Friday Smiles 2023; Week 8

Here we are again, another week into the year and although I haven't been too busy this week, it has still flown by, and I even forgot yesterday was Thursday so I haven't prepared my blog. This morning I have to go out so this will be a quickie and I will fill the gaps in next week's post.

I am taking Leo to the vet, partly because they want to see him and give him a cuddle, but also because his chip is registered in Valencia province and I need it to be in Andalucía, so there is some paper work to be done. He is very lively in the mornings and loves to play out in the fly-free porch where he can watch the birds and chase leaves around. He then sleeps a lot in the afternoons and evenings and has never disturbed us in the night. He lays on my lap between my legs in what I think of as a 'dog pose', and Tango is often on the arm of my chair but they don't bother one another much.

On Saturday it was the village carnival, a very low-brow affair compared with some towns around here, but great fun anyway, and the atmosphere is always warm and full of happiness. Sadly it was a cold day and there were some heavy showers but a bit of rain doesn't put the Spanish off when they are having a good time. I went down to the front of the village to take some photos and then hurried home to stand at our gate with Chris as the procession danced passed us.  Here are just a couple of the photos I took. I have lots more and by next week they will all be in a collage so I will show that then.

We have done some work in the garden this week, well mostly Chris has but I hand him the tools and bag up the rubbish so we can get it out to the bin. The roses have finally been pruned back hard and the last three blooms are in a vase on my table. 

We decoded to dig out one rose that is old and reverting to a wild one, and replaced it with one of our hydrangeas which looks completely dead now, but I have faith that it will shoot again soon. Chris' dad had big hydrangeas all round his front garden and they looked lovely when they were all in flower. Mine have got as big as they can in a pot, but hopefuly now it is planted out, this one may grow again.

There are lots of signs of spring in the garden, but these are my favourites. I bought one pot that were just showing signs of growing, from Lidls a few weeks back. I split it into two clumps and put them in two pots on the front porch and they have produced loads of flowers. They are not usually seen here, so they are a little touch of an English garden.

I also have flowers on a type of lavendar, kalenchoes, crown of thorns, primulas and petunias. Several of these wouldn't normally flower yet but the Winter has been relatively warm and dry so if they have survived the very cold snaps we have had, they think it is time to wake up now.

Even the jasmine that was cut to almost ground level last year, is climbing back up the wall and has lots of buds on it.

We have had a few really pleasant days this week, with a hazy sunshine so the mountains are only just visible, but it was warm enough to eat our lunch out side, and sit in the porch for some lazy afternoons. I have had long video chats with three of our boys. It was Ben's birthday yesterday and his partner bought him a drone, so he is hoping to make videos of the surrounding countryside and write music to go with them. He is a happy man now.

I hope you all enjoyed some pancakes on Tuesday. We did and Chris likes his with lots of lemon juice and sugar (I have to go very easy on the sugar). It was special to be able to go just outside the kitchen door to pick lemons off our tree for the juice. Here is my grand-daughter helping to make hers. It is nice to see the next generation keeping up the traditions.

Now I will quickly link up with Annie's Friday Smiles and when I get back from the vet I will come and visit you all.

Friday Smiles 2023; Week 7

What a grey, cold week we have had, so mostly we have stayed indoors, grateful for a warm fire and hot food; two things that make us much more blessed than many folk right now. Saturday was the Winter "Commercial Day", intended to raise awareness of the many small businesses in the village. As it was such a cold and rather damp evening, and we had no need to buy anything, we opted to stay at home this time, so we will have to double our response to the summer one later. But in the morning we did hear music outside so we went to the front door in time to see the Los Gallardos and Bédar band marching up the road, I think to remind us that there was something happening later in the day.

The marquee remains up on the car park after Christmas until after Día de Andalucía on 28th Feb, so on Saturday the Town Hall organised games and entertainment in there for the children to keep them occupied while their parents shopped. As it was so cold they posted on Facebook that there would be a heater in there, so I guess they were worried that not many folk would turn out for it.

On Monday I went to a new Spanish class - new to me anyway. I had heard what a good teacher they had, and I find that I don't use my Spanish often enough so I am forgetting some of it, so a refresher class seemed like a good idea. I really enjoyed it. Everything was within my capabilities, but the practice is invaluable. I find I can speak adequately and read intuitively, but I still cannot hear when it is spoken to me, so I am hoping this will improve my listening skills.

On Wednesday I went to my sewing group as usual. I managed to sell some of my new marmalade as well as some from previous years. I wanted to sell some of this to make room on my shelves for the new batches, so I sold it off at a reduced price. When it is kept for a year it goes a lot darker and the flavour is more intense. I actually prefer this more mature one, and several of my fellow-crafters seemed to agree. Here is half of the room, with everyone busy knitting, crocheting or sewing quilts etc, and of course having a good old natter too. There is a second table in the other half of the room, and we are almost up to our pre-pandemic numbers now.

