost gone, I may start mixing in some adult biscuits to see how he gets on with them. 

The same place also sells bags of compost and a good range of decorated stoneware pots, and we bought a lovely big one to replant our palm  tree that stands at the end of the swimming pool. It had really outgrown the plastic one it was in when we moved here, and it is brittle and cracked from the sun. This one looks so much better, and it will be heavy enough for the tree to stay standing, instead of blowing over like it does now, every time a gust of wind catches it. So tomorrow morning's task will be to get it potted up.

Now I have a lot of sky photos! This wild and windy, and partially cloudy weather does tend to give us some interesting evening skies, and I just can't resist taking photos of them. I had so many and couldn't chose which to use, so I have grouped them together. You should be able to click on each group to expand them a bit. 

So Starting with last Saturday..

It looks as though there is a wild fire blazing behind the hill, but it really is a fire in the sky. I like the way the light breaks through and sends rays up over the greyer clouds above.

Sunday was a calmer scene but still lovely. It's a shame I caught the end of the washing line with all the pegs across the corner of the top one. I thought the bottom one looked like a face, but you know me and faces in the clouds!

Tuesday was the end of the the high winds so the clouds were broken up and each one had a golden lining.

Wednesday was different again. It had been a bit overcast all day and I hadn't expected to see much colour in the sunset, but we were suddenly wrapped in a gentle pink and purple blanket. It was so calm and still, and I just sat on the bench at the back of the house and waited to see how it developed. I wasn't disappointed, as the colours deepened a bright light broke out below them, turning to the vivid purple and yellow of the last shot, and then it was gone!

And a final photo that is not mine but it was posted by the man who runs the local news radio station. His office is on the upper floor of the "Parque Commercíal" on Mojacar sea front. This is what he saw as he was leaving one evening. Wild boar are found in much of the campo a bit further in land from us. They are harmless unless you get in their way or approach them when they are foraging with their young, but Chris and I were only saying earlier this week, that we had never seen any since we came out here. Then this photo popped up on Facebook. I guess the roads are very quiet during the pandemic, and the Parque, which would normally be heaving with tourists and locals alike, is all closed up right now, so they felt safe travelling a bit further from home.

And that is it for this week. I hope I managed to find something to interest you. Now I will link up with Annie's Friday Smiles and Rocking Your World, and think about what I am going to feed us with.

Rocking Your World: Week 6

I have spent ages trying to get my lovely sky photo to fit as a new header, and finally I think I have managed it. The new blogger doesn't made any of these things very easy does it? However it is sorted out now, so let's look at the happier moments from this week.

I decided to have another walk on Sunday, and this time I walked the streets that cut across Huerta Nueva, an urbanisation just across the main road from the village. It comes under our Town Hall, so I wasn't breaking the rules by going there. However there are quite a few cases of the virus over there, so I didn't go into the urbanisation - just stayed on the perimeter street. There was a lovely view across the campo, of the sun trying to break through, and the Cabrera mountains rising dark behind it. It was good to get a little fresh air and exercise, even if it was a relatively short walk.

Sorry to Facebook friends who have already seen this, but I have to share another photo of my hyacinths. Now all six stems are in flower and it is so beautiful, and the smell is divine. It is a fine balancing act to keep it upright, but it is giving me a lot of pleasure for now.

And while on the subject of flowers, this week I asked Chris to cut the oleander outside my craft room window, down to be level with the top of the railings. There is about a meter and a half of land beyond our railings that is officially a part of our property, but it is a steep drop down into the green-zone, so it is not safe to get over there to plant anything, but we do try to keep anything that grows naturally there in check. I think the previous owners sometimes threw unwanted garden cuttings etc, over  there, as do we when it is something we can't really dispose of any other way. And we have been know to toss a plant over that appears to be dead. But we know that nothing dies easily out here, so when we throw it over, without actually planting it, we are still giving it a second chance, and occasionally something appears a year or two later. One such plant is the aeonium, which has rosettes of green or red glossy leaves, and in Spring sends up a long stem with a wide cone of yellow daisy-type flowers. There are two plants that get hidden by the oleander bush for much of the year, so when we cut this back, I was really pleased to find  several cones of yellow flowers. I had to lean over the railings to get a picture of them. I would love to have a better plant of this, in a more visible position, but I have tried several times, and they do not do well in a pot, and as you know, I have very little other plantable land.