Of course there are some more photos of Leo. He has started to share my lap with Tango more and they are getting quite used to one another. Tapping noses is fine, but Tango will flap his tail and of course, to Leo that is a clear signal to play with it - not so good!

I don't know whether there is a visible shutter on my phone camera, but Leo seems to sense when I am trying to photograph him. Instead of turning his head away like the other cats do, he stares into the lens and then 'attacks'. This was just as he was about to leap at it!

He has chosen Dad's crochet Celtic lap blanket as his favourite spot for an afternoon nap. He is nearly camouflaged on it and I think he knows, as when I am looking for him and calling his name, he stays very still and hopes I won't notice him!

Keeping busy in the kitchen with the oven on is always a good way to keep warm so this week I made another batch of marmalade with the second half of the oranges I was given. I know you have seen lots of photos like this, but there is something very satisfying about a stack of freshly bottled marmalade with the sun shining through it. I wish this was a scratch'n'sniff page, because the citrus smell in the kitchen is so good.

I also had a go at making the Oat Loaf that Leeanna shared the recipe for last week. I had to adapt the ingredients a little but it turned out very well. It tastes great but I think next time I will try to grind the flour a little more as my bread was very textured.

I realised the other day that I have never shown my finished mandala that I was making last year. It took me ages to find a suitable hoop but eventually I did manage to buy a wooden one. I had no space to hang it until all the Christmas decorations came down, but a few weeks ago I did get around to stretching it onto its frame and it now hangs on the sitting room wall next to other one I did some time ago. So here it is. It makes a lovely splash or colour in what tends to be a rather dark room.

And finally, a friend posted this on his Facebook page this week and it really made me smile. It is so very true. Much as I hate these cold days, I am also not very keen on the really hot ones. So here's hoping we have a nice long Spring, and an early Autumn with just a little bit of 'too hot' Summer in the middle.

So now I will get ready to link up with Annie's Smiles in the morning, and get back down to the sitting room to light the fire ready for this evening.

Friday Smiles 2023; Week 6

I don't have a lot to write about this week. It has been cold and grey, and even wet somedays, and quite warm and sunny on others, and I have mostly kept busy at home. Of course my new little fluff ball has kept me entertained.

Leo is settling in well, and is getting used to having the dog and other cats around. He has risked bumping noses with them a couple of times, but mostly keeps his distance. They in return, are very wary of him and tend to move away if they see him coming, but they are learning to at least be in the same room.

Tango has even started coming back on my lap some evenings, probably because it is warmer than anywhere else! One evening he was deeply asleep on me and little Leo jumped up onto the recliner part of my chair and promptly started to have a good grooming session.

He looked kind of astonished when he turned around and saw who he was sharing me with!

Of course he sleeps quite a lot, so when he has had his dinner, if I am going to be in my craft room all afternoon, I bring him down here with me. When he has had a little look around I put him on my 'spare' office chair and tell him to stay there, and he just curls up in a little ball there and sleeps until I go to feed all the others their tea. Not one to miss out on any opportunity for food, he soon follows me!

Early in the week I made some picalili, and when it was all sealed away he came to inspect it and gave it his seal of approval. (The cake in the foreground is an old favourite called Prune cake. It has black treacle in it as well as prunes, and once cold I topped it with the delicious black treacle butter icing. Yum!)

I took the picalili to my sewing group on Wednesday and sold all of it in the first quarter of an hour. I donate most of the ingredients and the money will go to the food bank supported by my church.

Tuesday was chilly and when I walked down our road, the mountains were crowned with very attractive billowing clouds, though they got greyer as the gathering storm drew closer. I can see the head of a huge bear in them, and even Chris could see it too.

Yesterday was very grey and we had a few showers, but finally the sun broke through just as it was time for it to set behind the hills, giving me this lovely fiery burst of light.

Chris has just come down to my room as I was typing this and asked if I had heard the 'noise' outside. I hadn't but we went outside and every tree and shrub in the green zone out at the back of the house, had a flock of birds in it. 

I was pretty sure they were starlings but I recorded their chatter with my bird-identification app and it came back with Spotless starlings and Eurasion starlings. I took a few photos and this one clearly shows the two types of birds - a spotless starling at the top and several eurasian starlings further down. (I was pleased with the photo taken on my phone at almost full zoom. They were all quite a distance from us). 

Here are a couple more of my photos.