Some mornings you wake up full of good intentions to be busy in the kitchen. On Tuesday I decided to make some bread, so I mixed up a dough and left it to rise. It was a bit chillier first thing so I had to protect it from the draught and give it a little longer than usual. While I was waiting for our dinner to cook, I knocked back the dough and formed it into two small loaves, and again covered it and left it to rise. Well after lunch I came down here to finish off a card I was making, and then I had a long video call with my sister which was lovely. Soon it was time to go and feed the animals, and there in the kitchen I found my two loaves, which I had completely forgotten about. I needed it for our tea so I put the oven on rapid heat and soon they were cooking nicely. They had risen so much that I expected the bread to be full of air holes, but instead it was a lovely even texture, light and soft, and possibly one of the best batches of bread I have ever made. And it was delicious eaten warm for our tea, and lasted well for a couple more days. The moral of this, I must be more patient and give my dough longer to rise than I normally do, and the results will be worth the wait. Here are the pillows of dough. I forgot to take another picture when it had cooked.

Wednesday was another fruitful morning in the kitchen because I decided to clean my oven. I confess this is something that I don't do half often enough and it was in 'a bit of a state'. I asked Chris to come and help me remove the inner glass door so I could clean between the two layers. It was quite a mission but he managed it in the end, and then knowing how useless my hands can be at putting any pressure on things, he took over the cleaning of it and did a much better job than I would have done. Meanwhile I cleaned inside the oven and polished up the shelves. Between us we did a great job. I don't think it has looked so good since the day it was installed as a part of my new kitchen. The door is so clean you can see inside, and and see my reflection in it!

You have often heard me getting all excited because one of my 'squishy parcels' had arrived. These were invariably filled with lovely new yarn for another crochet project. I have depended on an excellent wool company in UK who always sent my order within a week, and always it was in an organza bag, inside a cushion of plastic - hence the squishy-ness! Sadly buying from UK is no longer a viable solution for us post Brexit, as higher postage, taxes and import duties can double the cost of your purchase. The majority of wool etc that I can buy locally, comes from China and it quite a bit harsher than I am used to. You also need to buy everything you want and a little extra 'just in case', because there is no guarantee they will have the same make or colour if you go back for more. However there are some wool shops in the larger cities that have a wider range to choose from, and although they too may be paying import duties etc, at least they are added to the price they are asking before we order, so we don't get any extra nasty surprises. So when I wanted to buy a special yarn I spent a long time browsing Spanish sites and eventually found somewhere that had what I wanted. The order came quickly but there was no squishy parcel this time. Instead it arrived in a rather fun bright red box with this decoration.

The company name - Las Tijeras Magicas, means  - The Magic Scissors. Inside there was a delivery note and taped to the top corner was a charm, a tiny pair of scissors. They are about 2cm long. I thought it was quite a nice touch.

The yarn itself is lovely. It has a nice feel. It is special because it is mainly polyester with 20% cotton and 20% silk. It is slightly uneven in the weave, so may be a bit difficult to crochet with until I get the feel of it. I am hoping to make a cardigan, ready for next winter!

I am also going to continue making the squares for my blanket. Doing large pieces like the back of a cardigan, can get a bit boring so I like to have something different to do when I need a change.

This hasn't been an easy week as numbers of virus cases soar in our area. We peaked at 83 cases on Thursday in our village, and each day we are now hearing about our friends who have it, including a couple who have died. So I am making a real effort to focus on the positive things like flowers, activities etc that have made me happy. The sunshine has helped, and I have been able to sit on a warm porch and lose myself in a book on several afternoons.

I have enjoyed video chats with several of the boys. It is good to be able to keep in touch with them this way.
And, of course I love watching the evening sky. This week we had this happy moment (again apologies to Facebook friends who have seen it already). These are lenticular clouds and they form as smooth, oval shapes that look like a childhood rendition of a flying saucer. Sometimes they come in many layers, but this week it was just a couple, but I loved them.

I sat and watched them change, as the lovely skies never last for long out here, but even as they darkened and joined together they were still very beautiful.

And with that I will link up with Rocking Your World and Annie's Friday Smiles.

I don't usually post any funnies at the end, though I enjoy seeing the ones other folk post. Chris says I have a poor sense of humour because I often can't see why things he posts are funny! But occasionally something really tickles me, like this picture I spotted this week. (I don't know whether they are an international company, but just in case they are not, Marigolds are the most commonly used make of rubber gloves sold in UK).

Keep smiling everyone.