While I was out there I saw something to make me smile. The first almond blossom was out, so that is a sign that spring is on its way.

The little lemon tree outside the kitchen door is also doing well. Despite being pruned well last year, it has a lot of nice looking lemons on it. I will be picking them next week as I have been promised some bitter oranges by a friend at church, who will bring them in on Sunday, and another friend has said she will give me some grapefruit. It is quite late to be making marmalade so I hope it will set, but I shall definitely be doing my best next week, and I use the lemons as a setting agent.

A couple of you commented last week that I never said whether my bathroom renovation was finished. I am glad to say it was. The men were very good and worked their weekends to make sure all was done and cleared away just  one day before my visitors arrived. Of course, they enjoyed 'christening' it for us. It is a small space so not easy to take a photo of, but here is one to give you an idea of what it is like.

So I look forward to a kitchen smelling of citrus fruits next week. But for now I will link up with Annie's Friday Smiles, and I'll see you all over there tomorrow morning.

Friday Smiles 2023; Week 5

I finished last week's post by saying we were going out for the evening, (That was Thursday), so today I will start from there.

At the start of December, Mojacar launched a campaign to get recognition by the tourist board, with an aim to win a Ferrero Rocher competition to light up a town. Six small towns made the short list and Mojacar was one of them. They arranged several community fun projects to raise their profile, and had a big presence on social media, asking everyone in the surrounding area to vote for them. Well their campaign was successful and they won the competition, and in just a couple of days, Ferrero Rocher adorned every railing, balcony etc with sparkling gold lights. There was also a lovely light tree in the square. This was of course, excellent advertising for FR, but also good for tourism in Mojacar at a time that is usually their low season. And it did attract huge crowds, but we held back as neither of us are keen on the crowds, nor do we enjoy driving after dark. But Mojacar decided to keep the lights up until February, so when our son came out, we thought it would be a nice outing to go up and see them, and Jonathan was happy to do the dark driving. 

It was a very cold night and we went early so we could get the little one home and in bed before it got too late. So when we arrived it was very quiet with few folk around. They were arrivng as we left!. We saw the lights switch on as the sun went down and they were very pretty. Every balcony and railing was draped in gold . 

In the square there was a lovely tree. It was much more sparkly than it looks here.

This was on the side of the ancient church, and they had decided to keep that lit way past Christmas too.

The gold balls were everywhere, I assume replicating Ferrero Rocher chocolates.

I liked this arch of lights at the top of the road from the square.

The top plaza was bright with strings of light, but it was too cold to stand and admire them for long.

Also on the top plaza there was a lit star for framing photos, so of course we made use of it.

Just before the lights came on, I took this photo of the view from the first plaza looking over towards the coast and Garrucha Town.

The rest of the week passed quickly. Jonathan and Chris together cut up, shredded and binned all the mess from the trees they cut down and it looks so much better now.

Little A was a bit under the weather for a couple of days, with a high temperature, but she was very good, and even learned a few new words during the week.

On Friday Jonathan had agreed to drive me over to Alicante (two and a half hours drive from here), to collect Leo, as the breeder said he was ready to go. Here he is and he is such an adorable ball of fluff. He is actually much smaller and younger than I had expected, but he eats solid food, uses a litter tray and climbs well. He likes the climbing tree that we bought for Tolly and uses the scratching poles which is encouraging. He likes to sit on the back of my chair and often falls asleep there, or else between my legs.  He eats well, plays hard and sleeps hard, so I fit what I have to do around what he is doing for now. He is only two and a half months so has plenty of growing and filling out to do. here is a collage of his first week.

The other animals are not too sure about this little intruder but Kim ignors him, and Tango and Tolly will now settle in the same room as him even if they are not ready to make friends yet. One evening Luna came on my lap and fell asleep there, and Leo jumped up too, so they both laid there, but there was a bit of a hissing match when they woke up! It is all fun for now.

For now I keep him in my craft room if I am too busy as he is not allowed outside yet, and I don't want the others to 'gang up' on him. He plays on all my stuff so it pays me to put anything important away properly. When I am on my computer he likes to sit on my shoulder and watch the movement on the screen, but I have to lock my keyboard whenever I leave him so he doesn't edit my posts!

This week has flown by with lots of extra bedding and towels to wash, and some crafting and computer time to catch up on. As soon as we have dismantled A's cot and cleared out the little spare room, I will settle Leo in there so he has somewhere safe to go when I am not around. As soon as I sit down I let him out to join us again, and that seems to work.

Today I have had a long chat with my son Ben, and tomorrow maybe I will get a catch-up session with my sister. And that is how it rolls for now. So I will save this now, ready to link up with Annie's Friday Smiles in the morning.